3rd Tour of Duty - Day One

Amanda, Claire and I are now hanging out in the CICU. Claire has had some fits when she is feeling the pain or when she is hungry. Its not that great to have a kid swinging around in a bed with an IV in each extremity along with a chest tube and other wires all over the place. The nurses and Amanda have done a good job helping her stay happy.

Lets revisit the events of the day.

Claire, Amanda and I arrived to Children's at a wonderful 6:15 in the morning. As mentioned in a previous post, our friend from Lifepoint Church shared a scripture (Phil 4:4) and prayed with us before we signed in. Much appreciated!

We cruised right through the admission process and got to speak with Dr. Galantowicz. Let me tell you that Dr. G is not only a great physician but you can tell that he is a great man. Very caring, great at what he does, top notch... the kind of guy that knows your name after one introduction. The Columbus area is blessed to have such a great Doctor. Claire was pretty active and visiting a lot of people, and pictures of fish, and basically anyone or anything around. It was good to play with her and swing her around and rough-house a little. Amanda reminded me that it may be a good amount of time before I can do that again without causes her much pain.

Eventually it was time for the drop off. Let me tell you that this is the 4th time we have had to leave our little girl in the hands of someone I didn't know. Let me tell you that this does not get any easier. We said a few more prayers and headed to the waiting room for what was scheduled to be 6 and 1/2 hours. (wow... that's a long time)

We were greeted in the waiting room by Danny, Karen and Chloe. We visited with them for awhile. Eventually, we had more family and friends swing by. My parents came down and brought a crazy big brother - Colton. We were surprised by Ed Beeson of whom we shared some great conversations. Christy also made it down to share in the family moments. We had a wide variety of methods to help pass the time: Computers, Laptops, iPads, iPods, TV, DVD players, Card Games, Board Games, some toy we bought colton - Squinkies (Cars 2), casual conversations like the weather and in depth conversations like living like your dying. The markers of our 6 1/2 hour wait were tagged by intermediate phone messages from our friend Keyona with updates from the operating room. With each update, our spirits were lifted higher and higher. With each update, our doubts were further and further suppressed. With each update, the smiles got bigger and bigger.

In between visits, conversations, and playing with Colton I got a chance to listen to the Daily Audio Bible for October 3rd. What do you think part of the New Testament scripture was for this day? That's right... Phil 4. God works in mysterious ways.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

These words were alive and active today for me. I believe our family was granted a piece that passes all understanding. God has been good to my family. We are so blessed. I don't know if I can say that we "rejoice" in our sufferings but I know that we have learned to trust God. I mean, that is all we can do right?

Even though we had heard good reports throughout Claire's surgery, I was still a little nervous as Dr. G came to our section in the waiting room. The gravity of that moment was lifted as he quickly shared a smile and news that Claire was doing fabulous. A few of his words will forever ring in my thoughts as we think back to this Third Tour of Duty at Nationwide Children's Hospital. "Her oxygen saturation is at 99%" and her lips, fingers and toes are all pink. I understand that most people would not think twice about these sayings. Thats typical, thats normal, thats the way we were designed to be... well that wasn't our Claire Bear. She had purple toes, white fingers and purplish / blue lips that always got worst when she was cold. Dr. Gs words were transformational for our family. I know it took some wind out of Amanda and I when he shared these because our normal / status quo had been changed. Our girl used to have oxygen saturations that just barely allowed her to run and play with her big brother, allowed her to climb our steps with rest. I look forward to the new status quo with our "normal" family living in a trusting relationship with a "not-so-normal" God.

I would like to finish this long post with a quick snap shot. In Claire's times of discomfort, she has been mumbling "mama" and "ba" Well, we got to give her the first bottle (apple juice) after the surgery after they checked her blood levels. She was so excited that she did all she could do to hold it herself. That little girl is a fighter!