Tomorrow's THE day!!

The exciting news....... Melanie is coming home tomorrow, the Lord willing. All things are a go. All of her tests have come back with astounding reports. The Lord has been so gracious to Melanie and our family through this all. 10 1/2 weeks ago, I never imagined I would be taking home a perfect (as perfect as a baby can be :) )baby girl. I never imagined we'd be going home without oxygen tanks and monitors. I never imagined Melanie would be able to be a runner if she wanted to. And yet, here we are. Going home tomorrow with no monitors, no oxygen, no medications, and no more cords. We know there is only one reason for Melanie to be able to come home this way, it's nothing we did, or the nurses did, or the Dr.s did. It's because it is the plan that God has for Melanie's life. On October 31, He already knew Melanie would be leaving this hospital on January 14. I NEVER would have guessed that. There were times when I didn't even want to think about tomorrow; just wanted to hold (cup) Melanie for as long as I could not knowing what the tomorrow might bring. It was at those times that we had to have faith that God's plan was being carried out. And now, looking back at those times, I can see how He carried me through even though I may not have felt it then. I don't understand why Melanie gets to come home before some of her veteran roommates; or why she seems to be unscathed while others have many more ailments to deal with. All we know is that all things happen according to His plan and some day, we'll understand. I need to remember that on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.

Yes, we are very excited for our baby girl to come home and start a new routine. Yes, there will be tears tonight and tomorrow. Tears of joy and some tears of sadness as we say 'goodbye' to the nurses and Dr.s and friends that took such good care of our little peanut and of us.
Before Melanie is able to come home she must pass the "car seat challenge". She has to sit in her car seat, completely buckled, for 90 miutes (longer if we lived further away). She passed!!! She also thought she had to be awake for most of it. She kept looking around and sucking on her hands. I'll keep trying to post the video of it. Sitting in her car seat she actually looks OLDER to me then Miya and Jayden did when we took them home from the hospital. Probably because she was so alert at the time.