Day 2

We were just so thrilled to take our little boy away from Vanderbilt-in our own car. He slept most of the way and it really tired him out. I am assuming all the stimuli were overwhelming after all he has been through. The trip was uneventful. I hated dropping my son and husband at the hospital door and driving away, but we had two little ones who would not make it much longer without some milk and a stretch of the legs. We are very close with the family I am staying with. Taylor has been so kind to have food and baby gear here. Owen has a playmate, and Margot is sleeping the days away. I know she is exhausted from all this. However, I feel much farther removed here from Micah and Matt. I don't have much time to communicate with them, and I am a 30 minute drive from the hospital. If you know Atlanta, this could be up to 2 hours if I leave at the wrong time. I feel like I have deserted Micah. I know that is not true, but it is hard for me to not be by his bedside. I also think I was thinking Micah would not be in a "hospital" hospital. He is still getting vitals, blood draws, people poking in all day long, etc. I am glad they are taking good care of him, but just not what I expected. I know we will find a new groove. It just takes time to learn a new system. Everyone who saw Micah today said he looked great. They see children recovering from ADEM here, and they were impressed by how far Micah has come. Praise the Lord for his healing work. Micah is stronger still today. We have a ways to go before he will run, but he is sitting himself up in the bed, crawling in and out of the bed and chairs, eating a ridiculous amount of food, putting on tons of weight (3 pounds in a week-that is the total he gained in the whole last year of his life!) The steroids can cause swelling and hunger, so our little guy may actually catch up to most other 5 year olds out there. His talking is better too. He is still very tired. We are still getting evaluations, so this is low key compared to next week. I am curious to see how he will handle the intense therapy. We will meet with the team Wed. to discuss the exact treatment plan and to get a tentative release date. In the meantime, my mom is headed up to help out. I am looking forward to getting to spend some extra time with Micah this weekend and not having to fight rush hours. I will post as I am able, but we have no computer at the hospital this time. Please pray this will go quickly-we are really needing our family together under one roof.