Going Home!

Micah is doing so well that they are ready to release him from the hospital here! There are some final evaluations etc. to do, but we are hoping to go home Friday. You can only imagine how excited we are to take our sweet Micah home. I am very curious how he will respond to being home in a comfortable, familiar environment with his siblings and Mama full time.

My mom has been here for the past few days (so helpful!), which has given Matt a chance to come be with Owen for a little while. Owen has been having a little bit of a hard time. We aren't really sure if it is nerves, but he hasn't been eating much and his tummy is upset. I'm sure he has so many emotions that are hard to process. He has lost his best friend and is generally apathetic about playing much of anything. I'm so excited for him that he will have his brother back soon!

I was able to spend a good deal of time with Micah this morning. I know everyone wants to know how he is. It is hard to explain, and I have so many mixed emotions when I am with him. He is definitely different than he was prior to the ADEM. There is no way to know if it is permanent, a product of his environment, side effects to the steroids etc. Honestly, we haven't seen any negative personality changes-just different. Sometimes I catch myself feeling sad that I may never see the old Micah again, but I also realize that circumstances shape who we are. We believe the Lord uses things in our lives to mold us into the people he wants us to be. We trust that God has a plan for Micah- one to prosper him and not to harm him and that He will work this situation for Micah's good. He looks tons different because of all the swelling. This is temporary and should go down when he stops the medicine, but it is hard to see him looking so puffy. He also is still very limited physically. While he has come leaps and bounds from where he was two weeks ago, he is far from running down the hall and jumping off the ottomans. I asked the therapist today if she thought he would do those things again, and her response was "yes, definitely." She explained that there was still so much healing that needs to happen in all the nerves and that just takes time. Although there are no guarantees, it was good to hear such a positive opinion. No one thought he would be doing this well this quickly and that is also an encouragement. We are really just so thankful and proud of our little boy, so humbled by the prayers, gifts, and help from our friends and family, so grateful for the Lord's mercy.