What Comes Before Part B?.....

Part-ay! And last Sunday night was the perfect opportunity to celebrate! Although, our family was still in the midst of Operation: I'll Fly Away and unable to attend, the festivities were more for our extended family. Giving them those hours to love and cuddle Little Bird, uninterrupted by feelings of any parental obligation, was the best way we knew how to thank the PICU. And so they spent the evening, reveling in the presence of one another, and in the momentous occasion that Little Bird would be going home in time for her first birthday...

Chauffeured In Style!

Somebody Waaaay Outdid Themselves!

The VIP List Arriving

The Guest Of Honor!

Let's Get This Part Started!!!

The Gift Wrap Is Where It's At

"Quick! Someone get a sharpie and some butt paste!!!"

"I call the piece with the candle!"

Nom! Nom! Nom!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Because how do you say thank you to someone who not only saved your daughter's life, and brought her back from the brink, but also rescued your entire family? Plenty of times in which we were drowning in something so profound that we were at a loss to communicate it with the rest of the world. Yet, they knew. As if they'd known us our entire lives. We needn't ever have to explain. They were just there, like they'd been from day one. So much of those two hundred and six days spent among the most incredible souls on this Earth, I will never forget.

MFH and I have both had a lot of people approach us with words of how strong they assume we are, and how lucky Little Bird is to have us. But that is not true. We are not the reason why she is here today. We can not take credit for how happy she is today. Our strength was borrowed from the reserves of the friends we've made along the way. They say that hope lives in Philadelphia, but I know where love lives. Miracles happen in Danville, Pennsylvania. I've witnessed it myself. And if you've been keeping up with this blog, then so have you. Our family has been in and out of three different major medical facilities within the last year. Only one of them have ever gotten to the heart of the matter. Only one of them have ever gotten it right. Modern medicine is a wonderful thing. But it can only take a person so far. Love heals everything. The staff of the PICU of the Janet Weis Children's Hospital at Geisinger Medical Center loved our daughter thru her darkest hours. And we wouldn't be able to celebrate her life had it not been for them.

I know plenty of parents out there will think I'm crazy for saying this. I used to be one of them. One of the over-protectors. The I-Don't-Want-My-Baby-Getting-Attached-To-Some-Stranger type moms and dads, who fear this happening, especially when their child is hospitalized. But there is something in the eyes of the people in this PICU that sets my heart at ease. One of my greatest fears, now that we are home, is that Little Bird might forget these beautiful faces who've adored her for so long. In my best effort to make absolutely sure that she never does, I pull out their photographs and remind her. Because the best way I can ever thank them-the only way-is to keep every connection that we've made throughout the last two hundred and six days. There is no such thing as being too loved. If your baby is lucky enough to have so much of this, count your blessings. I know we do. 






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