The Long, Awaited Day has Arrived!!!

Today is possibly one of the happiest days in a long time for me because today, I walked out of the Sunrise Children's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for the last time. I walked out of there with a smile on my face, tears of joy in my eyes, and my head held high because right next to me was my son, 3 months old, healthy as ever, and finally able to come home with me.

This has been the longest 3 months of my life. It has been the most emotional, the most trying, the most painful, and the most worth it. Many days and nights I would walk out of the NICU, empty handed with a lump in my throat and the most sickening, scary feeling in my gut. Every time I walked out of there, I left a piece of my heart... no, a piece of my soul lying in an incubator surrounded by wires, tubes, and one of the most amazing medical staffs I have ever encountered.

And now it is over. He's home! No more wires, tubes, machines, tests, beepers, timers, schedules, nurses, doctors. Just family. He still has a long road ahead of him. He needs physical therapy, and lots of misc. exams. But he is home!!!

And I'll never have to walk into or out of that NICU again. It's not that it wasn't a nice place, cause it was. It's just that what it means to be in there is heartache, terror, nervousness, sleepless nights, fearing every phone call, being without that life that was growing inside you.

He's home! And now I feel whole again. I have my whole family together at last. This truly is a happy day!