Prayers Answered

Thank you to everyone who prayed for Leighton's surgery. God is good and has answered our prayers! Leighton had a successful surgery and the mission was accomplished. He had a long
day but did remarkably well. We arrived to the hospital at 6:45 am to meet with our admitting nurse, who was somewhat of an angel for us. ***More on that later...

Leighton played in the cool toy room for an hour up on peds. before we took him down for surgery. When it was time to go, he got to ride in a wagon down to the operating room. We walked with him as far as the family room (right next to the O.R) and then we had to let him go with the nice hospital man. It was very strange and uncomfortable watching him ride in the wagon down the hall. He didn't look back and that was a good thing. It was hard enough to give that kiss and "I love you". Although, I do have to say that I was much more at peace than I thought I would be. That would be the work of God. Those who know me, know I am a bit of a hypochondriac. Those who prayed for Derrick and I- thank you-God heard your prayer.

Then we waited. We got an update call when they started the surgery and an update call when it was done. The actual surgery took about 1/2 hour. We talked with the surgeon and then had to wait for him to recover. They thought it would take about 1/2 hour for recovery. I started to get a little more worried during that process because I knew he would be waking up and didn't want him to be scared without us there. They finally carried him out to the waiting room and let us take him up to the room. He looked really bad when we first saw him. I never want to see my child come out of surgery again. He was pale and groggy and looked just bad. He had cords from an IV and an oxygen reader all around him. His little whimper was just not like him. It was the best and worst moment-to see him again but to see him looking so sick. I got to carry him up to the room and his daddy and I cuddled him for the rest of the day.

He did pretty good the rest of the day. He slept on us for the most part while in the hospital. They sent us home around 3:30pm and he has been doing really well. He has been eating really well since we have been home. He really enjoyed his lasagna for supper- thanks Rachelle! He has slept a lot and usually sleeps about 2 1/2 hours per one hour of playing. We are praying that he doesn't experience too much pain tonight and that God will continue to heal his body.

Again, thanks to all of you for all your prayers, thoughts, phone calls, well wishes and meals! We feel so blessed to have you in our lives.

*** So back to our nurse. On Sunday, I left a prayer request at church after the service. I was hoping someone would get it and pray for Leighton and the surgery. This morning, after our admitting nurse got us settled she said she wanted to do something special with us. She then said a beautiful prayer for Leighton and us. I was a little surprised because that just doesn't happen these days. Still, I was relieved that she did because I know the power of prayer. She then told us that she doesn't normally get to pray with her patients but this case was different. She is not only our nurse at the hospital but she also happens to be the parish nurse from our church, Bethel. (our church is big so we had never met). On Monday night of this week, she actually received the very prayer card I had filled out on Sunday morning! She had been praying for Leighton all week. She said that last night she was going over her prayer cards and realized that this little guy she was praying for was going to be her patient the following morning. So that my friends..... is a God thing.