Blessed again~

So I don't know why I was worried. Our God is sovereign and really, I know that full well. Still, my human-ness...my mama-ness...my lack of faith-ness gets carried away. I worried that we were doing the wrong thing. And I forget that He holds all things together {Col. 1}. That's just what He did yesterday. He held our son safely in His hands through his surgery. We are so grateful. Everything was a compete success. There were actually three procedures scheduled to happen on sweet Joel's man parts. Forgive me. But remember, this is a journal. All three went really well.

We were bummed that he was scheduled for 1pm...because he couldn't eat after midnight the night before. But you know something? He did great! He woke up in a good mood and wasn't grumpy at all! Despite the fact that we kept him up till about 12am...to try and encourage him to sleep in and thus not be as hungry. He still woke up at 7:30. We headed to the hospital around 10 and checked in at 10:45. We had a private room while we waited complete with crayons and cartoons. He was doing so well and then it just got funny. They gave him some Versed {makes you all loosey goosey plus provides some convenient amnesia}. Joel was hysterical. And when the nurse came in to roll him to the OR and asked Joel if he was ready to go, he answered, "yeeeeaaaahhhh." Crack. Me. Up. Well, crack me up through tears. But after a few minutes and a super duper hug from Jase, I was fine. Here are a few pics from my Blackberry {I didn't take my Canon}. They aren't good quality but I still wanted to include them for the journal.

After he was gone to the OR, we headed downstairs to get a bite of lunch. We were only gone about 20 minutes and they called my cell phone to say that he had gone to sleep beautifully and the surgery was underway. So that helped to know he was doing well. They told us the surgery should last a minimum of two hours and then approximately 45 minutes to an hour in recovery. We got back up to our room and our friends Tara and Veldon came a knocking. They were a great distraction for us. Before we knew it, it was about 2:40 and the surgeon came in to tell us that he did perfect! He was in recovery and that everything went really well.

Only a half hour later {maybe a little less}, we saw his stretcher coming down the hallway. Our sweet boy was groggy but looking as handsome as ever. His recovery room nurse had olive skin...and I thought she looked Hispanic. She had no accent whatsoever {well, except for southern!} and a beautiful smile. She made it a point to tell us {over and over} how gorgeous our Joel was. How sweet and compliant he was. That he was the perfect patient...doing everything she asked him to do while in the PACU {Post Anesthesia Care Unit}. Really, she just went on and on about Joel. Then, she left and Veldon and Tara did the same. A few minutes later, the PACU nurse came back and pulled me aside. She went on to tell me that she was so grateful that this beautiful little boy had a family. She thanked us for adopting him. But she also told me that she knew we were blessed by him. Of course I agreed! Then she told me, through her southern accent, that she was in fact Thai herself! I had no idea. She didn't really look Thai to me. I wonder now, if she had been adopted too. Or maybe her family just moved here when she was young. I wish I had had the presence of mind to ask her. Either way, the Lord provided a sweet connection and I'm so glad that she took care of him.

He was really sleepy for about 15 minutes before the pain set in. He cried and cried for what seemed like forever. Really, it wasn't. But it seemed like it. They ended up giving him three doses of pain medicine. Finally, he got comfortable and wanted Jase to hold him. He fell asleep in his lap with his head on Jase's shoulder. Precious.

He woke up feeling much better...more on top of the pain, I'm sure. Joel played on Jase's cell phone and even laughed some. They let us go around 5:30 that evening and we headed out of Children's with Joel being pulled by his daddy in a wagon! I was so afraid the car seat strap/buckle would hurt him. But the nurse gave us a doughnut to put in his lap and it worked perfectly!

He had a better night than I anticipated. I slept with him in our bed and he moaned a lot. I set the alarm and woke up at 1 and 5 to give him more pain meds. Long about 7:30, he woke up wanting his daddy. He laid around most of the day watching TV. Once, we were on my bed and he reached down and took my hand, and kissed it. I said, "I love you, Joel." He said, "Thank you, mama." And then he put his head on my chest and just rested there. Oh, how I love this boy.

My mom made him a goody bag of Buzz Lightyear stuff. I've decided to only give him one toy at a time...to space it out over several days. He is not supposed to be active AT ALL for 10 days! Whew. This is a task all in itself! But tonight, I gave him a little puzzle type foam thing from the bag and he loved it! He and Jase played and played with it. I'm so glad my mom thought to do this! Thanks, Honey for thinking of such a great idea! So here are a few pics of him from 24 post-op. Oh, yeah. He fell on the driveway on Sunday night. The night before surgery...poor baby. It looks terrible. But that's our boy...all boy!

We are grateful that this is past us and that God proved Himself faithful and capable all over again. Honestly, no matter the outcome, God would be faithful and capable. It's just so humbling to see prayers answered and to know that He is working all things together for our good. Thank you to all for your emails and comments and Facebook messages. We appreciate you all so much!