Where do I start?  I suppose that’s the trouble with going incommunicado for four days, eh? 

What a homecoming.  JT talked about it the whole way home.  The grandparents were all there with balloons and food and huge smiles and tears in their eyes.  His blow-up hot air balloon was in the front yard.  The house looked awesome.  When JT got out of the car and saw it all, he held his arms up to the sky.  He couldn’t wait to see everything.  It was an emotional night as you may imagine.

The last four days have been a mixture of big work and big fun.  We can ride our bikes right to the Grove City bike trail and we went on our first adventure there Friday evening.  We saw six deer (reminiscent of Mt. Airy, of course) and took it as a sign of good things to come.  We’ve been enjoying the boy’s swing set and playroom and the unbelievable view of the stars at night.  Pretty sweet.

Otherwise it’s been a lot of unpacking boxes.

So far the medical routine has gone smoothly – our supplies were waiting for us when we arrived and a nurse knocked at our door soon after we got here.  Jodi met with the Emergency Department nurses and the pharmacist we’ll use.  So far, so good.

The D is about the same and JT remains totally uninterested in food.  Tonight at dinner he put three peas in his mouth and spit them out immediately but that has been the only small victory.

But he’s happy, so happy.  Every time I put him in his swing and push him he says, “It’s so good to be home!”  When he says grace before dinner he always thanks God “for bringing us home.” 

And we’re thankful too.  We love it here.  God has done more in the life of our family this year than we could have asked or imagined.  There is still a long way to go, but being here seems like a pretty big step.

Wednesday will be a long day – JT and I will leave here around 4:30 a.m. and start driving to Cincinnati to make his 10:30 appointment.  Then we’ll sit for several hours, talk to some doctors, and drive home, hopefully arriving some time before midnight.  I’m already interested in moving from the weekly schedule to the bi-weekly schedule.

Please keep praying for him.  Tonight Jodi and I had to hold him down and re-tape his NJ tube to his face while he cried and asked us to please help him.  It was awful.  And the D just won’t let up. 

So it’s a mixture of joy and hope and sadness, kind of like life in general.  But the joy runs deep, especially at home.  Good night!