This morning we had coffee and cinnamon rolls with new friends who seemed like old friends: Don and Dea Moffit who have prayed faithfully for us all year happened to be in town from New York and stopped over to the house – they enjoyed the chance to meet the little boy who has been in their thoughts so often and we enjoyed the opportunity to meet the writer of so many encouraging notes to us. The boys loved having people over: it’s brand new for them.

After our visit, we headed over to the local apple orchard. They were making cider and apple fritters amidst pumpkins and scarecrows and all of the other accoutrements of autumn. The boys and I strolled through the orchard while Jodi stood in line to buy a bag of honeycrisp apples…it was a beautiful day and a wonderful outing, the kind of day I dreamed of during those long weeks in the hospital during the not-so-distant-past. We are richly blessed and fortunate to be so aware of it.

This afternoon was atypical in that we paused from our labors for a brief window – during the boys’ naptime, Jodi took a brief snooze on the couch in the sunshine while I read a chapter of a book about my new interest, fly-fishing. It was nice to stop for a moment. 

JT’s feeds are up to 65ml/hr with no problems. His rash is finally looking better as the sores start to brown down and fade away. He’s tasting and spitting food in quantity now – the big hurdle remains re-teaching him to swallow. Hope that you’re all enjoying the weekend as much as we are…