2 Week Anniversary

Today marks two weeks since Eli's first surgery. He's finally starting to make some progress, and that's a huge relief. His numbers continue to improve every day. However, there was a noted increase in his white blood cell count today. That's typically a sign of infection, so they've started him on some general antibiotics until the lab results tell them exactly what they're looking at. They've removed the catheter from his abdomen. Today also marked the first time we got to see his naked chest, and surgery scar. It looks really good! Tonight's nurse, Tracy, took the liberty of styling his hair again. We like her a lot. She clearly cares about Eli, not just her patient. She calls him "her little blue friend."

We got some visitors from church today. We started the morning with breakfast with the Redferns. Later, pastor Jim made his way up. Paige sure loves pastor Jim, and wouldn't stop telling him all about the Ronald McDonald house. She became tongue-tied as she didn't stop for air, she was so excited. The Doolittles also came by and said hi, since they were in the neighborhood.

Tonight, Tanya returned to her first Arbonne presentation since Eli's birth. She's very excited, and had a great time being "back in the saddle" of something slightly normal. Paige and I walked down to the cafeteria (free meals beat good meals, these days, and we didn't have a car anyway) and had a father/daughter date in the fish room. For those who have never seen CHCC's cafeteria decor, it's pretty awesome, especially for us coral reef nerds. Then we came back and watched a Winnie the Pooh flick at "Ronald McDonald's house."

Tomorrow (Saturday), the three of us are headed back home. I'm going back to work on Monday, and being in Kingsburg enables so many more babysitting options, so Tanya will have more opportunity to see Eli by herself. It will be nice to sleep in our own beds and be home again, but we will miss the convenience of walking to Eli's room whenever we have the whim. I can already feel a sense of absence, as I mentally prepare to go back to work and be as far as 130 miles away from Eli on any given day.

Finally, it's also important to us that we continue to thank you all for such loving, faithful support. Every day, we hear about someone else (often people we've never met) being encouraged by our story. We can only attribute our peace and comfort to Jesus. He's bringing that to us through all of you, and that's what being part of his body is about.