Some Headed Home (days 15-17)

I apologize for the lack of posts. It was a busy few days.  Hailey does seem to be doing better. They found out that she did have some kind of bacterial infection from her ventilation tube, so they found an effective antibiotic for that and started it and she has seemed a lot more comfortable.  She has also been able to come down on some of her medications for pain. They did take her stitches out and her incision is looking like it is starting to heal. 

Ben and a brother from the Palo Alto 1st ward gave Hailey a blessing on Sunday.  That was a really neat experience. We got to bring Abby and Katelyn in while they gave the blessing. The nurse was super nice to give us a chance to have all of us there.  Abby and Katelyn have loved visiting Hailey. After the blessing we came back to the Ronald McDonald house and had dinner. They did a little Birthday party that they do once a month where they celebrate any of the Birthdays that any patients or siblings of patients have had that month. They had cupcakes and gave presents to the kids who had Birthdays. Katelyn got a little wooden tool set and some cute textured toy balls. She was thrilled. It made me feel good since I missed getting to be with her on her actual Birthday. 

Ben, Abby, and Katelyn headed home today. I think it was the hardest day I have had since the day Hailey had surgery.  I dropped them off at the airport and Katelyn was sobbing.  It wsa sad, but Ben said she did okay once they got to TSA  I think she got distracted by all the interesting things to see there.  The flight was on time and it sounded like they all did well.  On the way to the airport, Abby and Katelyn were making offers to stay and keep me company. If I thought it would have worked to do it, I would have done it in a heartbeat.I am missing them already. I drove home, ate dinner, and went and held Hailey's hand, read a few verses of scripture with her, sang her some songs, etc. She really seems to like it when I sing to her or read to her and when I hold her hand. I try not to do too much so I don't wake her up much. She doesn't like having the tube in so they try to keep her asleep so she won't fight it. It was nice to see her looking good. They were ale to turn her oxygen down to 45% while I was there and it didn't seem like she even noticed. Her oxygen levels stayed steady.

I asked one of the doctors today about what kind of timeline we might be able to expect. She said that her educated guess would be that Hailey would be in the hospital at least 2 more weeks. That was a little bit hard to hear. I was hoping it might be less. I don't want to be away from my family that long.  I do know though that with God all things are possible. I have felt over and over that He loves us and is mindful of us, so I am praying that she can progress as quickly as possible.

Speaking of Heavenly Father's tender mercies, I have to share one amazing one from Saturday. We decided to take the girls down to the Oakland temple to see a concert that they put on with a choir and some folk dancing to celebrate lighting the Christmas lights. It was really neat and the girls were enthralled by the beautiful stage with all of the Christmas trees. My cousin Kaylee has been serving as a missionary for our church down here in the Oakland, CA mission. I had no idea whether there would be any missionaries at this event or not, but on our way into the concert I saw that there were some. We sat down in front of a couple of sister missionaries, so I asked if they knew my cousin.  They said they were from the San Jose mission so they wouldn't know her.  After the concert, I saw a couple of Elders standing there so I asked if they knew Sister Banner. They looked surprised and said, "Yeah, we just talked to her and she went that way." They called her and she and her companion were still there at the temple. She was actually on companion exchanges so she normally wouldn't have been there, but she was since she was with a different companion for the day.  She said they were meeting at the temple to swtich back to their regular companions. I gave her a huge hug and we talked and took some pictures. It was so fun to see her! I wish we could have just chatted all evening, but the kids were getting really hungry and she had to get going too. It totally made my day to see her! What a tender mercy that she was there when I was! 

I will post some pictures in the post after this because I think they are all on my phone.  We love you all so much and thank you for all your prayers in our behalf.