A Little Slice of Heaven---Home at Last!!

We are home!!! I can't even begin to express my joy at being home with my family! Ben and I drove Hailey home last Saturday and Sunday (sorry, tried to post about it and didn't realize it never published). It was a good trip. Hailey tolerated the trip really well, especially considering how long it was. I think it took us about 17 hours (not counting the time we took to sleep of course). Honestly, compared to the last 3 months, it felt like a vacation just getting to see Ben that much at a time! I was so excited!

It was exhausting though. I found out about the decision to send us home around 9:30pm Thursday night. I called Ben and we worked out a plan to get him there Saturday. Ben worked until 8:45pm on Friday night and then got up at 4am Saturday to catch a shuttle to the Salt Lake airport where he barely made the flight due to the shuttle running a little behind. He was literally the last person on.  I picked him up in Oakland around 12:30pm and we drove back to Palo Alto and had to pack everything up and clean our room and our kitchen space.  It was about 5:30pm by the time we got on the road. We stopped for dinner at some point and then stayed in Reno.  We were so worn out from our drive and getting up in the night for Hailey's medications and formula refills that we didn't  make it on the road again until almost 11am.

We drove all day and got home around 11pm Sunday night.  I thought I might cry for joy when we pulled into the driveway.  The girls were still in Nampa and were still recovering from colds so we waited until Wednesday night to go get them. I was so happy to see them too! I got them home around midnight and Hailey and Ben of course were at home already since Ben had to work the next day. 

On Thursday after Ben got off of work we were all 5 in the same house together for the first time in a little over 3 months!!!! It was so wonderful!!! I think we all just sat around the family room basking in being together.

I can tell the girls were ready to have things back to some semblance of normalcy again. The first couple of nights, Katelyn kept coming into our room in the night to make sure I was still there.  They had such a blast playing with all their cousins, but they are glad to be home. The reunion between the girls was just adorable too. Hailey woke up early in the morning, but since I had gotten in so late with the girls the night before I just put her in with me and she went back to sleep after Ben left for work. The girls woke up, came into the room and saw Hailey and just started squealing and laughing and hugging her. Hailey just smiled and smiled and kept looking at them and touching their faces. It was so sweet!

I took some pictures of them all playing together. 

It was wonderful to be back in our home ward again. It was fun too, because Charlie Hess was up visiting his son and daughter-in-law, so we saw him too.  It was wonderful to see everyone. We felt so loved. Everyone has been so helpful and loving and supportive. In some ways it frustrates me that I will never have the words to convey the depth of the feeling of gratitude we hold in our hearts for each kindness, each prayer, each act of service in our behalf. But, maybe Heavenly Father intended it to be that way so that we feel a need to do more than just say thank you and have to act out to help someone else instead.  I hope somehow He can communicate that gratitude to all of you. 

They have set a new surgery date for September 25th, which means we will be headed to California again in a couple of months for that. It is funny because I really was hoping that the surgery would be before we had to come home so we could just get it over with. We prayed and prayed that it could be at the right time for our family. I know now that those prayers have been answered. Heavenly Father knew we needed this little break. Seeing the joy in all my little girls and feeling how great it feels to be together makes it all worth it. 

I have been pondering the multitude of miracles in our lives over the past year.  It has been hard. We have shed tears and offered the most heartfelt prayers of our lives. It has been the hardest year of our lives without a doubt.  I have spent a lot of time praying for miracles and today I looked back and realized that there have been so many already.  The fact that Hailey is even alive and that she still has full brain capacity, the fact that she is home again--not to mention the outpouring of love, friendship, and kindness from so many. I feel like my cup of joy runneth o'er. We have been blessed in every facet of this difficult journey.  It is humbling to realize what Heavenly Father has done for us. He does remember us--all of us. He knows us. He loves us. He sees us as individuals and loves us as His children. I am grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. Knowing that He has suffered all things and knows perfectly what we are going through and what we need has been an incredible gift through all of this.  He has known exactly how to help us.  What greater miracle could there be?

Love you all and hope you are doing well!!