Home!!

It is 1:30 in the afternoon, a day after her surgery, and Keziah is now tucked into her own bed at home. We are so thankful we could come home already! She is doing well, mostly complaining of a very sore neck. That is to be expected due to what was all done yesterday.

Here are a "few" pictures of our days, to give you an idea of how things have gone:

Checked in by 6 am, even Patches!

And begins the wait:

Once we were called in, we had to wait again, but this time there were some fun things on the bed to help us pass the time away.

Just before 8 o'clock, we met the team and she left holding the nurse's hand with no problems. It was such a precious sight, one that I would have loved to capture with my camera. But I just couldn't. Instead it is committed to memory. We were oh so proud of her.

4 hours later, we met Dr. Zuker, where he let us know how things went, and then we met her in Recovery.

That scar you see in her hair is from her surgery last year. This time around, there are 2 incisions, which are in the birthmark. Those of you who can't handle seeing blood/incisions will be thankful to know I don't have any pictures- you can't see the incisions because of how dark the birthmark is.

Keziah did fairly well in recovery, as best as a 4 year old can do. As the afternoon progressed, we noticed a trend: her pain levels would elevate as soon as a TV show was over, and then mysteriously decrease as the next TV show started. :o)

 Her first visitor was Uncle Arie, who spoiled her with a stuffed kitten and a Dora balloon. He sure knows how to get into her good books!! :o) Even though she was sleeping so deeply, she all of a sudden woke up, sat up with big brown eyes, looked at Uncle Arie and said, "You gave me a Winnie the Pooh balloon and a cheetah last time!".(1.5 years ago). She then laid back down and that kitten was never far from her the rest of her stay :o)

All afternoon, Keziah's stomach was bothering her, so she felt the need for a bowl. A large one. Which definitely came in handy once.

She was in a bed this time, not a crib, so there was room for mommy to lay with her and snuggle.

Around 6ish, Keziah completely perked right up. This was great timing as Opa and Oma were there for a visit. She had some deep conversations with her Opa.

She was suddenly hungry and so she ordered her supper: bread, broccoli and strawberry ice cream. I don't think I have ever seen a 4 year old inhale broccoli like this kid does!!

Keziah did well throughout the night, being awake from 12-2 and that was pretty much it. As you can see, Patches has taken backstage to "Me-meow"

Keziah was ready to start her day by 7, declaring she was hungry:

Dr. Zuker came by around 8, we talked and the discharge papers were to be written up! Yay!!! After he left, Keziah told me she did not want to go home but wanted to stay in the hospital for a few more days. Once I told her we will have time to play in the Play Room before we go, she was relieved. :o)

By 12:30, we were heading out the door!

We praise God for blessing her with such a good recovery. We are thankful that He guided the hands of the doctors as they placed two more expanders in her scalp. And we are very grateful for the many prayers that were said on our behalf. We are also very thankful to Nathan's sister and her family, for looking after Lincoln the last few days. It is such a blessing to not have to worry about him. Nathan is off to go get him.....we all miss him very much!

My next post will have more information about the expanders, how large (hold onto your socks for this!), where they are and what the timeline is for all of this to be done.