We're overJOYed

So this was how our morning began....well, it actually began at the Ronald McDonald House around 5 as we got up to get ready to arrive at the hospital promptly at 6 so that we could get all of the pre-op procedures going.  We'd been told that Monday mornings are a little unpredictable and that there is a weekly staff meeting to go over the schedule for the week and such, but that Shawna would probably be in the OR by 9 (see bottom of the top 3 pics...yes, she's still very pregnant - 37 weeks AND 1 DAY - take that spina bifida - and the clock definitely reads 10:20).  So we sat and waited, with quick pop ins by nurses checking in on us.  Originally a short wait was OK with me as I finally had to turn off my Peyton Manningless Broncos take the New England Patriots into overtime last night so I was excited to get a chance to watch SportsCenter and see the highlights of our win and then get a chance to watch my new favorite show, Live with Kelley and Michael which is on at 9, but all of that was hoping we'd be getting taken to the OR in the 9 o'clock hour....as Lou Corso says on College GameDay..."Not so fast my friend."
Finally at about 10:30, two nurses came in and explained that one of the mothers down the hall was having some serious issues and was in need of a transport from CHOP to one of Penn's medical facilities down the street...not good.  So, it was explained to us that most of the medical personnel that we needed were a bit preoccupied and that it could be 30 minutes or 3 hours...so we started CHOOSING JOY.  The frustrating part was that they apologized to both of us and said they'd make it up to us as best they could with food vouchers to the cafeteria for me or other handouts like that (Hello, I'm not the one who's been in Philly for the past 100 days and very limited in what I could go out and do physically and I'm not the one in need of food as it's my wife who has not had anything to eat since 6pm the night before and is hungry enough to eat the **** off a skunk).
Fortunately, it was about 20 minutes later they came in and said they couldn't transport (I shouldn't say fortunately but you know what I meant) the other patient for about an hour and a half so they'd get our section going and that's what happened.
They took Shawna away and allowed me to mentally and physically prepare!!!

Good thing I didn't go premed.  Not only would I have no idea what I'd be doing but I can't even dress the part.  I was escorted into the OR to find Shawna laid out on the operating table with her arms stretched out and strapped down like they were worried that she'd start swing or try to perform the surgery on herself.  Everything seemed to go smoothly and after about 45 minutes we could hear the first cries of our gorgeous new baby girl, Kierstyn Joy Carlson!  It was amazing to be in the OR knowing what they were doing yet all the medical staff was so comforting and at ease, just going about it as normal as I clip my fingernails (doesn't everyone have their quarks?  I cut my finger/toe nails about once a day...TMI?).  She came out 5lbs. 3oz. which I thought was a good size for a 37 weeker, and then remembered Peyton was 8.10 and Myles wasn't much smaller (oh Shawna, bless your heart and other parts!!).  KJC's lungs were not a concern of any of ours as she let the world know she was out and alive (I was going to say kicking, but that darn spina bifida may not allow for any kicking until we work with some physical therapists!!).

So the initial checks on vitals were done and all looked great.  They took Kierstyn to the NICU for more observations but quickly informed us that they were going to allow her to come up and try to breast feed with Shawna.  That was a HUGE positive surprise to us as we thought we'd be going down to the NICU to feed.  The nurses with us were also a little surprised that they allowed her to come up to us for an HOUR so soon (hopefully good foreshadowing for things to come!!).  This also gave us some more time to hold our new bundle of JOY.  And again, they brought her back up for a second feeding!!!  This is quite a rarity for spina bifida babies so soon after the CSection.

This evening Shawna and I made our way down to the NICU for Shawna to spend some more skin-on-skin time with Kierstyn and feed her...which she did for almost an hour!  Way to go Girl....if she keeps feeding like that, look out Peyton and Myles, little sis may be the family protector!!!  Better not try to borrow any of her skirts!!  Speaking of Peyton and Myles, we got the chance to facetime with them tonight and they were excited to see their new baby sister.  They shipped home with John and Janet on Saturday after spending Thanksgiving week out here with us.  Kurt, Catie, Shane, and Nolan also made the trip out to visit us for Thanksgiving where we were able to celebrate Kurts birthday at the Holiday Inn Cherry Hill (yes, that's like the third or fourth bday we've celebrated there).  The boys love the hotel in Cherry Hill because of the "hot tub" (the pool there is about 85 degrees, thank goodness, and they call it a big hot tub).

Peyton did make the comment to Ms. Jen today at daycare that he wished it was a boy, but he'll get over it as he very big-brotherly said "goodbye Kierstyn, my sister" on facetime tonight.
After sending the boys home on Saturday, we tried to enjoy our last 48 hours of time together in Philly by getting out to eat and a few local eating holes and spent some time at LOVE Park where they set up an open air Christmas market with little vendor shops.  It was fun to spend some time just the two of us as we prepared to be blessed with Kierstyn.
So, we're down to our final few days in Philly before we return for Detox December (that's what we're referring December to for our family as we detox back to reality...that is a good thing).  Shawna will be discharged from CHOP on Thursday but Kierstyn's discharge is all dependent on a ton of different variables.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be back to Zeeland by the weekend (I reminded her that we...Hope...have a game Friday night and Saturday afternoon) and she could get to watch these studs play this weekend if she cooperates and gets out of here soon!!!

What a bunch of studs....her first 15 or so boyfriends!!

Can't wait to get up in the middle of the night to help keep our Princess happy and fed!!

CHOOSING JOY (even though I/we still have yet to see those food vouchers!!)

-Jeff

So Much To Be Thankful For!

We are looking forward to spending our Thanksgiving in Philadelphia, although we'd obviously rather be back in West Michigan.  Shawna's family is headed out for the long weekend for the holiday and to celebrate her brother, Kurt's, birthday.  Funny, this is the 4th birthday we'll celebrate at the Holiday Inn in Cherry Hill, NJ (Kurt, John, Shawna, and me...they are staying there which is fabulous....great pool, and one last chance for us to get back to ONE of our places of extended residency on this journey).  As you can see in the pic below from the last week that Janet was out here with the boys and Shawna, fall in Philly is beautiful and the forecast for tomorrow and Friday is in the mid-60's!!!  Yee-haw!!  A bit nicer than the 6 inches of the snow that I departed from Sunday morning at Midway International Airport in Chicago.  

 After a week at home without the boys, I was ready to get back out to Philly, but not after a weekend spent in balmy northern Wisconsin with my second family, the Hope Men's Basketball team.  We had a great start to the season with wins at the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse and the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (the defending national champions).  I hate being away from my family but if I had to choose one other group of people to be with, this group of coaches and unbelievable young men would be right at the top of my list.  Good luck this weekend, guys, v. Aquinas College and Cornerstone University.
Speaking of "other"families and more folks to be thankful for during this holiday season, I need to recognize my co-workers at Zeeland West High School.  I shouldn't just limit it to my school as the support we've received from all of the Zeeland Public Schools and the Zeeland community has been tremendous and this whole odyssey would not have been possible without their support.  It turns out that the West Michigan Ronald McDonald Housewww.rmhwesternmichigan.org/ was doing a fund raiser by selling Ronald McDonald red and white striped socks.  Well, one of my colleagues and great friend, Hannah Stein, caught wind of it and found a television news clip and made Colleen Johnson, my principal aware of it and they spear headed a drive at ZW for the staff to all purchase the socks as they knew that we were reaping the benefits of the Ronald McDonald House program in Philadelphia.  Check out this pic!!!

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/article/20151122/NEWS/151129885/13406/NEWS

Every single staff member bought a pair as well as many of the students!  I cannot be more blessed and thankful to work with a group of people that not only work extremely hard at their trades, but care for students more than outsiders will ever know, and care about and support each other as they have Shawna, the boys, and me.  Funny that last spring in my speech to the graduating class, one of my key points was to surround themselves with incredible people because life is much easier and more fun if you can do that....case in point!!  Actually, I'm not quite sure if everyone bought the socks in support of the RMH's, our family, or because Colleen said they could wear jeans if they did (FYI, if you ever need teachers to do something a little above and beyond, just allow them to wear jeans for a day at school....for some reason, we love that except for Nate VanPutten, who I teach next to, who, in my 9 years at Zeeland I've never seen wear jeans....c'mon Putty).  And Go DUX this weekend as the football team, under the leadership of an unbelievable coaching staff, has, once again, made it to the state finals!!!
CHOP moved up Shawna's weekly appointment to Monday of this week as her amniotic fluid levels have been a little low (not sure if that's how you spell it, and a quick disclaimer - if any of the medical terms or explanations seem fuzzy, just ask Shawna for a bit more clarification...she may as well add an MD to her name after this...not that I'm not paying attention but I'll blame my lack of precision and knowledge on terms and definitions of the medical stuff on the fact that 1) I'm a man and we just don't always pay attention to detail as we should...I'll admit it.  2) In many of the meetings/ultrasounds I've been trying to keep a 4 and 2 year old monsters from checking each others heart rates, opening and closing the cool foot pedal hazardous waste baskets, playing with IV hookups, or anything else they can get their hands on in a hospital room....I mean, a kids paradise of cool things to play with, right!!  The medical staff mentioned to Shawna that if her fluid levels were still a bit low this week, they may go ahead and proceed with the CSection as they have no concerns about the baby's health if she did need to deliver early (ha, early, Shawna KO'd the odds and has made it 36.5 weeks!!).  The ultra sound actually showed her fluid levels went up over the past week from 8.8 to 9 (see Shawna, I do pay SOME attention to the details) so they are holding off on the CSection until the 37 week mark.  Shawna completed all of the pre-op work and signed the consent papers!  Last few day for us playing man to man (boy to boy) defense as we'll have to implement our zone defense soon!  Never my favorite style of play, but we'll have to get used to being outnumbered for, oh, the next 18 years or so.  Last night at dinner we did finally realize we should probably decide on a definite boy and girl name....suggestions?

So, we'll be shipping the boys home with John and Janet this weekend.  It's their last few days (hopefully) at the RMH and will be bittersweet sending them off.  It's kind of the first part of our move back home but they've come to have so much fun here playing with each other (they've become best buddies through this journey, and often refer to each other as "Buddy"), and experiencing so many cool things such as a great halloween, guest pets coming in often, the Philadelphia Flyers players and their sorority sister-looking wives (great story to go with that if you ever have a few free minutes), air hockey in the basement, bus tours of the city and other museums, etc.  It won't be their last time in Philadelphia as we've grown very fond of this magnificent city and are thankful for all that is has offered us and made us feel at home over the past 3 months, and will definitely be making trips back...shoot, it's only a 12 hour drive (another great anecdote about travel involving something we've come to discover about most folks not from the midwest and their travel habits if you ever have a few minutes).  Hopes are that Shawna will be discharged from the hospital late next week with baby soon to follow.  The next post should have some pics of our beautiful new blessing!
BTD (Back To Diapers!! - thanks, Myles, for potty training this fall and allowing us a few weeks of being diaperless, for the most part)

From Philly with much to be Thankful for -

CHOOSING JOY

-Jeff

BTW, Northwestern is 9-2 if anybody cares...no big deal.

Home Stretch

 Oh yeah....the City of Brotherly Love.  Chad, don't you think we got along that well at that age?  Well, as you can see November in Philly is pretty nice in terms of the weather.

2 More Weeks of Philly on the wall, 2 more weeks of Philly....take one down, pass it around......
Yes.  The home stretch.  We hit 35 weeks yesterday and have shifted our energy from some nervousness about the whole scenario and the development of #3 to now (each day is just icing on the cake) excitement for the birth of our blessing!!  The goal is still the full 37 weeks and, if you couldn't tell from Shawna's last blog, Shawna is so competitive that she is doing everything in her power (not sure what that may be) to keep Baby C at bay!!

This past week was the last week that the boys and I were all home together.  After another uneventful drive home, we survived a few speed bumps here in Zeeland but survived!!  I'm thinking about patenting a "Dad's Travel Survival Kit - For Dad's Stupid Enough to Travel Significant Distance's with Kids Under the Age of 5".
Here is what would be on the list:
1. Diapers - Yes, for the kids, even if they are potty trained because if they're in the groove watching Paw Patrol or Blaze (or whatever keeps them happy), you don't want to have to stop.  They can also be used by the Dad for the same reasons....basically, if the kids are happy, it's not worth stopping to empty your bowels.
2. A car/portable DVD player....a good DVD can be like ridelin for kids....keeps them calm and under control, at least if they can agree on the DVD to watch.
3. Toys, but small and not too many and more importantly, two of all of them (or as many as you have kids because as all of you parents know, if one kid has it, the other one(s) want it).
4. Second pair of clothes/pajamas.  I learned this from the mistake of not having a second pair on one of our road trips to Philadelphia where Myles, who seems to be "firsty" (thirsty, struggles with the "t" "h" sound) all of the time leaked through his diaper and went enough that he had to sit in a small resevoir of urine that build up in his car seat.  Oooops.
5. Snacks - Anything you think they might want.  It's really all about survive and advance so don't feel bad about giving your kids only candy and sugared up drinks.  Oh well.  No need to stress out about screaming kids in a car or on an airplane by trying to force them to eat apple slices and carrots!  Skittles, chips, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, fruit snacks, Starbursts, M&M's, pop, juice bags (Capri Suns), Oreo's, chocolate chip anything, granola bars, etc.  You fill in the blanks with what you think you're kids like or have even the slightest chance of asking for.  The trip home last week saw us go through a whole box of fruit snacks, a family size bag of Sun Chips (blue bag, Peyton ONLY likes those), two bags of Skittles, one box of Capri Suns plus two we had left over from another box, and a few other treats.  Way to go Dad!!
I still have some work to do to improve the survival kit but I think it's coming along!!

Every other week home has, for the most part been smooth, but this whole journey has thrown curve balls at us so I wasn't surprised that our last week home, just the boys, involved a few unforeseen happenings.  1) Sunday night, as we're just about to go to bed, Myles thought it would be a good idea to see how I would handle our first emergency room visit for an injury by jumping off his bed and kissing the corner of the book stand next to his bed with his head.  Peyton actually cried harder as the BANG from the incident scared him.  So, a quick phone call to Uncle Chad at 9:30 to come and stay with Peyton and get him to bed allowed the Myles man and me to go get him fixed up.  Fortunately the cut was deep enough that it hardly bled, but did produce.....

Way to go Myles.

Oh Myles....a tough week.  The flu bug happened to sweep through our daycare as well and we thought we were in the clear until Myles upchucked a bit Wednesday afternoon.  Thanks for cleaning up, Grandma Sue.  What would we do without Grandma's?!  Fortunately, it didn't last long and he was back to his normal self by Wednesday night.

The rest of the week went smoothly and the boys grew more and more excited with each day as they knew if they were good boys, they'd be able to fly on some airplanes on Saturday to go back to Philly and see Mommy and Grandma Janet.

Both flights went well on Saturday, even with the first flight placing the two boys in a row by themselves (see above pic).  Thank goodness it only takes 28 minutes to get from Grand Rapids to Chicago by plane!!

A lengthy layover in Chicago allowed me to feed the boys some more extremely healthy McDonald's...once again, whatever keeps them happy!!

Another successful flight from Chicago to Philly ensued with Myles taking full advantage of the dark cabin and flying through the dark skies, catching up on a SORELY needed nap for all of us!!

 We were thrilled to see Grandma Janet and Mommy pull up to the airport to pick us up!

 After about a 12 hour stay, I woke up the next morning to catch some flights back to Grand Rapids for my LAST week home before #3 arrives.  It was really tough leaving the boys and Shawna and now empathize even more with her for all of the times she's had to say goodbye to her 2 dearest possessions (yes, I realize I'm #3, at best, on that list and not going up any time soon with the baby on the way....sorry Jade - our chocolate lab - I may not let you return to Zeeland as that would push me to #5).

Texting with Janet yesterday once I got home I jokingly told her I didn't know what to do with myself as it was my first time at home without the boys.  Her response was "RELAX because you won't be able to for the next 18 years!!!"  Oh boy, probably so true!  Although, it's been 32 years for her with Shawna and not being able to relax as marrying me probably has kept her on edge for Shawna and these past couple of months have had no relaxing affect on anyone involved!!
Needless to say, all is good.  Now the anticipation for our third little blessing.  Oh yeah, you can all wish Shawna good luck this Thursday evening as she's been asked to speak at a 5k fundraiser about her/our experience with CHOP and the PRMH!!  Go get 'em dear.  A new career?  Public speaking?
As always...

CHOOSING JOY

-Jeff

34 weeks, 4 days and still chugging along

This past weekend was another switch & visitor weekend.  Switch weekends and visitors coming always make the time go faster.  It was sad to see the boys go home but they will be back out this weekend so I don't have to do the two week stretch again.  Peyton & Myles are really excited about coming back out on an airplane.  They are becoming quite the travelers and know how to navigate airline security with the best of them.  Jeff is doing a quick turnaround and flying back home Sunday.  He's traveling with the Hope basketball team to Wisconsin in a week and half and then coming out here afterwards until the baby is born.  I'm hoping for a happy husband with two wins in Wisconsin, Go HOPE!

My Aunt Peggy and cousin Linsey came to visit this weekend.  They helped my mom drive out and my mom said it was the fastest 12 hours in the car.  They even missed a highway in Philadelphia due to either talking or my mom crocheting and not navigating.  Either way, it was fun to have Peggy & Linsey here.  A special shout out to Peggy, this is her second time visiting me in my second home!  This time we were able to get out and about.  The first time she visited me I was only 1.5 weeks out of surgery and not very mobile.  My mom and I had been itching to visit Chestnut Hill so we thought this would be the perfect time with our visitors.  Chestnut Hill is a cute little corner in the north part of Philly.  It has lots of different shops and fun taverns.  The mainstreet is cobblestone like much of Philadelphia along with still operating street cars.  Very cute town, very New England.

Sunday we had breakfast at Ronald McDonald House and then headed to IKEA.  Yes, this was my third time visiting IKEA but the first time going to the IKEA in Conshohocken.  This lovely city has two IKEAS!  Also, when you have lots of time and a wheelchair, IKEA is the perfect place to slowly browse and have a cheap lunch.  And in keeping with the Choosing Joy theme, IKEA and its organizing also makes me feel Joyful as I love organizing!  We attempted to show Peg & Linsey Fabric Row but it was closed on Sunday.  Since we were in the South Philly area we hit up Pat & Genos.  Actually, we just had Geno's and then headed to Cafe Crema for cannolis.  Marc Damstra, every time I have a Philly cheesesteak, I think about how I could ship you one without it getting soggy.  I have yet to come up with a way, let me know if think of a clever shipping method!  I told Julie she should take one home on the plane to you.  After our dinner Peg & Linsey had to head back to the mitten state.  Its always hard when visitors leave but at least now I can say, see you in a few weeks!  Thanks for visiting me Peg & Linsey, it warms my heart to have such a supportive family.  Love you gals.

In keeping with our Choosing Joy theme, I need to show some love to the Ronald McDonald House.  There are families here who are dealing with some extremely scary situations for their children.  There are kids here who are enduring chemotherapy & radiation on a daily basis.  There are children with half of hearts, parents of children born at 26 weeks, the list goes on.  You would think it is a depressing place and yet I have never met a more positive and encouraging group of people.  Everyone is so open and encouraging to each and every situation.  Its like having your own personal cheering section.  I wish all parenting situations, athletic events, or just life in general would be such a positive and supportive place.  With that being said, our local Ronald McDonald is having a fundraiser and selling socks for $5 through November 22, you can read about the local fundraiser here.  If you need some stocking stuffers this year please consider the stripe socks and if you take a picture make sure to use the hashtag #GetYourSocksOn.  Six months ago Jeff and I would have never thought we would be needing the services of the Ronald McDonald House.  My how things can change in a short amount of time.  The Ronald McDonald House will always have a special place in our hearts and we look forward to getting involved with our local RMH in the near future.

34 weeks

We've made it farther than than 50% of the moms who have Fetal Surgery!  Woo hoo, I've been a little competitive about making it to the 34 week mark.  I've been considering my rehab from Fetal Surgery as a race and I need to beat at least half of the moms.  I really want to make it to 37 weeks as only 30% of the moms make it to their scheduled c - section but I am so anxious to be back home. This weeks appointment included my final two consults before delivery, lactation and the director of the Neonatal Unit.  The lactation consultant told me my jobs after birth are to rest, eat and nurse.  She gave me a list of jobs for Jeff, see below.  Ten steps for working a hospital grade breast pump.  Lets hope he can figure it out!

Things are looking good, I've been instructed to start chugging water as my amniotic fluid levels are on the low side of normal.  If my levels get too low I'll probably be admitted and given an IV.  I really don't want to hang out in the hospital for the next 2.5 weeks so I'll be chugging water like its my job.  Plus Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I'm guessing the Ronald McDonald House does it up right.

My consult with the Neonatal Director went over all of the tests that will be done on our baby before discharge.  If the baby is stable post-op I will be able to try nursing in the OR.  If not the baby gets shipped down to the NICU on the second floor.  Since we are at a Children's Hospital there isn't a nursery for healthy babies and this is one of the only Children's Hospital that has a delivery unit for mothers.  At least we will be in the same hospital, just four floors apart.  The NICU will be doing daily ultrasounds on the bladder, kidneys & brain.  The baby will have an MRI, a consult with Orthopedics, Neuro, Urology & Physical Therapy.  I've heard that CHOP is very cautious to discharge so if we make it to 37 weeks we are anticipating a 5-7 day stay afterwards if everything goes well.  If the baby has any apnea or bradychardia events then we will be here longer (lets hope that doesn't happen!)

Hope everyone in Michigan is surviving the wind storm.  I'm guessing a few of our sandbox toys are now in our neighbors yard along with a few shingles.

Choosing Joy from Philly,
Shawna

November In Philly!!

It's been a week since our last blog and things are still trucking along.  Never would we have expected to have celebrated Halloween in Philadelphia but pretty much anything that has occurred since we received the spina bifida news on August 7 has been normal or expected.  So let's start with that, as Halloween is quite the to-do at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House and we kind of new that going in.  I packed a few costumes for the boys but the PRMH also had costumes for kids so we had (or should I say Peyton had) a bit of a struggle in deciding what we wanted to be.  For those of you who have been a sibling or have two + kids, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I tell you that Myles had his mind set/made up that he wanted to be a penguin once Peyton put on the penguin outfit when we first woke up on Halloween morning.  So, once the battle for Peyton to let Myles be the penguin was over, it was then like Peyton was in a fashion show of Halloween costumes (see pics).

He finally settle on Superman, but not after auditioning as a penguin in our room, then as a dog at breakfast.  It was a great day and we still have a huge cache of candy in our room which the boys have really enjoyed (and my 8 month pregnant wife!!).  I actually walked out of the shower the other day and as I got out, caught Peyton with the guiltiest look on his face and his arm completely buried in the pumpkin-shaped candy bucket.  Shawna was out of the room so I think he thought he'd be sneaky and pull a fast one on me....but as Lee Corso on College GameDay says, "Not so fast my friend."  BUSTED!!! 
We were visited by my parents, though, from Friday morning to Monday afternoon.  We had a great time with Grandma Sue and Papa Bob!!  We really enjoy having visitors and want to give another shout out to all of you that have made the journey to see us.  We also really have appreciated all of the letters and cards we've received while being at the PRMH.  People of work, 2nd Reformed Church, etc., you've all helped keep our spirits up and attitudes positive with your cards/letters of encouragement, care, and concern.
We packed the weekend in with GS and PB with taking the bus tour (this was Shawna's 3rd time on it...I think she could easily give the tour by now!!  It is lots of fun and fact filled.  Each time we've had a different guide and so you get a little different flavor from each with new and different nuggets of information about the city of Philadelphia.

This tour ended with us having lunch at the Redding Market.  If you ever get the chance to experience the market, it's great....tons of different little food stands and such.  It was wrapped up with a bit of ice cream as many of our meals out do!!  I also just found out there is a great gilato place about a block away (look out!!).
The rest of the weekend was spent at a kids-type museum that had a HUGE dinosaur bones exhibit where Peyton and Myles could ramble off all of the different types of dinos they knew about, a Philly Cheesesteak lunch near the Italian Market, and PB and GS venturing through the haunted house set up in the Eastern State Penitentiary at about midnight on Sunday night.  It is actually required that kids under the age of 12 are not permitted and must be accompanied by an adult if they're under 18.  The outside of the place looks creepy in itself.  Mom told us that Bob had a bit of the runs on their way home back to their hotel in the early hours of Monday morning and I'm still not sure if she meant bowel runs from being so scared or a little more pep in his step after being so spooked!!  If you want the real-life story/version of the experience, ask Bob.  If you'd like the story/version with a few extra twists and animation/special effects, ask Sue.

Thanks, again, Ma and Pa for journeying out.  We had a great time and hope you did too!
We had some more guest join us for dinner Monday night.  Katie and Liz, two Hope students who we connected with through their significant others, are enjoying Hope's offering of an off-campus semester in Philadelphia.  Once again, some new faces and conversation (not that we're getting sick of each other) were very welcomed by all of us and it's always fun to chit chat with college students to hear about what that world is all about (not that we're THAT far removed!!). 

We had another CHOP visit yesterday, where everything with Shawna and the baby checked out.  34 weeks on Sunday!!  As mentioned before, only 50% of moms get to that point!!  Way to go Shawna and baby.  With every passing day we're feeling more and more confident that we've made the right decision for the baby to go ahead with the surgery (way back on August 30...wow, that seems like a long time ago).  It's been interesting, as well, as we see the turnover of residence at the PRMH.  We've made some good friends but were sad to see our favorite buddy, Justin, and his parents go back to their home of Curacao, an island just off the coast of Venezuela.  They were great people and we wish Justin all the best as his battle against some invasive cancer will now begin with treatments that are sent from here back to his home!!  Go Justin! 
A mother did come in yesterday, just for one night, with her little guy, Bo, who had the same procedure done that we did.  They were here on a check-up from Florida and, small world, knows and goes to church with a girl that was a few years older than Shawna who's brother went to Hope with us.  We chatted with her for a while and witnessed Bo and how well he is doing.  He scooting around all over the place and loving life! 
Another positive over the past week and a half is that Peyton finally revealed to us what he wants to be when he grows up.  Throughout his 4 year life, he's become quite enthused about lots of different things but some more than others.  At the top of the list would be trains, planes, tractors, big equipment, and dinosaurs.  So we thought, hmmmm, there are lots of great occupations that involve those things.  Well, while walking (staggering, huffing and puffing) up and pushing the wheelchair (with Shawna sitting with a boy on each lap) back to the PRMH yesterday afternoon (also, please keep in mind that it was 75 and sunny....yes, on November 4th!!) after our appointment, we were pushing Peyton about the possibility of being a doctor or something in the medical field ($$$$) as we've spent lots of time in that world lately.  Well, along many of the streets in our "neighborhood", which is basically the medical buildings, Penn University, and Drexel University, there are a plethora of food stands.  His response to our asking about a medical occupation was, "I think I want to be a food truck cook man!"  On one hand I though, "you've got to be kidding me.  A food truck cook man?  C'mon.  You can do better than that (not that there would be anything wrong with that...actually they seem really busy and successful and happy)."  But then I thought about the fact that it probably doesn't take a college degree to pursue that career so there is about $300,000 off of the books for us!!  I don't think many colleges have a major of "Food Truck Cook Man."
Once again, another week down and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger and brighter.  The boys and I will be hopping in the car on Saturday for another trek back to the mitten as we swap with Janet the Bra.  She is journeying out with her sister-in-law (Shawna's aunt) Peggy and her daughter Linsey (Shawna's cousin, same age/grade).  We're looking forward to them getting here on Friday and spending some good time with them, plus, I think their hotel has a pool so the boys will be in their glory for a little!! 
Driving through Pennsylvania Nittany Lion Country with my Northwestern jersey on Saturday could be dangerous and might get me pulled over but that would just add to the stories we'll have from this whole odyssey.

From Philly

CHOOSING JOY

-Jeff