"Feels Like Home To Me"

I started the last blog with lyrics from Notorious BIG so today I'll start with lyrics from a little different genre of music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-ouxPhYy7Y
Chantal Kreviazuk's "Feels Like Home To Me".....
This is the feeling we've felt since our arrival in Philly on Friday evening.  The more we've been able to get out and see past sites that we became so familiar with, we've felt more and more like we're back home.  We didn't really have a plan for yesterday but it just so turned out that the U of Penn's Men's Basketball program was hosting an Exposure Camp for high school recruits so Peyton and I thought it necessary to find our way to the legendary Palestra and watch bball from around 11am-4pm!!  The Penn Bball staff was welcoming, once again, and allowed us to spend the day at their camp.  Truly a great group of guys who, with no surprise, remembered us from the fall and our visits to some of their practices and invited me back anytime we'll be in Philly in the future....Go Quakers.  It was also pretty cool to be in the Palestra just after Villanova won the NCAA Championship this past spring as there are all sorts of tributes and displays honoring past teams that played in the Palestra, as there is one for the very unassuming and underdog 1985 Villanova NCAA Championship team.

After a great day of hoops for Peyton and me, some naps and swim time for Shawna, KJ, and Myles, we all enjoyed a little extra time in the outdoor and indoor pools that our boys have come to love at the Cherry Hill Holiday Inn while diving into some Pizza King (New Jersey style....not Indiana style, although it is very similar in style and taste!!).  Throughout the day we ran into a few families that were here for the Fetal Surgery Reunion and got a chance to chat with them.  It's always a bit relieving to talk to and experience others that have gone through and are going through some of the same situations that we are.  We were all pretty exhausted and found our way under the covers by 8:30pm (previous night bedtime saw 11's on the clock).  Shawna has drawn the short straw in terms of bedmate the past few nights and Myle's kept her up, again, last night until about 10pm with his tossing, turning, pillow throwing, talking, rustling, etc....I got Peyton....easy zzzz's for me!!!
We woke up this morning with the excitement of the anticipation for the Fetal Surgery Reunion.  We spent a little bit of time hanging out in the hotel room before departing for CHOP.

 As you can see we've found ways to adopt to living with 4-5 people in one hotel room through our experiences over the past year...maybe another how to book I can publish along with my Roadtrip Survival Book (see pic above...using the stroller as a high chair for feeding infants!!  You learn a lot about people when you live in close quarters and hear and see things you may not usually experience....like Myles now referring to his chocolate milk juice boxes as his "beer" (hey, not nearly as bad as the family in the hotel that has a 2 year old that, as we were waiting for the elevator yesterday said "What the f*** is taking so long!!!").  Oh yeah, just when you think you've got it bad or something is going wrong, there is usually someone else with bigger issues!
We made it to the reunion around 9:30 and found a table just in time as the huge, outdoor tent set up filled up fast and over the brim with people of all shapes and sizes there to celebrate the amazing medical miracles that CHOP, Dr. Adzick, and his fetal surgery teams have performed over the past 20 years.  I'm not sure the words to describe it, but to see so many (and this had to be a small percentage of all of the people they have performed procedures on) families that have had their lives changed due to the fetal surgery procedures was quite amazing.  We saw many of the families that we got to know while living in Philly and many of the medical team that we were so lucky to have accept our family and treat us.....

Ellen, our nurse/case coordinator from our initial consult in Philly in mid-August....

Jessie...one of the mid-wives....

Dr. Julie Moldenhouer, Maternal Fetal Medicine Physician, who took part of the first surgery (she's a Michigan native so we quickly had a bond with her....

and lastly, Karen, our Certified Nurse and midwife.  We built a very close bond with her in our time in Philly and if we were going to see and catch up with anyone, she was at the top of our list.  We also saw many of the nurses that took care of us (well, Shawna and KJ mostly) and were so good to us as well as the receptionist, Dee, who always was the first smiling face we saw every time we had to go to CHOP for any sort of appointment.  We'll be seeing many more of them as we head back to CHOP on Wednesday for appointments for KJ and to go through CHOP's Spina Bifida Clinic.

Here is the initial pic of the whole reunion....it's pretty hard to see but if you look up near the front and to the right, you can pick out a small orange spot just beyond the light blue shirts (they are the fetal surgery team)...that would be us!!

Hopefully the video I loaded above works of Peyton surfing at the reunion.  Seeing his subpar performance, I think he has a better future as the zamboni driver or food truck chef man that he talked about at the Flyers game he went to in the fall or guys on the streets by the Universities and hospitals that he thought he could be (I blogged about those long ago) and not going into professional surfing.

The day was full of fun and games, bounce houses, blow-up obstacle courses, merry-go-rounds, etc. and a family selfie where Myles head got CHOPped off (sorry, bad teacher joke...see pic above).  It was a day of hope for us, largely in part because we saw so many families that have been navigating their way through journeys of spina bifida and/or other fetal surgery repaired children.  To see so many youngsters living great lives, despite being in wheelchairs or walking with braces was encouraging to us as we move forward on our own journey with so many unknowns still out there.
We're closing down the night watching the US Olympic Trials for with the boys mesmerized with the gymnastics!!!  Go USA....just wish our soccer team could have performed a little better v. Colombia last night, although Peyton was cheering for Colombia the whole time.  C'mon, man.  I guess he knows how to pick a winner....that's why I'm glad he hasn't jumped behind any of the Philly professional sports franchises as they all are in pretty bad situations (the big joke around the area is how the quarterback the Eagles selected with their first pick in this springs draft managed to lock himself in a gas station bathroom last week).  We're headed back into the city to do some site seeing tomorrow so we'll see if the 76ers latest draft pick (the #1 overall pick from LSU, Ben Simmon's) has been glorified yet by the city as the savior for the franchise.
Being back at CHOP, Cherry Hill, and the University district of the city by Penn and Drexel has truly made it "Feels Like Home To Me."  We can't wait to spend a few more days in our "Home Away From Home."
CHOOSING JOY

-Jeff