Leaving For The Big House

Friday 9/12/08 was a fun and exciting day. We were scheduled to be discharged early yet the staff assured us that there was no rush that we could leave whenever. That was nice, no pressure to make check out time. I am not sure what we would have done had we not gotten a room at the hospital. I guess we would have sat in the waiting room with Shiloh all day and then had to leave her in the nursery all night alone. Oh no that would not have done well with us.

Well 10am came rolling by and our nurse came to tell us that the doctor had over slept and that he wouldn't be at the hospital till around noon to discharge us. That was funny, you never know in the small town settings how things will go. There were still plenty of things for us to do there though. We needed to get pictures for baby done, a few lab test, get all our papers and info. together, a hearing screen and to pack up. I told Julie that I would change her and get her picture ready and call her. I went to her bag to get out the outfit that I wanted her pictures take in and realized that it was going to be huge on her. She was so petite in every way. I was determined though. I layered her thinking that it might help the outfit to fit a little better. I think I just ended up making her look like and NFL line backer. I finished the ensemble with a little headband that Steven affectionately called he "brain squeezer". He wasn't so inclined to add that to the outfit but mom was in charge of this wardrobe change. We set out to the nursery to get all of our "errands run" before heading to the room to pack. Julie our nurse met us with a smile and ooo's and aaa's over her outfit. We lined her up on the little platform or her picture and she didn't like it much. After that the lab person came and that was a sad ordeal. Shiloh just screamed and cried and little baby tears came out. I just whispered to her that it would be OK and it calmed her for a second. After that we got loaded up with all kinds of great things from the nursery supply closet and were on our way out. I could see Danny's door cracked open a little and wondered if she wanted a visitor. I was shy about it so I just kept going, but then Julie led us in saying that she knew Danny would want to see us. We went in and Julie was right, Danny was glad to see us. I handed Shiloh to her to hold and she loved the outfit. We visited a while and chatted then we went back to our room. I asked Julie about the hearing test and with an almost embarrassed look she said," Connie your night nurse went ahead and did it thinking that you would sign for it." I just said "Oh.." and that's fine". After she left I looked at Steven and said,"what else did they do thinking that I would sign?" We were a little frustrated, but after all it was just a hearing test.

I changed her out of her huge outfit into a little sleeper and started to pack. At about noon the doctor hadn't come in yet and Julie came and said that Danny would like to see us if we can. We gathered our precious cargo and headed in. Tobi was there and they were sitting up with a huge gift on the bedside table. It was for Shiloh. Danny sent Tobi out to shop for her that morning, and wow did he do good. In thin big bag there were 10 outfits, a car seat toy, a very soft pin blanket, and a little bear that says a prayer when you squeeze it. I was in awe at these two 20 year olds and their love and maturity through this whole process. From the beginning Danny has known what she wanted to do, she was true to her word, and now was showering our little one with gifts. Who were these people who could love so much not knowing Jesus. After we hung out some and went back to our room tears rolled down my face as I prayed that Jesus would encounter them. I finished packing and was skimming over our room and noticed a couple of big boxes on the counter. I looked closer at them and realized that they were diapers. Julie had giving us two large boxes of diapers and refilled our cradle drawers with lots of formula to take with us. What a huge blessing. Julie and Melissa our nurses were truly angels to us.

Well we got wind of a rumor that the doctor had finally arrived around 1pm and was checking out Danny. Low and behold her waltz's into our room, all 6'3 of him. He is a pleasant man and I think a good doctor. He apologized and started checking Shiloh over. We striped her down and he did a thorough going over. "Well she's as close to perfect as you are going to get". That was a great report and we were ready to head out. Doctor Simpson went over some baby essentials and then shook our hands as he walked out our door. We were so excited and nervous to be heading out with this little beauty under our wings.

I had everything packed and Steven started taking things out to the car. Just as he was returning for the final load Danny and Tobi came into our room. They were discharged and were leaving and wanted to say one more good bye. They hugged us, kissed Shiloh and told us thank you again. We told them thank you and that we wished them well. Steven and I had given Danny a thank you letter and a little cross necklace earlier that morning. We poured out our love and gratitude in the letter and the cross matches Shiloh's that we will giver her one day when she is ready. We told Danny that it would be something that they would have in common from a very special day. It was a simple silver cross with a hand painted pink rose in the middle. Dainty and sweet and we hope that she will hold on to it. So as they left and we watched them through our window walking to their car my heart was sad. Would we ever speak again and chat like before? Only time will tell as we have left the ball in her court for communication.

The funniest part of that day was the car seat fitting I think. To the nurses we probably looked dumb loosening and tightening the straps to fit out petite little princess just right. The final good bye to the staff and a last look over the room signaled that we were on our way. We strapped Shiloh into the car and we on our way to Andover, KS. about 2 hours away. There we would stay with our case worker and lawyer in their home till the next Tuesday. We were glad to leave the loud construction sight that the hospital was, yet I was somewhat misty as we had experienced something truly amazing there.

On the road again should be our families theme song as we have traveled to four towns total since Shiloh's birth. The drive to Andover was fine until we hit Wichita, then the rain was so hard that we could barely see. We pulled off the highway to get something to drink and a potty break to find that the exit was flooded. We carefully pulled back on to the ramp thanking Jesus that Steven saw the water before we were in to deep.

Once we got to the other side of Wichita we found their address fine. It was out from the city in the country. Lots of big houses and horses on either side of the road so we had big expectations for this house. When we came round to their driveway our eyes were shocked when we pulled us to this massive house. We were there, at the BIG HOUSE

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