Oh, The Thanks You Can Thank!

We've been putting off writing this particular post for a while. Maybe we were hoping that we'd suddenly have more time or that we'd figure out just exactly what we wanted to say. Well, the days in 2009 still seem to have just 24 hours. After a lot of thought, we still can't put this in words properly, but here goes.

"Isn't it great that he's out of the hospital?" we're asked all the time. Yes. No two ways about it. We're very happy to have Lewis home. Still, our emotions about the NICU experience aren't nearly as one way as you might expect. Weaving our way through the obstacle course of Lewis' care these last couple weeks, we're frequently reminded of ways that we miss the NICU. I'm sure this sounds a little odd if you haven't been through something similar. We're starting to understand how much we were all being cared for while Lewis was a patient. In a sense, we were in a cocoon that allowed us to worry about Lewis' progress, without worrying about so many other things. We had a place to go where we could focus on nothing but Lewis.

So, to the NICU nurses and staff, we want to say thank you. Thank you for taking such wonderful care of Lewis. Not just great medical care, which he received, but for cuddling him so much at all hours (spoiling him rotten) and for keeping him comfortable. Thank you for advocating for him when we couldn’t be there, for styling his hair, making him drawings, taking him for walks and cooing over him. Thank you for taking care of him as if he were your child.

It wasn’t just Lewis you took care of. Thank you for answering, so patiently, our endless questions and 3 am phone calls. For helping us learn to speak up on Lewis' behalf and giving us so many great ideas to help him. Thanks for finding happy things to talk about with us while Lewis slept, and for sharing little bits of your lives with us. Thank you for turning a cold, sterile ward into a place where we felt at home spending hours with our son.

There are too many of you to mention here, and we don't want to start listing names online anyways. This has been a tough time for our family. Thank you for helping us through it.