The Waiting Game

Anyone who has had a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) knows the waiting game.  The first question is always "when can I take my baby home?"  It seems pretty common for "them" to tell a parent of a preemie "we want to keep him until his due date" so the waiting game begins.

Not only do we get to wait, but we get to drive back and forth to the hospital.  And get to know the wonderful, compassionate nurses who work in the NICU.  And the check-out folks in the cafeteria.

Then they give some good news: when the baby gets to (insert milestone here), we'll start the release procedure. A good thing to remember when you hear this is that this doesn't mean the baby gets to go home whenever he reaches that milestone; that's just when the procedure begins, after which the baby goes home.

The procedure includes them showing the parents a video about shaken baby syndrome (lesson learned: don't ever, ever, ever shake a baby. it's not even funny to joke about).  We get re-trained in CPR (all the rules are different these days).  They make sure Peanut will fit in the car seat (and if he won't, they issue a new one - that's right, issue. That means they give us one).

Then the doctor has to check him out one more time and he can go home after the paperwork is done.  Which might take longer than thought, as (in our case) paperwork has to be done by the caseworker as well. And if the baby has had any other issues, those can hold up the release, triggering... more waiting...

The good news is that Peanut's nasal feeding tube is out and he's gaining weight.  The bad news is he had an "episode" last night - nothing to be alarmed at, but they want to make sure that he's out of the woods.

This is all the long, roundabout way of saying that our little guy isn't home yet; maybe tomorrow?

I Love it When...

I have read a lot about perceptions people have of Christians - especially in the realm of evangelism (sharing our faith) - and some of the unpleasant things that people think of us.

But yesterday something happened to remind me how awesome some Christian people are.

But first a little background. In case you don't know, we are right now parents of four little boys, age 6, (almost) 4, 3 1/2, and 1 1/2. Two are foster sons who have only been in our home for a couple of weeks now.

Also, Tara (my wife) plays with the Lancaster Festival Orchestra this time of year, and last night was the opening rehearsal and welcome picnic (which was being held indoors because the weather looked threatening). I met Tara there with the boys (who were hungry and irritable) and we went in and washed up and put our stuff at a table so we could get in line for the food. When we finally got through the line (each of us "helping" prepare 2 little boys' plates as well as our own), we went to "our" table, only to find a couple sitting there. "No problem - but they're going to have to deal with little boys," I thought. Only they rudely shooed us away, telling us *they* had reserved that table. They were two of the rudest, compassionless jerks I've encountered.

So we're looking for somewhere to sit, seeing that all of the tables are at least partially occupied (without space for 6), we saw her across the room. There was a woman with coppery short hair, motioning to us that there was room at her table. She and her husband had plenty of room for us.

As we sat down and talked to them, we found out that he is the "new" pastor of the Lancaster First UMC (he's been there a year). Fellow Christians.

We weren't surprised. Especially by the hospitality they showed to the family who needed somewhere to sit. I love it when Christians live out (our) convictions!