The count down has begun

So here we are. We are home from all of our vacations for the summer and we are in the waiting period before surgery. I think of these next two weeks as the "don't get sick quarantine". But the fact that it is summer has me much less paranoid this time around. We will hopefully have some play dates and some outside time, but it will have to be limited. The kids don't really know what's coming. They know that their Nana and G-pa are coming to visit and they are so excited. I have told them that mommy and daddy and Maelyn will be going away while they are here but they keep forgetting. Maelyn knows she has a 'big' doctors appointment coming up and that she gets to go to the hospital and she is actually very excited. I don't want any of them to be scared. Right now they all think doctors and hospitals are cool and fun and I want to keep it that way. Tim and I have mixed emotions. Obviously we are dreading watching our three year old daughter go through and recover from open heart surgery. But we have been waiting for and anticipating this since she was diagnosed prenatally. So we also just want to stop thinking about it, stop preparing for it and get it over with so we can move forward, whatever that may mean. We are hopeful that once she is recovered from this surgery, she will have the best outcomes and be able to have the best normal life. We are hopeful that she will have more energy and will be able to keep up with the other kids, that her coloring will be better, that she will not struggle as much with the changing seasons and that her body will thrive under it's new circulation with no future complications. We just have to get through the next few months, and continue to pray for all of these things.  We have decided to leave Nora with my parents and the boys while we go to Philly with Maelyn. It is going to be so difficult to leave my baby for a week +. She has been attached to me for 9 months, well technically 18 months, and it is not natural to leave her with anyone for any amount of time. We have been working on weaning this last week. She just started to take a bottle/sippy cup. I am trying not to breastfeed at all but I have been once a day because she drinks so little from the cups and I don't want her to get dehydrated.  We are also sleep training because that comes with weaning and leaving her with someone else too. Over all it's going well, we are making progress, it is just hard. She is my last baby and she is growing up so much faster than the others! She is crawling, pulling up, trying to walk, eating solid food!

Please pray with us for healing and best outcomes. Pray for Nora and I as we prepare to be apart and for our time apart. That the kids would still think doctors and hospitals are cool after this!