No Place Like Home

Cierra with Daddy at a rehab outing

Today after lunch Cierra is coming home!  After 43 days I can't imagine how good it will feel for her family to begin the journey back to abnormal.

 Buddy, the young dog, is going to lose his mind!  How awesome it will feel for my sister to sleep in her own bed again, and for CeCe to be able to watch her shows, ( They didn't have her channel at the hospital.) play with her own toys and books, and see her dogs!  Also, for my brother-in-law, Tom, who works away from home, to get back to his routine and give the "Keeper of the Home Fires" title back to Kate.

It has been a long emotional roller coaster, and that's just for those of us on the sideline.  I didn't see her this weekend, so I will finally have the chance tonight to hug her, hold her, and play with her without twenty tubes coming from everywhere, and that makes me cry.  Quite frankly, I think it's relief.  I only lost it one time during the thick of this, even in private I didn't cry.  Then yesterday Kate sent me this picture of CeCe on a bowling outing with some of the rehab patients, and I lost it.  Good thing it was over the lunch hour. :)  It makes me tear up even now.

This is the second time in six months that something life threatening has happened to one of the Goovers, and it really makes you think.  I have dealt with many forms of loss in life, and I know how to do it, and I feel like I can offer some pretty good words of comfort, and, or, advice on the subject, but not on this.  I'm way out of my depth, and hope to keep it that way.  I'm going on the assumption it's not something you ever get over, but something you learn to live with.

So many people have offered prayers for Cierra, and for my family (myself included), and I want you to know that every night before I fall asleep I offer them back for you.  With the reach of social media, and the number of unknown people at the hospital and various churches who have been praying I just cover it by asking God to send blessings to each and every person who has lifted her up in prayer.

Next week Cierra will even be returning to school.  I don't like it.  Nope, not one bit.  I vote for a bubble.  Just like "The Bubble Boy."  No germs.  Ugh.  How do you parents do this without losing your mind? (reason 342 why I don't have my own)