Stella Strong

Over the past week we have been told time and time again how tough our Stella is. We were reminded that if we had undergone the same surgery as adults, we would probably still be sedated a week later. Stella finds this hilarious. 

Hey guys - you just cracked my chest open last week. Can I go home now?

Stella blows my mind. She is so happy and (I'm biased) the most popular baby on the 7th floor. She charms every nurse she meets and has a way of ignoring the Attendings, proving she is in charge/knows what's up. I pity her first boyfriend. 

We are very hopeful that we are taking her home tomorrow! It's still up to the aforementioned ☝🏻️ Attending, but she has checked every box and constantly shown just how tough and resilient she is. 

Assuming we bust her out of here tomorrow, life will look much different than before the Glenn. No more weighing her at 8 am, checking her 02 saturations and calling into the nurses line to report her stats. She can leave the house (whoohoo!) and even meet her cousins face to face. All in all, her quality of life is about to increase exponentially and we are all breathing a huge sigh of relief and praising God for delivering her through the interstage period into a pattern of rest and growth. 

We will probably never stop saying thank you for your prayers and support of our little family throughout all of this. We aren't finished and will likely call on you again sooner than planned to pray and lift sweet Stella up. Until then we hope the blog will be a place to find joy as we update her progress and victory in the initial stages of a lifelong journey dealing with her congenital heart defect. HLHS is an acronym that was foreign to me 8 months ago, and has changed all of our lives forever. 

I am still waiting for God to show me why it was necessary for Stella to endure this kind of pain in the first 4 months of her life. I get angry, anxious, and doubtful - a reminder that I too am in need of saving. To think that we are on this path for a lifetime makes me feel defeated and long for our eternal homecoming where pain is impossible and faith is rewarded. Until then I pray (not nearly enough) and await the day when Jesus will fix all our broken hearts.