Preparing...

We began our journey to California on Wednesday. It was so hard to leave Kyler. It didn't help that the day we left he wasn't feeling well (and he came down with a fever the next day). He was having a really hard time with us leaving and that made it so hard to say goodbye. He kept saying he didn't want us to go and that he wished he could go with us. It just broke my heart. I wish we could do things differently. I wish we didn't have to do this at all. But unfortunately this is what we have to deal with and we are doing the best we can.

We spent Wednesday night at the house of some good friends in Oregon on the way south. It was nice to visit with them and it helped break up our trip. And, it really helped with Caden also. Because as soon as we started our trip, he started saying, “I don't want to have surgery.” And he would cry as he said it. That about did me in, and I couldn't keep the tears from falling. Being able to tell him we were going to see our friends really helped him not dwell on the fact he has surgery coming up.

Thursday we drove to the Sacramento area to spend a couple days with some of our best friends. This was also good because we told Caden he would be able to play with Brayden and Ellie. That made all the difference and he was so excited to get there so he could play with them. We didn't tell Kyler we were staying there because we didn't want him to be even more upset. Brayden is his best friend and we knew he would be very sad that he couldn't be with us. :(

Friday we had a few things to take care of while we were in the Sacramento area. We got to visit with a couple friends also. That evening we went to our former church and met with the pastors and a few of the elders. They prayed over Caden and us, and performed an anointing of oil on Caden for healing. It is such a blessing to have such a wonderful church family. Even though we are not officially members there anymore, they are still family to us and we know they support us and lift us up in prayer. That means so much to us!

During the church service this morning, our pastors invited the three of us up to the front of the church and prayed for us. As hard as it is for me to be up in front of large groups of people, I am so touched and honored by such wonderful people who care about us.

 
After church, we enjoyed visiting with people and catching up with friends. Then we went back to our friend's house, had lunch, and let Caden jump on their trampoline for awhile before we drove to Greg's sister's house to spend the night.

Tonight before bed I read a couple books to Caden to help prepare him for surgery. One is “Franklin Goes to the Hospital” and the other one was a photo book I made for him using pictures of him from his first heart surgery and hospitalization. I read the Franklin book to him and he was really quiet during the whole thing. When I finished it he told me again that he didn't want to have surgery. I pulled him onto my lap and opened up the photo book I made. I tried to read it to him with the captions I wrote but he was really stressed out. He started crying and told me over and over how he didn't want to have surgery. I tried to tell him he had been through it before and he is so strong now. But he didn't want to hear any of that. So I finally decided to have him help me look through all the pictures because several pictures show his beloved “Duck” blanket. He got Duck in the NICU at Stanford and it was with him the entire 8 weeks he was in the hospital, and now he is going back and we have Duck with us to help him through another surgery. He has been attached to the blanket his entire life. And just seeing it in those pictures really helped him calm down and relax a little bit. I'm hoping over the next two days he will let me talk to him about it more and that I will be able to reassure him about the whole thing.

Tomorrow we drive to Palo Alto and that is where we will stay until Caden is cleared to go home. We have been on a waiting list for a few months to stay at the Ronald McDonald House. We knew it would be a challenge to get in there because they always operate at 100% capacity. But we got the official call from them on Monday last week telling us they do not have a room for us and we needed to make other arrangements. For now we have a hotel reservation but we are still hoping and praying for a room to open up.

We really want to be at RMH because it is closer to the hospital than any hotels and it is much more affordable. They also provide a kitchen and utensils for preparing meals as well as laundry facilities. And they have lots of activities for kids. Once Caden is discharged they told us we would need to stay around the hospital for another 7-10 days for post-op care. We would have been in really bad shape four years ago if we hadn't been able to stay at RMH. We lived there for three months and financially that would have been very difficult if we were staying at a hotel. We are hopeful this time around we won't have to be there more than two and a half or three weeks total. But we just don't know. Even with two and a half weeks, hotel costs would be pretty high. So we are still praying a room will open up for us at RMH.

In the meantime, we are planning to be in a hotel on Sunday and Monday night. Our social worker at the hospital told us she could probably get us a room in the hospital for Tuesday night since Caden has surgery that day. But after that, we will be back in a hotel or hopefully in RMH. If you pray, please keep us in your prayers that a room will become available at the Ronald McDonald House. It is the best place for us to be for the least amount of stress. And, please continue to pray for Caden and us being able to help prepare him for this big day. We don't want him to be stressed out about it. It is a big responsibility to prepare your four-year-old for an event like this. It's very overwhelming! We welcome any and all prayers and words of encouragement. It means a lot to us.