In no way do I believe that God wants people to be sick or suffer, especially children. But I do believe that He can work through the hard stuff and shine His light. For the past few months I've been praying that God would show me how to "connect" with Anellah. The fact that she is adopted, that our personalities are so different from each other, and that she is the oldest (ie. our guinea pig child) mean that we struggle to parent her the most out of all our children. It is not that she has significant behavioral concerns, she and I are just different! Two areas that I have been seeking guidance is in how to comfort her and how to respect her. There have been little bits of insight over the last couple of months but I REALLY feel like she and I grew together through this hospital experience. We've been through both expected and surprise hospitalizations before, but this time around she is old enough to have a much better idea of what is going on. She is also old enough to realize that this isn't the life most people have to live. She and I have cuddled, I have coached her on calming down when she is scared, and overall I just feel like she and I are closer and have a tighter bond now than we did 2 weeks ago. For that I am thankful and praise God.

Other perks of having to be away with Anellah are that Capper and Evelyn have been doing a great job at night! They quickly realized Daddy wasn't going to comfort them in the night so it wasn't really worth waking up. Also, since Evelyn couldn't nurse before bed she got very used to going to sleep in her crib.

I AM home tonight, though, Daniel came to the hospital after work. I had considered staying "just one more night" but as I was riding the elevator I realized I was starting to doze in between floors 3 and 7 so it might be a sign I was a bit sleep deprived! Don't worry, the drive home was in Daniel's car which is a manual so that was enough to keep me awake.

Yes, at one point she convinced the nurse she should have a bottle to drink out of...smart kid!

There are a few lingering concerns which prevented discharge today. None of them are a "big deal" in and of themselves but as one doctor said, "there are just too many question marks" for anyone (including Daniel and I) to feel comfortable sending her home. Hopefully some issues will resolve themselves tonight or it will be clear what is causing the problems so that we can have a speedy discharge in the morning!

You are welcome for the pictures this post! I am finally posting on a REAL computer so adding pictures is feasible.