Home!

We are home!!!  Home sweet Home!  Brooke had an ok night last night.  She was up often but in a great mood.  At 3:30a she told me she was ready to go home and felt, "great." Well at that hour going home was not an option.  So she played on the Leapster and hung out for awhile.  I was so encouraged!  The doctors saw her and were happy with her progress.  They turned off the IV in the am and took the cath out about noon. 

 We headed home and were back around 2p.  We kinda hurried ourselves out because we heard the bad weather was coming and we wanted to be stuck at home and not at the "spa." Our afternoon was a little rough.  The pain was getting best of her and urinating wasn't so pleasant.  She sat on the toilet saying out loud, "I am brave, I can do this.  I am brave."  It made me smile and broke my heart at the same time.  Her sisters surrounded and loved on her! 
After supper, 7+ hours of not peeing I told her she had to go to the bathroom or there would be more tubes.  There was a resounding, "NO MORE TUBES, I am brave!"  And I've never seen a kid so happy that she pee'd :)  I then told her she needed to take 2 steps.  Only 2!  Once she got her bearings she "waddled" off as Macy says.  She's sore, but being home we have her on a pain med schedule and so far it's working.  I'm thinking we'll get her up tonight for pain meds, just to stay ahead of the pain.  She has 6 incisions on her abdomen and groin.  But she's doing it.  We'll see what tomorrow brings. It's very nice to have all these sisters to help take care of her.

It was fun to get to see the staff that cared for her (and us) for so long.  They are such wonderful caring people and we've become invested in their lives.  We want to know who's getting married, having children, becoming grandparents.  It's fun to see their lives progress.  And they were quite amazed at Brooke's growth and life accomplishments.  For the 1st time since she was 6 weeks old she is TUBE FREE!!!  YEA GOD!!!