Guest Post #1- Being Thankful

This is Stephen writing and I thought I'd take a crack at writing my thoughts on our blog. 

Today marks day 42 of Sam's hospital stay here at Medical City Children's Hospital. Through his stay in the hospital, Sam has had a heart catheterization, open heart surgery, weeks of "gut rest", an exploratory laparotomy which lead to a bowel resection, a temporary stoma and colostomy bag, more "gut rest", multiple IVs, a PICC line, a Broviac line, countless monitors and lots of medication. He still has a lot more medication, time and one more surgery to put his intestines back together. All of this before he turns 4 months the old.  Danielle and I have watched him hurt, be sedated and smile, all in the same day. Our hearts break for our child and for all of the pain he is going through. We also have faith that God has an amazing plan for this little guy and that He will use this time as a life altering experience for all of us. 

I don't mean to sound like I am complaining. I know so many families have things far worse and that we are the lucky ones. We will get to take our baby home again one day. Though he will probably have several scary medical moments over his lifetime, we have faith that he will be "okay" and that he will be a strong little fighter forever. Look out world, there's a tough little boy on his way. 

I've learned a lot about gratitude throughout this experience. I've learned that there are a lot of kind and gracious people in the world. My most sincere and heartfelt thank you goes out to everyone who has prayed, thought about us, called, texted, emailed, left Facebook messages, liked a post, brought food, donated money through the Go Fund Me account my sister set up, visited, kept our daughters, visited us and so much more. I cannot express the gratitude that I have for you and for your selflessness. It is very hard to be on the receiving end of help. It's also very hard to feel like you can't do anything for your child. I pray that no one ever has to go through this type of thing. It's so hard to understand unless you've gone through it yourself. 

Thank you to everyone for the love, support and prayers. It means more than you will ever know. 

-Stephen