Giving Thanks

It has been a while since I last posted, but we've been busy. For the second year in a row we spent Thanksgiving in San Diego due to Sophia. I have fond memories and pictures of me looking as big as a house behind our laden Thanksgiving table, unable to fly as I was five days away from delivery. (That's the picture above) There was an aura of expectation around our table, excitement, wonder at what was to come, and certainly some thankfulness for the healthy pregnancy I'd enjoyed thus far. This year our table was bereft of food, but surrounded by more thankfulness than I've ever mustered before. Monday morning our determined, precocious, and curious child found a bottle of Tylenol, got it open and ate some of it. We spent the night in the hospital, missed our flight to Illinois, and prayed that our little girl, who was just a hope a year before, would live to see her first birthday. After a sleepless night, the antidote pumping into Sophia's little arm did its job and she awoke quite herself. Tuesday morning Jeff thought I was in need of a break, so he sent me off to get breakfast. The coffee stand was on the other side of the hospital so I walked the length of the fourth floor, passing by the nursery and birth/delivery section. A precious little one was wheeled past me, headed toward its mother. Memories of Sophia's birth, not quite a year before on this very floor, flooded me. I cried, and felt deep within myself the vast amounts of love created for Sophia in this one short year. After a few sips of my latte, I headed back upstairs and was greeted with a happy squeal.

Though the levels of Tylenol in her blood were dangerously high, Sophia's liver enzymes never became frightening and were only slightly elevated. We go in for more blood tests on Tuesday. Until then, our doctors are positive, we're trying to stay calm, and Sophia wonders why anyone is stressed at all. She's been enjoying the leftover turkey folks from our church shared with us. Here are some pictures of us all on Thanksgiving Day.