The Next Day

After the NICU transport team from Loma Linda left with our son, Lisa and I decided that I should follow them to San Bernardino while she recovered at Hemet Hospital. My brother Chad who had been at the hospital with us since 5AM that morning offered to drive me. Meanwhile, my Mom, Lisa's sister Beth and our dear friend Michelle would drive out to be with Lisa until she was discharged.

Our little boy is in the "Tiny Baby Unit" of the NICU at Loma Linda. If you've ever been to a regular Intensive Care Unit, this really is the tiny version. It's a little overwhelming when you first walk in to see about 10 premature baby NICU beds lined up side by side, each with their own full time nurse and furnished with about a dozen monitors, special lights and various instruments. His nurse told me that we are at the beginning of a very long road, and that our little guy will have many hurdles to clear in the coming days, weeks and months.

Loma Linda Children's Hospital is one of the few level 4 tertiary centers in Southern California, equipped to provide the highest level of care for newborns with the most complex needs. Our baby boy will be receiving the best possible care here. More evidence of God's kindness to us. The report was that he transferred successfully; he was in critical but stable condition. They were able to decrease his supplemental oxygen to 40% and he was doing as well as could be expected.

I was able to put my hands gently on my son, and talk to him and sing to him. I was amazed at the perfection of his tiny little hands and feet and ears. In one sense I felt helpless, and in another I felt a rush of comfort knowing that God had fearfully and and wonderfully woven my little boy together.

Lisa was discharged from Hemet Hospital that evening and was able to join me at Loma Linda shortly after. Most of Friday is a blur, but I will never forget the diligent care of my brother who anticipated every need I had that day and arranged a hotel for us near the hospital that night. I will never forget how loyal family and friends drove in from 100 miles away to be at our side, or how Lisa's parents jumped on the first plane from Seattle and my parents took care of our girls so we could completely focus on our boy. In the middle of such intense trauma there has been much grace.