Owen's "Innie"

Wednesday morning Owen had surgery to repair his umbilical hernia. We have a terrific pediatric surgeon, Dr. Chang -- supposedly the best in the area -- and we were very confident going into it. The surgery went smoothly and Owen came out of it well. Dr. Chang had told us that Owen's was the largest umbilical hernia he'd ever seen. We were advised by the nurses after the surgery that Owen's post-op recovery would be a little rough simply because of the size of his hernia. He has had some up's and some down's over the past couple of days, but overall our boy has been such a TROOPER and true to form he rarely complains. He is instead very thrilled with his "innie." He had been asking us for an "innie belly button" for awhile now, and now he has it. I didn't realize just how important this was to him until after the surgery. As soon as he could feel that his belly was flat, he was ecstatic-- despite the pain he was in. He looks at it 100 times a day and is just absolutely thrilled with what he sees (even though right now there is a thick covering on it so he can't even actually see the belly button). Since Owen came home from the hospital Kyle too has been wearing a covering over his belly button (in his case a sticker that Owen brought home from the hospital for him). Kyle refuses to take off the sticker until Owen's bandages can come off. Owen seems pleased with that arrangement. ;0

Having your child go through surgery is never fun or easy. But Braydon and I experienced this surgery with Owen very similarly to how we experienced Kyle's surgery (to have his adenoids taken out and ear tubes put in) two years ago-- we are grateful first and foremost that our kids are as healthy and robust as they are... and secondly, we are profoundly grateful that we live in a part of the world that has such superb health care, and we feel incredibly grateful to be in the position to be able to access that health care for our children. It is hard, in moments like these, to not think of the 'what if's' (i.e., 'what if they hadn't gotten out of Haiti?'). On a smaller scale (yet huge nonetheless) we are also truly grateful that my mom was willing and able to come spend much of this week with us. She was a help beyond belief and we seriously don't know how we would have done this week without her. It has been a rough few days, but our focus has remained on all that we are grateful for. Which is a good way to go into Easter weekend. I've been neglecting the blog for the past week, I have lots to post about, and I promise that I'll get on the ball as soon as Easter is over.