A few pictures from the morning

Last night before going to bed during our usual Bible Story time on bed, Tessa prayed for Tori.  She usually leaves the praying to us, but this time she stepped up to the plate.  It was a very sweet, heart-felt prayer.  On a side note, she informed us that her prayers do not need eye-closing.


This morning the we were up before the alarm.  Tori woke up at around 4:30 so we pulled her into bed with us.  She tossed and turned until the alarm went off at 5:25.  In the process of getting ready, Tessa was stirred awake.  She popped in to say good morning.  We told her it was too early to get up.  To our surprise, she said OK, gave us all hugs and kisses, then went back to bed.  


Despite her best efforts, there was simply too much going on for her to be able to sleep.  Christina went into Tessa's room and asked if Tori could come cuddle in her bed with her.  Tessa excitedly said sure and made room for her little sister.  This is a fairly significant moment since Tessa is usually a bit territorial about her room where Tori is concerned.  They snuggled together on the bed and had some great sister time.  What a gift to us.  Christina grabbed the camera to capture the moment.

Christina's mom came right before 6:00am so that Tessa would be taken care of while we packed up to head out.  What would we do without amazing parents?  We finished loading up the car, said good bye and headed out.  Christina sat in the back to help distract Tori from being so hungry.  It's hard to not give a child food or drink when they're hungry.

After checking at the hospital, we were taken to the Ped's floor to get Tori into the little hospital one-sie gown and have her vitals checked.  While we were there, Britney Colton and her son, Brae were also checking in for his surgery to have tubes put in his ears.  It was nice to be able to visit with them for a bit.  It also gave Pastor Bill Colton a nice two-birds-with-one-stone hospital visit.  (Thanks for praying with us Senor Guapo). 

While waiting on the third floor, one of the nurses informed us that there was some sort of emergency surgery that Dr. Iguidbashian was taking on.  This would likely delay our surgery for an hour...or so.  The dreaded 'or so'.  Our hearts were immediately going out to Tori's stomach.  We were able to keep her distracted in a nearby playroom with Brae and Britney until Christina saw green goopy stuff coming out of another little boy's nose.  All the sudden, this little guy's limbs morphed from hands and fingers into flailing tentacles of biohazard spreading infection slime on every surface in sight.  We commenced evacuation immediately.

Things weren't looking like they would be going well.  However, shortly after going back to our little holding room, the nurse came in and said the doctors had changed their minds and would be handling Tori's surgery first.  Praise God!

We were given a syringe of Tylenol and Versed to help ease Tori's transition to the induction room.  On the way down, the Chaplain walked with us and prayed with us once we arrived in the room where the anesthesiologist comes to get her and wheel her away.  He took a picture of our family together as we waited for the Anesthesiologist to arrive.  

Despite our multiple requests, Christina would not be allowed to walk with Tori into the induction room.  This was hard to hear, but there was nothing we could do.  Our hope was in God using the Versed to calm her nerves and block her memory of the separation from us before going under.  It did seem to relax her as we waited.  She started loosening up and enjoying some mommy time as you can see.

Dr. Axel, the Anesthesiologist came in and verified some paperwork with us.  Unfortunately, he seemed to be a bit distracted by the other emergency surgery and how it was impacting the schedule that day.  We were praying that God would calm him and focus him.

That's all for now.  We'll keep you posted.