Hospital visit

We are thankful for a good morning at Swedish Hospital in Seattle today. Since we had to be there at 5:30 am, we had Payton and Carter stay overnight with some wonderful friends here in Maple Valley who got them off the school and Risa stayed with her pals Emmy and Maddy in Issaquah. Traffic was a breeze at 4:45 am :).

Sage was a trooper. She didn't fuss at all getting up so early or during the 45 minute drive there. She let the nurse take her vitals and all that and only got upset when we took off her shoes to change her into the hospital gown you see her in in the picture (that subsided once we put them back on!). She enjoyed the playroom they had for us to wait in. I was able to go back with her into the surgery room to be with her until she fell asleep. She fussed for a moment as we layed her down to give her the anesthesia, but she was asleep in moments. Leaving her in there was hard. I knew she was in capable hands, but ugh, she's my little girl on that big table in that big cold room. I just wanted to hold her.

The procedure took about half an hour. The Pediatric Opthamologist and the Cornea Specialist came in to talk to us. Unfortunately, there is too much damage to her eye in general for her to be a candidate for a corneal transplant. We were disappointed, because that obviously means she does not have any chance of regaining sight in that eye. She will need a prosthetic eye. We have an appointment with an eye replacement doctor in a few weeks. We still don't know exactly what is wrong with her eye. It still looks like some sort of cyst on her cornea, but we will not know for sure until they take the eye out and biopsy it. We are thankful for the doctors and their thorough examination.

Sage was pretty upset when she first woke up since we were not immediately there. As soon as we got there I held her and sang to her and she fell back to sleep in my arms. Sweet girl. She slept as I carried her to the next recovery area and for a good 45 minutes after that. We finally woke her so she could drink something and we could get out of there!! She did not have any adverse reactions to the anesthesia, praise God! Thank you for all your prayers. Tonight Sage is at home, running around like normal, being cute.

I would ask for your prayers for our good friends, the Jacobs family. Many of you know them, but for those of you that don't, our dear friend, Jerry, lost his battle with cancer today. While we rejoice with Jerry that he is pain free and enjoying the gloriousness of heaven which we can not yet even imagine, we would not be human if we did not feel a tremendous sadness and heaviness in our hearts that he will not be here in our lives anymore. I am grateful tonight for Jerry's strong belief in Jesus and the eternal life he has in Him. Maybe Jerry met my dad tonight. I think they'd really like one another. Our love and prayers surround his wife, Errin, and his children, Kaitie, Kyler and Brady. We love you guys.