We are home!
Yesterday afternoon we left the hospital with both girls! What an amazing feeling! After 130 days in the hospital - we were all definitely ready. When we left, the girls were the oldest babies in the NICU. As we left the hospital I kept thinking someone was going to come rushing out saying that there was one last ultrasound or that they forgot to do some bloodwork. It was hard to believe that we were finally able to leave!

There are huge communities of people stretched across the country and around the world who we have to thank for their support over the last five months. We know that you have all been praying and thinking of our girls. However, today I want to thank the people who have been our lifelines in the hospital.

We have met some amazing families in the NICU. Some faced more challenging situations and had a longer stay. Others were fortunate and only had to stay a couple of weeks. Others endured tragedy. We are grateful for the support and encouragement we recieved from other parents who understand. Thank you, you all helped to make this time bearable and even allowed us to laugh once in a while.

We also had incredible nurses, respiratory therapists, doctors and nurse practitioners. From the very beginning, the nurses answered our questions over and over again. On the good days and on the bad days, they were always honest, encouraging, and kind. Between the two girls we had well over a hundred different nurses, almost every one in the unit. Nurses who had the girls early on would often stop by and check in on them. We knew they were well cared for in the NICU. Our primary and core nurses carried us through and we can not thank them enough.

The respiratory therapists deserve the credit for keeping our girls breathing. Lucy was on a ventilator for nine weeks and she often had a lot of attention from the RTs. They worked hard to keep her going on the hard days and then worked hard to get her off of the ventilator (all four times!). I think they were as happy as us when she was finally on low-flow oxygen!

The doctors and nurse practitioners do not have an easy job and we are so grateful for all the time and attention they gave to Ella and Lucy. They have years of training and experience and a lot of responsibility, yet would often take the time to explain what was happening with the girls.

There are so many others who allowed this time to go by easier, especially our social worker who checked in all time to make sure we were doing all right. She somehow always showed up when she was needed!

Without all this support and expertise we would not be home today. Thank you for the bottom of our hearts.