We are Home!!!!!

Willow got discharged from the hospital today at 9am! I of course had an adorable going home outfit for Willow to wear that she blew out of and we had packed everything else back at the Ronald McDonald House. So the nurses quick got her one of their robes and gifted her with a hat she knited. It is just real life. It isn't perfect, but that little peanut was joyful in whatever she was wearing. We cleaned our room at the Ronald McDonald, then caught an Uber to the airport and boarded our private jet with a program called Wings of Mercy. Much like Angel Flight (which flew us out to Ann Arbor), Wings of Mercy is a group of pilots with access to private planes that donate their time and resources to flight kids to treatment in locations throughout the country. Our pilots were from Holland and Grand Rapids, MI. They treated us so well, bringing us blueberry muffins, fruit, yogurt, and coffee, and letting Cale drive the plane for a hot second! We landed in Sioux Falls around noon. It was a perfect homecoming. Loved ones gave us our space, but showed their love with balloons lining our walkway up to our house, sidewalk chalk with messages of love, essential groceries sitting on our front step, and a pumpkin and pot of flowers. I can tell you that home feels so good, but that is an understatement. It is such a gift to be home! Thank you, for praying us home. So many of you have written us cards of encouragement, given gifts, done fund raisers, called friends in Ann Arbor, done whatever you could to help. This would have been so much harder without such a strong support system behind us! Willow still has a lot of healing to do. Please continue to pray that the leakage in her heart heals, her pressures in her lungs go down, and she comes permanently out of heart block. Pray she never needs another heart surgery again! And pray for our family as we transition home.

 Our heart surgeon, Dr. Romano. She really took us under her wing. The way she treated us like family will never be forgotten. She will always be a huge part of our story.