Congrats to our very first drawing winner, Rachel Hardesty!  She was our 17th entry today.  I just have to tell the story behind this drawing and why I flipped out when Drew picked 17.  We decided to write down all of the numbers on slips of paper so we would be super fair.  My Mom and Dad were visting, and they thought it would be fun to try and predict the winner.  They both wrote down the number that they predicted.  They showed each other and it was.....

17. 

So funny!  Then Drew reached into that box and pulled out...

17!!!

What are the odds!??!?!  Crazy!  Rachel you were destined to win this Luggage Tag.  Congrats my dear!

 When we were done, we had to walk back to the outpatient wing of the hospital where our car was parked.  I was soaring.  We did it!  We were officially done!  We might have been skipping a tiny bit.  Then we rounded the corner....

And ran straight into the blue suits.

I tried to keep my eyes on their faces.  I tried to will myself not to look down.  But I couldn't.  I gazed down at the tiny, plastic isolette they were huddled around.  I saw the tiny hands, the tiny feet, the tubes, the machines.  

This is someone else's day 1.

Somewhere there is another mother on her way to Riley to meet her child just like I did 4 years ago.  I know how scared she is.  I know what lies ahead for her and her family.  I know how broken she feels at this exact moment.

"Mama, why are you crying?" my sweet Ben asks.  "It's just something Mamas do sometimes, my love."  

I prayed the whole way home for that Mama.  For her child.  For their family.   I pray that they will grasp onto God and let Him carry them through like he did us.  

If you are ever looking for a charity to donate to, Riley is wonderful.  They are saving lives today.  Everyday.  It's easy to forget them when life is back to normal and easy.  Everyday there is someone else who is beginning their Riley journey.  I'm so thankful ours is finished.  Now it is time to ask, "How can I help?" 

Hello there everyone!

Yesterday we brought home Mr. Ben Wade. He is so beautiful! We wanted to let everyone know we are so thankful for all of the prayers that were prayed for our sweet baby boy. He has had a rough start, but he was a fighter! 

For those who don't know, our Ben has been at Riley Children's Hospital for the past 2 and 1/2 weeks. When he was first born everything seemed fine. He was a screamer!! We even got to hold him for just a little bit. At first he just needed a little oxygen, then he needed to be in a isolete with a lot of oxygen, and then his right lung colapsed. They put a chest tube in his lung to help relieve the pressure and put him on a ventilator to help him breath. When the doctors at Bloomington realized that our little guy was so sick, they transfered him to Riley. He was 1 day old. The docs from Bloomington said he had "respitory distress syndrome." It meant that because he was a c-section baby he still had a lot of fluid in his lungs. They called it "wet lung." That was causing all of our problems.

At Riley things got worse. Ben went into pulminary hypertension. This is were the lungs get stressed and decide they are going back to how things were in the womb. (Where mommy made all of the oxygen). They shut down. This is super dangerous because if your lungs don't oxygenate your blood, then organs like your brain, heart, etc. don't get the oxygen they need. They put Ben on a different ventilator called an occilator. It was so scary. It gave Ben really short, quick breaths. He looked like his chest was just vibrating. They also had to paralyze him to keep him from fighting the machines. We couldn't touch him. Everywhere we looked there was something hooked up to our baby. Even with all of this help, Ben's oxygen levels in his blood were still dropping. The top of the other lung started to collapse. The doctors were very honest. Our boy was critical, we shouldn't leave the hospital, and he was "touch and go." 

The last resort was a scary machine called "ECMO." Basically they stop the baby's heart and lungs and put them on a machine that filters their blood for them. Not very many babies survive very long on echmo. Plus there are serious side effects. Our Ben was so close to going on this machine. The echmo team was there Sunday and Monday. The orders had been written for Ben to be put on this machine. The medicines for Ben's echmo had been ordered. The decided to give Ben a few more hours...and his numbers started to increase just a little. Little by little he got stronger and stronger. He went back to the first ventilator after about 5 days. Then after 4 more days they took him off completely. Our little boy was breathing on his own!! We had to stay a little longer because he had to come down off of all of his drugs he had been on, and he had to learn how to eat. We walked out of that hospital yesterday with a healthy baby boy. The only side effect Ben has is a fast heartbeat. They gave us a beta blocker and think he will only need it for about 6 months. Other than that our boy is healthy! It is amazing after all he has been through that he is a happy bouncing little baby. We are so thankful. Words cannot describe. We know that this is a God-thing... a true miracle. The doctors and nurses at riley were amazing too....they worked so hard to save Ben's life. The Ronald McDonald house gave us a place to stay and food to eat. When something like this happens, you are awestruck by the kindness of people. It was the hardest 2 1/2 weeks of our lives...but it has strengthen our faith more than anyone could imagine. 

And Drew!! He is the best big brother ever. He is a little shy about holding Ben, put he adores him. He did so well through this whole thing. We are so proud of him. 

Thanks guys again for all of your prayers!!!!!