The last weeks.

We got up early & went to the hospital. I took the three little ones & Terry took the two oldest to a group play day. I dropped Destiny off at the babysitter's & then went to check them in. When we got there, there were people waiting for us. They helped us get checked in. Then it was not long before we were going back to the room. First they took her back. She had that look of being so scared it made me want to cry. I started to pray that she would still trust me when she got done. So we sat there & waited for his turn to go back. When it came time for him to take the meds, he would not go for it. We did not think he got any, but he did. So when they came to take him back he looked at me with this big smile on his face & waved bye. Then the waiting started. They told us to go eat something & they would page us when she started to come out of it. When they paged me I went to her room to sit with her. She was so out of it, I just sat there & held her hand. At one point she opened her eyes & saw me holding her hand. She moved her head against my hand & smiled. Oh the feeling you get when you get the smile you longed for. It felt like the answer to prayers. Then it was his turn to come out. When he awoke he smiled & wanted a popsicle. He had already eaten two before she came to & had a half of one. When it was time to check out, he would not let me put him down.

After we got home she just lied around while he was back to having fun & playing around. It was funny because as soon as the translator left she got up & started to play around also. Then I looked at the oldest girl & something was wrong with her neck. I tried to ask her what had happened but she would not tell me anything. So I called the translator and had her ask her what had happened. She would not tell her anything either. I knew that it was her neck but not how bad or what happened. The next day was the day that they were going to the water park. Before that day I was just going to let the two oldest go, but now I just wanted the oldest boy to go. When we got there everyone wanted to see the little girl and I told them that she said she had no more pain. They asked her if she had any pain, so she hit her face to show that she had no pain.

The next week we were back at the hospital, this time with the oldest girl. We had taken her back to the Dr. & he did x-rays. He thought that she had a cyst on her spine so off to get an MRI. Thank goodness if was just strep throat with tonsillitis. I know you usually aren't glad that you have that stuff wrong with you, but at least we found out what was wrong with her. She was almost better by the time she went back although her neck was still stiff & needed to be rubbed to loosen up.

The last day before they were to leave, I told them at dinner that they would be going back to their home. The kids looked a little sad, all but one. She was very happy to be going back. She got up from the table & cheered. Then it was time to go get the translators & take them up to Terry's work. When we got there they could tell that I was having a hard time, so I told them what had happened. They asked them how they were feeling. Three of them did not want to go home, they wanted to stay with us. One just wanted to go home to see her friends. The day we were to put them on the plane was hard. The one that wanted to go home would not look at me - she just acted like she was mad at me. The oldest boy just would not leave Terry's side, he would not let him out of his sight. The little ones ran around playing with all the other kids. The plane was late so they played for over an hour in the airport. Then we had to say goodbye. That was very hard to say the least. I would have been glad to bring them back, but not unless all of them wanted to come back. At the time it did not look like all of them wanted to come back & there was no way that I wanted to split them up.