On the other side now for 5 hours

Esther is doing well.  She's heavily sedated, but she does respond to my voice.  I am so exhausted I don't want to do anything, so I'm going to keep this short.  They are going to keep her on the ventilator until morning and possibly longer since her lungs have been so overworked lately and still had fluid in them.  With the ventilator in she's not working hard,  so it will be easier for her right now this way.  I won't be able to hold her until the ventilator is out, so I'm just resting here.

We did find out that in CICU a parent can stay in the room and there's a couch/bed.  That was such a relief as the "caves" are full, and the RMH will only allow 6 in the room.  The 4 oldest boys went home, so we don't have the hotel room anymore, so that meant we had one extra person.  We were trying to make arrangements with a brother, and it would have worked out, but it's so nice not to have to deal with that now!

My sister is going to stop by tomorrow before she leaves, and she was able to talk with her doctor.  She'll be having surgery once she gets home.  Lisa sounded so much better today, and God is giving her much grace right now.  She was so relieved to hear that Esther was doing so well.

We also got a visit from Pastor Steve - yes, he drove down her from Bellingham today just to see us and Esther and pray with us.  Now that's a caring pastor!

Here is a photo Daryl took of Esther while I was cuddling with her, waiting for the call to go to the OR this morning:



And here's on he took just after we were able to see Esther in the CICU:



She's not really looking at me, I was just trying to stand where she could see me if she was able.

I'll try to blog more and catch up on photos of Esther visiting with her auntie Lisa as well as her cousins from Indiana!

Please pray for Esther as she goes through this critical first 24 hours - there's still many things that could go wrong, but she's made it through most of her hurdles.  And also pray that she won't get any infections or illnesses.  Thanks so much for supporting us through all of this!