There's No Place Like Home

     For those of you who may not have seen the update on the Facebook page, Hazel was discharged from the hospital on Christmas Eve and we have been home ever since!  To say that we received the best Christmas gift of all is an understatement!  GOD IS SO FAITHFUL!  We were prepared for a 4-6week stay in the inpatient rehab and IT IS ONLY THROUGH YOUR PRAYERS AND HIS MIRACLE THAT WE WERE ABLE TO GO HOME!  I am sure that you can all guess that we have spent little time on the computer, hence the lack of updates; but I assure you that life at home has been absolutely marvelous.  We still drive to the hospital every weekday morning for radiation (a post on that will come next), but we are usually back home in the 10:00 AM hour, so we get a full day at home and get to sleep in our own beds!  And our little Hazelnut has improved by leaps and bounds every day which has been wondrous to behold.   She seems to feel very well and is so unbelievably happy to be at home with her family.  She is singing, talking, playing and behaving exactly like her old, silly self, as if nothing happened.  But one difference we have noticed is how much more mature and grown up she seems.  She is still struggling physically and is working really hard at walking and moving around (mostly without the walker!), and being around her siblings has been motivating her tremendously.  Our youngest, Jonah, is just now beginning to walk; and every time he gets up to do it, Hazel yells, "My turn!", and follows suit.  There's nothing like a good bit of healthy competition, huh?!  Micah and Elizabeth, her other siblings, have shown such gratefulness at us being home.  Being separated for almost three months certainly took a toll on them, and they keep saying how great it is to feel "like normal" again.  And they have been extremely sweet with Hazel.  They want to take care of her most chances that they get and are very concerned with her well being.  Being four young children, they still have squabbles of course; however, it is these moments that I find being most thankful for.  The normal, mundane moments that we weren't even sure we would get again...
     Our Christmas was very blessed by the generosity of others who provided our whole family with gifts and stocking stuffers.  I was worried about being able to make this Christmas special, being in the hospital, but because of these wonderful people who have cared for our family, our kids had such a magical Christmas!  Here are a few photos from the morning: