The Gift of Giving

This year for Christmas Jessie came up with an alternative idea to exchanging gifts between us. What a great idea. Instead of purchasing something for Jessie, Beau, and Bryan, we instead were to do something nice for someone else. Oh what to do, what to do. The ideas started coming but we couldn't pinpoint exactly what we wanted to do. Since me being in the hospital was such a big part of the year for us, I decided to do something for someone else that is currently on bedrest at the hospital. I put together a goody basket full of tons of stuff (things to do, things to eat, things to take her mind off of just sitting). I delivered it to the hospital and because of confidentiality reasons, I was unable to know anything about the patient. I hope that their ending is exactly like ours. A pregnancy that resulted in a healthy mommy and baby (or babies). I heard that the mother really enjoyed the gift basket and that it was delivered during a crucial time where she needed some good news. I hope that it brought a bright spirit to her soul.

Derek decided to take a gas giftcard to the NICU to help someone pay for their tank of gas as they are making trip after trip to the NICU like we did. With all of the worries that some families have, it's too bad that some families also have to worry about how they will afford to travel back and forth to be with their baby. Derek delivered this giftcard to the NICU with a card explaining what we had been through and that he had hoped that this card could take a bit of stress off of the expense of gas. Of course all families in the NICU deserve this sort of gift. Derek told the nurse to give it to a family they thought could really use it. Yesterday we received a card from the family that had been given the giftcard. What a deserving family! It was a family that had been in there when we were in there. Their son was born the same day as Nolan so the entire time that we had been in there, they were in there. We would see them in passing in the hallways and had several brief conversations with them, but that was about it. We were in there because Nolan had to finish developing and at first they were in there for similar reasons. As days went on after the boys were born, this other little boy started to have other complications where he went through numerous surgeries. He is still in the NICU and this is the family that received the giftcard. It sure is another reminder for how lucky we are. Thinking about Nolan still being in the NICU makes my heart feel so heavy. I hope that baby Emmett will soon be able to come home to his mommy and daddy and his two year old sister. I pray that he will be healthy and that they can start to enjoy their family of four just as we have been able to do.