The Best Day of My Life

Aaron was scheduled to fly back to Texas on January 17th. Our hearts were hurting, as it was looking like he wouldn't be able to be there with us, when Max was released from the hospital. 

Max hadn't been picking up on drinking from a bottle like we had hoped he would. He was having a difficult time eating and would quickly get too worn out. On Saturday, January 12, we had been talking to all the nurses that night about Max and his progress. They're not aloud to give "release dates" until the doctors come in and tell us we get to go. Too many things can change so quickly that it's just best that way. However, they were estimating, based on their experience and their knowledge of Max--that he'd probably go home in about three weeks. At the earliest. 

The earliest? We. were. crushed. 

Aaron definitely couldn't postpone going back to work for that long. I'm sure his employer would have allowed for it, but we just need him to go back. Financially. 

We left the hospital that night. We got into the car and once again, I had a giant lump in my throat, as I watched my husband weep. 

Aaron had been so strong through all of this. I had been waiting for him to break since the beginning. Not because I wanted to see him cry, I'm not horrible. But because I felt like he was holding everything in and I didn't feel like that was good for him. 

This was his breaking point. 

We didn't move. We sat in the car. No words were said. 

Time seemed to stand still. In the worst way. 

As we started driving I asked him to call my parents.  We asked them to do a family fast, the following day. To fast for Max to make a miraculous improvement. We called all of our family members. One by one, they each agreed to partake in our family fast. 

Aaron's parents had been in the temple earlier that day and told us, they'd already had a feeling they should fast for our little Max. They'd already been planning on it. Perfect!

The most fervent of prayers were said that night. 

We were fasting and praying that by some miracle, our little guy would be released from the hospital in no later than, just 3 days. Not three weeks. So Aaron could be here. So we could have our whole family in one room, at least once, before he had to go back to work.

I was trying to have faith. 

By the close of our fast that evening, tears had been shed in prayer by more than just Aaron and myself.  

We were definitely not alone in our desire to have Max home with us.

---

Monday morning, I received a phone call from my mom. She told me to sit down and my heart stopped. I immediately went to worst case scenario. 

I hate my brain.

She told me she'd just gotten a phone call from the nurses in the NICU. 

We were being instructed to bring the carseat.

We were being instructed to get there before 5 pm. They would be prescribing medications for us to give to Max once we were home. This didn't mean he was going home today, but he would be within the week.

She couldn't be serious. She had to repeat herself. 

After a few shrieks of excitement. I hung up the phone. 

Walked into my room.

And dropped to my knees. 

This time the prayers were to give thanks. More thanks than I could ever say.

This time, the tears were tears of joy. 

I called Aaron. He didn't answer. I called again. He didn't answer. 

I sent him a text message. "CALL NOW. URGENT!"

When I finally got ahold of him, I told him the news. This time I was the one repeating myself. 

We made it to the hospital, they gave us the prescriptions and we left the carseat with them for his carseat test. He had to be able to be in his carseat for an hour with out any desats or other issues. 

He passed. 

We were told, "he'll most likely go home tomorrow." 

Tuesday morning we were on cloud nine. We got the boys packed up and ready to go. We headed to the hospital and I went in ahead of the boys. 

When I got up there my hopes were once again crushed. He hadn't eaten very well the night before. He wouldn't be going home that day. Heart broken, I called Aaron. He hadn't gotten up to the room yet. He took the older boys home and I held my baby boy. 

I had to leave him there that night, again. I thought we were going to be home, with Max. It had never been more difficult to leave him there. 

When Aaron and I left, we decided we would come back the next day with no expectations. 

Wednesday, January 16th.

We woke up and got ready to go. We didn't even bring Kade and Tadd with us. Our expectations were very low. We didn't want to experience that again. We spent some time with Max. 

He'd done well. He'd gained weight. That was good.

The charge nurse came over to talk to us. She asked us if we wanted some good news. 

We looked at her, nervous and excited about what she might say. 

She told us that Max needed a couple shots. 

"Is that the good news?" Aaron asked her.

"That means he's going home today!" She told us, and we still couldn't believe it. 

Aaron told her he needed to hear those words before he'd believe it.

"Maxwell will be going home today."

Our favorite of all of his nurses was there that day. Terry. She came over in shock! She couldn't believe she heard it either. All of the nurses cheered and came and hugged and congratulated us!

It would be a couple hours but it would be that day.

They needed a little time to get the discharge papers together and he needed a shot and then we could take him.

Perfect. We had time to go pick up the older boys and bring our family to pick up our baby. 

Aaron was there. Our prayers had been answered. Our testimonies had grown immensely.  And now we were bringing home our little boy.

Finally.

Miracles happen. Prayers are answered.

(The rest of this is photos, with a few words here and there. Enjoy)

The blonde nurse is Terry. She was our favorite nurse of all time. The nurse holding him was his nurse when he was discharged. I wish I'd gotten more pictures with his nurses.

 He looked so tiny in his carseat.

 Kade kept taking pictures with his Nintendo DS. He's my little protege. 

 The boys were so happy to bring home their baby brother. 

Tadd got to hold his baby brother for the first time. He was in heaven. 

I couldn't stop staring at him and kissing him. It was like I had a brand new baby, all over again.

We were finally, one happy family. Together. 

January 16, 2013 was hands down, the single most wonderful day of my entire life.