Our Christian and his Paul Paul. They don't always see eye-to-eye, but they are ALWAYS up for a good time together. The first photo was 2007 I do believe. The second photo was taken last weekend. Those of you who know the story know the second picture is a miracle. We went to Atlanta last weekend to see all the little miracles who have recovered as Christian has. It was magical. IT was an amazing opportunity. IT was wonderful to say thank you to Dr. Fortenberry. IT was great to see all the children with the ECMO name tags on. All the little miracle bubbles. Wow!
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| What are you doing, Paul Paul? |
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| Dr. Fortenberry, Chief of ECMO since 1992. A blessing for us. |
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| Just visiting with others. |
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| Priceless, precious & proud of it! |
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| The Hall Family |
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| Christian and his angel visitor while he was still sleeping. This gal, Gwen, was also an ECMO patient when she was 11. She is now 14 and a lovely young lady. She wants to be in the industry as an ECMO technician when she gets through with school. Her dad became a minister as a result of the miracle he witnessed during Gwen's illness and recovery. There are some very wonderful stories to hear at these reunions. I had the chills more than once. |
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| Christian and Paul Paul had the same tattoo, but Paul Paul's was green. |
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| The garden was decorated so colorfully --- kind of an Asian theme with Asian lanterns and such .. but these were the colors, bright and fun! The day was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Meant to be. |
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| A whole flock of docs and nurses who took care of Christian. These folks are the technicians who monitor all that scary equipment. They are very talented and serious about what they do. They are blessings to us all. We said thank you a lot. |
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| A boy headbutting his granddaddy in the tummy ... you know. |
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| Christian --- healed and pretty much a normal 8 year old boy. | We are grateful. |
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This post will likely be in 3 parts. This is part one. Part two will be the rehab reunion; yet another fun and amazing celebration. I just feel like I need to say there is no way to express how very emotional all this has been. And now we are basically able to mark the end of the whole experience. And the relief is amazing. But going back to the hospital was very real. Jennifer and I went up to the PICU unit to deliver the thank you birds. It was heart stopping and tear producing to enter that zone again. And I just wanted to go hug every single person sitting in the waiting room with the pain and angst on their faces. I wanted them all to be in our shoes, celebrating the miracles. And I hope we see them all there next year!
And that's it for installment one!
Incidentally, we have had Paul's 50th birthday, a few unbelievably ridiculous hurdles to clear (stories later) and I'm in the middle of preparing for next weekend's art show. So please forgive our gaps in posting. I promise we will be appearing more often sooner than you can stand it.
Happy Trails to you all!
Paul and Cheri
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