New Beginnings

It's official! I no longer have a cardiologist!  My ECHO came back beautifully.  My cardiologist entered the office and announced that everything looked fantastic and that there was absolutely NO fluid left around my heart.  It appears that delivery finally resolved the remaining part of my condition.  We are SO relieved, and were so excited for these special people to meet the little life they saved.

Waiting for Dr. R and our Nurse to come visit.

We loved our nurse practitioner so much.  She was incredibly comforting throughout the process, and always validated our fears and feelings.  She is truly a wonderful person, and I'm so glad that the medical field still has people like her in it.

Ethan went straight to her.  He grinned and laughed and reached for her as soon as she said hello.  It was almost as if he remembered her voice.  

Lots of love given to a very special woman.

Dr. R came in and wanted to show us pictures of his new pride and joy as well! He has recently welcomed a new son, and he is absolutely beautiful.  We had to convince him to hold Ethan, as he was afraid of spreading too many germs to him.  I told him that I had to have a picture of Ethan with the man that made sure that he arrived safely, so he happily agreed.

Big, happy sighs.  This man will forever be in our hearts as we watch Ethan grow.    He seemed bashful to accept our huge thank-yous, and just wanted to express his own happiness that everyone is in tip top shape.  He is a very humble man, and we have the utmost respect for him.

Finally, after a few tears and big thank-yous, we took a picture together.  I told them both it was bittersweet to leave, as they both determined that there was no need for me to have any more appointments.  My only visits to Centennial Heart will be personal visits to say hello.

We have been so blessed with such amazing care.

We have been so excited for this day to finally come.  This has been the first moment (other than Ethan's birth, of course) that we have gotten the answers we hoped for in over a year.

Our hopes were that we would win our unemployment case and follow it with this appointment, providing complete and absolute closure to this horrible year.  We've been waiting so long for these moments to let us know that the chaos is officially behind us, but of course that isn't the case yet.  Instead I left feeling uplifted, and hopeful that instead of  a final moment in this turmoil, we had experienced our first moment of things turning around for us.  We went to Nashville in hopes of searching for our ending, but came back feeling that we had found a new beginning instead. We've always been told that when one door closes, another one opens, but maybe doors don't have to be closed for new ones to open up.   Maybe sometimes we don't have to experience closure in order to experience a new beginning.  Maybe sometimes they just flow together, and we are able to move forward into them anyway.

Yesterday marks the day of a new beginning.  We are starting fresh with our family.  Good things are going to happen.