Today marks the 2-year anniversary of Becca coming home from the hospital. Two years ago, we finally got to bring our precious little girl home after 76 day in the NICU. We are so grateful for the ways the Lord protected Becca’s life. We are so grateful for the little gift God has given us. The other day I was telling Becca that she is a present from God to Daddy and Mommy. She wasn’t too sure about that . . . but I think she understood a little.

Before we were allowed to take Becca home, we had to “room-in” for a night at the hospital to make sure we (and Becca) would be comfortable having her at home. I’ve never taken the time to record what that night was like and decided today is a good time to do so.

Leading up to that day, we didn’t know what day Becca would be coming home. The NICU nurses told us it was getting close and to expect a phone call one day saying, “tonight is the night.” I was teaching school on 2/9/10 when Josh left a message that it was the night. I rushed home from school and then we ran some errands and waited for the call to come. We had to wait for the man who was going to train us on Becca’s take-home monitor. We waited and waited and didn’t get the call until after supper.

When we arrived at the hospital they took us to our room and we were instructed on how to operate Becca’s heart/breathing monitor and on the various medications she needed. They brought up Becca from the NICU to our room, and then we were set for the night. I hardly slept the entire night. Between sharing a hospital bed with Josh, getting up to feed Becca, pumping, waking up to be ready for the nurse to bring the medications, and Becca’s alarm going off (the leads were loose) – I don’t think I slept at all. In the morning, Dr. C came in bright and early to check-up on Becca. Josh’s memory of that is still being in bed (sitting up), wearing his shorts and t-shirt, [my hair sticking up! -jj] and Dr. C coming over and hugging him goodbye. We were able to leave the hospital after lunch, once we saw the Occupational Therapist.

We arrived home happy to have our little girl and exhausted. Josh had to go to class that night and I remember watching him leave with tears coming down my face because I couldn’t get Becca to eat (really important for a preemie!). The next morning we had snow, the power went out, and I was wondering how long Becca’s monitor battery would last and where I would go to pump. But we were one happy family to be all together at last. (One interesting thing to note is the outfit we brought Becca home in – we purchased it the day before. It had panda bears on it.)

Happy 2 years home, Becca Bear! We’ve enjoyed having you with us every day. Two nights ago you woke me up at 4AM – “Mama Mama!” – and asked to be held. I held you and remembered about the many times I wanted to hold you at night but couldn’t because you were in the hospital. Thank you for being God’s precious present to us.