Wow, I can’t believe that we made it.

We left Kansas City a bit later than we wanted at 9:45am, but we did not have a restful night sleep. Ella didn’t either. So the drive started with Venti coffees as we knew that there was about 600 miles of driving ahead of us.

God took care of us during this drive. We skirted every single storm. Even on the Kansas City weather report this morning, there was hail that was strong enough to take out windshields in Wichita, KS. Literally, we only experienced the three drops of rain between St. Louis and Kansas City from the other day. There were even storms in Colorado as we were driving into the Denver Metro Area. We passed all of them, but noted that the promise of a rainbow was present to greet us.

Ella did amazing. She had her fussy moments, but the way I look at it, she could have cried the entire time. We took breaks to stretch her from her chair, change her and feed her. But still, she could have been a lot worse. I thought she handled it the best we could expect.

We were monitoring her saturations. While she was in the car, it seemed that we had to increase her oxygen to 700ccs, then 800ccs. By the time we were home in Lone Tree (6,000 feet above sea level), she needed 1 liter of oxygen to maintain her heart rate and saturations. As she is asleep right now, she has stabilized on 1 liter of oxygen. At sea level in Gainesville, she was stable on 400ccs of oxygen, so this is more than double. It will be interesting to see how that changes in the coming days, weeks and months.

We crossed the Colorado state line around 5pm and made it to the house around 8pm. Josh and I were both overwhelmed with emotion as we drove into the state and pulled up to our front door. You can see a video of us arriving in Colorado below:

I think the part that makes it even more heart wrenching is that we can see the hospital from our front door, Sky Ridge Medical Center. This is the hospital just a few blocks from our house, where we anticipated Ella’s birth place, before we found out that she had CDH.

It is also hard to believe that we are starting a new chapter. That felt like an eternity – – going to Gainesville to have a baby. Looking around the house, we have not been here together in almost a year. That is crazy. As a matter of fact one year ago today, we had arrived in Gainesville for the first time to interview Dr. Kays. So much has happened since that time.

One other surprise to note: when we opened our front door, we were greeted with decorations including a customized banner and balloons to welcome us home. From there, we found a note and all kinds of meals. Our refrigerator and freezer were filled with foods, things to satisfy at every meal. Our lovely friends, the Williams, or better known in this forum as “Williamsburg” had arranged with my Dad to come to our house and pull off this wonderful gesture.

Ahh, it is so good to be home…that is, our home in Colorado.

Thank you Lord for bringing us home safely with Ella. We praise you and are in awe of the works of your hands.

And as you taught us first hand…there are no accidents, only God ordained moments.