First full day in the world

JB with Isaac

At long last -- Aunt Gabbi

Gracie's first cousin (she's happy even though he's a boy!)

Uncle Ray (JB's brother)

My mom

JB's mom

Aunt Elizabeth (JB's older sister)

My Dad

Where to start ... where to start ...

Thursday was our little guy's first full day in the world. Despite the fact that we were not with him for most of it, the time we spent together was blessed.

Thank you for all of you have been praying for our family. To say our spirits have been at rest is an understatement.

Wednesday evening, or make that very early Thursday morning, when we finally went to see Isaac for the first time, we did not think we were going to get to hold him. This is a large hospital dealing with many babies, and their policy is to only let the two people who are issued armbands into the nursery. 

Joan, however, vehemently disagreed with this policy, and as I watched Isaac through the nursery glass and listened as the nurse explaiened why JB and I could not visit with him, I waited patiently for Joan to explain that us not seeing him was not really an option. At one point I started to get upset, but JB reminded me our pact: to not forget that the first 48-hours may be difficult, but he would go home with us at the end of it. But Joan had one of the "magic bracelets" and was determined that its power would get us inside that nursery. And she isn't the type to take no for an answer! We watched as the head nurse's face began to slowly recognize this fact and her emotions at seeing our faces finally got the best of her. The door finally buzzed, and we were able to spend over an hour with our son.

Due to the difficulty of seeing him Thursday morning, after a few hours of sleep at Roy & Joan's house, JB and I made the decision not to return to the hospital until the sea of paperwork began to part. Our lawyer, Fritz, was on top of things. We were in constant communication with his assistant, Tracy. Things needed to get done. We knew they would get done. And we decided that having nurses tell us we did not have the right to hold Isaac wouldn't be very fun or uplifting or encouraging. So we spent the day with JB's family. Many of you may be sighing deeply at the frustration of this thought. But don't! It may appear that this day was torturous as we waited, but truly, it wasn't. We were filled with peace. We knew that no matter what, within 36 hours, we'd be able to hold him to our heart's content, and we were patient in waiting. I took two naps, and we caught up with his family and talked to a few of you on the phone.

During this time we got a call from Bri. They wanted her to name the baby. So she had. She had named his Isaac John Kit. -- a huge gift as, thanks to Chris and Bri, our last name was the first to go on the birth certificate. "I just want to make sure I remembered how to spell your last name, " Bri laughed on the phone. We confirmed she had it right. The lawyer's assistant and the hospital kept asking Bri what she wanted to name the baby. Chris and Bri had every right to name him something and let us change it later. But Isaac John Kit. went onto the birth certificate.

Around 4pm we finally got the call from the lawyer. Actually, the call came in from Joan's cell phone so when I saw her name pop up I answered in my playful, "Yo yo yo Joanie. Wus up?" I heard a throat clear as my lawyer said, "Wendi. This is Fritz." A bit embarrassed, I recovered quickly, not even attempting to explain my greeting since there was no reason for it except a delirious state of happiness.

Fritz recovered as well and informed us that Chris and Bri (who had been discharged from the hospital early that morning) had signed the paperwork and the nursery workers at the hospital now expected John and Wendi to come visit their son!

Needless to say we were there as fast as rush hour traffic on I-95 would allow.

Once at the hospital, we were blessed as the nurses welcomed us in, gave us a small room, and encouraged our family to visit as long as they liked! So they did! Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles (including finally-an-Aunt-Gabbi) each took a turn! Big cousin Grace even got in the action and did a great job holding little Isaac. He was content the whole time, never crying, as he was passed around the room. JB and I had a little time just the two of us before the family came in, but after that, I was fine with sharing him with everyone else. (The pictures at the top are from this introduction. I don't have any of Keith and AD as they were on their camera. I'll try to get them later. AD, can you send them to me?!)

We spent about three hours at the hospital and then decided we would go get some dinner and some rest before we worked with Fritz on Friday for final discharge. We don't see any reason that we will not be taking Isaac home, for good, sometime today. We hope to spend Saturday here in Fort Lauderdale, celebrating with family, before making the drive back to Destin on Sunday morning with my mom along for the ride.

We finished the evening with a dinner at Cheesecake Factory to celebrate. JB and I returned to my mom's to open a bunch more gifts that have arrived. We will spend this morning trying to organize all the things (leftover from the showers I had earlier in April) we need to take back to Destin. We'll also be getting things together to bring Isaac "home" for good and preparing to sign paperwork that will make it more final.

Your comments and well wishes are a treasure to me and to our whole family. (If you didn't have a chance to comment on yesterday's post, please do. This will be a memory for us forever!) My mother has made sure to catch up on reading them each time she returns to the computer, and I have read each of them many times. We are so blessed. It has been a very long journey and one wrought with tears and frustrations. We still do not feel that this is real. We both feel that we are floating somewhere outside of ourselves, looking down and watching but not participating. We know this feeling will soon change -- maybe during the first midnight feeding.

More pictures (of Isaac and the beautiful Mother's Day necklace I received from JB) to come. Blessings all!

P.S. 'Nother bit of exciting news. Yesterday, as we were leaving Roy & Joan's, we saw Scottie Pippen riding his bike with his family! How cool is that? :)