Saying Goodbye to the old

We brought in the New Year by kissing our little miracle baby. 2011 brought alot of suprises, trial, dissapointments, helplessness, and frantic praying. Liam's birth was by far from normal. No one was expecting anything to be wrong with him. I had stayed calm through the surgery, reasurring my husband that Liam was fine even though he couldn't breathe and they whisked him away before I could catch a glimpse of him. I was in recouvery when the doctors and nurses started questioning me then told me that Liam's xrays showed CDH. I had an emotional break down. It was by far the worst thing to happen in 2011. Giving birth to my son, not getting to meet him until 8 hours later and having only five minutes with him before they life flighted him to UCSF. I spent the next day and a half half crazied and half under medical sedation until my early release. The second worst thing was getting up to UCSF and actually seeing my son hooked up to the ECMO machine and everything else. I lost a week of memories because I was so dazed and confussed about everything. The third worst thing to happen in 2012 was going 3 weeks without my baby girl and husband and being without any family. One of the best things to happen in 2011 was our UCSF family that we met up there: The Spences, Nordquist's, Montanos, Our primaries Cindy Silva and Sue Dahaun. We met many other people up there we consider family. The best thing to happen in 2011 was being discharged from UCSF moving Liam from the "fighting" list to the "survivor" list. We had 3 hospital stays in the last 5 months of 2011 and each time helped make Liam stronger. We may have had to spend my birthday and Halloween in the hospital but we were able to enjoy Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years at home we're we all belong. I am glad that 2011 is over and a new year is apon us. We are praying that this year there will be no hospital stays for Liam, that he continues to grow and catch up, and that we can spend his first birthday celebrating in a big way. I would also like to continue to work on honoring Liam's battle against CDH as well as Maddie's, Shane Jr's and all the other babies out there starting with Feathers of Hope. We pray that the new year brings answers to our questions about CDH, a way to prevent it and a cure so no other baby has to be born fighting and no other parent has to feel the heartbreak and despair. God may only choose the strongest as their parents but hopefully we can stop the heartwrenching cycle so no other parent has to feel the pain that CDH causes.