Less than 2 weeks

Mariah's surgery will be in less than 2 weeks. She is actually anxious to "get it over with and start the rest of my life with less worry". I'm continually surprised by her maturity. Gotta love that girl!

The nurse case manager from Mariah's cardiologist's office sent over a referral to the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) at the hospital so we will be able to have a room there for up to 4 days. The RMH's are wonderful in that it is only $20/night and have complete facilities for families, including an amazing kitchen, teen room, laundry room, family room, etc, in addition to a private bedroom & bathroom for each family (we stayed at one when Josiah was born prematurely). Mariah wants to spend the night before her surgery in Portland to avoid needing to leave our home at 4am and as long as there are rooms available, we will be able to stay at the RMH (this particular RMH doesn't typically have to turn families away). I think the younger children will come home after the surgery to stay with grandparents and having a room at the RMH will allow Steve to be able to stay there as long as nothing pressing comes along with our business. I will be staying in Mariah's hospital room with her; however, having somewhere to go to cook a meal or rest while daddy stays with her will be a blessing.

The younger children want to be at the hospital when Mariah has her surgery and I am very thankful they want to be there for their big sister. We are so very fortunate to have an amazing extended family who are more than happy to help us out during this time.