It is finished.

We are finally home!!! We left at 10 a.m and arrived here at home around 7:30 ish. We are all exhausted and tired after a long day, but boy did Gabriel sure shine. What a trooper he is!!!! His surgery went without a hitch, and while he's a bit uncomfortable (well I suppose that's a bit of an understatement)....he's in some pain which is to be expected, but he is plowing through it with some really good pain meds :) Gabe really made me one proud mommy today. He won the hearts of those nurses there with his charming personality even in the midst of strange circumstances, and even when he was at his worse he still had a "hi" for them. The nurse told me the first thing he said when he came out from his anesthesia was, "juice." It just melted my heart. And then after he had been asleep in the recovery room for a while he woke up, looked at his daddy and said, "goose!" He LOVES this Mother Goose Bible Sing-a-long song tape and he wanted to watch it! CUTE! So we put it in as soon as we got home and he was able to get some juice in him and a bit of yogurt before he had his pain meds. He finally went to sleep around 9 p.m. I just cannot get over how much of a little man he's been throughout it all. And the feeling I get in my gut when he cries is unbelievable. It breaks my little heart to know that he's in pain and there's nothing I can really do except to hold him and to tell him that everything's going to be alright...it's hard not to cry at a time like that (especially being my pregnant emotional self today:)) For now, Justin and I are extremely exhausted, and so this update will be short, but I have enclosed a video clip of some pictures I took of his surgery journey today. My heart swells with emotion when I watch him in this video....he really has stolen our hearts, and I'm sure he'd steal yours too should he have the chance! More updates to come soon. Thank you family and friends for your prayers. God has been oh so good! G'night blogdom.
(Click on the pic to see the video...and make sure your volume is on)

Gabriel Allen Rader's Surgery