Wow, so much has happened since the last post a month ago. As you can imagine, we were very busy this past month preparing for the move. Everything went smoothly with purchasing our new house, and we also had a very smooth sale of our house in Michigan. We found buyers through a neighbor, so we didn't even have to list or show our house! We were very grateful for that. We were able to spend some time with both of our families before we moved, and we were so grateful for that too. In early November, we drove to Wisconsin. That was a good trial run for driving cross country with 3 little girls. Thankfully, they did well overall and we learned a few things to help with long drives in the future. Some of my family got to meet Cora and Lily for the first time.
Lily had a few important appointments before we left Michigan. She had one more dilation a few days before the move. Not bad, but also not great news.. Her esophagus was back to 6mm again, which means it narrowed down a little. Dr. Pennington was able to easily stretch it back up to 11mm. He said he would have hoped it would have stayed more open, but it's also not really unexpected. It just means she will need to continue to have dilations for a while. We will be following up with Boston Children's Hospital for future dilations. Dr. Pennington already spoke with one of the surgeons on the BCH esophageal atresia team, so they are up to date on her progress. He suggested another dilation in about a month. So we will have a little time to get settled before we have to make a trip down to Boston. It's about a 3 hour drive, but we could also take a train from Portland, ME to Boston if we want to avoid driving. I've made an appointment for Lily with a pediatrician here in Bangor, and I think she will be able to have the rest of her care here.
She also had a helmet check right before we left. Great news, her head grew a good amount and she is almost in the measurement range to not need the helmet anymore! The orthotist said she should wear the helmet for 6 more weeks, but then we can just stop. We could get her head measured after 6 weeks if we wanted to, but she said she is confident that after 6 weeks Lily will be where she needs to be measurement wise. Yay!
We are very grateful for the help we received packing, loading, and watching girls. A huge thank you to Joe's friend Lonnie, who drove Joe's truck out with us and stayed a couple nights to help unload the moving truck. Also a huge thanks to Joe's sister in-law Margeaux, who drove out in the van with me and the girls. She is also staying with us for a week to help us settle in. What a huge help!!
Saying goodbye is never easy. We said goodbye to some wonderful friends, family, neighbors, coworkers and church family. We are so grateful for the friendships we made in the 5 years we lived in Michigan. We are hopful to stay connected.
The drive out here was.. stressful. The girls did great, but 2 days of driving all day with little people is just exhausting. Margeaux, the girls and I left Allendale at 6am Friday morning. We stopped in New York Friday night and stayed in a hotel. We left at 5:30am Saturday and arrived in Bangor at 4:30pm. Joe drove the moving truck, and Lonnie followed him in Joe's truck. They stopped a few times to catch a nap, but drove straight through and arrived about 10am on Saturday. They, along with the help of one of Joe's new coworkers, had the entire truck unloaded by the time we got there! What troopers.
We've made good progress with unpacking, but still have a ways to go. We are loving our new house though! It needs some fresh paint and a few other things, but nothing urgent. We love some of the little touches of character. It was built in 1901! I don't have pictures of the house yet, so I'll make sure to put some up on the next post.
Thank you all for your words of encouragement, your prayers, cards, and support through this big change. Rose loves the new house. It has a pretty cool sun room/ play room. She has handled all of this so well and we are so proud of her.
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| Breakfast, moving style |
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| One last visit with one of Lil's NICU nurses |
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| Stretch Day |
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| "Dad are you ok?" Tired out from all the packing |
