Perspective

(Kelsey two days ago)

Tomorrow will be four weeks since we brought Kelsey home. It feels like the time has passed very quickly. I have wanted to keep everyone updated but I just haven't found the time to sit down and put everything into words. Life is starting to feel more normal each day and I am grateful for that. Kelsey has made remarkable progress since coming home. When we were in the hospital we were told and prepared that this would take months and that the road ahead was long. I knew then that we would do whatever it took to get her back to being healthy and strong.

During our first week home I wanted to be by her side all of the time. I had a hard time letting her out of my sight. I would hover over her all day and I think it drove her crazy. It is amazing how your perspective changes when you almost lose one of your children, you tend to want to pull them all in a little closer.

Kelsey has been quite persistent in trying to do everything on her own and I have been surprised to see that she can. She has regained the strength in all of her muscles and can do most everything that she was able to do before she got sick. She still gets tired very easily and has been meeting with a physical therapist for the past few weeks to work on endurance. Each day seems to be a little better so I don't doubt that within the next few weeks she'll be better. She will have a few visable reminders of this event in her life but other than that the doctors do not seem to think that she will have any long term effects. I will forever be grateful to the numerous doctors and nurses that cared for Kelsey day and night and for their compassion and kindness to us during our stay there.

This has been an incredible experience for us as a family. One day as I was leaving the hospital I was with my mom and we were talking about everything and she made a comment to me that has stuck with me throughout these past few weeks. She said "I'm not one of those people that believes everything happens for a reason, but I do believe when things happen we need to look and see what we can learn from it." I have learned many things from this and I hope that they are lessons that will stay forever. I've learned that family is the most important thing that we have in this life. I've learned that life is way to short and you never know what tomorrow brings and so it is important to tell the people that you love that you love them often. I've learned that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and has a hand in our lives and knows the things that we need. I've learned to rely on him with more faith. Some of these things I already knew I just feel that they will now be imbeded as a part of me forever.

Please know how grateful Chad and I are for the many people that have helped and blessed our family over these past weeks. Thank you for concern and your love and words of encouragement and support. We feel blessed to be surrounded by such great family, friends and neighbors.