Preparation

I can't believe I am actually going to type about this. You would think I would have learned my lesson by now, but I'm just to excited and of course a little intimidated. It seems as though tomorrow will be our big day. Our day to leave the familiar halls of the PICU and prepare to settle into a new life in our new apartment. Just Ash and I. Maybe my mom, but no Dave, Blake, or Allie. It all seems so scary to be thinking and planning about living here on our own, but I know this has been the goal for so very long.

I have spent the day preparing to leave. I know it won't happen early in the day and it will probably be late evening by the time we actually arrive in the apartment, but as long as she stays looking good tonight and tomorrow then we should actually be discharged to an outpatient status.

As Ash was napping this afternoon( can you believe it?) I actually slipped out and bought her a new car seat and a coat. Her first one! Guess what size it is? Not 3mths, 6 mths, 9 mths, or 12mths, but an actual size 18mths! It was the last one in the store. It is not exactly the shade of pink that I would prefer, but it is in the pink family. Maybe a little more like berry or burgandy, but nonetheless it is going to be adorable on her. I will be happy to try it on her and take a picture to post later tonight. If we were in Texas there is no way she would even need a coat at this time in the season, but here in Omaha we just survived our first blizzard ever and there is still snow on the ground. I don't plan on taking her anywhere except to the transplant treatment center for chemo and clinic appointments, but she will still need to be bundled up for the drive.

I have been hauling loads of our "lives" out of our hospital room and into the car and it is full! The sad thing is that the room is still full too. I am not sure where Ashley and I are going to ride. I am hoping that one of the nurses who are my friends will be on tonight so that I know there would be someone who loves Ash here to hold her and play with her so that I might be able to run some things to the apartment. I also need to clean the apartment. It was left in such a mess the morning we rushed out at 4:30a.m. to catch the taxi to take everyone to the airport after Christmas. I still need to pick up some groceries and things so that we might survive until someone can fly in to help us. Maybe they would let me sneak Ash out with me tonight just to clean the apartment. I would promise to bring her back. Just kidding. I KNOW that won't happen.

I realize that things change so quickly in Ashley's life and that all of this may be for nothing, but it is still fun to plan and prepare to leave. I pray that if it is His perfect timing for us to make this move that it will happen. If it is not then I will be perfectly content to stay here until it is.

By the way, the Tarheels won this morning and they are just beginning game 2. If they want to win it all then they will play the next 3 games back to back and finish up the tournament late tonight. We hope this is what will happen for our guys, but if it doesn't then we know that they at least got a lot more experience and this is what will make them a better team. So come on everyone and root them on along with me and Ash. We are waiting for Dave to call and start our play by play. I hope your day was blessed and I thank you all for coming by our Ashley's story to check on our tiny(but getting bigger) pickle. Love, Trish