12.31.16
New Year’s Eve 2016 vs. 2017.
What. A. Year.
Same party, different crib.
Here’s to a new blank canvas to paint our next adventures on.
Here’s to hoping we look back on 2017 like we are today on 2016 — mightier than ever.
Here’s to growing, learning, loving, and celebrating every moment!
Happy and Healthy New Year from our family to yours.
Let’s go 2017!
the mighty jack thomas 
Thank you for sharing your incredible story. Our micro premie is 22 days old today born 3 months early and weighing only a pound and half. The nurses at Winthrop aka angels suggested I look up your blog. Thanks for showing my that there is a light at the end of this crazy journey and one day life will be “normal” again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Anna! Nice to ‘meet’ you and congrats on your little one 🙂 It’s so funny you just wrote because I’m working on this week’s blog bc Jack just had his “supposed to be due date” pass and your comment popped up. I’ll put it up tomorrow so you can see what we have been up to if you have a minute. Here’s what I can tell you– right now is the scariest, most upside down you will ever feel in your life. But be present and show up each day. Somehow it becomes your norm– walking day in and out of the NICU and everything in the real world seems strange. Hold on tight because as you know, almost a month in, your baby’s condition can change by the hour and so can yours. You can’t control most of this situation but I promise you if you hold on tight to the nurses and Winthrop staff they will never leave you and never stop fighting right along side you and your baby. There is light at the end of the tunnel, a lot of it. It wasn’t what either of us signed up for and a close mom friend I made during my time at Winthrop put it best…When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…. and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away… because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But… if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland.
Welcome to Holland Anna! We are happy to have you here. It’s actually an incredible place.
If you EVER need anything- a question, vent, cry, cheer for a milestone…I am here and will help in anyway I can.
You got this!
LikeLike
Wow – I never could have explained it better!!! My husband and I are in holland and it’s not a place we ever wanted to be. We try to focus on the positives everyday. It has taken me a while to leave my little boys life in the hands of the doctors and nurses but your posts made me realize that they know best and the only thing I can do is to be there and let them do the rest. Thanks for your response and your support. I look forward to seeing your next post -your little boy is adorable!
LikeLiked by 1 person