A Very Special Blessing

This post is a bit delayed, but we still wanted to talk about the joyous blessing we received.  On our visits to the NICU on July 30th and 31st, we were afforded an opportunity for the whole family to visit Leah at once by her bedside.  This might not seem like a big deal, but it was for us because to this point the children could only be brought into the NICU 1-2 at a time.  If we allowed them to visit and not rush, it would take nearly an hour to rotate through everyone and allow for ample visitation.  This is because the NICU rule (understandable to keep order, and due to cramped space) is that only 2 visitors are allowed by the bedside at one time and any additional visitors was up to the nurse on duty's discretion.  We are thankful that throughout most of the visits with the children, they allowed us to take them in 2 at a time (for a total of 3 visitors).  The difference on the 30th and 31st was that most of the babies that were in the section of the nursery where Leah was had gone home and there was a good deal of open space in the area around Leah's bed.  Even though, we know there were some nurses that despite this, simply would not allow SEVEN children, plus TWO parents, for a total of NINE to be by Leah's bedside at once.  Thankfully on these evenings, we had some very gracious nurses who not only allowed us to all visit, but actually offered the opportunity.  We were thinking and praying of asking for this opportunity and were prepared for a negative answer; but in an answer to prayer, when our nurse found out that all the kids were in the waiting room, said that since there was so much space around Leah's isolette and since she knew the kids are usually exceptionally well behaved, we could bring them all in.  We were as happy as could be as we were able to get our first family picture with Leah :)

Yes, they're all ours....we are blessed beyond measure!

We are so thankful to the nurses who go graciously afforded us this opportunity.  We are glad that they recognized that (provided you are dealing with children that can behave) it is important for the family to be together.  Especially since we did not know at the time that Leah would be going home in a matter of days, this was such a blessing to us to be able to all be together at once.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!