Home Sweet Home - Praise God

It was so good to get home.
To sleep in our own beds, to eat our own food... okay and yes the Chinese food left overs from Friday night too.
To shower in our own place, to run life on our own schedule, and not hear nurses in the background, not have vital signs checked in the wee hours.
The list of joys is long and worthy of note.
Helaini spent some of the afternoon and evening with us... allowing me to get scripts filled, pick up milk and chocolate, and walk Lilah in a light snow. It was cold but very, very beautiful, and it stuck - so this morning Toren woke to the beauty of it all and was so delighted. We got to play scrabble together, just Toren and I - a typical Shabbos activity (so nice to return to tried and true activities) - he did so well, it was truly a miracle to see the difference a week can make. Last week just mustering the strength to say yes and no was huge, this week he is making his way up the stairs carefully, but without being too exhausted upon reaching the top.
Today (Sunday) Marvin came over early so I could walk Lilah, and then teach Sunday School. Toren and I had breakfast together in our own kitchen, at our own table... he had his favorite cereal (raisin bran) and he was able to express his joy in the sense of normalcy that prevailed. It is so very good to be picking up the threads of our lives again. Toren went for a car ride with Marvin to enjoy the snow and the sunlight. He showered using the new shower chair... it is incredible the difference these simple tools make - providing a sense of freedom and dignity. Toren played cards with Helaini after she was done teaching, and then simply drifted off to a restful early afternoon nap.
It is heartwarming to climb the stairs, find both my children safely in my nest, and listen to the sound of Toren sleeping as I write this. While the journey is far from over, and while we will need patience aplenty for the road ahead, I am confident that we can do it with the support we will continue to get, with the strength we can draw from each other, and with the encouragement of our friends and family.
Toren and I are trying to put this in perspective, to let this crisis shrink into the distance, to learn what we need to from it, and to allow it to become only a bump in the road. It might not happen overnight, but in time it might just be the Thanksgiving we missed in North Carolina, or the chance to acknowledge the often overlooked blessings of speech, sight, moving of limbs, or the invaluable gift of loving community, friends and family.
I hear rumblings... time to enjoy the company of my wonderful son. Shavuah Tov