Another night...

I wonder if this is part of my new normal. I'm up again at 3-4 am. I called the nurse around 1:30 am and he was able to update me on some lab results and some medication changes (backing off of some meds). All sounds good. One or two labs not great, but expected changes. Other labs are still trending in a good direction. I remain hopeful. The absolute biggest hurdle at this point will be the aggressive respiratory care that he will need. His lungs are in bad shape. 6 more hours until we hit the 72 hour mark. A small victory when we get there.
George came home tonight, I'm so glad. John and him fell asleep together in our bed and I let them sleep together for about 2 hours and then moved John to his room. It was good for them to snuggle. George is still sleeping well. He needs it.
We are so grateful for all everyone has done for us so far. I thought that we would keep a list and thank everyone later, but I may have to get creative since there are so many people! We'll have Phil cook a bunch of chickens when he gets home and throw a party for all of friends and family. I'd say pig, but Phil doesn't like pig so chickens it is! Looks like that may be next summer before anything like that will be possible. That seems so surreal. I refuse to think anything else though. A long recovery and a full recovery, even if it takes a year. As long as we have God, family, and friends this is all possible. I have never had so much faith as I do right now.
I am completely and utterly overwhelmed with emotion. The full range of everything. I miss Phil's presence in our home. I don't know if I've mentioned it much, but he was here pretty much everyday. Even if just for a few minutes. He ate dinner here once a week or so.....If I cooked something he approved of. He isn't much of a fan of my "healthy" cooking. He's getting better though. He did get his fresh cabbage last week that his mama cooked for him. I'll be freezing and canning as much of the garden as I can to feed to him when he can eat, and if he's lucky, I'll add some fatback. HAHA I miss him here a lot. I desperately want to hear his truck crank up, slowwwwwwwly pull into my driveway, John run to the door and say "Papa here, look Mama, my Papa here!" I need to hear those words again. I need him to get "John's" golfcart out and go riding with John. This is painful, scary, and plain HARD.
It was strange that we got him to go to the ballgame with us Monday. Usually during planting season, he would never have done that. Knocked off early to "play". But John want Papa to go to the "baseball game" SO badly. And when Papa told George he was going, I saw a light in George's eye too. George was so surprised and I think he was secretly just as excited as John that his Dad was going with us. We had a great time. One of the best times. Phil and George talked all the way to Kinston and back. They are best friends. I am so glad that we have that. And when he's better, we'll be back at some ball games. He got a foul ball for John at the game. And he got John a hat, a ball and a bat too. He was sent down to the store to buy John a hat for his little head and came back with a ton of stuff. John's got Papa wrapped around that finger TIGHT!

We need everyone to pray without ceasing. Pray a lot. And while you're praying, remember the doctors, nurses, repiratory therapists, and everyone who is working with Phil during this time. Also, we've met many families in our time already, who are going through many of the same things. Please pray for them too. It's hard to believe that there are so many people hurting so much.

Also, thanks so much to all who came to the farm tonight, today, anytime. Your presence has been noticed and we are so very thankful.