As usual, thanks to all of you for your prayers, emails, phone calls, notes in the mail, and gifts. We could not survive this if it were not for you and your encouragement. The Lord has really provided comfort through each of you.

When we brought Jonathan home last week, it was reminiscent of our time coming home from the NICU - scared that he was coming home too early. His breathing was still fast, he was on five different medications that we had to administer in some combination three times a day, and his congestion was more than with which we were comfortable.

Now, Jonathan's skin looks great, he is so happy (except when hungry or tired), his breathing has slowed down considerably (Jamie timed it last week at 60 breaths a minute compared to 37 breaths a minute now), he is talking a TON, he is smiling a bunch, and his congestion is minimal if not nonexistent.

I had another scary episode the other day. Jackson actually was playing with Jonathan while Jonathan was strapped in the swing and I was watching. He lost his balance and leaned on Jonathan - smack in the middle of Jonathan's chest. I was rather upset and checked Jonathan's staples and was scared to see his chest contorting a tad. I called the cardiologist's nurse line (for the tenth time). She told me to calm down (I was in tears) and not to worry. If the chest bone had repositioned, they could not do anything anyway. Luckily, Jamie had noticed the same thing the previous day. DS kids' chests tend to heal with bumps because of an excess of bone at the place of trauma. I had not yet noticed it and Jamie had. Thank goodness - otherwise we would have assumed it was my fault.

A sweet incident was when Jonathan cried the other day. Jackson found a pacifier and promptly stuck it in Jonathan's mouth and kept it there until Jonathan took it, Jackson softly crooning to him. It was so sweet - I got it on tape if you want to see it!

Jackson started stuttering even worse last week. He could barely complete a sentence. I got in touch with a speech pathologist this week. She will evaluate him next week. I am no speech pathologist but I do think this is all related to our stressful circumstances. In fact, it got worse when Jonathan went in to surgery and was in the hospital. I am hoping that now that our lives are beginning to be more in a routine, he will relax. I will be really hacked if he develops something as a result of all this - we have enough on our plates and I hate that he is an innocent victim in it.

Thanks to each one of you for your interest in our story. We appreciate you and your prayers!

Julie:)
juliewarren@mindspring.com