Bittersweet Return

Any other trip I have taken out of town has been one where I look forward to the return home. This time, every mile we traveled brought us one mile closer to our house, and one mile further from our hearts.

If you are catching up, Meagan and I got the chance to meet Eli, our future adopted son. There are still many things that need to fall into place for this to happen, but we are closer than we have ever been. And as I sat today with him laying on my chest, looking at his tiny hands and listening to him breathe, I realized that all will be well and it will all work out O.K.

On our trip home, though filled with conflicting emotions, there was one time we both laughed out loud. We called the hospital for an update and found out that Eli had his first poo! I cannot think of another time in my life when I would ever be excited about that, but it was the last thing we were waiting on to make sure everything was working correctly.

We have planned our next trip in a few weeks. It will be hard realizing we are separated from our son  by several hours, but such will be our life for however long he needs to stay in the NICU. Home during the week working, sleeping, getting the house and nursery ready, and then when we can driving up to visit, hold, talk to, touch, and encourage him. Hopefully sooner than later, that day will come when our hearts and home are together again, and Eli is safe and sound in a nursery a few feet, instead of a few hours away.

Please continue to pray. Pray that Eli will gain the weight and make the milestones he needs to make to come home quickly. Pray for the nurses and doctors who watch over our little one every day. Pray for us as we travel back and forth. Pray for our continued efforts to raise the last of the money we need, and for the upcoming legal proceedings that we must go through to finalize this adoption.

We are so thankful to all of you who have expressed your concerns, prayers, and encouragement over the phone, text, emails, twitter and facebook. Each message means so much. Thank you for joining us on this journey.

We will probably do most of our updates, and try to answer the questions we can here on this blog. We will post the link to each entry on facebook so check there daily to see what's going on. You can also get  updates to your email inbox by using the form in the right hand column of this blog site.

Russell and Meagan

Oh.. photos will come when I can put them up I promise.
Go buy a CD  www.indieheaven.com/artists/russellmartin