One Year Ago Today - Norwood

Today marks a very special day, one year ago today Colin underwent his first open heart surgery! It's a very bittersweet anniversary. Colin would not have lived without the surgery but it's still breaks my heart that he had to go through it.
That morning we got up early, we spent the night at home with Katherine, and got up to the hospital at about 6am. I think we only slept maybe two hours that night, it was a hard night/morning. We got to hold and visit with Colin for about 1 1/2 hours, then they came to wheel him away. We got to ride up on the elevators with him from the 4th to the 18th floor, then had to say our goodbyes. We had to hand over our week old baby and trust in God and the surgeons that they would make his heart better. Colin was in surgery for 10 hours, the longest 10 hours of my life! We left Colin at 7:30am and got to see him at 8:00pm. It was so hard to see him in Cardiac ICU that night, at least he had a great roommate (sweet Elle had her surgery that day also).
As I think about our lives a year ago, the chaos and uncertainty that surrounded us, I am so amazed at Colin now. I am amazed in how they took a heart that was only half functioning and gave life to him. When you look into his big beautiful blue eyes and he gives you that suave grin, you have no clue what he has been through, until you look at his chest. His scar used to make me sad and angry in the beginning, now I am so proud of it. I want everyone to see his scar and know he is a fighter.
One year ago, I had a son who was hooked to so many monitors and medication to help him survive and now he is a thriving one year old who is keeping us on our toes.