Hospital bag.

Matt and I were tidying up the office (which means Matt deals with the papers, and I deal with the digital files on my camera/computer/phone stuff), and he was putting things into the closet and picked up my old blue backpack (MEC backpacks never die) and showed Piper saying "This is our hospital bag!" and then put it away.

Yes, it was kinda a non-statement, but it caught me off guard. It is our hospital bag. I have it stocked with diapers, wipes, snacks for all of us, a toy or two and even an extra hospital bracelet with Piper's info on it. I've used it enough times to know that I should just leave it semi-packed.

It comes at a funny time, as a dear friend of ours just had their first baby, and they would have had a hospital bag, too, all packed, ready to go. Their bag was packed with similar things, but it was packed with anticipation, curiosity, longing, excitement and mystery at what is to come for them. Our hospital bag is packed with thoughts like endurance, patience, and knowledge over-load. It's not the same hospital bag at all.

Again, looking at that brand new baby girl, I wondered about our next baby, whenever he/she shows up (nothing to report folks, no worries), and imagining having a perfectly healthy baby, whom we can just take home right away and don't need anything of these scheduled and emergency hospital visits. I've said before, that Piper having a heart condition has just become our "normal", but I do long to know what it would be like to just worry about spit up and nap times, and not about color and indrawing when breathing.

It's just so curious, I suppose. The cards we are dealt... I wouldn't change a thing about my baby, ever, but this whole experience has given me an extremely different view on babies, child-rearing and life in general. But on the whole, I think I am better for it.

So, Monday is another hospital day, and we'll have our blue MEC bag packed and ready to go. Who knows what the day will hold. Really, our bag is similar to my friends hospital bag, too.

I do anticipate what this will all be like when this is all finished.

I am curious at how all of these medical breakthroughs are made, and who discovers them.

I do long for my baby to be perfectly well.

I am excited for her future being unimpeded by her heart, and that it is physically possible to fix this!

And I do think all of this is mysterious: how Piper's heart formed in the womb, how they can see it now, and all the people who can fix it... somehow, mysteriously.

It's amazing what perspective does, no?

Anyways, here is a glance at our adventures of late! We went downtown, all on our own, like ordinary adults and saw some of the Olympic fun! (and that is our other MEC bag, but it is strictly for adventures only)