It's actually happening!!!

I can’t believe I’m actually writing this (and at the same time I can’t believe I’ve waited till now to write it!). I imagine that most of you already know this… for the few of you that don’t, I do apologize! I’ve had such a mixture of emotions that kinda come like waves… maybe that’s why I couldn’t sit down and write? Anyway, in two days Levi is having major airway reconstructive surgery… yes… two days…. For three and a half years we have waited for this, sometimes patiently and sometimes not so patiently. We have hoped for it, believed for it and now, it’s happening in two days!
About three weeks ago, Brian got back from a mission trip to the Dominican Republic and brought back lots of great stories and also a bad cold… that you gave to Jesse and yup, you guessed right, Levi got it too. I trusted that God was in control and He is good always, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous at times. Well, it was more like panicked! It didn’t help my battle that I didn’t sleep for an entire week, mostly because of Jesse, Levi was only bad for a couple of days and then he bounced right back.
Most likely they are going to take part of his rib and graft is airway open, place a tube inside to keep it all open and allow it to heal for about two weeks. When they take this tube out, we will know if the surgery was a success or not… if it doesn’t collapse it was a success, if it does he needs to do it all over again. If everything goes perfectly smooth, it’s a week at the hospital at least. He will keep his trache for the entire healing process that hopefully won’t be more than two months. After the surgery, he gets scoped kinda like before about every two weeks for about three months. My friend Stephanie’s son, Braden had this surgery back in October and that is where I’m basing this information from. Everything went perfect with them, and I do realize that it could be very different for us, also the surgeon has explained that he could change his mind during surgery and decide to do a different one. Like instead of opening his airway, he could cut and remove the entire section that is scared. That would be a longer stay at the hospital but overall, he would have his trache out sooner. Anyway, we are prepared for whatever road God has set before us.
We are so honored and humbled to be lifted up by so many… we truly are grateful that we don’t walk this road alone. I can’t wait to celebrate with you all! It was been a long trial. God has definitely been so good and faithful and we realize that it is only by His Grace and Mercy that Levi has done as well as he has. Imagining our lives without this artificial airway brings me to tears! And although I would love to skip this process, I realize that God has a purpose in everything that we go through. We WILL keep you all updated! Thank you so much for your support, encouragement and prayers, may the LORD be glorified!!!