Happy Un-birthday Ani!

“I mean, what is an un-birthday present?"
A present given when it isn't your birthday, of course."
Alice considered a little. "I like birthday presents best," she said at last.
You don't know what you're talking about!" cried Humpty Dumpty. "How many days are there in a year?"
Three hundred and sixty-five," said Alice.
And how many birthdays have you?"
One.”  
~Lewis Carroll     
                                           

It seems so much of life begins in medias res and so it is with this blog. Today is your half birthday or as Mr. Carroll would say an un-birthday. Semantics aside, it is cause for celebration. One year ago today, life was uncertain. You were in the CICU at Children's Memorial Hospital in a medically induced coma while your little body healed from surgery. 

That day, I went to see you after dropping Daddy off at the Aon Building and later met Daddy at home for a lunch of buckwheat crepes with ramps, bacon and eggs (if I do my job right, this detail will mean something to you someday). Then we headed back to the hospital to hang out with you. Grandma Elaine and Aunt Katie came by later and then we all headed home for Grandma's meatloaf and potatoes. Meghan and Jamie were your nurses your second day in the CICU. All of these details are perfunctory in some ways. I hastily jotted details, names, numbers down in my little black Moleskine planner last year hoping that later I might have time to pause and reflect. 

It has taken a year and even now feels shoddily done but... thank you to Grandma Elaine and Aunt Katie for staying home to pray and clean our house... Dr. Backer for performing the surgery that corrected your "Ring-Sling Complex"... Dr. Hollinger for scoping your trachea... the countless nameless and faceless doctors, nurses, technicians, etc., who made your surgery a success... thank you to Uncle Jack for coming by to check on us hour after hour... thank you to your nurses, especially Rachel who promised to watch over you that first night and assured me that the best thing I could do for you was to head home for a good night's sleep... thank you to Daddy for listening to me, reassuring me and  holding me when I cried because you were not in your crib... and at the risk of sounding like a pageant contestant or a rapper at an awards show, thank you God for most this amazing un-birthday!