Another one down...

Cast Day for #8 met Shriner's with a flood of wonderful Lucky Cast Club friends.  4 fabulous members and their families as well as 2 additional cast friends filled the Shriner's Chicago halls with all the emotion a cast day can bring.  Sweet Quinn and her beautiful mommy were the first to greet us when we entered the Shriner's lobby.  We soon were heading into our room to meet our sweet friend Kiya, followed by Superhero Jackson and our beautiful Giana.  I so wish all casting days could be filled with so much love and camaraderie.  Our little ones were ushered to radiography and finally filed to the OR one by one. Papa Sherman, Jackson's Grandpa, setup a coffee shop outside the Pre-op doors to wait as each family came out.  Although Papa Sherman is Jackson's biological grandpa, we have all adopted him as our own.  This was such a bright spot on our day.  He was there to support, talk and embrace each of us.  We all love him for this special gift. 
         Another bright gift from this wait time was Cody having Rylee to play with.  So often Cody is the only sibling along for the ride.  We have made a conscious decision to include him in our cast trips because of the distance we have to travel.  The few times we left him home were very tough days for all of us.  Cody felt left behind and we felt incomplete.  I believe the recovery for our little friends is blessed with a special bond when their beloved siblings can be there for support.  Barring extraordinary circumstance, Cody travels with us.  A big Thank you to Rylee and the Bancsy family for making him feel included in the day. 
         I have written so many times of the flurry that starts when each little one returns from the OR.  William came out of PACU and was ready for mom and dad.  He was very upset and just wanted to be held.  I went into my mother tiger mode and wanted to whisk him away from the chaos of routine that occurs once they exit the OR.  I know so many families who felt the same way that day.  Dr. Hammerberg gave us a beautiful gift with the use of the new graph.  It shows two lines, one plotting their out of cast number and the second plotting in cast numbers.  Although William stayed the same out of cast, he did achieve a few more precious degrees of correction in cast.  Our story for now will continue.  William's journey is still a journey, but the graph gave us renewed promise, the process is working. 
          There is another amazing story from cast day.  One that brought tears to my usually stoic husband's eyes.  It is not our story to tell so I will just tell you GOD is good, all the time.  We are going to allow the author of this story to share when they are ready. 
           A big thank you for continued prayers for our beautiful boy and his beautiful friends.  The club is growing bigger with each passing day. I was initially sad at the influx of new families, but am overjoyed that they were giving casting as a treatment option and are such wonderful enhancements to our Lucky Cast Club families.  With each new family our hearts grow and embrace them.  We are blessed to have such wonderful community of support.  I am going to leave you with some photos from our cast day.   I am hoping next week my post will be a little more articulate.  Today I am still trying to debrief my own heart and soul from the week of frenzy we have had.  Prayers are going out for our sweet Kaity who will be undergoing her Chiara decompression surgery tomorrow.