Thursday, August 14, 2008

A Night Out!


Last night, Wednesday, a bunch of us families that have met in the PICU, went to a nice dinner at mine and Ryan's favorite restaurant, Canella's. Ryan treated everyone and when they offered to pay we just told them to pay it forward. We wish we could do more, we told everyone we are not talking about sad stuff, just happy stuff tonight. I think everyone had a great time laughing and chatting and we all felt good leaving our kiddos with very skilled, very expensive babysitters. We said if we told the waitress where we were from she would probably cry, "My kid only has half a heart", "My kid had a portion of her brain removed", "My 2 month old needs a heart", "My son has been waiting for a heart all summer", "My daughter is going home, because there are no more surgical options", "My daughter has 3 different clotting disorders and the docs are not giving us much hope". Yet here we are laughing and caring on, we understand each other, we don't like our situations, but we accept them and without these trials we would have never met each other and made these lasting friendships. I am so grateful to IHH, and PCMC for the family we have made. I want to thank Carolyn for letting Hope's heart live on through these kids and for comforting the sweethearts in their time of need. It was a much needed night out and fun with friends who know and understand what we are going through without even talking about it! I love you guys, thanks for your examples of enduring to the end!
P.S. G-ma Ann, what is Alex's care page?

10 comments:

Me said...

Love the picture, thank you again, we had so much fun. It did feel so good to laugh. I am so grateful to have met you and your sweet family. Through the darkness we are given beautiful blessings. Love you, Hilary

Anonymous said...

Hi Brytt,
We were up today for Alex's echo, chest xray and blood workup. Everything went well. We would love to have had time, to stop by and visit you and Teagan. We come up twice a week and it has taken around 3 hours each visit.
I hope that all is going well with our little Teagan.
Alex's care page is AlexanderDouglasStewart. We would love to hear from you.
Love to you, Grandma Ann

Mp said...

Yes!!! This makes me so happy...when we were starting to bring this group together, last September I imagined a day when families would be able to find and support one another! The term "pay it forward" is one that I use quite a bit. Thanks so much for your kindness towards others. I'm glad that you guys we're able to laugh and have a night out!

Thoughts and prayers,

Mike Patton
IHH-VP

Chelsee said...

I am so glad you have a support system of parents who know what you are going through. How come I have never been that rest"runt" (remember how I said that in internet class once? We got the biggest kick out of how some guy said it like that. Internet class! May it rest in peace!!) Can we go there perhaps in Dec.? 7 more days..

Sunshine Marketing said...

I am so glad you were able to get out! I would lvoe to have Mason over again. Please let me know if I can help out! Call me when you have a minute!
Much Love,
Tami

carolyn q said...

You are so sweet to include me/Hope in your post, but as I mentioned before, I wasn't alone in helping put this group together. There were so many, The Pattons, Andrews, Quinney's, Davis's, Wiley's Reynold's, Yancey's to name a few of the incredible families that shared the same desire to help connect families together. It's a thrill to know it's making a difference and that you are doing the same :0)
Gee. . had I known that Ryan was buying dinner (and he was so complementary to me too) I for sure would have come. No, seriously I really had to get home, but I appreciated the invitation. It looks like you all had a good time. Sometimes you just need to leave PCMC to get a refreshed look at life.
Heart Hugs,
Carolyn

Em said...

Thanks a lot for making me cry! Oh you guys. I am sorry that we have such sad friends. Someone once told me (after I was talking about all these amazing kids) that I needed to make friends with healthy people, that have "normal" life experiences. Hmm... I think I will stick with the amazing friends I have already. Amen to what you said about Hope and Carolyn, both amazing people. How's Teagan?
Heart hugs,
Emily and Mike Gourley

Heart Mommy said...

Could you guys be any cooler... I wanna be like you when I grow up... Way to get out and regroup so that you can give better care to your kiddo's... thinking about you always...

Hollie said...

Okay, so I'm posting super late on this one. Please forgive me! I SO enjoyed getting out of the PICU that night. It really was wonderful to spend time laughing and feeling "normal" after so much time feeling lost and alone during this struggle. You and Ryan are both amazing people and I am so glad that we have been able to connect and form this bond of friendship. It will be so hard to leave PCMC and to leave my wonderful heart friends behind.
LOVE YOU!!!!!
Hollie (and Elaina too!)

DeMets said...

I am so glad you were able to get strength from others. You look SUPER BEAUTIFUL in the photo! It was great to see you and Teagan on Monday. We are praying! And if you ever want to get out to the Zoo let me know! Much love,
Fallon