We’ve been a little quiet lately because we’ve been very busy training to get ready for Sabrina to come home.

That means learning and practicing everything — administering her medications, managing her milrinone pump, CPR training, and learning her feeding pump. Sabrina is doing a great job taking most of her formula by bottle, but she still needs some extra support through the feeding pump right now.

Friday afternoon, Sabrina is scheduled to have a more secure central line placed (called a Broviac). She’ll be under general anesthesia, which is always a little nerve-wracking with a heart kiddo, so we would really appreciate good thoughts and prayers for a smooth procedure and recovery.

Once her new line is in place, we’ll do a period of caring for her completely on our own here in the hospital — all her meds, feeds, and line care — and then, fingers crossed, we’ll be cleared to go home. We aren’t putting an exact timeline on it yet, but our focus is simply getting our girl home.

This stage feels overwhelming and exciting all at once. We’re still waiting — but soon we’ll be waiting together, in our own home.

On Christmas Day, before we even knew Sabrina would be downgraded to 1B, Audric said to me, “SiSi, come home.” He’s been making so much progress with his speech, and hearing that was incredibly emotional. That was his Christmas wish — and now it’s coming true. Since then, he’s been very vocal: “SiSi come home. Mama come home. Dada come home.” All accompanied by definitive foot stomps. He wants us all together, and that’s exactly what we’re working toward.