Well, August finally approached and we got our stuff ready, and the weekend before, we made the trip to our parents neck of the woods so that they could watch the other 3 children while we were in the hospital for the week w/ Caleb (last year we moved over 5 hours away from all family, so we had to do more planning to get this round of surgeries going). Well, on Tuesday, Aug. 12, we had to take Caleb to the hospital to get his blood tests run (why do they do this? Seems like a waste of time to me, b/c everytime we turned around, we had to have more tests run LOL). ANYWAYS... so we stayed at the motel that night and went back to the hospital Aug. 13th at 6 am so that we could start surgery at 7 am.

Now, since the last we had heard, we were looking at a 12 to 13 hour surgery, but when we saw the Dr the last time before the actual surgery, they had told us that instead of the 12 - 13 hr surgery, they would have 2 teams of doctors in there so that our surgery time would be more like 6 or 7 hours. Hmm, sounded like a plan to us! So here we were, Aug. 13th, 7:30 am, and we are still waiting to start surgery. LOL Finally at about 8:30, the surgery started. We had prayed for Caleb and left him in God's hands (and the doctors hands as well). Ross and I were the only ones there. See, his parents had the other 3 children, and Aug. 13th was my mom's birthday, so I told her to stay home and we would call her and give her updates.

It was amazing how calm and peaceful things were. Ross and I did really well (my mom was a basketcase all day). The nursing staff was real good about calling us every hour or two to update us on the progress and how Caleb was doing. We were so grateful for them doing that!!! (yes, I know this is standard procedure, but it was still very nice. :) ) So anyways, around the time that the surgery should have been over, the nurse called and said that we were still at *least* 2 hours away from surgery ending. Not that there were any problems, but connecting all of the blood veins/arteries and all that, it is very delicate work, so that is what was taking so long. We had (and still have) full faith in Dr. H. the one that did the work on the blood supply (flap, this is a word that will be used quite frequently, the flap is the blood supply that is between the cartilage and the skin; without it, the cartilage would die, and the skin could not survive either).

So anyways, we were still pumped and ready for 2 more hours. Two more hours came and went and they called back and said, 'Well, we are still working on the flap, and quite honestly, we don't have a clue how much longer it will be.'. Ok, well, Caleb is still in God's hands, and us worrying won't help, so we just went on. In fact, I took a nap (my mom still is in shock that I could sleep 'at a time like that'. LOL Well, I was tired, and like I said, my worrying wouldn't do anyone any good!).