Day One: Questions, Questions, Questions

The Canyon Country caravan arrived at 8 am...after a 75-minute drive through traffic, parking, finding the ABC Clinic, etc. We all were understandably nervous...especially Katie. But somewhere between leaving the car and releasing our girl to the clinic, the Hannah Montana "security" blanket transferred from Katie into Mom's hands for safe-keeping. After a tour of the facilities (when Katie was introduced to the other seven kids in the program) and a few tears, we parted for the day. Susan, Bea and I then embarked upon hours of questions, surveys and meetings with the clinic director, a social worker, two doctors and a nurse. We also met the recreation director and three other associates. All in all, it was a very good day...but very draining.

Several instances noteworthy for the blog. After our first round of meetings, the three adults headed for the cafeteria for a brief break. Though none of us voiced our desire, we each stood in front of the elevator door, longing to learn how Katie was doing. Imagine our surprise when Katie and her nurse, Barbara, walked off the elevator in front of us. "Hi, Mom," Katie said with a big smile as she walked over to hug Susan. That answered our question.

Second, as we approached the cafeteria, the surroundings looked very familiar. Upon entering, a sense of deja vu overtook Susan and I. We had been here many times before, over nine years ago when Katie was in the same hospital for her heart surgery. God used the gifted people of this hospital to save her life once...now we're here for a second time expecting a similar, life-saving miracle from a different group of people.

As the day ended, we received an hour-by-hour recap of Katie's day. This is something that will occur daily. It was confirmed that Katie had a good first day, with little appearance of an emotional meltdown.

Susan will take the trek to Westwood tomorrow. Parental involvement with the kids is not allowed, so our ideas of being hands-on was overoptimistic. Our involvement will be limited to separate one-hour meetings with the lead psychologist and the nurse. We also will have "homework" each night to record Katie's actions. This will ensure a 24-hour monitoring of her situation. But outside of that, we're not directly involved.

Blessings on you all...

Mark