Dear Marsi,

(this is a little late, I thought I posted this already, but I didn't!)

(March 26, 2013)

A year ago you had surgery to fix your heart.  You were 5 months and 2 days old.  We had only found out about your condition a few weeks earlier.  We had to go in for pre-op procedures  blood work and "tagging"   the day before surgery.  That happened to be a Sunday.  The Sunday your cousin was getting blessed.  It was really hard to put on a brave face at such a wonderful celebration for another miracle child, but I wanted it to be about her and her parents and not the sadness I was facing thinking about the next day.

That night I hugged you so close.  I cried. It wasn't going to be a long, hard, open heart surgery, but it might as well have been.  No parent should understand the pain and fear a parent goes through to have surgery on their baby's heart...or any surgery.

You were the first surgery of the day, and for that I was grateful.  You had to fast for the surgery and I didn't want you to be miserable for too long.  

You did so well.  You got a little sad, but you were smiling and looking everywhere.  All of the nurses loved you.  I am so glad that I was able to talk to the doctor and the anesthesiologist for a while before surgery.  The hardest thing I have ever had to do was hand you over to the anesthesiologist and wait on the other side of the double doors.  Luckily, you loved him and smiled as he took you away.

Now, a year later you are still so much fun.  And so smart.  Daddy has been working on letters and numbers with you and you LOVE it.  You go around to anything with letters and numbers trying to identify all of them.  Your favorite show is "The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That" and was very excited to meet the cat at the library.

You are getting so good at feeding yourself with utensils too!

You LOVE Clifford...enough that we had to buy another one for the wash days :)

You are my special miracle.  I love you so much.