a miraculous circle

Jonathan is coming home.

As of yesterday, Jonathan is approved to transfer as an inpatient to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. He and Mom will board a plane tomorrow morning and make the transition to the next phase of treatment and life.

When Mom and I were discussing how to go about blogging this shocking (to us as much as everyone else) news, she reminded me of the list of miracles that I was keeping during the first week of Jonathan's stay in the hospital. I had kind of forgotten about it, four months ago...how I sat on that plastic blue couch and made everyone around me help me list the tiny details which had smoothed the road for our family in so many ways. Of course those miracles were just the added flourishes to the miracle which we then continued to pray for - Jonathan's life.

So, tonight, we have come full circle, or, rather, we have made our way back to another beginning. These past two days, we have watched that list of flourishes grow, once again, as the final touches to another grand salvation. Though I haven't had a chance to document them all this time, I am experiencing that same sense of overwhelming awe.

I arrived in New York on Tuesday at the same time as the news that Jonathan would be coming home. I was a bit nervous, because there have been so many thing that needed to fall into place, too many little details to count. While many of the miracles have come at the hands of able and willing workers (Dad, the social workers, the hospital staff), some of them have been so beautifully finessed that it's difficult to even believe. For example, Jonathan got a last visit with both of his attending physicians today. For the first time in four months, he actually spoke with the attending and the resident who saved his life. Yesterday, Jonathan was able to walk back to 2 South and 8 West, dressed in clothes, to say goodbye and thank you. Tonight and last night, he enjoyed a final celebratory dinner with Joey and Melissa, Scott and Kristin, and Andrew. The bags are packed (no small miracle in itself!). The manna continues to fall.

Like many other moments of this journey, I will never forget the experience of being the one to bring the message of homecoming back to my family. Never, ever have I witnessed or felt such a longing to be home. I had just come from home and was so comforted by the restorative beauty and community there. When I spoke about it with Mom and J, I saw anxiety and weariness barely holding back fierce joy and relief at the thought of going home. They were afraid to believe that it might be true, because going home was almost too great a gift. Through this whole process - watching my dad fight and fight to get them home, hearing Mom's voice ache for her house, her family and friends, her bed, aching to have the whole family around that dinner table again, seeing Jonathan's smile when he found out he was going home- through all this talk about home, it has been hard for me not to think about heaven. As much as we long for Nashville right now, I think all of our hearts have uncovered such an ache for home that isn't just earthly. We can't help but long, tangibly, for the place that will bring freedom from the weariness, that will heal our bodies and spirits, that will bring community and communion, that will have beautiful, beautiful light. We have learned to long for home in so many ways.

So home it is, at least, Nashville, for now. My family would also like to request that, at first, visitors give Jonathan a few days to settle into Vanderbilt. The transition may be a bit difficult and will also be incredibly draining for everyone involved. Though sad to leave his New York family, Jonathan will be excited to see some of his Nashville family again - he just has to take it slow. Even Eme and Waldo are going to have to wait a little longer to see him, it seems...:)

And as the new circle brings a bit more toward normal, all mail can now be forwarded to our house in Nashville.


Nicole