Tomorrow, it will be one year since we brought Maddy home. Three hundred and sixty five days of her sleeping under the same roof as us, after one hundred and twenty four days of NICU. In the last year, we have had approximately eighty one different medical related appointments for Maddy, including specialist appointments, therapy sessions, etc. That's an average of one every 4.5 days. The first six months, it probably averaged one every three days, lately it's been more like one every one or two weeks.
NICU was such a difficult time for us - and I think that only someone who has been through that would understand exactly how it feels. I also have to say that the society here in Hong Kong makes it far worse than it needs to be.
This past year hasn't always been easy, but even still, it was immensely better than NICU. The first few weeks, we were struggling to force-feed Maddy when she still didn't really know how to take her milk orally. And then we were stuck in Hong Kong indefinitely after being told that Maddy may not be safe to fly. I think that our trip back to Australia (which I STILL haven't finished writing updates about) was really when things started looking up for us. There's nothing like being home, and returning to Australia was so refreshing for all of us, in so many ways.
Tonight as I was putting my girls to bed, I hugged Maddy a little tighter, grateful for those three hundred and sixty five nights that I have been able to put her to bed, and remembering those four months and two days that we were separated.
