Hands down, more adventure than we ever wanted...

well, I guess at least the type of adventures you think of wanting anyway! Amber and I have always had a knack for getting ourselves in over our heads and having unusual adventures, but I'm pretty sure I never would have guessed in a million years that we would be in Nashville at a hospitality house when the flood waters came to middle Tennessee! Russ asked me Sunday if I was documenting all of it, so I guess I should let everyone know that we survived the flood with little more than wet feet.

Thankfully, the reports coming through channel 5 about the power and oxygen failure possibilities were completely the comments of the news guy and not the hospital. (If by chance someone connected to them or to any news people read this, which I doubt, please pass on to news people that it is very unwise, foolish, ignorant, and unthoughtful-I could probably think of a few other words- to report on something like that without knowing the facts. Even if they had been right about the O2 and Power failures, what good does it do to report it during the crisis. I'll tell you what good it does. It panics families of patients who then flood the hospital with calls and attempt to get to the hospital to make sure their family members are ok. Then the nurses have to deal with family members at the cost of the patients' care. How about waiting to make comments like that until after you have a reason to comment on it other than hyping up hysteria so people will stay glued to the TV all day.) There's my rant. I wanted to call the station, but I've calmed down enough now to just talk bad about them behind their backs. (If you're talkinga bout a station and not a person, does that count as gossip?)

Adam (the host at the hospitality house) and I walked over to the hospital during the downpour to see if there was any way in. If you've never seen a real flash flood, it's pretty impressive. I still don't understand how it comes and goes that quickly and I'm sure no matter how someone tries to explain it, I never will. On the way there, Wwe saw cars up to the windows with water and twenty minutes later the water was completely gone. When we got to the hospital the fire alarm was going off, but it was only because the garage and the lobby were flooding. The basement level of the garage had a torrent going through it and Children's Way was a flood that the cops had to pull someone out of their submerged car from what I was told. The lobby never got more than an inch or two from what I could tell. The staff had it dry by a couple hours later. By the way, if you know anyone who works at a hospital, tell them thanks. When things like this happen, they have to pull 24 hour shifts or more when their replacements can't get to work. I'm not sure how they do the 12 hour shifts that they already do, but I sure am grateful for them.

The hospitality house basement flooded up to the second from the top stair to come into the kitchen, but thankfully stopped there before it started going back down again. Unfortunately, the water took out the hot water heater and the air conditioning unit. With that in mind and the fact the Nashville has is under a water conservation order, we are staying at Amber's parent in Spring Hill for the night until things calm down a little.

Both girls are in cribs now and they are taking nearly all of the feeding by bottle now. They still tucker out before they can finish their bottles on a few of the feeds and the rest simply goes through the tube, but they do a little better each day. They both slowed down a little on weight gain as well because of the extra energy to bottle feed. Mattie is now 5lbs 1oz and Sophie is 4lbs 14oz. I mentioned in the last post that the thing to pray for was that their O2 dependence would decrease, but I found out tonight that the problem for their O2 dependence may actually be their blood count. Both girls are just a little low on their red blood cell count which could account for why they aren't coming off of their O2 a little quicker. They are both working hard to bring their red blood cells up though, so we'll just pray for continued improvement. The nurses and doctors are talking about moving us to the step down unit once their O2 requirement takes the next step down and from their it could potentially be a matter of weeks before they get sent home. (although, when we actually sit down to look at a calendar, it is really only a few weeks before Amber's original due date anway!) They still have to come off of the O2 before anything happens at all and that will only happen on their schedule, though. It is incredible how time flies when you're having fun...or at least when you have lost all sense of time due to never really changing your routine from day to day.

Crimson continues to improve a little each day from what we can tell. We don't get to see Alex and Stacy as often now, but try to keep updated through phone calls and texting. We are also having dinner with another couple whose son is about 3 weeks behind the girls so keep them in your prayers as well. Now we are down the hall from the couple who has the twin boys that the grandfather tried to arrange our kids' marriages for on Easter Sunday and have been blessed to meet them. I wouldn't choose to go through this again in a million years, but I continue to be encouraged by the people we are meeting. The only problem now is that we seem to be collecting babies to worry about! I'm just thankful God is watching over all of them.

Sorry for the incredibly long post. I'm finding it's harder and harder to get time to update...plus we're in the stage when the most exciting thing that happens is that nothing really happens other than growth and maturing. Thanks again for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.