A Different Kind of Easter

This year Easter fell exactly one week after I was discharged from the hospital.  Our little family was scattered.  Andy, Ephram and I were all at our home in Washington.  Charlie was with his cousins in Arizona.  We'd planned his trip about two weeks earlier when we believed that I would still be in the hospital on bed rest.  And Macie was still in the NICU.

Despite our family chaos, we still wanted Easter to be special for the boys.  So we made sure the Easter Bunny knew that Ephram would be in Washington for his basket, and Charlie would be in Arizona.  Because Macie had just had her chest tubes removed and ventilator decommissioned, she was too small and fragile to have outside things in her bed.  I am sure that the Easter Bunny will make it up to her next year.

When Ephram woke up in the morning, he was very excited to find his basket.  He hunted all over the house for it.

Just when he'd lost hope in finding it, he rounded the corner into the piano room.  There it was on the coffee table.

Ephram excitedly went through it.  He found a Duck & Goose book, a new Curious George, and a toy pizza kit.

There was candy too.  Ephram ate two of his eggs filled with jelly beans on the spot.

Meanwhile, in Arizona Charlie found the basket that the Easter Bunny had left for him.  It had a new stuffed kitty, a lego sticker book, a paper airplane kit, a light and... a little bit of candy.  (All Arizona pictures courtesy of my sister Daja.)

After Easter basket fun, Charlie got ready to go to church with his cousins.  He sure does look happy about it.  This picture cracks me up.

And later that day he got to hunt for eggs with his cousins.

While Charlie was having fun in "the desert", we were getting ready to leave and go visit Macie at the hospital.  It was an atypical Easter for sure, but I just couldn't pass up visiting her on her first holiday.  She was still too fragile for Ephram to meet her, so Andy and I took turns spending time with Macie while the other parent played with Ephram in the various rec rooms they had at the hospital.  Ephram had a great time that day and was a busy bee playing with everything.

I took the longest turn with Macie.  It happened to be the day that I had my second opportunity ever to hold her, and I took advantage of it!  I wished that I could have brought something for her on her first holiday, but I did promise her that her next holiday would be better.  Macie had just rounded the corner from being so sick, and it was a very good visit.

After a couple of hours, we headed back home.  People had been very kind to provide us with dinners a few times a week for the first month while Macie was in the NICU.  However, we hadn't thought ahead to plan for Easter and we had no food at home to eat.  So, we stopped at Ephram's favorite place on the way home... McDonald's.

It was a very different Easter indeed.  Surreal, but one that I'd like to remember down the road.