Luke has finally been discharged from the NICU and is home along with Erica and the rest of the family!  His release from the hospital came upon us quickly and a bit unexpected. On Friday, we had a very outgoing NICU nurse (named Elizabeth) who also seemed very pro-active in moving Luke along in his feedings. She informed us when we arrived around lunch time on Friday that Luke was doing very good and in her opinion, could go home as early as Sunday – but then she warned us to not get our hopes up.

Shortly after that, the NICU doctor on call that day showed up and started to tell us how pleased she was with Luke’s progress and that he could possibly go home as early as Sunday! So our hopes were officially raised. The key benchmark for Luke to meet was for him to manage 16 feedings in a 48 hour period (without having to use the feeding tube). He had been eating 8 meals per day, but they were a combination of eating via bottles, Erica feeding him, and eating via his feeding tube. When we asked when the last time he had been fed via his feeding tube, they looked it up, and it was at noon on Thursday – so he had already gone 24 hours without having to use it!

Suddenly, they were talking very seriously about the possibility of him coming home on the weekend, but we had to wait and get the word from the doctor after Luke had officially gone 48 hours without the use of the feeding tube. Well, that call came to us Saturday morning as we were making our way to the hospital! By Saturday afternoon, we had Luke discharged and we were making our way back home with little Luke in his car seat in the back of the car!

Our journey from some rather dark and scary days back in December, to today, with all kinds of laughs and giggles around the house, has been a long and difficult one. Our Lord has been with us every step, He is so faithful. I cannot wait to tell Luke about the miracle of his life and to see all that God has in store for this guy. May be grow up to be a champion of God’s glory!

If you know my family, you know that we love taking pictures. So with Luke being home, we took some time to get some family photos with the brand new Webel SEVEN!

The Webel kids – aka “China Webels”.

Hope with her little brother… what you don’t see is that just out of frame are the hands of mom and grandma ready to protect Luke from his sister’s well-meaning, but a little bit rough pats!

Nate has totally bonded with his little bro.

Anna is so proud of her little brother, she is always asking for an opportunity to hold Luke… just can’t get enough of him!

Elizabeth is the biggest sister and a huge helper for mommy. I love the ear-to-ear grins every time she gets to hold him.