Success

Today is the day we have been waiting for!!! We are both giddy with anticipation and a bundle of nerves. Everyone is ready to leave the house at 5:50 am so we can pick up Husnia who will translate for the doctors and nurses, and get to the hospital by 6:30 am to check in for surgery. Things move along in quick succession, and by 7:15 Ali is gowned, has his IV, and is watching TV while we wait for Dr. Bertsch to greet us on her way to scrub. The one concern that he has is about the stitches that will be placed after surgery. He showed us a scar on the palm of his hand that he got from being cut by a piece of metal that required stitches, and remembering the removal of those stitches were the cause of his concern. Dr. Bertsch assured him that this time it would be different. (She was in fact able to use all dissolvable sutures and steri-strips, so there are no sutures to be removed) The sedation began to work within 2 minutes of being pushed into his IV, and 2 hours later he was back in his room, requesting to go home. Still groggy and silly from the anesthesia we managed to keep him there long enough to eat half a pop tart and drink enough coke to satisfy the recovery room nurses that he could in fact, go home.

My relief is replaced by gratitude and I am struck by the gift that Solace for the Children has given this sweet and loving young boy. A gift that will transform his life from being the boy who is an outcast to the boy who went to America and returned to Afghanistan healed. I am grateful to the doctors and hospital who made this gift possible, and to our God who through all things are possible.

Peace,
Meg