Friday Update

**short version**

We arrived on Thursday night and stayed in the Holiday Inn. The boys got to play in the pool and have alot of fun.

This morning I got up nice and early and headed to my parents house. I got to visit for a bit with them and then we headed to the hospital.

We waited around for a bit then Dad got called back and got ready for the surgery. He moved into the "gown waiting room". We stayed there until about 10am and then Dad headed in to get prepared.

Mom and I went downstairs and got something to drink and eat. Aunt Sandra showed up around 10:30am and waited with us for a bit. I believe it was around 11am that we started to try and find our waiting room.

See here's the thing, we were told to wait in the ICU area and we finally found the waiting area and sat down. It was just us (Mom, Aunt Sandra and I) for a while. A few other people but generally just us. Then things got crazy in there. So many people showed up and were waiting.

Joanie, my mom's best friend showed up around 1pm I think. It was alot of fun to have her visiting and they had a blast seeing photos from their trip.

Around 2:30pm I checked in with the ICU nurse to see what the deal was with Dad. The nurse didn't know anything. She did some checking and found out we were in the wrong waiting area!!! Oh my goodness!

We finally found the right waiting area (1 floor down) and sat there. Ironically we had gone there the first time to wait and they said we were in the wrong spot as well!

When we found the right space Joanie's husband, Bobby, was there! He had been waiting for about a half hour.

Once we were settled I found out what was going on. We were told that Dad was out of surgery and that it would be another 45 minutes until we were able to see him. About 20 minutes later dad was wheeled by and we all stopped to say hi. He got to see his "cheering section". We said hi and then Dad was sent off to his room.

He was able to get the "good" side of the room (thanks to my aunt Eva who works at the hospital) and we were told we could go in and say hi.

I'm so glad things went well and I can't express how grateful we are to have all of your prayers and good thoughts.

Please continue them this weekend as Dad is in recovery.