Finding a New Normal

After 5 weeks we finally arrived home from the hospital. We spent those weeks in anguish wondering what life had in store for our sweet Jaimee and our little family of 6. We knew that we had to find a new normal. We weren't getting back our vivacious, precocious little girl. What we did get came a surprise the day her eyes were open while on the ventilator and I sang her favorite song. She looked right at me and smiled the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. She has been smiling ever since. Her familiar Jaimee attitude and "Jaimee Looks" are still there although not as frequent which isn't exactly a bad thing. :) It's been wonderful to love her, kiss her, tickle her and have her eat up every moment.

Those who knew her well knew she wasn't a baby very long at all. She was always in a hurry to grow up, experience everything she could and to do it all on her own when and where she wanted. Now our normal seems in some ways to ironically be normal. Much like the normal of having a 5 month old baby. So as Jeff appropriately said one night to me while drowning in sorrowful tears, mourning the loss of what was, he exclaimed, "we now get our baby back." The boys get to dote on her which they love. They have learned so quickly to do it effortlessly and she adores them so much. She makes progress each day and we cheer her on just as you would when a baby learns a new "trick" for the first time.

There is so much joy and love how could we feel anything but blessed that a loving Heavenly Father allowed us to keep her a part of our family. Miracles really do happen and she is our miracle baby. We now get the chance to live life over again with Jaimee and watch her little personality and body develop and grow as much and as far as she is willing to take it.

We thank all of the hundreds and perhaps thousands of prayers that have been offered on Jaimee's and our behalf. We were amazed with the flood of responses from all regions and from all religions. Prayers were being offered internationally, from east coast to west. Her name was added to prayer roll after prayer roll in many, many temples. Prayer groups were notified immediately. Cell phones were ablaze, text messages were flying and the worldwide web of email and Facebook were bombarded with requests for prayer and fasting-because of that effort she is here. The Lord heard you-He heard all of us! And for that we thank you. We thank the Spotten's for coming to my rescue and caring for our boys in those initial and most difficult days, for loving them and protecting them as they went through interview after interview. We thank them along with the Bird's for taking control of our home and putting order back into a place of horrific chaos making our home welcoming to come back to despite what occurred here. We thank the Ibarra's, Sheryl and Kim for participating in that effort as well. We thank our wonderful and prayerful neighbors who protectively cared for our kids initially and watched out for our home. We thank the Thomas' for faithfully taking care of our dog and bird and loved them while we were away. We thank all those who visited us, who brought food and clothing to us, presents and cards and money for Jaimee-you all know who you are. We thank our ward family of Littlerock and those of our previous ward family who have and continue to volunteer to provide support and service in the most Christ like of ways. We thank our wonderful, loyal, and selfless family who dropped everything and came at all hours of every day to support us through the most difficult weeks of our life-this has been gut-wrenching for all of them. They each have suffered and mourned with us as well as our close friends have, more than I'm sure even we will know. Our family opened their hearts, their homes, their arms to our 3 boys and encircled them in love for 5 weeks while we tended to Jaimee. I can't thank them enough. Because of all of them my boys felt at peace, they were comforted when needed, they found times of great joy and fun and created lasting bonds with their cousins and for that I couldn't be more grateful for those tender mercies the Lord continues to provide even in dark days. I am amazed and humbled by the warmth we are surrounded in. Heavenly Father has living angels all around us and we literally feel how strong your faith is and feel your love for us.

I also want to add that everyone should take a CPR class. If it weren't for the Boy Scouts of America program at church offering the class only one month before this happened, I wouldn't have know what to do for my daughter. In the discharge report it says that the paramedics arrived and found a pulse where there wasn't one when I began the CPR. I was told by several medical professionals that we have Jaimee because of the CPR and that less than 1% of kids in her condition make it home but with CPR it's around 50%. Please take a class if you haven't had the chance. I never thought I'd need it but I thank the Lord I took it-it is what gave me the calm and confidence to respond to what needed to get done-saving Jaimee. Thank you Northridge Hospital Medical Center for having the care page site free for families it was a God-send and thank you again to the Spotten's for setting that up. Thank you to my friend's who have protected our privacy and family and for updating everyone as much as you could. For all of you wishing to keep up on Jaimee's progress we will be stopping the Care Page site soon and I will be updating my blog site and Facebook. So feel free to add me and/or Jeff as a friend on Facebook (Mardee Jessop/ Jeff Jessop), just put "Jaimee" in the comment line. We will still post pictures on FB and provide links to the blogsite- blogger.com Jessop's On The Go! I'm new to this so bare with me as I get adjusted and try to find the time among all my duties with Jaimee and family. Please feel free to call, stop by- just let us know ahead of time, or email me at mardeejessop@sbcglobal.com.

Lastly, I want to thank the most amazing medical staff at Northridge Hospital-you literally saved my daughter's life! Dr. Semnani has our respect, admiration and love forever. Whatever we can do to further his pursuits to making the pediatric ICU a trauma center we hope to help in that effort even if the California Government won't bother-I wouldn't want my child to be anywhere else-believe me, after being at Kaiser, there is a HUGE difference. It was divine intervention she ended up at Northridge which was the last place on the list she would go. The nurses, the respiratory therapists the entire staff assisting Jaimee were fantastic! The nurses have stayed there over 15 years for a reason-because there isn't anyone better than Dr. Semnani and we know it and understand it fully. God bless you all, you were incredible in every way. My daughter never received such devoted loving care than while at Northridge. We love you and will be a part of your lives for as long as you let us!

As we start this new phase of months if not years of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical equipment and social services galore, we are adjusting to our new normal- just a loving, happy family enjoying each and every day God has given us knowing there isn't any pain we have suffered that the Lord hasn't already suffered on our behalf. By His grace He continues to allow us to find joy together in our normal everyday lives and for that we can only be grateful.

Love to you all,

Mardee