A thank you note from the bottom of my heart!

Hey folks, I need a visit with my friends. For those of you who aren’t subscribed to the All Things Southern weekly that I send from my website (and if you aren’t, I wish you would!), and to those who may not follow me on twitter and aren’t my friends on Facebook, I’m hoping this one update will get to everyone in our “tribe” here and maybe explain why the website isn’t updated and the emag didn’t go out this week!

I’ve been in Houston since last Friday with my daughter’s family. Our youngest grandson, two-month old Connor Phillip Maher, has been battling RSV.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus is not uncommon. Most children get it at some point before the age of two. For many babies and younger children, it means nothing more than mild to moderate cold symptoms.For others, especially infants under six months, RSV can cause serious problems including labored breathing, swelling of their small airways (causing the airways to clog with mucus) and dangerously high heart rates.

This is what happened to Connor.

But, let’s cut to the good part, shall we?! The wonderful, fantastic news is that we got out of ICU and onto the regular floor Monday– and were released from the hospital Tuesday night!

As you may imagine, we were more than apprehensive about bringing sweet Connor home too early, but once he was able to come off the oxygen, his doctors assured us that it was much safer for him to be at home than in the hospital where he could risk picking up a secondary infection. (Ironic, yes, but hospitals can make you sick!) So, we’ve been suctioning him out at home, and watching him around the clock.

Although he is NOT a fan of the suctioning, and he continues to have cold symptoms that the doctors say could linger another week or more, everything is now working at both ends. THANK YOU, JESUS!

Yesterday afternoon I breathed in as much of his baby scent as I possibly could, kissed his beautiful older brother Grant Thomas through teary eyes, and got on the road for Louisiana.

A monsoon (okay, I may be exaggerating there, but it was heavy winds and blinding rain and the kind of pooling water that catches your wheels and makes your stomach lurch), turned my six and a half hour drive turned into an eight hour plus adventure. So, despite my very best intentions to update the web and send out the newsletter yesterday on schedule, I pure-dee (great southern word, that one) crashed upon arrival, exceedingly grateful that I hadn’t crashed in route!

For the record, the ONLY reason I was able to pull myself away from Houston is because I had a speaking engagement at First Baptist Church in Monroe, LA today. And yes, I know they would’ve been fine with my cancelling it, if necessary.We were in touch earlier in the week and they knew that was an option. And yes, I would have cancelled it had I felt Connor wasn’t stable, but he is, and these dear folks have been planning this for months. Besides, I could’ve stayed in Houston for a month without feeling entirely “ready” to leave the wee one.

In closing, it is almost impossible to fully express my appreciation for everyone who has been praying for our sweet Connor. I know of so many twitter and facebook friends who have been praying with us and I’m aware of, at least, eight area churches that STOPPED their worship services Sunday morning when Connor was most critical to go to the throne on his behalf! Indeed, words fail this normally wordy belle to express my thanks to y’all, and my gratitude to the absolute faithfulness of Christ to strengthen and comfort us in the middle of our storm. I pray that each of you know this steadfast Rock, this every present refuge, this faithful God who longs to hold us everyone. I’ll be back next week. Y’all have a good one, and for goodness sakes, squeeze the stuffings out of those you love!

Hugs, Shellie