We prayed for strength this morning, for Judah, for ourselves, and for all of you. May this new year on the Jewish calendar bring everyone that which they’ve waited for. For us, we’ve been waiting to bring our beautiful son home. Every day brings us closer to that goal.

After temple this morning we had a nice and calm day at the hospital. Little Jude’s heart rate has come down a lot from the elevated rates he was having yesterday, today he was in the perfect and normal zone, which made mommy and daddy and all the nurses and doctors happy.

Today, J was awake and playing a little bit, looking at both mommy and daddy and making faces and playing with his favorite Yoda doll who has been in the crib with him every day, watching over him. Judah is beginning to look a lot more like himself since the surgery, and today he was not very drugged up so he was able to focus and look around a lot when he was awake. Mommy read him Dr Seuss books until he fell asleep. His heart is strong, and so is his will to get better.

The doctors were not ready to remove his breathing tube though today, and they’d like to wait just one more night so that it doesn’t cause him any discomfort when they do take it out. However, he is breathing well on his own with minimal assistance from the ventilator, which gives everyone confidence that tomorrow will be the right day to remove it.