Thanksgiving at home for John and Alison and blessings from the Pope

Friday, 10:00 a.m.

Our Stephen came in on Wednesday. He stayed with Alison so that mom could go home and make some Thanksgiving favorites; yams, cornbread (Alison's job since she was a little girl),broccoli casserole (Alison's favorite) and Stephen's birthday cake (we haven't had an opportunity to celebrate yet). In the midst of this surreal world, my sister in law, Dawn and I brainstormed a number of plans for the Thanksgiving holiday-we really had no idea what was going to happen but I had to "dabble" in making a few things and Dawn was "off and running" with preparations for a huge meal-we had no idea where we would eat or how we could possibly all be together but we would just start to prepare and somehow all would work out. We knew that any plan that we would come up with would have to be tentative as there was a slim chance that the doctors might let Alison come home for Thanksgiving day-all would depend on how her bloodwork looked Thursday morning. After a long night, Stephen (a bit sleep deprived) called and our prayers were answered once again, Alison's creatinine level had come down a bit-enough for the doctors to let her come home for Thanksgiving-yeah!!! As Joe left for the hospital and Jen came home to help mom, we called Dawn and gave her the update. "The plan" had now changed, God bless her--she was now bringing dinner to our house-the turkey, the trimmings, dessert-even the nuts.

Oh my gosh, this was like deja vue.-history repeating itself. Twenty four years ago, as we had a new baby at home and another newborn in intensive care, my mother in law did exactly the same thing as her daughter was now doing-bringing Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings (even the nuts) to Joe and Karen's We are so very blessed---many thanks to Dawn (and our brother in law, Danny-for his suport). I know they were as thrilled as we in being able to have all of us together, including Pop, for the holiday--- and Dawn really made it possible to celebrate with all the traditions. As we sat at the dining room table with Alison alongside us, we each took a piece of cornbread and said what we were thankful for-emotions were high and love was strong-what a special moment, what a special day. Alison worked hard to join in, her nausea worked hard to halt her-I think Alison won! Alison had a few visitors; Aunt Terri and Jamie and some of her close friends-all in all, she had a wonderful day-and so did we.

We got to talk with John's family. We knew our news would make them very happy. John is doing well-all was right with the world. We also received a call from Dr. Cernera, the President of Sacred Heart University-he had just returned from Europe where he met with the Pope- yes, THE Pope. We were in astonishment as he told us that in his brief time with His Holiness, he shared John and Alison's story and that the Pope would pray for them. God has been so good to us-with blessing after blessing.

Well, it's back to the hospital today-the doctors said noon, Alison said 2, we know who we're betting on.

We hope that your Thanksgiving was a special as ours. Have a great weekend.

Love to all,
Joe, Karen and family