3 Seasons, Heading Into 4

Tomorrow will mark 4 seasons of our time with Gabrielle at BC Children's hospital. I was thinking about this on my walk to Safeway (along Oak Street) and how I've seen the big leafy trees through almost all the stages, and how much we've all grown and changed.

Gabrielle, 2 days old in the NICU in BC Children's (October 15th)

 Michael at the park down the street from BC Children's.
Hard to believe how much he's grown up through all this.

Amy and Gabrielle in for a pre-transplant
appointment in January 2011.

The winter beach on my run the morning before Gabrielle slipped with
bronchiolitis and went from Langley Memorial Hospital to Children's.
Let it be said that Amy was far too concerned and "in tune"
to be going for runs that February morning.

The boys standing in front of Canuck Place during Gabrielle's February visit for
bronchiolitis ... a place that seemed surreal and "not for us," and one we can't
wait to go as a family (once we get out of ICU) after being disjointed for over 3 months. 

Gabrielle and Amy after her surgery to get the main line put in to
begin the chemotherapy and stem-cell transplant in early March.

Vancouver at the beginning of Gabrielle's transplant, early March 2011.

Gabrielle in the Day+30's before her second in-tranplant set-back
with the coronavirus, basking in the warming spring sun shining
through the hospital window.

Jimmy and Micky going for a nature walk with their cousins
Cole and Gavin in the budding spring woods.

Daddy taking Gabrielle for her first walk outside the
hospital after roughly 80 days. The leaves were out,
the birds were chirping, and she and I were overwhelmed
in very different ways on that evening in the late spring.

Mommy, Micky, and Jimmy at home with Gabrielle for all of 12 days before returning.

Mom with Gabrielle the day after being ambulanced back to BC Children's with
dangerously low oxygen levels. The room with the warm, close-to-summer sun was
short-lived as she was transferred to ICU for need of high-flow oxygen.

Gabrielle (8.5 mo.) and brother Micky (almost 2 yrs) in
the ICU just days before the beginning of Summer 2011.

If you had asked me on October 12, 2010 what kind of pictures the upcoming 3 seasons were going to include, I don't think I would have guessed one of these.  It's amazing what time holds in store ... and as the leaves bristle in the breeze on this summer eve, I can only wonder what the next few seasons will bring.