Surgery and the return of Bear-Bear

Genevieve had surgery three weeks ago to correct a deformity in her left thumb. It went shockingly well, so much that, not a tear was shed from the time we entered the hospital to when we arrived home. God was so good to spare Genevieve from a traumatic experience! The surgeon informed us that she apparently walked herself into the O.R. and even laid herself down on the operating table before being put under. Pretty amazing, this girl is! Apparently she is such an extrovert that she'd go and hang out with the strange-looking grown-ups in green pajamas and masks, rather than stay with her own parents!

As you can see in the picture, her little hand had to be wrapped up until the stitches healed. Unfortunately, about an hour of getting home from the hospital, with her hand still totally numbed up, Genevieve deftly unwrapped it, and plucked a stitch right out. Back to the doctor we went!

And through it all, you know who was always there for Genevieve? (Assuming her Almighty Father in Heaven, of course!), her trusty and faithful Bear-Bear. . .. A floppy little pink bear whom Genevieve sleeps next to, shares her breakfast with, puts under her shirt and pretends is her unborn baby. And dear Bear-Bear, though Philip and I couldn't, accompanied her into the operating room and comforted her when we couldnt. I'm deeply grateful for him, though he causes me much trouble. . . . i.e. losing approximately one hour of my every-day searching for him under our couch cushions, in kitchen cabinets and our bushes outside when he's been misplaced.

Poor, dear bear-bear...We lost him at the orthopaedist's office just two weeks after Eve's surgery. I really cant even go into the details of how heart-wrenching this was for Genevieve, because its possible I'll start crying (again). But amazingly, after a week of searching, I found a new and identical Bear online!

We told her he would be arriving in the mail, and as we ran today to the mailbox to get him, Eve began chanting as we went, "I tiss Bear. I tiss Bear" (Her "k"s come out as "t"s.) :-)

And here's their sweet, long-awaited reunion:

A joyous day indeed!