5 year anniversary

Five years ago today, Evan's trach became a thing of the past. Mike took it out at 7:15 a.m. and we've never looked back. It's just so hard to believe 5 years have gone by. We feel so incredibly blessed that his airway has grown as it should since his surgery in 8/02 and that we've been able to move forward. I felt as though I was dreaming that day. I couldn't believe that he was actually breathing thru his mouth and nose. My parents and sister came to Cincinnati later that morning (the trach came out while he was in the hospital-we had to stay for two nights), my cousin and his wife from Cincinnati joined us as well as Pastor Bob Thomas and family who also lived there. It was quite the party and the hospital even brought us a cake and ice cream to celebrate! The first picture was from about 3 weeks prior to decannulation (we were able to cap off his trach then), the 2nd picture was that morning in the hospital and the 3rd picture was from about 6 days later. Looking back, I sometimes wonder how the heck we got thru those first 2 1/2 years-who were those people? :)