Released - Part 2

We will, from time to time, employ cliches in these posts. It's just easier. And now is as good a time as any.

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

When little Jack was born, and for several days thereafter, we figured he would be the last to come home. He was the smallest, appeared the most feeble, and seemed to have the furthest to go. So much for our figuring.

Jack was released from the hospital on Sunday, and is staying with his mom and his brother Luke in Denver. Yes, that's correct, my wife is staying in a single room with two newborns and doing a terrific job of caring for both. And for herself. She is, in a word, amazing.

She'll stay in Denver until Ben is released, which we think will be later this week. That would mean mom and all three boys would be home within three weeks of their birth.

In the meantime, our little girls finally got to meet our little boys. I took the girls down on Saturday to visit their mom and meet their brothers. And, as expected, they were thrilled. The biggest challenge, as we also expected, was convincing them that no matter how cute their brothers' heads are, they simply can't squeeze and press on them.

A NICU in Denver wasn't exactly the setting I had in mind for the first meeting of all six of my children. But after waiting more than two weeks for that moment, it hardly mattered. The girls smiled, and held their brothers' hands, and gently rubbed their faces, and held them in their laps, and fed them, and smiled for the cameras.

When evening came, I had to drag the girls home. They did not want to leave. By Thursday, their brothers will be home, and we won't leave each other again for a while.