We arrived at the Ronald McDonald house late Monday, around 10:30 pm which was amazing timing, considering we were travelling with 3 little kids. Chris was cranking up the accelerator and only allowed us to have washroom breaks and one longer break for kids to play at a playground for a bit and even that wasn’t long. He’s such a guy, just needs to get there, but thankfully the kids were amazing.
Just before we arrived at the house, we drove past the hospital and I was overwhelmed with emotions and a bit of anxiety kicked in. But they quickly passed.
When we got to our room, there was a goody-bag on the bed for the entire family. There was a toy for each kid, coloring books and markers, toiletries and a coffee mug. Also, we happened to get one of the bigger rooms here, which is really nice. I love this house and everything that it stands for.
The kids slept in until about 9:00ish (8:00 their normal timezone) which is late for them, but we’re still pretty tired from the long drive the day before. Nonetheless, that did not stop them from having a fun-filled day exploring everything in the house from the video arcade room to the many play areas.
This amazing house has 3 huge kitchens with double appliances and one room fully stocked up with 4 freezers and 4 fridges that have all sorts of foods that people come and cook for the families. There is also a wall of canned and dry foods so I didn’t even have to go to the store and buy anything for breakfast for the kids. We were also blessed to have a group of wonderful ladies come and make an amazing dinner with strawberry shortcake for desert as well as some baked goods for the morning. They have been here all day! Chris thanked them many times throughout the day and I raved to them about the amazing salad they made. I can’t even really express it into words how grateful we are to be here and how blessed we feel to meet wonderful people that take time out of their day to come and make all these families a meal to really bless our day. It takes a lot of the worry of having to worry about feeding the family. Like I said before it was a long drive and lots of prep work to come here and we do miss our home even though the kids have already asked when we are going home, but we are at peace about being here and we feel well taken care of. I think the kids were really asking how long they get to stay here because they had asked if we could stay here for “10 days!” I’m sure they feel like that would be eternity for them to have lots of fun.
The kids also played Bingo after dinner with other families and won some prizes. Chris had already taken Hudson to get ready for bed early because he was overtired having too much fun. Hayden and Hayley tried really hard to win a “Cars” character that Hudson didn’t have yet but someone else won it and they were a bit disappointed briefly but were excited about the other prizes they picked out. It was another long day of fun and they were tired.
I am tired too, off I go to bed since tomorrow we need to be in hospital by 7:00a.m for pre-op appointment and are expected to be there between 4-6hrs but we are able to come back to the House and we await Thursday, the Big Day.
p.s. I also was happy to see a family we had met last time we were here, nice to see them again but sad to hear that they have been here since October of last year WOW! Their little guy is 3.5yrs old and he’s sooo sweet. He has a Hypoplastic Right Heart, so he has an underdeveloped right ventricle among other issues; Hudson has a Hypoplastic Left Heart. Praying for this little guy, always. His name is Joel.
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