(Maybe) heading back to San Francisco...

Supposedly we are heading to UCSF in the morning. We were informed this afternoon that there is a bed available and that it has Cora's name on it. In preparation for the transport she got a new IV, so she is spruced up and ready to go, and a few doctors even came by to wish us well.

Even with all that, there is of course no guarantee on our transport. But we are hopeful it will be tomorrow.

Given the severity of Cora's heart block she will be admitted back into the ICU when we arrive at UCSF. And we expect that her pacemaker surgery will take place next week although we don't have an exact date yet.

As for today, it was just Cora and me at Stanford for the majority of the day. We passed the time playing peek-a-boo, playing with her rattles and toys, and going for a walk around the third floor. Halfway around the floor we sat down and she took a nice long nap on my chest. That was awesome.

While we were sitting, a new friend came by. She is a mom we've seen since we first arrived here. Her daughter is in the CVICU, and she doesn't speak a word of English. In the past we would always smile at one another and leave it at that. But yesterday she came and sat next to me and just started speaking to me in Spanish as though I understood every word. It was amazing because we were actually able to communicate for about twenty minutes with just my very rusty high school Spanish, some pantomiming, and the deep bond of shared experience. Today she asked if she could hold Cora and we chatted some more.

Cora is like a universal language.

One of the things that has been most precious to me during this experience is the handful of parents we've really connected with. In the room where Cora is now, we share with a wonderful family who very much feel like old friends. They are just another set of parents, exactly like us, who is trying to make it work and accept life in the midst of what seems to be a very unacceptable situation.

There are so many brave people out there.