Waiting...

Hi all...it's Erica. Mom invited me to post, so I thought I'd give a brief update on what's going on with Dad. Mom stayed at the hospital with him last night and other than a nightmare about some guy trying to get through his hospital window, he slept pretty well (all things considered). He was having some anxiety, naturally, early this morning, but he was grateful to have his goofy kids here to keep his mind off of things. See? We all knew our goofiness would come in handy at SOME point! Bryant, Aaron, Cam and his wife Kasey, Jared, me and Mom have been here from about 4 a.m., mostly visiting and cracking lame jokes. The nurses came in and chased us all out a little after 5 a.m. for surgery prep, and at 5:50, they wheeled him to the second floor for bypass surgery.

So now, we wait. The 'procedure' should take 4-6 hours, give or take, and the doctors are very confident that all will go well. Dad's heart is strong, he's healthy and young - and they caught it soon. All good things.

I gotta' say, Surgery Waiting isn't where we thought we'd be spending our Friday morning this week. I know Dad feels a little blindsided. Chris, Julia, Greta and Matt are driving up as I write this, and Brandon and Steph will be coming a little later today. How blessed we are! Such support and love from so many. We have each felt a tremondous amount of peace through all of this, but especially last night after Bryant gave Dad a priesthood blessing. We know that many other prayers have been said on Dad's behalf, and for that we are so grateful. The priesthood has played an integral part in the calm that has come - as it so often does. We feel the tender mercies of the Lord; have seen miracles already, and that is a tremendous blessing as well. Thank you for your faith and love and for your concern, and for your continued prayers.