Stand Down

We were all in such a state Friday that when his mum texted me this picture of our five-year-old grandson asleep and 'armed'  I felt a literal stab in my heart. The words accompanying the text: "He turned on his light and fell asleep on the floor with his stick. Protecting the house, he says."Last week had so much woe in it. The moments like the one I first had on seeing message make only a small example. At the same time though there was also joy in our house:My husband came home  after four days away. And our daughter Carrie, the mother of this little boy, came home to her family. (She and my husband David were together on a business trip.)And most iimportantly these two new parents, as much a part of our family as the children we 'made,' were at ast allowed to leave Brigham & Women's Hospital here in Boston where they were held on lockdown on that awful Monday with their newly-arrived babe.Here are some pictures of that joyful homecoming  (Oh! and I should probably  add that 30 minutes after I first got that text about this little boy sleeping with his weapon, his mom texted again to explain that he sleeps with a stick every night in his self-imposed role as 'family protector'. He knew nothing of the events transpiring in Cambridge and Watertown.)Below here are some images:First, the note the brand-new parents wrote to the staff at Brigham & Women's followed by images of them at their house, which was decorated by  two loving friends.Here we see the first of thousands of 'carseat extractions' followed by the actual homecoming:"Papa' seemed like an old hand at this already when Carrie and I went to visit them near week's end.and here finally is 'Aunt' Carrie, holding her new niece for the very first time..

Joy abounding!