Rapunzel?

The nurses and staff here are doing a great job of educating us and even bringing to our attention things that we need to prepare for when we bring Ellie home. We both thought normalcy would occur once we got home, but we're learning that Ellie's first year journey of life will be a little more atypical then we thought. We sure look forward to the day that we can bring Ellie home and show her off. Unfortunately we're learning that Ellie's immune system is weaker than a full term child's. This will have a noticeable effect for up to a year. The effect of this is worsened by the fact that we'll be taking her home near the start of cold and flu season. All three Gramkows will be getting whatever shots are appropriate in order to keep us all healthy. So once we take her home we may have to be cautious about keeping our little Ellie from large crowds, places where there are many germs. We also learned that our travel has to be limited, which is also a frustration because both of our parents and family live some distance away. Again, it will all work out, but it's difficult to see exactly how to approach the situation. Please pray for us as we try to discern what level of isolation she needs to have once we take her home in order to keep her safe. As many of you know, we are social people and this is going to a really hard transition for us. But obviously God knows what little Ellie needs and we're going to see to it that her mommy and daddy follow those doctors' orders.