A Big Week - day 12

This will probably be the last post for a while as we are finally in our way home! Yay!
We popped back to the ward this morning after staying at Ronald McDonald house, to have Immi's wounds checked and redressed.

 It sounds silly but I felt quite emotional saying goodbye to the ward staff. I know its their job and over the course of a year they see hundreds of children come through the ward but their knowledge, care and strength makes us as parents feel safe and that is huge.

 To us in the UK hospitals feel like safe places; in the main, places to go and get help and healing. It took my mind to the footage I have seen recently of hospitals in Syria where neither patient or staff feel safe. I am thankful. We dropped off sweets and a card and Immi gave lots of hugs and we left to pack up our temporary Ronald McDonald home.

This charity too, is amazing. No doubt most of you have seen on the counters at McDonalds the little change collections or the little child height collection buckets where you can put in a coin and it spirals down getting faster and faster until it plops into the bucket. I had seen these in McDonalds and I hadn't taken much - if any, to be honest - notice.

Well, that has changed! Ronald McDonald homes are located close to many major hospitals in the UK and are an amazing resource to thousands of parents. The rooms are Premier Inn-esque and each floor also has a TV lounge and fully equipped kitchen. There is an area in the fridge allocated for each room and a cupboard for each. There is a laundry room downstairs which we utilised a number of times and the phone in each room links directly to the ward your child is in so you can sleep and know that staff can contact you easily.

 Each family accommodated leave a deposit (which we donated at the end) but however long is needed the rest is provided by the charity. Our stay was relatively short, we met a number of families that have been in the hospital for months or even years.

Without this resource these people would either not be able to stay near their child or would have to pay for hotels which as you can imagine would build up cost wise very quickly. We are so thankful for this place. Our friend Sarah had offered her spare room about 20 minutes away but this has made it so much easier and has meant that we have been able to take breaks and tag team so much easier with each other.
So next time you are in McDonalds please do drop a bit of change in the box, we and many others we have met this week thank you!

Thank you too if you have followed our journey this past few days. I will take a little break from blogging now but will write with any significant updates or changes. So many of you have commented either on the blog or in Facebook, sent love and best wishes or given to help us with expenses. Thank you, thank you, thank you, your live has held us and strengthened us. Be blessed xxx