The Helipad

I've come to notice that there is something about life flight that people find fascinating. In our first 85 days at Shands I tried to ignore the constant coming and going of the helicopters. I mean I admit the first time I saw the helicoptor land and take off from the South Tower at Shands I stopped and watched (as did every other person that was with us and pretty much everyone around). From then on though for some reason everytime I'd hear the helicopter and people around me would lean out to see it I'd find myself uninterested - something in me didn't want to make it a spectacle but I don't know why? It seemed human nature to stop and look because that's what everyone did but to me I felt what's the big deal I've seen a helicopter before.

But there is something incredibly different about seeing the helicopter your baby is on. When the life flight nurses wheeled Owen out of the hospital room they stopped to let mommy & daddy get one last kiss before he left and the nurse looked at me and said you can come out and watch us take off if you want to.

As I followed my baby outside I found where the rest of the family had gathered out there to see him off. I couldn't just stand there and watch but I wanted to be close to him as long as I could. I hugged everyone goodbye and heard the propellers start to whip in the wind slowly first then faster and faster. Ed walked me to the truck where I found privacy for the first time in awhile and burst into tears thinking that I wanted everyone who saw that helicopter in the sky this time to know it was my baby and to wish him well. From the truck I watched the helicopter lift off and fly away with my precious son a passenger of the night.

The nurse who had offered to let us watch was really wonderful she texted me the whole way giving me updates and finally texted me a picture to let me know Owen was in good hands - I already knew that though because we've placed him in God's hands all along.

I don't know that I will ever feel so uninterested in the life flight helicoptors anymore but I think instead of wondering who it is or what happened to them I will just quietly lift them in prayer and move along. And that light in the sky in the night well it will forever remind me of a time when angels surrounded my son in the night winds on his way back to Shands.


The picture sent from the nurse once they were at Shands.