Update from Cincinnati

Today was a good day. Sharon fixed a great breakfast of eggs, fruit, and bacon, and then we left for an hour or so at Enter-Train-Ment, which is supposedly the world's largest model train exhibit. The level of detail was amazing, as was the size of the buildings, landscapes, etc. Mixed in was a great deal of interesting information about the history of trains in America. Shelly and I wondered if Josiah would merely want to play with the Thomas trains in the kids play area, but he primarily walked around and looked at the model train exhibits (that should tell you how intersting it was to him). It was something Silas would also have enjoyed (even though he's started saying "I used to like trains when I was younger").

Afterward we drove to Children's Hospital to go thru registration and meet with an anesthesiologist about Wednesday's procedures. Our first impressions of the hospital? Decorated with an obvious emphasis on making kids feel welcome, very efficient (almost no time spent in the waiting room), and every person we met had a smile and was pleasant: from the women in registration to the nurses to people we passed in the hall to the security guard in the lobby to the guy who collected our lunch payment in the food court to EVERYONE. It was great. The anesthesiologist did run a little bit late, but the nurse notified us early and suggested we use the time to go get lunch, so we spent very little wasted time in the examination room. Overall, we're very impressed. With just one primary appointment, today was much easier than the next 3 days will be, but it was a great start.

Afterward we walked to the Cincinnati Zoo. We only had 1 hour and 15 minutes before it closed, but there were very few people there and so we were able to move around quickly and see a lot of animals. Josiah said his favorite was the camel, which was a bit surprising since it stayed mostly hidden back in a cave and we could hardly see it. Shelly liked the white lions best, and I liked the tiger.

After the zoo we followed the recommendation of Josiah's therapist Julie and ate BBQ at Montgomery's on the Ohio River. A bit pricey but very good ribs and brisket (and grilled cheese for Josiah, of course).

Returned to the Schatz home tonight where I've been catching up on work for the past 3 hours or so...our fiscal year ends on 9/30, so in some ways this was not a great week for me to be away from work. However, we're grateful to be here!

Tomorrow will be more appointments and then (if the weather allows) a Reds game! Josiah has shown a real interest in baseball lately and Sharon gave him a Reds hat to wear (he has it on constantly in their home)...of course, with his short attention span it's quite likely he'll look at us in the bottom of the 1st inning and ask, "Can we go home now?"

Thanks to all of you who are praying for us this week!