This has been a pretty good week. I've had some hard moments, but I've tried to keep everything in perspective. On Monday, a sweet little one lost her battle with CHD. I've been following her blog since last spring when I met her parents up at Primary Children's. Gracie had HLHS, and passed away a week after she got a heart transplant. My heart has been so heavy this last week. I've wanted to blog, but felt at a loss for words. My heart and prayers are with this sweet family.
The things that have lightened my mood are being with my two children. Ben has been such a sweetheart. He came to me the other day after I'd finished reading an update on Gracie's blog. I had been crying and he wiped my tears and asked me what was wrong. I told him about Gracie and her valiant fight. That night at bedtime when we prayed, he prayed for Gracie and her family. It was truly remarkable that my 6 year old could demonstrate such love and compassion for another family. What an amazing little man. I love him SO much!
Elaina has been on the super sweet side this week too. She's over the c-diff, adjusted to the g-tube and back to her happy and sassy self.
She is teething, so she has her moments of being unhappy, but luckily a little bit of Tylenol seems to do the trick. She has brought me SO many smiles and has filled my soul with love. She LOVES kisses and has developed the habit of grabbing my hair and pulling my face to hers when she wants some extra loves. It's pretty cute. Even the nurses could tell that she was doing it to get some kisses from Mommy! Today we went for a follow up with her GI Surgeon at Primary's. He said that her incision is healing very nicely, and the stoma looks great.
I've decided that for now I'm only going to be blogging once a week. If something important or exciting (or heaven forbid scary!) happens, I'll be sure to post. But things are just so crazy that I decided to make blogging part of my schedule and to try posting weekly. We really are in a good routine. I'm able to go up to South Davis 3 - 4 times a week to spend the afternoons with Elaina. I spend the mornings working and once I get Ben out the door, I'm off. The days I don't make the drive to Bountiful are spent running errands, doing laundry and working at my 2nd job. This job also carries over into the evening and sometimes later at night, so my free time to play on the computer is limited. The best part is that Elaina is stable. Stable is good. She's looking more pink all the time and starting to meet some of her milestones. She can almost roll over! She loves to grab and put things in her mouth! She's still developmentally delayed, but she is catching up and I'm very proud of her progress.
I thought I'd leave you with some pictures (as I promised forever ago!) from the last couple of weeks. They are in no particular order, just some of my favorites.
12 comments:
I feel so "filled up" after all of those pics! She looks amazing....such an example of God's grace.
Is it me...or is she growing? She looks like she's filling the crib.
:0)
My heart breaks for Gracie's family. I read the final post and...lost it. I tell myself that I can't read critical blogs right now...but it seems with these heart babies...things change in an instant. :0(
Thank you for all the pictures...she looks SO good...and happy!
Oh my gosh, those pictures are wonderful!! Your Sunshine is beautiful. It's so good to see all the different expressions on her face. And you're right, she does have smiling eyes.
Thanks so much for the update AND the pics. Hang in there, Wondermama, you are doing an amazing job.. xoxo
What a busy Mom you are! She is so cute! What a sweetheart Ben is. I still remember meeting him, and wondering whose cute kid he was, and when I discovered he was your cute kid, it all made sense!
What beautiful, beautiful pictures for your princess!
What a cutie! Glad to hear you're all doing so well. Love you!
She looks amazing! So glad that things are going well for all of you. Thanks for the update, and good luck keeping up with yourself!
I just had to come check on you guys. I'm so glad to hear Elaina is doing so well.
Love all the pictures!
Wow, she looks so expressive lately! Glad to see her pinking up a bit. Looking fabulous!
Hi Hollie,
She is so sweet! I would love to meet her sometime if possible. It's been a long road from the carefree years of the old ward of our youth. You sincerely amaze me.
kath
Hi Hollie,
She is so sweet! I would love to meet her sometime if possible. It's been a long road from the carefree years of the old ward of our youth. You sincerely amaze me.
kath
Wow she looks even better than when I Nevaeh and I came to see her. That is wonderful. Thanks for posting the pics.
She's getting SO big!
That's amazing that she's ready for bolus feeds already...Isaac has had his tube for almost 2 years...and we're still on a pump (taking 45 minutes for 6 1/2 ounces) every FOUR hours!
Glad to hear that all is well.
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