What a change!

I love these photos that show how far Elli has come. We just took the top and bottom picture on Friday night. The middle picture was taken when Elli was a couple of weeks old. The little stuffed Clifford is about 3" long. You've come a long way baby girl!!!


Elli has been moved over to nursery B. That is the side where the stable babies are that are getting ready to go home. Right now we are working on teaching Elli to eat. Who knew it could be such a hard and exhausting thing to learn. She will do alright for one feeding, then she is wiped out for the rest of the day. If you wouldn't mind, we could use the extra help from all your prayers again. This is the last hurdle to get over so that we can bring Elli home. Thanks for all you have all done for us to get us to this point.

So Thankful

We are so very grateful this Thanksgiving for the amazing blessing Elliana is. She is a miracle in every way. This is a picture that was taken not long after Elli was born. She was 1 lb. 2 oz. and 10" long. She was on blood pressure medication, and a slew of other medications that I can't even remember. She had a heart murmur. She was on a ventilator. Her eyes were sealed shut, and her skin was like tissue paper. It was a scary time for us, but also a time to grow and learn.



Here is Elli now. Thanksgiving day is her 3 month birthday, which makes it a little more special this year. She is 17" long and weighs just over 5 lbs. Her eye exam last week showed that her eyes are immature, but normal. Her brain ultrasound was also normal. Her bones are making steady improvements, and aren't as fragile as they were a few weeks ago. She is on low flow oxygen and is learning how to coordinate eating. She is just so darling!!!!

I listened to a song on the new Christmas album by Josh Groban that has a beautiful description of our experience.

So for tonight we pray for all we know can be,

and on this day we hope for all we still can't see.

It's up to us to be the change,

and even though we all could still do more,

There's so much to be thankful for.

I am grateful for my faith that has been strengthened and my prayers that have been answered. I am grateful for a husband who considered it a blessing to take care of me while I was on bed rest, and who continues to do more than his share around the house. I am grateful to my son who demonstrates daily what faith really is. I'm grateful to my family and friends who have served our family and have felt our joy and our fear right along with us. It is so much easier to go through this when you know you're not alone. I'm grateful for a tremendous medical staff who love Elli, and know exactly what to do for her. I am grateful for the countless ways which the Lord has shown me He is aware and that He loves me. The third verse of I Believe In Christ has been particularly powerful for me. I was praying silently and tearfully after I was told to go on bed rest. I was terrified of what statistically should happen, and prayed desperately for everything to work out. I wanted my plan to be the Lord's plan, and was fearful that it might not be. I was listening to a tabernacle choir CD as I cried and prayed. My attention was suddenly directed to the third verse.

I believe in Christ who stands supreme.

From Him I'll gain, my fondest dream.

And while I strive through grief and pain,

His voice is heard, ye shall obtain.

I am so grateful for the mercy of a loving Father who hears and answers prayers, and for the empathy and comfort given to me by the Savior. They live and they know us. I am grateful for this time of year to be able to focus on the Savior, and to be able to recognize how involved He is in my life. He has had His hand in everything all along, and though I have gone through some really difficult times in my life, there really is so much to be thankful for.

Got Milk?

Elliana may not be home yet, but she sure has staked her claim on the freezers. We had to start giving our good steaks away to make room for more milk. That was a bit painful for Wayne. We decided it was time to do something about it and called on friends with extra space in their freezers.

We barely had room for any food in our kitchen freezer, and pretty much zero space in the deep freeze. What we do have in the deep freeze was inaccessible, unless you were willing to freeze your hands off digging for something. Luckily, we can get in their now. We have 6 bags full of milk stored at 2 different places. The only problem is that the freezer is filling up fast once again. It won't be long until I need to call on our generous friends again. We sure do appreciate them!!!

Halloween Pictures....

We hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. I'm sorry these are a few days late, time seemed to get away from me last week. Here are just a few of the pictures we took.......

This pumpkin was carved by my nephew at our annual pumpkin carving party

Bradley was a skeleton this year. He didn't love the make-up. It's too hard to remember not to rub your face with the sleeve of your shirt. One of those habits that we haven't been able to break yet. Below is the pumpkin I carved for Bradley. He wanted Frankenstein this year.

Elli had a bath on the 28th and she looked so cute with her CPAP off that they took a few pictures for us. It wasn't until we looked at the pictures a little later that we realized she looked a little like a Buddhist Monk or the Dalai Lama. We thought it worked for a Halloween costume as well as her cute little cheer leading costume. It's really for an American Doll, but hey, it worked perfectly as a costume. It was good that Halloween came when it did because Elli almost didn't fit into the shirt. She's getting so big!