ELLA

I am constantly amazed at Ella's will to not only heal , but to survive and survive well !  This week has been such a battle to try (key-word being try ) and keep Ella moving slowly and gently for the sake of her healing leg!  This little girl is always, always moving at one pace...fast!  It is all I can do to try and keep both of her feet on the ground and keep her from jumping or running on her recently operated-on leg, even when it confines her to a seated position with pain in the evenings from over-doing it.  Yesterday, when I accidentally caught the edge of one of her stitches and pulled on it as I was pulling up her pants (TWICE) really hard, causing her intense pain and sobs that shook her as she cried out, "Don't do dat, Mama. Be gentoe (gentle), be gentoe, Mama!", she has the courage to get up and go, go go!  Nothing keeps this girl down! This morning, we went walking at our mall for some exercise.  Normally, Ella loves to run beside me as I w...

My new niece, Kiera Jade I need to apologize for my delinquence in keeping up with this blog for the past few days, but I think I have a pretty good excuse.  My first little niece, Kiera Jade, was born late Thursday night and along with soaking up precious moments with her, I've been caring for her big brother, Jayce.  My nephew, Jayce. One of the privileges that has come from being in the States for the birth of Kiera (I was in Peru when Jayce was born in 2010) was the awesome experience of witnessing her live-birth.  What a miracle!  I won't go into gruesome details, but what an amazing thing that happens inside of a woman's body in the creation of a human life!  And then the process of entering this world that the baby and mother go through is absolutely mind-boggling.  This is me and Ariana the day she was born Reflecting on the birth of this new precious baby, Kiera Jade, has taken me back to the moments that I first held Ariana and Ell...

Ella's trip to the doctor today was successful.  Some of you who follow us on facebook may have read that Ella had a case of Hemotoma (a build up of blood or a pocket of fluid/blood) under the incision.  We went into Ella's new pediatrician in Meridian to have it popped and drained.  Ella actually did really well!  She was really calm as the doctor was squeezing the incision, trying to release the fluid.  While she was being poked and prodded, Ella sang and recited Bible verses, until, the doctor had no success in releasing the build-up by just pressing, so she resorted to trying to puncture the "bubble" with her surgical prongs.  At that, Ella's attention was fully on what the doctor was doing and started to wiggle and fuss for the remaining 10 or so minutes that the doctor worked and filled gauze pieces with the blood that oozed out after the pocket was popped. Trying to calm Ella down, the doctor asked Ella what her favorite Bible verse was and thr...

Mostly, I post things on this blog about Ella.  It was a blog created about the book, and the majority of the book is about how Ella came to be, but in truth, it's really a story about our family, so I think it's appropriate that I share about my other adorable daughter, Ariana. Ariana is a vibrant life, to say the least.  She is passionate and dramatic about everything.  Her world is black and white, good and evil.  (which is so much like her mama)  Just to give you an idea of who this precious little person is, I'll share a few mini-stories to give you a peek into who Ariana is before sharing the real story of the day. In the grocery store, Ari will ask every person, and I do mean e.v.e.r.y person we pass if they love Jesus.  If they say that they do love Him, Ari responds with an enthusiastic, "Yay!  Then, you get to go to Heaven too!"  And if they don't, she shares the message of salvation through her colored beaded necklace and then...

Today, all four of the members of our little family sat around the table munching on breakfast when out of the blue, Ella decided to play our dinner-time game.  Basically, in this game, you single out each member of the family, individually, and say something you like about that person.  Ella has never been particularly great at this game namely because of her lack of vocabulary.  She'd say things like, "What I about Mommy is dat, I'm fankful."  But today, she just started up the game with no prompting...I think maybe since we were all around the table (which is rare at breakfast), she thought it appropriate to start up the game.  So, here's how it went: "What I ___ about (she always forgets to say "like") Mommy is dat she's weawy aways bootiful.  What I ___ about Awi (Ari) is dat she's my fwend and she pways wif me.  What I ____ about my daddy is dat he's my pal.  What I ____ about Sally (our goldfish) is dat....uh....she's a fi...

Ella colored on the walls....AGAIN!  Enough said.