Yes, we went on a last minute adventure last night and into this afternoon. Our friend, Kerri, has been staying with us and she was dying to see the ocean. I asked one of the nurses and she recommended Anna Maria Island, which is about a 3 hour drive south of Gainesville. We left last night, had a great dinner at a fresh seafood restaurant, slept overnight in the area, woke up and spent the morning on the beach.
 
The beach was just beautiful and the temperature was amazing. It was a nice change of scenery for us and gave us the refresh that we needed.
 
On the way back, we visited Ella. Thankfully, she had a better day.
 
Nurse Andrea tried feeding Ella orally for the first time late afternoon and once again today. She used a slow flow nipple. Ella seemed interested, but after she latched on and sucked a few times, she gagged. Although she did not take too well to it, Nurse Andrea mentioned that many babies don’t even show an interest. We’ll take that as a good sign and continue to try here and there.
 
After the increase in lasix yesterday, Ella’s saturations were high 90’s throughout the day, even hitting 100 every so often. We think the increased dieuretic helped to “dry” her out and thus her lungs are functioning better.
 
Having Kerri visit and see Ella in person brought a new perspective. Although Kerri has been watching the blog all along, the emotional impact was not quite there for her until she walked into the NICU and interacted with Ella.
 
I share that because I think that we are so in the midst of the journey, that we often times forget to step back and realize the intensity of what is going on. Don’t get me wrong, one of us cries almost every day. But we didn’t expect this experience to be so far reaching to others as well.
 
We know with every fiber in our beings, that God is sovereign and has a plan…down to the very last detail.
 
It has been amazing to meet Liz & Rusty Rich (Par’s parents) as well as another CDH father, Chris. His son Jonathan is struggling to hold on. Please pray for him too. And we would not have met these parents had Ella decided to rush through this experience.
 
Lord, we thank you for our little girl. Please continue to heal and strengthen her body. We pray specifically for her reflux issue. Lord, we want a clear answer on which path we need to take. Please give Dr. Kays wisdom and help us to listen to your voice. May the upper GI procedure this week be very telling about which direction we need to go for Ella. Along with Ella, we ask that you strengthen and heal Par and Jonathan. We ask all these things in Your Holy name, Amen.