What a great Thanksgiving yesterday! Ella did real well, resting up from her surgery, while Tina and I enjoyed two Thanksgiving meals. One with some friends in town, and the other with Par’s family and Jonathan’s mom.
 
We spent the morning with our girl before we headed over to have our first dinner. Our first meal was fantastic, complete with all our favorites: turkey, dressing, a incredible whipped sweet potato casserole, cranberries, green beans, and mashed potatoes. My grandmother overnighted her special cranberry sauce for us to enjoy, and it really made us feel like we were home. We then finished the meal off with an amazing home-made apple & pear pie. Man, I getting hungry just talking about it! =)
 
After stuffing ourselves there, we headed over to our second dinner. Par’s grandmother Barbara, with some help from others, put on a wonderful Thanksgiving feast at the Homewood Suites Hotel. The hotel staff allowed them to use their kitchen and dining area to put on the dinner. How nice of them!
 
Our time was spent appreciating each others company, and sharing what we were truly thankful for. It was so incredible that God ordained that we all come together in that moment. We are so blessed to have met the friends we have here.
 
Afterwards, we headed back to the hospital to be with our children. Upon our arrival we were excited to find out that nurse Michelle was taking care of our girl. She hadn’t been with her in weeks. It was nice to see her familiar face.
 
The Bun woke up for us to say hello, but went back to sleep after about 30 mins. We then headed home for the night.
 
Upon our arrival today our girl was asleep. She was very peaceful and looked real comfortable. She’s been real alert a few times, and we’ve had a good time interacting with her. At this moment, Mom is reading her “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, and Ella’s enjoying it.
 
It’s not too fun with her ET tube these days because Ella’s very aware of it. When she was previously intubated I think she was still on a good amount of sedation, and it was all she knew. This time around she recognizes this tube in her mouth and isn’t liking it that much. Plus, it is giving her a pretty good gag reflex. In spite of this, her nose is looking a lot better which is good because she’ll probably be going back on CPAP in the coming days.
 
The IV in Ella’s foot came out today, so they’ll be using her central line to deliver all her meds. Her feedings were supposed to start up tomorrow, but her belly is still pretty swollen from the surgery. This is to be expected, but Dr. Kays indicated that we’ll be holding off on her food until the swelling goes goes down. She’ll be fed intravenously until then.
 
Our girl is scheduled to have another chest x-ray tomorrow to see how her lungs are doing. We’d expect it to look pretty good considering how she’s been behaving. Her vent settings have also been tweaked a bit. She’s now down to 16 breaths per minute and her O2 is at 50%.
 
Baby Par has been moved out of his private room and is in a space right next to Ella. Par is doing incredibly well, in fact he was extubated today! Praise God! So great to see the progress Par has made. He’s now on CPAP and I’m sure in the coming days he’ll get his first taste of some food. Please pray that Par’s lungs will strengthen, and that he will do well when comes time for feeding.
 
Please continue to pray for baby Jonathan. His liver and kidneys are not doing the job they need to be, and Dr. Kays won’t be able to do surgery until they do. We’re asking for healing in these organs, and peace for Jasmine and Chris (Mom & Dad).
 
We pray for Ella’s lungs to strengthen, and for her overall breathing to improve. We also pray for no infection to occur during this time of healing.
 
Thank you for being here with us during this extended journey in Gainesville. You’re words of encouragement in the comments, emails, cards, and prayers mean so much to us.
 
God Bless you all.