I had a great first Mother’s Day.

It started with sleeping in…ahh, beauty sleep. Much needed! Then, Nurse Janet invited me out to brunch with herself and some other moms for a Mother’s Day brunch. It was nice to get out and socialize. Plus, the french toast and mimosa was nothing to complain about either!

I’m just so thankful for Ella Renae. I’m so thankful that God chose me to be her mom. And I’m so glad that I’m having a chance to experience motherhood. I spent many years thinking that He had other plans.

By the way, if you did not have a chance to see it, you will want to check out yesterday’s post. Through pictures, it really puts into perspective the introduction of motherhood for me.

Thanks for all the support and prayers, and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

Words cannot fully express what a wonderful mother Tina is. The pictures below say more than words ever could.

Thank you Jesus for blessing Ella with such an amazing mother!

Yep, she has seen it every day of her life. And today, she tried to grab for it. Pretty cute!

Ella had a good day. She is still congested. We are hoping that it will go away soon.

Also, please pray for Josh. He is not feeling 100% and we really do not want Ella to get sick. I know he doesn’t want me to get sick either. So, he has been walking around with a mask and sleeping in the other bedroom. We don’t want any snags before we return home!

On that note, only 22 days until we walk in our front door. And today, we sold more items on Craigslist. We only have a few major pieces remaining. Praise God!

We had 2 people arrive at our apartment today from Craigslist. Both ended up purchasing, so we are off to a good start.

Ella had another good session with her physical therapist. Although the sessions are brief and Ella cries a lot, it is good for her. And so hard for me!

Not much else to write except that we are 16 days away from Josh leaving and 23 days until we walk in our front door. Yippee!

Oh, and also…it is official that Ella is a princess. Her headband proves it.

Today was a good day for Ella with her physical therapist. Also, she did pretty good with the bottle and eating her pears.

More than that, she was simply in a great mood. This makes the work of being a mom a bit more rewarding. That smile is just too much!

As of today, we were able to secure a PT for Ella back in Colorado that will come to the house. We are still working on an OT to help with feeding skills.

We have 2 appointments set up for pediatricians. We’re hoping that it will become obvious as to which one we should stick with once we meet in person.

Only 17 days until Josh leaves for Colorado. And Ella leaves Florida in 20 days. All of us are excited to go back home.

The days are passing fast which is good, but there is a lot to do and limited hours in the day. Please pray for strength and endurance as we try and do “normal” life, coordinate selling items on Craigslist and packing the remaining items.

We thank Him for our baby girl.

Sometimes out of nowhere it will just hit me. We have been through so much this past year, all 3 of us.

Looking forward to the next chapter.

Philippians 3:13-15
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

Looking back on Ella’s weekly milestones, it is apparent how far she has come. Even having her sit on Josh’s lap being semi-supported is not something she tolerated even 2 weeks ago. This is HUGE for Ella.

Unfortunately, her physical therapy appointment was canceled today. Ella went through a spell of extreme gas and/or lower GI pain. She cried hard, turned blue from hardly being able to catch her breath and was not consolable.

This happened a few days ago with Josh too. We can’t seem to pinpoint any trend of when or why these spells are occurring. But when the PT arrived and Ella was in such a state, she was nice enough to simply call off the session for the day. We will try again tomorrow!

Please begin to pray for our move. We have lots of items in our apartment that we are trying to sell on Craigslist. The challenge is that we still need most of the items until we are ready to leave. Trying to coordinate all of the timing and have people come view things to purchase ahead of time has proven challenging.

We hope the sale of our Gainesville “stuff” will help out financially with our move back home. When all is said and done, any items that we have left will be donated. We pray that our items get into the right hands.

Also, it seems like every other day there is a huge storm across the mid-section of the country. We are praying for good, mild weather for our drives.

Josh and Doug will be driving to Colorado over 2 days and stopping one night in St. Louis (5/24). Then, they will fly back to Florida on Monday, May 26th (please no flight cancellations)!

Then as a family, we will drive to Atlanta (5/27), Nashville (5/28), St. Louis (5/29), Kansas City (5/30) and Lone Tree (5/31). All of this driving during Memorial Week when there are lots of other drivers on the road.

We appreciate the prayer coverage during this time. We know above all else that He holds us in His hands. Every detail is under His control.

Philippians 4:6
(New Living Translation)

Ella has experienced a lot more congestion the past few days. This has increased her respiratory rate and is making it tough for her to work on her feeding skills. Imagine sprinting around the block and then trying to drink: you would need to stop to take breaks and breathe. That is what it feels like to Ella when she is trying to take the bottle.

Ella decided that she likes peaches…she tried them for the first time yesterday and finished them off today!

Aside from trying peaches, we have hit a plateau as far as forward movement on Ella’s feeding skills. Things aren’t really showing huge signs of improvement, like they were initially. The good part is that she has gained enough skills to actually enjoy eating. Now, the biggest thing that will help her is simply getting bigger and stronger. All of it goes back to her underdeveloped lungs and having a tough time breathing.

Her PT session was good. It was hard for Ella. She melted down a handful of times. The good news is that she was able to settle down and collect herself within a few minutes each time. If you remember, she used to meltdown once and it would take her a long time to recover. This is a huge area of improvement for her.

The PT discussed that even over this past week, Ella has shown great improvement. She confirmed that Ella’s physical/developmental skills are at ~ 3 months. We have known this for a while, but the reality just sunk in deeper today.

We’re praying for the day that Ella gets bigger to where some of these basic things, like holding up her head or breathing, won’t be so tough for her.

Above all else, Ella is happy. She is happy a lot of the time. So maybe there is a lesson to be learned. Regardless of her challenges, Ella thinks that life is peachy keen.

Wow, she is already teaching me so much.

Another relaxing day with the Bun.

Not much activity except hanging out in a sassy sundress…and flashing smiles.

Not much to say about Ella…the picture describes her day.

Josh and I watched a sermon this evening based on the verses below (you can view the message in its entirety at www.lifechurch.tv. This was from week 2 in the series).

Habakkuk 2:1-4

“Look at the proud!
They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked.
But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.“

Listen, Write it down, Wait.

When life throws us a curve ball, talk to God. Listen for an answer from Him. When you hear Him, write it down so that you remember. Wait for it to come to fruition; there is an appointed time. Everything our eyes see may be telling us something different, things may not seem fair. Yet, the righteous will live by faith.

The sermon was such a great reminder to hold tight to His promises.

Ella Renae is a perfect picture of how believing and trusting Him can bless your life beyond your dreams.

Thank God it is Friday. This means that I will have a chance to catch up on sleep soon. By the time Friday rolls around, I am wiped out. Numerous nights in a row of uninterrupted and/or short sleeping hours wear on me.

This was evident today as I played with Ella during tummy time. Josh walked downstairs to grab a drink and couldn’t resist picking up the camera. Apparently, Macy thought that we were interesting too!

The photo below is once Ella’s physical therapy session was over and her belly was full of food. One thing to note, she has made great progress this week with PT. I think having the therapist come to our apartment makes a huge difference for Ella. She just seems to be responding better in her own environment. We are blessed that Barbara decided to take us on for another few weeks while we are still in Gainesville, to give Ella as much attention as possible.

Things are slowly coming together for making our way back home. Only 21 days until Josh and Doug leave for the drive to Colorado and only 29 days until we walk in our front door.