At this moment, Tina and I are in total shock. God is so amazingly awesome! I mean, we’ve seen many miracles along this journey and it’s not that we’ve had any doubt in our Heavenly Father. Ella is living proof of His miraculous ways every day!!! What always blows my mind is how God orchestrates our lives. When we surrender our will back to Him in obedience, we can trust that He will work out all the details.

The last ten days have been filled with huge life changing events. Tina secured an incredible job opportunity that came to her last July (mind you, one that she didn’t originally pursue). We’re moving into the home we’ve been trying to rent for the last four months because our current residence rented in less than a week (hello clear direction from God)! And, as of tonight, we have been blessed to find the most FANTASTIC individual to be a part of our lives to help with Ella.

We have been praying for wisdom and discernment in finding the right nanny. There was no way Tina could perform her new job, and for me to continue mine without some help. We’ve not felt any prompting from God that I’m supposed to quit, and we’re confident that He didn’t provide this opportunity for Tina just so she could turn it down. This is where we had to trust Him because we didn’t know how He was going to work this out. We just knew that it was a major piece that had to fall into place.

And this particular decision is a huge one for us because we will be trusting this individual with the care of our precious Ella, something that we haven’t felt comfortable doing with anyone except the NICU nurses from Florida (which is why our last “date night” was when nurse Janet came out to visit over two months ago).

One option we were considering was an au pair, but after extensive research, we decided against this route due to Ella’s complexity and the likely possibility of a language barrier. This did push us towards having a live-in nanny though, which works because we’ll have more space in the house we’re moving back into.

Tina has been interviewing nannies over phone, some local and some out of state, and we asked a couple candidates if they wouldn’t mind coming to the hospital so we could interview them. We interviewed one yesterday, and based on her experience, she sounded like a possible match. But our gut and spirit quickly confirmed that she wasn’t a right fit for us.

The nanny that came to interview today, her name is Kelly, started out on the right foot before we had even met her in person. While talking to her on the phone, Tina had asked “What is your ideal situation for being a nanny?”. Tina was expecting to hear her say something about the hours she wanted to work, details related to the job, and maybe the possible compensation. But instead, Kelly answered this way: “Well, I realize this might sound superficial, but I just want to do what God wants me to do. I don’t really have many expectations going into this”. Ok…that was the right answer. Heck…that’s the right answer to any decision in life!!

With that foundation, we were excited to meet her. She came to the hospital this afternoon around 1pm and didn’t leave ’till 8 o’ clock! One of the first things we did when she arrived was to pray together, and ask the Spirit to give wisdom and discernment to all parties. And wow….did He ever! From the moment she came in and we prayed, I knew that she was the one!!!

She shared her story and where she’s coming from and we gave some more details about Ella and the complexities of her care. Kelly responded so well to Ella, and her attitude about taking care of her was just amazing.

Tina was going to go run some errands so Kelly went along with her. This gave them a great opportunity to connect for a couple hours, plus Kelly was able to see where she’d be living with us.

Once they returned to the hospital, we had a great time continuing our conversation and getting to know each other better. The Spirit continually confirmed the decision to have her be our nanny, and I could barely contain my joy. Tina felt the same way, but I think she was in such shock.

Kelly’s spirit is so phenomenal and her attitude about the entire opportunity really confirmed things in my mind. We talked more about the details for hours and then also amenities we’d be providing. Tina even jokingly indicated that we don’t use the cheap toilet paper, only Charmin. I confirmed that anything else would have been a deal breaker for me personally, and Kelly concurred. =)

At this point it’s just a matter of timing. We asked Kelly about her availability and she indicated that she could start working right away. She also confirmed the sooner the better so that she could really work with Tina to get to know Ella real well before Tina starts work. With that in mind, she’ll probably be starting shortly after we’re discharged from the hospital. This should help a lot considering all we have to do in preparing for the move.

Oh..yeah…how’s Ella doing? =) Ella had a good day overall. Her clinical behavior was great. She’s acting so much like the happy Ella we know and love. She did have some problems with secretions overnight which caused her to retch every hour between midnight and 5am. I was on Ella duty and with my lack of sleep the previous night, I was one cranky bear by 5am. Tina stepped up, took over, and told me to go to bed. Thank God for my amazing wife. I really don’t know how she does it.

Thanks to all of you who continue to pray for us. There are so many other side stories that we experience that don’t get shared on the blog where the hand of God is totally visible.

These moments continually confirm that phrase that God put on my heart back in Gainesville: ‘There are no accidents, only God ordained moments.’