Pretty mind blowing that our little girl is now a teenager. Wanted to share a little birthday love video.

Happy Birthday Sweet Ella Bun!

Ella Renae is ten years old. She’s 120 months old. She’s 3,650 days old. She’s 87,600 hours old. Our sweet Ella then Bun is TEN YEARS OLD!!! It is just hard to believe as our day to day is fairly routine with Ella, which in her case, is just great news. Over the last couple years Ella has made incredible progress. We still have challenges with feeding (she’s still using a g-tube), diapers are still a thing (oye), and most GI sicknesses that would keep a normal kid simply home from school usually puts us in the hospital (only once in the last couple years!!).

She also has experienced typical kiddo growing pains…like a broken elbow!
🙁

Words can’t fully express how far she’s come, so I’m hoping the pictures and videos shared below do a little bit of justice.

Thanks to all of you for your steadfast prayers and support during Ella’s early years. A special thanks to the nurses that meant so much to us during our time in the hospital, to all the wonderful therapists that have helped Ella grow, and an extra special thanks to Dr. Kays for saving this sweet girls life. As I often say, “I love her so much it hurts”.
🙂

Check out all the photos and videos here.

We can hardly believe that our little princess is turning 8 years old today! What an amazing miracle. As challenging and exhausting a special needs kiddo can be, we wouldn’t change who she is for anything. She is the sweetest most loving girl ever. Pretty much everyone that meets her just falls in love. Who couldn’t with a smile like that!^*

We love you bun!

^*The last photo in that montage is acatully a video. Click to view it. 🙂

Ella was discharged from the hospital tonight and we just walked in the door. Thank God we’re home!

Thank you all for the continued support and prayers. It so wonderful to be home without needing any surgery or other major intervention. We are all tuckered out and headed to bed.

Blessings to you all…and good night!

Ella had her final x-ray late last night and everything looks good. After that, everybody had a decent nights rest.

Ella has also been behaving like her normal self which is really great to see. She hasn’t had an episode of pain since yesterday. We were able to start feeding a diluted version of her blended diet to her today. She seems to be tolerating it well which is a great sign. If we can keep this up over the next day or two, hopefully will be out before next week if not sooner.

So at this point there’s no reason to think that she will need any surgery, thank God.

We were also able to stop Ella’s IV fluids. This made it easier for Ella to get up and move. We walked all around the main area of the hospital and she sure did enjoy going up and down the glass elevator.

Ella’s teacher stopped by and brought some coloring books and other gifts. She also delivered some tasty snacks as well. Ella totally enjoyed seeing her.

My business partner and longtime friend stopped by and brought us some lunch. It was a nice little break from hospital food.

And of course aunt Karen stopped by again. 🙂 She helped out with Ella’s bath.

Thanks to everyone for the continued thoughts and prayers. We’ve appreciated all the support.

Ella did alright overnight but Tina didn’t get that much sleep as she was with her at the hospital. I stayed at home with Isaiah but also tossed and turned.

I came to the hospital in the morning to relieve Tina so she could get some rest. I started this post while sitting in radiology with Ella.

Ella spent most of the day (9am to 3pm) in radiology waiting for the barium to pass through her system. Ella also behaved incredibly well considering the circumstances.

We passed the time with a little Taylor Swift…”Shake it Off” is her fav:

And also acted silly and blew kisses:

So far they have not seen anything concerning. However, things are still moving too slow in her system and we won’t know for sure until after the last x-ray tonight. Our hope right now is with bowel rest, her intestinal issues will resolve without additional intervention.

We left radiology around 3pm but they let us know we would need to take another x-ray at 6. After the 6pm x-ray they determined they still need one more and that’s scheduled for 8pm.

The overall good news of the day is that there is nothing glaring with her GI structure to indicate any major issues. My perspective is, worst case, there are some adhesions and scarring that are causing a level of blockage which is impacting her intestines. Best case, and I’m leaning (and hoping) that Ella did pick up some bug a couple weeks ago and her guts are just ticked off. If we can get them to calm down, the hope is they’ll go back to her “normal”.

We will start introducing pedialyte this evening to see how Ella tolerates it. This will be a slow process. Don’t know for sure how long we’ll be here at this point, but it ’tis what it ’tis.

Aunt Karen has spent the afternoon with us which has been so nice. Ella loves her Aunt Karen. 🙂

At this moment, Tina is on her way back with Isaiah so we can switch shifts. Hoping for a restful night for all parties.

Thanks again to all for the continued thoughts and prayers via text, emails, and comments.

Hello Ella-fans,

It’s been awhile since we posted but no news is generally good news. 🙂 On that note, after 2 years of not being in the hospital and 4+ years since surgery, Miss Ella was checked in last night (6/29). Here’s a video with the first days details as I was too wiped to type.

And here are some pics and a video from the day.

Appreciate the thoughts and prayers. We’ll keep you posted with any other updates.

Well it’s been a whole year since our last post. Miss Ella turns 7 today. Below is a video of the fam waking her up this morning. I plan to post more later but wanted to share this for now.

Happy Birthday to our sweet Ella Renae!

When did this happen? When did our little miracle grow up so fast? I’ve been pretty emotional about it all day to be honest. Every time I think about our wonderfully sweet amazing girl turning 6, I just tear up. It doesn’t even seem real.

As I write this, Ella’s brother has gone down for the night, Tina is in the kitchen baking some treats for an event tomorrow, and I can hear Ella “talking” in the background. It’s amazing how far she has come.

I think to best protect my emotions, I set my expectations low in regards to Ella’s progress. And yet, she continues to surprise us. Recently she’s begun to hum along with the songs that play on her iPad. She is even doing the BEEP BEEP BEEP along with the Wheels on the Bus song! This is the cutest thing ever to experience and Tina and I get such a kick out of it while driving with her in the car. She’s just in her seat and will start humming along with the different songs she hears. So wonderful.

While she doesn’t have any speech for communication, she does have her own “language”. I have this vision that if we were all to travel to Paris, some local would let us know that she speaks perfect French. Oui…at least that’s how it sounds…hehe. There is no rhyme or reason to her “words”, but it is so cute to hear her “talk” to her stuffed animal giraffe, George.

The birthday today has been low key. Ella has no concept that it’s her special day, but we’re still all too happy to hug on her, sing to her, and affirm to her what an amazing girl she is. I just can’t get over the fact that she’s SIX YEARS OLD TODAY!!!!

So I sit here and marvel at this precious girl’s progress, praising God for all he has brought us through to this day.

Thank you Lord, for the gift that you’ve blessed us with. This life that is so precious and innocent and is such a loving little girl. What a miracle she is and what an impact she’s had on so many people. We praise you for her life and know that she is exactly who you planned her to be. Let her continue to grow strong and may your love shine through her for eternity. AMEN