TGIF! Had a great day that started early with me going to meet some other Christian brothers for breakfast. Awesome way to start the day.

After work we headed over to show our house to a prospect. I waited in the car with Ella while Tina gave the tour.

Once Tina was done, we drove over to the Southlands Mall, an outside mall just a couple miles from our other house. I took Ella for a stroll while Tina ran some errands.

Afterwards, we ate dinner at Noodles which worked well because we were the only ones using their outside patio. The weather cooperated too.

We’re having Tina’s dad over for breakfast tomorrow to celebrate an early dad’s day to him. We wanted to have breakfast at the Original Pancake House (very yummy), but we’d rather sleep in a bit, miss the germs, and eat at home.

Just looking forward to spending the weekend with the wife and the Bun.

We had a bit of a scare with Ella this morning. She started retching pretty bad and couldn’t catch her breath. She began to turn purple and it looked like she was going to pass out. I was about to get her emergency oxygen mask to administer blow-by when I noticed that one of her oxygen lines was not plugged in. Instead of plugging it back into the limiter, I plugged it directly into the concentrator and cranked it up to 3 liters. She started catching her breath…she calmed down…and her color returned.

This has NEVER been easy to watch. Her retching episodes are tough enough to get through, but they’re intensified when she can’t catch her breath. I pray that she’ll will outgrow the retching at some point. It’s so hard to watch. Thank God she recovered though.

Tonight she was being her smiley self for me. Grandma, Tina, and I played some Yahtzee while Ella looked on.

Grandma heads back to California tomorrow night, and boy we’re going to miss her. She’s spoiled us good with the cooking and cleaning.

We’re still trying to get into a routine. Hoping we can soon because I think this will help all of us.

God Bless our sweet little Bun.

Tina and Grandma escaped to do some shopping and I spent time taking care of the Bun. Nothing makes me appreciate my wife more than a little alone time with Ella. Don’t get me wrong. Ella is sweet as peaches, but she is a lot of work. And when she’s cranky, that goes double. We did have a good time today though, and boy, she is cute.

We’re still getting the house in order trying to get into a routine. Going back to work in the office was a very surreal experience. The engineering team that I’m on has almost tripled in size. Lots of good people though.

One thing I totally didn’t anticipate was just how much I was going to miss being with my girls. I was with Tina and Ella pretty much every day for the last 10+ months in Gainesville.

The fact that we’re actually home still hasn’t fully hit me. I’ve had a couple moments where the emotions of it all have spilled over, but the realization of the entire journey continues to sink in.

Continuing to thank God for bringing us home.

Ella’s grandpa was our first official visitor. I think he was a little excited to see us back in Colorado. =)

We still have a bunch of unpacking to do, and we’re both still totally wiped from the traveling. I’m going to extend my time off work through tomorrow to help Tina get the house organized and rest up for work.

Ella’s grandma (Tina’s mom) also flew in from California tonight. She’ll be with us for the next week and a half.

Please pray for our discernment when it comes to Ella’s doctors. She has multiple appointments this week, and we will be choosing doctors based on what our gut tells us.

Gotta love that smile on the Bun!

The Bun started her day with some great bed head. I can honestly say I don’t have this issue.

We made it to Kansas City, and our room number in the hotel is 1313. I thought having a 13th floor in a building was bad luck. I also just noticed that it is day 311. Lots of 1’s and 3’s…hmm…go figure. The heavy storms were to the north and south of us during the drive. We only saw 3 drops of rain…yeah…I counted ’em (thank God).

You can see how much leg room Tina has in the back seat.

She did figure out how to make herself a cup holder though :).

Half way through the drive, we got Ella out for a diaper change and food break. She’s not a big fan of the car seat, but she perks right up when you take her out.

Once we arrive at the hotel, the Bun enjoyed doing some stretching out…

and Tina and I enjoyed some Kansas City BBQ =).

We’re going to try and hit the road earlier tomorrow because we’re pushing all the way to Denver and it’s going to be about a 9 hour drive.

We expect to be turning up Ella’s oxygen as the elevation increases. The pulse-oximeter will be hooked up to confirm her saturations. We’re praying that she transitions well into the altitude and that she can tolerate the longer drive. Also praying for the good weather to continue.

WE’RE ALMOST HOME!!!!

EXHAUSTED!!! Yeah…to say the least.

It was a mad scramble to get packed and load the mini-van before 12:30pm, and that was with Doug and Jeanie helping! They were nice enough to stay over at our apartment last night and help us today.

Hind site is 20-20 and having a wife that plans well can even be better, as long as you listen to her =). A couple weeks ago, Tina thought we should ship some items home before we packed the mini-van because she didn’t think we had enough room. Oh…but I was confident that my mad packing skillz would prove her wrong. Yeah…not so much. When you have trouble finding room to put a pair of shoes in a mini-van, you might as well give up on the 5+ remaining boxes…DOH!

So we gave away a bunch of stuff to our friends, and my Brother-in-Christ (Mr. Matt) offered to ship the remaining boxes for us (Thanks again bro!). Well, it did work out in the end, just probably not exactly how the wife wanted, which isn’t a good way to score points with her. Hoping that giving her a foot rub tonight will make up for it a little!

Ella behaved herself all day. One surprise: her g-tube fell out unexpectedly while we were in the midst of packing! That was a first. Fortunately, we were able to locate what we needed to fix it. Going through this drill made us realize that we did not have a spare g-tube, so we stopped by Shands on the way out of Gainesville, just to make sure that we had an extra.

Ella did well during the drive, although it did look like she was battling some gas so she definitely had her fussy moments.

By the time we finished everything, we were not on the highway leaving Gainesville until 5pm. Originally, we had planned on meeting the Richards and Dirriams for dinner in Atlanta. When we called to break the news that we would not make it, we discovered that both houses had kids that were sick and they were planning to cancel too (they did not want to risk possibly getting Ella sick – – thank you). It was a bummer not to be able to see them, but it seems like it was not in the cards for us to this trip.

We arrived in downtown Atlanta at 10pm, exactly a 5 hour drive. I think Ella scored us an upgraded room too because once the bell hop saw how much stuff we were hauling, he upgraded our room for us to a corner suite with a nice view. Way to go Bun!

At this moment, Ella is sleeping soundly and Tina and I are about to do the same.

Please continue to pray for our safe travels. It looks like we may get a little rain tomorrow, but we don’t expect to see anything like Doug and I saw a couple days ago (Thank God).

COLORADO HERE WE COME!

P.S. Our friends haven’t shared any of the pictures that they took of us today leaving our Gainesville apartment, but once they do, we’ll share with you too.

Thank you Lord for bringing us safely into Atlanta. Father we ask for your continue protection during this trip and for the weather to cooperate. We praise you Jesus for our beautiful girl. Amen.

I think the Bun was dreaming about her first rock concert in the picture above. She sure had the spiked hair for it.

Ella zonked out again early tonight, around 7pm. She slept all the way through the night last night, and we hope she does the same tonight.

Ella enjoyed her first taste of apple juice today. We got her some Martinelli’s (non sparkling) and made it up with equal parts of water. Tina gave it to her throughout the day, and she took almost 4oz total! Our girl also drank a whole bottle of formula during her 12pm feeding. It’s great that she’s getting those calories in her.

Ella was also visited by one of her fans today. Sara came by to wish us well before we head back to CO. On that note, only 3 days ’till Doug and I drive back to CO, and 10 days until Ella is really home.

Can’t believe it’s almost here. Hoping and praying that the weather behaves.

Thanks for the continued support and prayers!

Yup, the Bun LOVES watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It is her absolute favorite. She gets soooo excited when Mickey says the magic words: Meeska, Mooska, Mickey Mouse! She kicks her feet and smiles so big. If you’re not familiar with the show, you can see Mickey saying the magic words in the video below:

Tina and I get a real kick out of Ooh and Aah, the Disney Monkeys, when they do their little shtick in between the shows. I think Ella is pretty ok with them too since it looks like she was calling them by name today =).

By they way, as I’m writing this, Tina has been sucked into the Coco-Nutty Bowling game on their site.

Below are some other pics of the bun. Yeah…I’ll tell ya…she’s so cute…it’s gross. 😉