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)

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

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

I will climb up to my watchtower
and stand at my guardpost.
There I will wait to see what the Lord says
and how he will answer my complaint.

Then the Lord said to me,
“Write my answer plainly on tablets,
so that a runner can carry the correct message to others.

This vision is for a future time.
It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled.
If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently,
for it will surely take place.
It will not be delayed.

“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.

Ella had a rough night. All my fault too.

Not sure how it happened, but sure enough, the med port on her feeding tube was open. So, instead of all the corn oil and formula with meds going into Ella’s belly, it went all over her pajamas and her bed. Once she started fussing, it was not like a little had come out – – it was all 225ccs. I can’t believe that she tolerated being wet for that long.

In the midst of sleep, I could hear her being restless throughout the night. Josh even mentioned that it smelled in the room, like the cats had eaten too much and left some on the carpet (trust me, formula smells nasty). However, nothing registered in my compromised state and since Ella wasn’t fussing, I didn’t move from the bed!

Anyway, this made for a long morning. The poor Bun was simply tired and fussy, at times not consolable. Since she was still this way around 11am, I called and canceled physical therapy. I just felt like she was too wiped out and would not be worth trying to make her work through a PT session. Plus today required us packing up and driving to the session. That makes for a field trip in the car on top of the session. I felt like that would be a lot to ask of Ella.

As the day progressed into the late afternoon and she had more beauty sleep, she started to behave like herself.

Our goal tonight: let’s make sure we do not have a repeat of that movie!

When I run errands and have time to myself, I listen to praise songs in the car.

Most of the time, I do not think about it. But when I stop and reflect on what has happened to us this past year, His love and goodness to us, and what a miracle our baby girl is, I can’t help but let the tears flow. This song did it to me this weekend. You can listen too:

[mp3]/music/who_am_i.mp3[/mp3]

Who Am I
by Casting Crowns

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart

Not because of who I am
But because of what You’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I’m calling
Lord, You catch me when I’m falling
And You’ve told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me

Not because of who I am
But because of what You’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I’m calling
Lord, You catch me when I’m falling
And You’ve told me who I am
I am Yours

Not because of who I am
But because of what You’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I’m calling
Lord, You catch me when I’m falling
And You’ve told me who I am
I am Yours

I am Yours
Whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
‘Cause I am Yours
I am Yours

Ella’s PT appointment went well this morning. We are challenging her by using a towel rolled underneath her armpits as she is laying on her tummy. This forces her to use more of her upper body to lift her head. That is part of our homework until we have physical therapy on Monday.

We were not able to switch physical therapists yet, which means that we have to drive to the session on Monday. Bummer! I had mentally accepted that we would not have to drive to the appointments any longer. But, the PT is very good and worth the drive! Hopefully, we can switch to the PT that lives in our apartment community at some point next week.

Ella’s OT session went well too. Although she has not taken an entire bottle in a few days, each feeding session today from the bottle ranged from 20-45ccs. Now that Ella is enjoying her feeding sessions, we want to not only continue to have her use the bottle and eat baby food, but we want to slowly improve her positioning. Currently, she lays down on her side to eat. This afternoon, we implemented a rolled towel that places her at about a 30 degree angle. The long term goal is to eventually have her sitting up.

Finally, Bugs Bunny would be proud: Ella likes carrots. We introduced them and the small jar is gone after today. Our menu so far consists of pears, apples, mangos, sweet potatoes and carrots. Way to go Ella!