This is where Ella spent most of the day.

I had 2 doctor appointments for myself, since we have not been home in nearly a year. So, I trained Grandma on how to hold her, use all the good toys to distract, increase oxygen when needed and it worked. My mom followed me to both appointments. Since I was a new patient, the appointments lasted 2 hours each.

For the second appointment, the doctor office was so close to the house that we walked! Ella was stylin’ in her hat and shades!

Needless to say, Grandma is a bit sore this evening from holding the Bun for so long. But the moments where she decided to calm down and get some beauty sleep…those were some precious moments for Grandma.

We have two appointments tomorrow: one for me and one for Ella. So, it will be another busy day. We’re already looking forward to Wednesday when there are no appointments scheduled.

I must take the time to mention: LoriAnn Kuhn mentioned placing Ella rear-facing but in the front seat. Pure genius! I know it is not the most safe, but we tried it for the first time on Sunday during leisure time and today for the doctor appointments. It works well…so much better than the back seat. She is so much calmer because she can see me. And lately, we had Daddy or Grandma riding in the back seat, so she could watch them too!

When she pulls out her binky or her cannulas, I can easily stick them back in to make her happy. When she begins to have a meltdown, the oxygen tank is easily within reach. And if I need to stop and pull over, at least I can comfort her without having to get out of my seat. That is much safer than pulling over and hanging out the back seat. So, I never thought of placing her in the front seat, but with the auto detect for disabling the airbag, it makes things way easier. I feel so much better about the idea of driving with Ella now.

Ella will be evaluated tomorrow as part of the Early Intervention program, which is a federal and state funded program. Depending on their evaluation, they will decide how much OT and PT Ella will need to overcome her setbacks. The good part is that this program is free and separate from insurance. We have not been able to locate a private OT or PT to come to our home, so we’re hoping that maybe we can find good therapists for Ella through this free program.

One last prayer request: we were unable to sell our home last year due to market conditions, but needed to downsize since we knew Ella was coming. We downsized into a townhome and just three days before we left for Florida, the house rented to a wonderful family.

As of last weekend, our amazing renters moved out of our house and moved back to Seattle. So now we need to search for new renters. Being on one income makes this even more of a necessity! Please pray that the right person/family is guided to our house. We were so blessed this past year to have renters that not only took care of our house, but loved our baby girl virtually.

Thanks for all the continued support and prayers, even since we have returned home to Denver.

It was a busy day.

We showed the rental house this morning and are praying for wisdom and discernment on the best person/family to occupy the home. We want to be obedient to Him; that is the best way to live. Praise God that we have received several leads to follow, which is different than last summer. We would like to have the home occupied by July 1, 2008.

While driving around today, Ella took a little snooze in the car.

I had an appointment in central Denver with my ear surgeon. I had ear surgery in August 2006 and need my hearing and ears checked 1x per year. Fortunately, I checked out well. Also the appointment was straight-forward and quick, so Grandma didn’t have to do as much work as yesterday when it came to holding and entertaining The Bun.

After the doctor, we headed back home and had the Early Intervention Program reps visited our home to evaluate Ella. After a 2 hour appointment, they determined that Ella does qualify. They are recommending OT once per week and PT twice per week. The coming weeks will be telling. Services are supposed to be in place no later than 28 days from now, likely sooner.

Our goal is to find therapists that work for the Early Intervention Program plus also accept private insurance. This way, we can use them for free through the Early Intervention Program and supplement more visits (if needed) via our health insurance. Please pray that we will come across the right individuals to help Ella grow and thrive. These therapists play such a vital role in her development forward. We were so blessed in Gainesville with a great OT and PT. We can only hope that we find 2 more special individuals that will come to love Ella and want to help her.

Once the appointment was finished, Ella decided that she wanted to read her Elmo book…she was rolling around getting really excited.

When it cooled down a bit, Grandma and I took another walk to Super Target. Although I cannot take Ella inside, it is still nice to walk to the Super Target, get some exercise and just watch people from afar. The weather in Denver was beautiful today and it is so nice to be able to get outside with Ella.

And of course, we always have to watch the summer sunset from our patio. The Bun looked so cute in her hat.

We praise Him for our baby girl. Almost each day, we are given an opportunity to share about Ella and our journey. This morning, the potential renter for our home was clearly touched and gave me a hug when leaving. The opportunities rise up all the time.

And each time we share, we are reminded to trust Him…to trust Him completely.

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.

Ella had a good day. It was a good day for me and Grandma too.

It was one of the first days that we did not feel like we had to rush anywhere. No appointments during the day made it more relaxing.

Ella went to bed later last night which left time in the morning to have coffee on the patio with Grandma. That is one of those things we enjoy doing together. The weather was pleasant this morning, sunny and glorious with the mountains.

We did have some visitors at the house today too. First, our neighbor from our former neighborhood stopped by. She brought some cute summer clothes for Ella and of course, gave me a huge hug. It is so great to see familiar faces. Ella was asleep when she first arrived which gave some time for catch up.

Then a bit later, another visitor stopped by…she was too sweet. Although we have never met in person, she has been watching the blog and praying for us and Ella. She wanted to bring us some food. We have dinners, lunch, breakfast, etc. It was such a sincere gesture. This gave us an opportunity to meet a new friend…and she has 3 girls and another one on the way! So it is not as if she does not have a million things going on, but took the time to drive out and think of us.

The visitors were a welcomed change of pace and since it is hard to travel with Ella, especially with the oxygen, it is nice to have people come to see her.

In the early evening, I showed our house again to a different prospect while Grandma stayed in the car with Ella. We are still praying for the right tenants to rent our house. Also, I was able to visit with another neighbor from our old neighborhood. Once again, it is good to connect with familiar faces.

After that appointment, I dropped Grandma off at the airport. She was such a tremendous help in getting us settled into our house from Gainesville. Although there are still some things to do, it is much improved from the first time we arrived, less than 2 weeks ago.

Josh is working late tonight and has an early morning tomorrow. It will be the first day for me and the Bun to be by ourselves since we arrived in Colorado. I’m hoping for a fun and stress-free day.

Ella has another pediatrician appointment on Monday, June 23rd. I’m hoping that she has gained weight. Until that time, we are waiting for the OT and PT services to start. And aside from that, just trying to get into some sort of daily routine in our new environment.

Our baby girl is such a miracle and such a testament to God’s love and faithfulness. This is a difficult road that he has placed us on, but we look forward to seeing what He has planned in this next chapter.

Above all else, we know that this is not something we would have picked for ourselves, but that He knows best and that He will not have us endure anything that does not have a purpose. We just pray that we can continue to obey Him daily and follow His voice.

This article I read today provided truth and I thought I would share an excerpt:

His Sheep Follow Him Because they Know His Voice
by Katie Montei

The strongest desire I have felt during this painful season is for it to be over. Sometimes when we feel trapped in the valleys of life, we forget to listen for what God has for us today. I need to remind myself daily of the Psalmist’s declaration in Psalm 27: 13-14, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” I have learned that it’s alright to feel pain; God has never told me to ignore my pain, as if I were not hurt at all, but instead he directs me to continually offer it to him. When I come before the Lord in quietness of spirit, opening one hand in offering my pain, one hand in trust and hope, patiently waiting on him, I am able to hear his voice…The voice of God is not always so palpable, his presence is not always so concrete, but it is in the getting on with life and the hard work of living out our faith that we still need to listen carefully to the Shepherd who says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me…no one can snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28.

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.

Yep, we decided to celebrate Father’s Day a bit early with Grandpa today.

It started out with him coming over to our house for breakfast. Josh cooked up a great meal while I took care of the Bun. The poor girl, she was uncomfortable for a lot of the morning. When I went to get her out of bed this morning, I noticed that the food pump did not run all night. This meant that she did not get 225ccs of food, which is almost half of her daily intake. So, I had to feed her more frequently via g-tube in a bolus fashion. It just meant that she felt full a lot of the morning; this made her fussy.

When we finished the meal, we drove over to Grandpa’s house. He needed a lot of help with little things around his house. So we packed up the Bun with her travel crib and DVD player and went to meet the dogs. Needless to say, the dogs were a bit excited to see us. Manny kept jumping on the travel crib because he wanted to play with Ella so badly.

It was great for me to get love from the dogs. I had not seen them since last November, when I came to Denver for a business trip. In any case, they did not forget me! We are so thankful that Grandpa has been taking care of them for the past year or so.

Once Josh was done helping out Grandpa (putting a chair together, fixing a door knob, updating his computers, etc), we came back to our house. I convinced Josh to go on a walk. The Bun had just been given some food, so she fell fast asleep in the reclined stroller. We went on a walk for about an hour, just as the sun was starting to set. It was beautiful.

Today was the first weekend day for the three of us. It was relaxing and felt good to spend time together as a family. We’re looking forward to many more as the summer continues.

Today was a nice relaxing day.

Josh decided that he wanted to eat at the Original Pancake House for brunch. So we waited until the crowds died down and ate on the open patio area. Unfortunately, Ella was fussy most of the time and required holding and comforting, so eating wasn’t quite as pleasurable for me. But Dad did enjoy his corned beef hash and pancakes. He looked happy to be having brunch at one of his all time favorite restaurants.

Afterwards, we ran some errands and came back home. We just chilled and hung out in our living room with the Bun. After spaghetti with meatballs for dinner, I was craving cookies. When the sun started to set, we walked to Super Target to grab some cookies and milk. All a perfect ending for Dad on his first Father’s Day.

I think Josh was in awe most of the day that he is a daddy. The past year in many ways was like a blur. But looking at Ella and seeing her and us in our home environment, I think he was emotional realizing that his dream to have a baby girl really has come true.

I know that he loves her so much. I just can’t wait for the day when she will tell him beyond her contagious smile that she loves him too.

Ella was in a good mood today.

It does seem that her congestion has lessened the past couple of days. She still has it, but not quite as bad. I’m hoping she is simply adjusting to the Mile High City better each day.

We are having to place aloe vera gel on her cheeks and lips each day. We can’t use traditional lotion or anything with oil due to her oxygen therapy. So, we have found that pure aloe vera is working good (100% natural and non-toxic). After only a few days in dry Denver, we noticed that her skin was looking a bit chapped and needed the moisture.

Her oxygen levels have been good. Now she is on 500ccs throughout the day and a bit lower around 350ccs at night. So, I think that Ella is already starting to adjust to the altitude. Keep in mind that this is with the lower saturations that her pulmonologist wants to see.

Yes, I still have to bribe her for tummy time exercises. Fortunately, the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse works well. Macy came downstairs to hang out with us too.

And when Daddy came home from work tonight, Ella was sure glad to see him. They had a good time playing together.

We’re still praying for new tenants for our home. Things slowed down a bit with Father’s Day this past weekend. We’re hoping we can have it rented for July 1st, although based on the response so far, that might be a stretch.

Although it is only my third day alone with Ella, it is quiet. I’m still getting used to Josh being at work. In Florida, he was always in the other room working (telecommuting), but just having someone in the apartment felt different. Also, we would always have lunch together. So, I’m still getting used to being by myself with Ella. I’ll admit, it’s been tough for me.

I just keep reminding myself that this is what He called me to do for this season of life. And I’m trying to enjoy the quiet time before all of Ella’s therapy sessions start up again.

Psalm 119:57-58
You are my portion, O LORD;
I have promised to obey your words.
I have sought your face with all my heart;
be gracious to me according to your promise.