Blessings

I have just been thinking so much lately about how blessed we are. Over the past several months since Ella has been home we have had SO much help from friends and family and we are just so thankful and overwhelmed by it all. Seriously, we go into a state of shock almost daily (and I'm not kidding when I say daily!) as we continue to receive unexpected meals, gift cards, financial support from family, friends and people we don't even know, encouraging notes and phone calls, people coming over just to help with Ella and Eva and do household chores, bring me sonic drinks (awesome!) and just give me encouragement since I don't get out much. Our sweet parents still are coming once a month or so to visit and help. They are helping too by getting our house cleaned for us and also getting someone in the works to come over for a couple of hours a week during the day to help with Ella so I can actually leave my cave and join society. I could write forever about all that our families have done and are doing for us. They are incredible! And did I mention a new washer and dryer, night help three nights a week, and a fun lunch with my girlfriends in which I left with a trunk full of diapers and wipes? The list goes on and on and on. Unbelievable! I know, my run-on sentences go on and on and are unbelievable too, grammar is not my strong point...don't worry about it.

Rick and I just stare at each other in amazement every day when we think of all the blessings we are receiving from such caring and generous friends. We are beyond blessed and really are speechless because we don't know how to handle it all. We feel that our life has been forever changed by the generosity of friends and family and we are learning so much from all of you about how to carry others burdens and help those in need. We will do things much differently in the future when it comes to helping others and how we use our time, money and the talents the Lord has given us. We are so thankful for everything everyone has done and is doing for us. You are blessing us more than you will ever know! These are hard days we are in and often we wonder why some of our prayers are not being answered the way we would like them to be. Then when we come out of our pity party we see that the Lord is answering prayers but just in different ways. For some reason God doesn't seem to do things the way I think He should. Weird, I know. :) However, I am SO glad because He is in control and has amazing plans for our family and for Ella and I know that He will use all of these things for His glory. Our prayer is that we exemplify Jesus through this struggle and that others may come to know Him. Thank you for continuing on this marathon with us, we could not do it without you.

Okay, so here is the new washer/dryer story. So the week that it was so icy I got a phone call one morning and this man tells me he is on his way to deliver my new washer and dryer. I told him that I didn't order a new washer/dryer and that he had the wrong phone number. I didn't think anything of it because we often get calls from Home Depot saying, "Yeah, this is Steve and your sheet rock is ready." You know, things like that. It has happened several times so I figured this was the same story. Well, he verified my name and address and I told him that he had the right info but still I had not ordered a washer/dryer so something must be wrong. He said he would call his boss and call me back. Poor guy, he didn't know what to do with me. He called me back and told me that he couldn't tell me anything more than that the washer/dryer were a gift for us and he was on his way. What?!!! Talk about shock. I felt like we should be on Extreme Home Makeover or something. So he shows up about 30 min. later with these beauties.

Unbelievable my friends, unbelievable. After talking with a friend I now know that numerous precious and generous families from our church all went in together to get these for us. I still can't believe it. Sometimes Rick and I just stand and look at them because we are still in amazement. The other day I kept the pantry door open so I could gaze at them while I ate my lunch. Hysterical I know. Thank you, Thank you to all who were a part of this generous gift!!

Another gift that we have been given from some very generous friends is night help with Ella three nights a week. This past month I have been up pretty much every hour of every night with Ella so needless to say there was not much sleep happening. Brruutall! So some very caring friends who want us to be able to have a break and get rest have helped us by hiring a caregiver for Ella. We interviewed a couple of people and we now have a sweet woman named Ann that comes from 9pm-7am three nights a week and takes care of Ella, helps with laundry or whatever we might need. She is from Kenya and is a christian and just has the most precious personality and caring heart. We really think she is wonderful and she just loves Ella so it is a blessing having her in our home. I really could update daily about all that you all are doing for our family. We are forever grateful and we love you all dearly. Thank you again!

As far as updates on things with Ella I don't have much. We did get the biopsies back from her scope and all they told us was that she has esophagitis (inflammation of the esophagus) which we pretty much already knew. They did prescribe a medication for it so we are praying for good results with this new med. That is pretty much all we know at this point. We haven't gotten the results back from the pH probe yet and tomorrow Ella has her upper GI so hopefully we will have more information later in the week. We also have a dr's appt. with the GI dr. who did the scope on Thursday so we are hoping to be able to ask more questions and get some answers then as well. Thank you for your prayers for all of this, please keep praying for Ella and her feedings. We'll update again soon. Here are some pictures of the girls for you.


Ella is SO much easier to get a smile out of than Eva was at this age...or even now for that matter. Eva is always too cool for school and just stares you down sometimes no matter how hard you try to get her to smile. I am actually shocked that in this picture when I told her to smile she did so maybe we are turning a corner. Oh will I have stories to tell them in the future of all they put their parents through. By the way, don't you love that sweet widdle Ella at 5 months old is the same size as the bear Eva is holding. Hilarious! Sweet baby girl. Amazing these two girls, love them!