Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Full Heart.......A Busy Life

Wow! I'm a bit behind with my blog. I hope it's not too long.

We are continuing to adjust to having a newborn in the house. I must say, it's a sweet pleasure adding Elizabeth Grace "Gracie" to our home. Each day is a reminder of how precious life is.

Prior to Christmas we took William to meet Santa Claus. Well...let's just say he wasn't so "excited" about this guy in the red suit with all the white hair on his face.




We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with our family. It was different being here and not in Florida, but being here reminded us of the precious life we had just brought into this world. We kept with our normal traditions, opening one gift Christmas Eve, pajama picture by the tree, breakfast pizza and sausage balls Christmas morning, Santa made his debut, and a wonderful Christmas dinner with a homemade cheesecake courtesy of my daddy! I truly missed being at my mom and dad's house and celebrating with my brother and his family, but we counted our many blessings and enjoyed celebrating the very Savior that saved our girl.





Amber spent a week in Arkansas with mom and dad visiting our family there. She had a wonderful time and I'm sure getting away was fun for her. She is such a great big sister (I've said it a time and time again) but she truly is. She just loves on Gracie and William all the time. William runs to her every afternoon when she walks in from school and reaches for kisses. It melts my heart to see her interact with them with such gentleness and love.

William is adjusting as well and much better than I ever imagined. He loves his little sister and constantly kisses her and runs to her cradle every time he hears her whimper or cry. He loves her so much he wants to "share" his toys and does this by throwing them over the cradle. So we are continuing to work on this. He loves to sit and hold her with mommy's help and is learning to pat her and rub her with "gentle hands". He loves to "help" so he holds the diaper while we change Gracie, he loves to wipe her mouth when she spits up (and when she doesn't, ha) and really loves to take her socks on and off. It's a lot of fun watching him interact with her.





Fred learned this week he was given an internship to teach at Gwinnett Online Campus. This has potential to lead to a placement position which is an awesome opportunity for him. I'm so excited for him and this opportunity. He has worked so hard and deserves this so much.

Gracie is growing like crazy. She eats ALL the time and is developing quite a personality. She has started smiling and cooed for the first time tonight. She's still learning to sleep. As tired as I am, and how difficult the nights are with her up and down all night, I am reminded of our journey. Our prayers could have been answered so differently, but God gave us the "yes" we prayed for and for that, I will take the sleepless nights. She's a precious little girl and I find myself at times just kissing all over her sweet cheeks.





We have an appointment tomorrow to meet with an audiologist with Scottish Rite for Gracie. While in the hospital, they conducted a hearing test which is standard. However, Gracie did not pass in her right ear. They did three tests, one which included electrodes. Her left ear appears okay, but she appears to have some degree of hearing loss in her right ear. We remain optimistic that this may have just been fluid build up, but hope to find out more tomorrow. We know who holds our hand, and her hand, so we continue to lean on Him and Him alone. I'll update on her diagnosis once we know more.

I continue to be so thankful to all our friends and family who have and continue to pray for our family. The journey was hard, we fought hard, and in the end, we were rewarded with a precious little girl. I have found myself at times missing her in my tummy but am so very thankful she's here and in our arms. As I reflect on all we have learned, I beleive the greatest of these lessons is to trust Him even in the greatest of trials. When traveling through life's trials, we often feel like God isn't near and sometimes not listening to our cries. There were times in our journey I struggled with these feelings. However, I learned He is there, I just had to be patient and listen. My prayer is that through our journey, my words, and our girl, that you may find this same comfort if you are in the midst of a trial.

I'm going to sign off for now and try to update some pictures to Facebook. It's amazing how busy life has become but I WOULDN'T change it for anything.

Love,
Jamie

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