So Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for in this wonderful time of the year. We are so thankful for our beautiful daughter. She has been through so much but she is the light of our lives and continues to do great! We are so thankful for all of our wonderful friends and family that have supported us these past eight very difficult months. We are thankful that we live so close to our family. We are thankful for our parents who want to watch Elle and help us out in every way possible. We are so thankful for all the love that our little girl receives. We are so thankful for our friends who have helped us smile in some very dark times, have held our hands or just listened and who love our little Elle. We are so thankful for the Wee Dream Foundation and gifts we have received from the foundation. We are so thankful to everyone that donated to the foundation - whether it was to play golf, an item for the auction or a monetary donation. We are so thankful for our companies that have been so supportive and helpful while we adjust to having a special needs child. We are so thankful for Dr. M and his surgical team that performed Elle's heart surgeries and we are so thankful for all the wonderful doctors and nurses that became not only our friends but members of our family during our stays in the hospital. We are so thankful for Texas Children's Hospital. We are so thankful for the wonderful families we met while we were in the hospital and became friends with. We are so thankful for our wonderful occupational therapist and our physical therapist who we get to see every week. We are so thankful for all of our out patient doctors. We are so thankful that Ole Miss beat LSU because our next appointment with Dr. E(Elle's audiologist) will be very interesting to say the least!! We are so thankful for all of the prayers we have received - the prayers that have truly lifted us up on the most difficult times. We are so thankful for kindness of strangers. We are so thankful that we serve a benevolent God who has held us for so long and continues to carry us.

There have been so many moments when I have just stopped and said a prayer of nothing more than "thank you." Elle and I spent the weekend together while Lee went hunting. There were so many times when I would look down at Elle playing on the floor and just smile and say "thank you." She is making progress everyday on getting stronger and developing to where a "normal" 8 month old baby should be. We started off our Thanksgiving weekend with a visit from one of my bffs from Alaska.

Kristina and Patty meeting Elle for the first time (KCJ is due in March with a baby boy!)

She and her mom came over and while I was uber embarrassed that they had to see my dirty house, I was so glad they got to see Elle for a little bit. After their visit, Lee and I took Elle over to his brother's house where we got to visit with Lee's wonderful cousin, Katie and her husband, Andrew.

Katie and Elle

They are in from New York and it was so great to spend some time with them - catching up and seeing them love on Elle. We haven't seen Katy and Andrew in over a year so we spent some time with them on Wednesday and then went back to see them on Thursday evening. We had a very low key Thanksgiving day. We didn't want to get Elle out and around large groups of people so we kept her at home. Of course, we did dress her up in a "My First Thanksgiving" t-shirt. What a cute little pilgrim!

I spent the afternoon with my family at my parents house while Lee spent the day with Elle. Friday morning, I had every intention of waking up early to hit the super deals - but I just couldn't pull myself out of bed early enough. My mom and I eventually ventured out and found some super buys. Thankfully, the crowds weren't too terrible and we made it to every store we had lists for. Saturday morning, Lee and my dad left way before sunrise to go down south to go hunting. Elle Belle was a perfect angel all weekend. She is such a lively little girl and we had so much fun hanging out - just us girls. The only time I get nervous with her is during feeding time. She literally is rolling all around now - and every time I hook her up to her feeding tube, I get so nervous that she is going to roll and pull her feeding tube out! I walked into the den the other day after leaving for a second to get something from the kitchen and found her on the other side of the den - still attached to her feeding tube - with it stretched out as far as the tubing would go. It's hard to keep a 8 month old still for 1.5 hours while the feed runs! I pray that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving - filled with family and friends. It's hard to believe that it is almost December 1 and then Christmas!