Gearing Up for Surgery

For the last 2 weeks I have been keeping my distance from the computer. It's probably because I have been glued to it at work with benefits renewal stuff going on and I want nothing to do with it once I get home. It's not helping that for some reason none of my pictures are downloading so I can't share that many pictures from the past week. The big news in our house is that tomorrow Elle will be having her last surgery for a (hopefully) long time. She will be having her frenulum sniped, her nostrils widened, water drained off her ears and her throat/voicebox scoped to be sure there isn't anything there hindering her breathing/eating. While we are worried about her going under the knife again, our thoughts and prayers are also with our precious nephew, Witt. He will be having open heart surgery tomorrow at the same time Elle is having her surgery. Texas Children's Hospital will be encased in prayers for our sweet babies tomorrow. Every few minutes or so, I start to think about Witt and just start praying for that sweet little guy and his amazing family. I pray for his surgeon (who is also Elle's heart surgeon) and his amazing team. I pray that God's incredible presence is felt in both his operating room and Elle's operating room and that both surgical teams are filled with knowledge and peace as they fix our babies. I pray this is the last time Elle and Witt have to have surgery at the same time. I pray for Witt's family and specifically Witt's parents and grandparents. Tomorrow will be a tough day for Mark and Vickie, Witt and Elle's grandparents. They will be going between 2 waiting rooms as their only grandchildren are both in surgery. I pray for the Lord's immeasurable strength for all of us to get through tomorrow and they days that follow. I pray for my sweet baby girl to come through this surgery with the ability to eat and possibly breathe better. I pray for Elle's amazing surgeon and his team. I pray that Elle' recovery is without complications and we don't spend too much time in the hospital - although - if we do - it is because of God's perfect timing. I pray for my husband and the rest of Elle's family - for our peace and strength tomorrow. Oh Lord, please just watch over our babies tomorrow. You do on a daily basis, but tomorrow - Lord, please, please take care of our little ones.

I know I won't be able to sleep tonight, even though tomorrow will be a long day with a very early wake up call. And while my heart is heavy for the long day we have tomorrow, there is some exciting news (and pictures) to share. Little miss independent pulled herself up to standing yesterday! The crazy kiddo can't sit up on her own yet - but she sure did pull herself up! I had put Elle in her crib while I was hanging up her clothes yesterday and she was happily playing with her toys. I watched as she scooted to the side of the crib and watched in amazement as she pulled herself up onto her knees. Next to her crib is a rocking chair with a few stuffed animals on it and a framed picture of Witt. She saw the picture of Witt and had to investigate and before I knew it, she was standing (I snapped the pics with my phone)!

She kind of hung over the side of her crib for a long time staring at Witt. I kept hoping she would make that last big push up to be fully standing but she was just too mesmerized. I tried to entice her by holding the picture up higher but she got frustrated and scared and sat back down...although she did stand back up one more time looking for Witt. We are so proud of this little inchworm! She really is a inchworm now - she is army crawling (inch worming) her way all over the place. I don't think it will be too long before she is crawling and then really pulling herself up. I hope this surgery doesn't knock her down for too long so she can continue to improve on her sitting/crawling/standing/walking.

Tomorrow while we are waiting I am going to try to update the past week in pictures. There are some great pics from Animal Print Friday - she was really hamming it up. Even the lady at Wal-Mart laughed today when she was helping me with the print station thing! I love it when Elle makes strangers smile!!