Ella's second birthday pics! ... Finally!

We had such a wonderful day celebrating Ella's life! It was a small intimate party where Ella was surrounded by people who love and care about her, people who have prayed hard for her, and we loved sharing the day with them!

We had one very special guest, Ella's dear heart friend, Emma! We love Emma and her family, Emma and Ella had a very similar diagnosis in the womb, and with the conditions that they share being so rare it was an instant connection. We have been honored to follow Emma's journey as it started just 2 months after Ella's. Ella and Emma have the same surgeon, and we have been in the hospital in adjacent ICU rooms, we shared the Ronald McDonald house too, life just brought us together! Emma has had more complications then anyone should have to face, but she has continued to fight and she is one very tough little girl! We just love that Ella and Emma got to meet face to face for the first time! Though they have had very different paths since they were born, they are both without doubt miracles!

One of my best friends made Ella's beautiful cake! She is so talented and I was so blessed that she was willing to do this for us! It was super yummy too! (Thanks Lyd!)

We are so thankful for all of you who have prayed with us throughout her life and we are asking that you continue your prayers as we enter an new phase with Ella, now that she is 2 it is very important that her immune system builds so that she will be able to have as healthy of a future as possible! Including fighting infection and sickness during her next surgery and hospital stay. This is hard on us as you can imagine to change our mind set. It has been "she can't get sick" for so long that now trying to treat her more normal (not even close to healthy heart normal, but more normal then before) is a huge change for us! Really though, the whole purpose of keeping her sheltered so far was to save her life, literally, and now she needs her immune system to be strong to save her life so even though the approach will be different, the goal is the same... do what's best for Ella and keep her alive and healthy!

That being said we have hit a big milestone, Ella is currently fighting off her first virus. She has been struggling since Thursday night. She has had fever, runny nose, coughing, sneezing, some vomiting due to drainage, and it has been hard on us all. She has done remarkable considering never having been sick before. Her sats are holding steady for the most part (although about 5-10 points less then her usual). Overall she is ROCKING it and we are so proud of her! I was so dreading this first sickness, and even though it isn't over, and it is making for some sleepless nights full of coughing, it has been reassuring that she CAN do this! That she is STRONG despite having half of a mended heart and severely sick lungs. Right now she needs prayers for this nasty cough to subside and her oxygen to stay up (it's borderline for okay). We need prayers to continue to let her fight and not to be too afraid of the future!

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers as we walk this journey and as our sunshine pioneers the way for those to come!

As you enjoy the pics from her 2nd birthday remember how BIG our God is! Remember that Ella had only a 20% chance to live, remember that her first open heart surgery failed and they did an experimental surgery on her they had never done before, remember that we had to go through the transplant application process but God healed her enough to handle the surgery again. Remember that we almost lost her the night after her second open heart surgery, Remember that she has faced 3 open heart surgeries and 2 cath surgeries, remember that she is continuing to beat the odds and fight! Remember that everyday is a GIFT!