Day 723 - On the eve of Ava's 2nd Birthday...

We are very excited to celebrate tomorrow and what tomorrow means. We think Ava is even excited and knows what a birthday is (especially after we celebrated Ali's 1/2 birthday and Daddy's birthday yesterday). Two years ago yesterday, Anthony took me into Sister's Hospital with the hopes that we could keep Ava in my tummy. Of course we all know, God had other plans. I remember feeling guilty about Anthony spending his birthday at the hospital because maybe it wasn't necessary to be there that weekend. But it was not only important, but imperative. There is probably no way Ava would have made it to the hospital alive with us living 45 minutes away. If she did there could have even been brain damage. But God gave us wisdom and knowledge to come into the hospital and get the two shots to develop lung growth. Who knows if that really made a difference??...

In other news, we didn't have a nurse Friday, Saturday night or tonight. Saturday night our nurse was late and then she ended up getting in a car accident. Tonight our nurse, who only comes in once a week, called off less than an hour before her shift, giving us much time to prepare for an all-nighter. She also hasn't been in the last three weeks. We are currently in the process of getting Medicaid nursing approval and will try to find some Medicaid nurses who can fill in since we pressured our nursing agency months ago to let us.

Ava is doing great being off the ventilator 45 minutes twice a day. She really just takes off and loves not being attached to the vent.

Ava weighs 12 kg = 26.5 pounds.

I am working on an updated slideshow for Ava's birthday tomorrow. Hopefully it will be done for your enjoyment.

Thanking God for Ava's life and praying for Ava to outlive us all (and be healthy)...