HAPPY #4 BELLA BABY

Four years ago today God blessed us with a special little girl. She has forever changed our lives in more ways than we could have ever expected. She is precious, funny, intelligent, active, tricky, independent and nothing less than a miracle.

As soon as I woke up this morning I climbed into bed to snuggle with her for a brief few minutes before her inevitable morning tour of the house investigating everything, telling her brother what to do and then heading into her new toy...a trampoline! Each of us sang her HAPPY BIRTHDAY and then she received phone calls from each of her grandparents followed by many texts before the clock struck 8am. This is one loved child.

We love all of our blog family and are so fortunate to have had you in our lives 4 years ago reading and praying with us (and continuing to follow our families journey). Our little girl has overcome so many hurdles and is an amazing little person. She is living proof that any obstacle a micro-preemie might be labeled with can be squashed like a bug.

What she went through those early months will forever be a part of who we are and has forever changed our mission in life. For the first time last night I started to explain to her what happened. This morning while talking to Nana and Papi she started to talk about what we discussed last night. The girl is like a sponge! Hopefully I can do justice to explaining the joyous miracle she is and the respect that all of our extended family in Virginia deserves. She definitely talks about Colleen, Kam, Sherry and Lauren/Abby quite often (mostly because we just saw them). Now we just need to keep expanding on the story we tell her when she looks at her photos and all the photos of the great people that took care of her.

The birthday girl gets WHATEVER she wants today, now that she is at an age where she really understands and can voice what she wants. This morning we got to watch the cartoons she wanted. Daddy took her to breakfast at our normal weekend pancake/taco place. I'm leaving work early to get her separate from her brothers to take her out on her own for a little bit. Then she gets to decide what we have for dinner. On Saturday she gets to go ice skating and go see the light display at the zoo. Love being able to celebrate her birth, truly a blessing!

So here is to you baby girl...HAPPY #4!!! Mommy and Daddy love you more than we could ever express with words.

Merry Christmas to you all...peace of the Lord be with you all!!!

ISABELLA OVER THE YEARS

At birth

At 1

At 2

At 3 

Today