Ellie Update

Happy New Year! We had a great time visiting with old friends and also with lots of family over the holidays.

Here is a video that Adam took during one of Ellie's awake periods.



As you can see, she is quite alert and aware of her surroundings. She used to have a hard time focusing on us but now will hold a stare and seems to comprehend what is going on. She has many more awake periods now. During the day, she will often be awake for 10 or 15 minutes, while we change her diaper or do her care. She will startle awake if we transfer her to someone else's arms or to a new position. She tends to go back to sleep within a few minutes though.

Then she has more alert awake periods a few times a day. Today she was awake for probably an hour and a half after lunch. She then slept for a couple of hours and awoke at 5 and will probably be awake for several hours this evening.

This is such a huge change over us trying to tickle her and stroke her feet to get her to wake up when she first came home. Nothing we did could get her to wake up then!

Ellie has been continuing to grow and is eating a lot. She weighs between 10 and 11 pounds now, and eats 3 ounces at a feeding. She has been quite healthy since her first little cold the week she came home. What a blessing and gift from God! The doctors told us we would probably see them for pneumonia within a month! We are keeping her home as much as possible and everyone has been very considerate about keeping their distance when they are sick.

A new thing that we have noticed (but can't prove) is that Ellie has started to swallow. We can see her close her jaw and hear a gulping-type noise. She has a lot less secretions in her mouth as well. If this is true, it will truly be the beginning of a miracle.

We continue to think about (and worry about) the future and what it holds for Ellie and our family. We just don't know what will happen, but we can already see the hand of God working in our lives and know that he will care for us whatever may come.