Abby Turns Three

It's hard to believe our little one is three.  It seems like just yesterday I was at the hospital on the phone with Steve telling him how beautiful our little one was. (For those who may not know, or remember, he was in Afghanistan).

Abby's birth was quite eventful.  The night she was born we were transferred to Memorials NICU because they noticed some red spots on her body and the blood they took from her was clotting too fast.  They put in a red cross note for Steve to fly home from Afghanistan ASAP.  

The next four days were probably the roughest of our lives.  Steve was traveling home, not knowing what was really happening (he had long flights where we couldn't talk) and I was getting news from our doctors, much of that was not good.

Basically it turned out that Abby had a bleed on her brain, it covered 1/8 of her entire brain.  We were told this meant: the areas of her brain that the blood has covered could be damaged and she will have significant delays because of this.  The extent of the delays we will never know until she can't do something.

There are no words to describe what that feels like, I'm crying as I am writing this.  Thank the Lord he put me in a bit of a fog because if I really knew everything, I don't know how I would have coped for those two long days without Steve.

When Steve got there, we were able to process together.  The Lord was with us...that is all I can say.  There is NO WAY we did any of that without Him.

The bleed was on the right side of Abby's brain....Causing her left side to be the "damaged side"

Now we are into year three of Abby's life:

She is an absolute joy.  Often saying/doing things that make us crack up.

She likes to be by herself, an introvert.

Her best friend is Alice. Whenever we go somewhere, "Will Alice be there?"

She can't say "vanilla" :)

She used to say, "What's happeting?"

She loves Lucy unconditionally, even when Lucy tries to take her toys....

It usually takes her at least 45 minutes to wind down when going to bed.

She LOVES crafts

She is doing PT once a week to help with pronation in her feet (turning in).

Her favorite games are: open handed go fish and a bubble puppy's game

She loves Daniel Tiger, Barney and Blues Clues

Being outside is her favorite thing ever, she loves making tracks in the snow.

She doesn't like to do what we want her to do....i.e. come talk on the phone...take a picture for us...Let Lucy sit on your lap....However, if we don't ask to do those things, she will readily do them...She's three.

And...she is left handed...I used to joke with the doctor's, "I think she is going  to be left handed..." just because I thought that was God's way of saying He healed her....Well, He did, and she is indeed left handed....Take that brain bleed!

Here are some pictures from her sweet Blues Clues/Superbowl party:

We have a ruler now so we can measure the girls every year!

We made tickety tock from Blues Clues!

And we played "Pin the Paw on Blue"

And....we watched the Super Bowl....

Pin the paw on Blue

We never get pictures of them both smiling at the same time..

Sweet Clementine Mae.

It was a great party.  We love little Abigail Ann and can't wait to see what God has in store for her.  Her testimony is already pretty amazing!  Can't wait till she is old enough to tell it herself!