Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A good day

This morning Allan and I want to the biggest bugs pre-school Christmas Program. (I mistakenly called it a concert once to which Emmy corrected, "Mommy. It's not a concert. It's a PRO-GRAM). It totally warmed my heart seeing the girls sing songs about the birth of Jesus. They were so excited. It was awesome to see all their friends and all they worked so hard to do.

After the Program we were off to see littlest Bug. We really never know what we are going to walk into. We did our usual check of her "numbers" on all the monitors, scrub and kiss the little miss. We were surprised to see that Ava looked way more comfortable than she did last night. Her heart rate was well within normal today. ALL DAY. I then grabbed her hand. She squeezed mine and pulled on it. She had Physical Therapy and her therapist had tears in her eyes as Ava was responding to her touch, moving more and allowing her to do way more massage and range of motion than she's ever tolerated before. She finished by saying, "Ava's stronger today."

We are not reading much into this but for confusion. Yesterday we expected that Ava would be even weaker today than she was yesterday and her time with us would be coming to an end soon. Clearly today was not that day. Ava has more to accomplish. We truly just enjoyed her and enjoyed being amazed by her character, tenacity, and determination. She truly is a special little bug whom we are honored to love and know.

Of course we don't know what we will encounter tomorrow, but we will relish the gifts from today: Em and Lex signing, extra cuddle time with Elaina, and extra finger squeezes from Ava.

7 comments:

  1. Michelle (Rudy) HarveyDecember 16, 2009 at 1:46 AM

    relishing with you!!
    she is so pretty and sweet. so thankful to know her.

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  2. michelle stole what I was going to say. but seriously she is precious and such a big strong girl. I love her so much!
    --Amber

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  3. To Ava and the Benton family,
    I just learned about your sweet little girl from a mutual friend, Sue Powell. If you could please contact me (joe@livelikeandrew.org), I would like to see how our Foundation (The Andrew McDonough B+ {Be Positive} Foundation) may be able to assist you financially. More importantly, I would like you to know that I am here to help if there's anything I can do. We spent a lot of time at AI in 2007 leading up to my son going to Heaven on July 14th at the age of 14. Obviously, the specifics of our situations are different but, unfortunately, we do have a lot in common. Please know that I am going to pray for Ava and your family. I hope you will be able to cherish each minute that God gives you with your precious little girl.

    May God bless you and give you strength.

    B+

    Andrew's Family

    www.BePositive.org

    www.caringbridge.org/visit/andrewmcdonough

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  4. Dear Benton's,

    Mrs. Ackley is thinking of each of your little bugs - or little ladies as I've called them. Knowing today is a tough day for mom & dad - we said a special prayer for just today. Just today that each of you would have some extra sense of peace & comfort - whatever shape that comes in. May you be blessed by Him today.

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  5. Seriously, let me know when your girls are feeling better and can visit Ava. I'll be there with camera!

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  6. Amy,

    Thinking about you all.

    Cindy

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  7. That is really good post, christmas is just a month away and this program looks good on this day. Thank you for sharing this post with us

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