Baby Claire's Blog: Thankful

thankful - thank.ful (adjective) - feeling gratitude, glad about something

Thankful is how I feel after this past weekend. I am so thankful for so many things that God has blessed us with.

I am so thankful for my family and friends for wishing me a happy birthday on Friday and for spending time with my family on Saturday celebrating. I am thankful for my husband who carried me out to eat for a nice dinner and Dairy Queen for my birthday and who cooked on the grill on Saturday in the heat for me. I am thankful for the rain we got that evening while we all sat inside our home eating and talking with one another. I am grateful that we had so much fun that I don't have any pictures to show for it. I am even thankful for the meltdown that Claire had. I am just glad that she is healthy enough to have a meltdown in our own home. I am also glad that after her meltdown, she calmed down and helped me open my gifts after everyone left. And I am so thankful that I caught this video of her playing with the tissue paper while unknowing to me, Trent had found a sweet, sweet song on his phone and gave it to Claire to listen to. It just totally melted my heart and made me realize just how thankful I really am for this "wonderful world." I am so thankful for my family. (you have to turn on your volume to hear the song)

I am so very thankful for this beautiful little girl below in her cute Sunday dress from her Aunt Brandy. I am thankful that we tried once again to attend church/nursery. We will keep trying, but it's going to take a while for Claire to get used to it.

I am so thankful we made it to Duke yesterday safely, yet without a stroller. Thank God there was a Walmart close to Aunt Julie's house so that we could run by there on the way and buy a stroller! And I am so thankful we found the little tiny pin that held the tire on as it got lost on the 4th floor of the Duke parking deck yesterday as we were trying to put the stroller together before Claire's appointment. You can only imagine what we looked like... I am thankful there were not many people on the 4th floor of the parking deck!

I am thankful that even though I could tell Claire was scared when we went back to the 5th floor at Duke Hospital to visit, that she is smart enough to recognize where she is. As soon as we stepped foot onto the 5th floor (where the NICU, TCN, PCICU, and the surgery recovery is), she began to whine as I am sure she recognized the smells, sights, and sounds where she spent most of her hospital stay. She is one smart cookie!

I am thankful for Nurse Marie who took such great care of Claire and loves her so much. And she does this each and every day for all of the other babies who are born too early.

I am thankful for Dr. Rachel who loves Claire and looked/looks out for us. She listened to us when no one else would and took initiative to help Claire. She is a great doctor and we are so proud that she is our doctor.

I am very thankful for Dr. Martin who performed great miracles with Claire's liver. So very thankful that Claire's liver ultrasound looked great yesterday with no new cysts, the liver is growing back, the blood vessels in the new part of the liver look good, and the remaining cyst is staying small at 1 centimeter! YAY!!! I am thankful we will go back in a few months to check Claire's liver again.

I am thankful that we ran into the geneticists yesterday on the way out and they said Claire's microarray came back normal! So thankful that they ruled out any of the hundreds of chromosomal disorders that Claire could have had by having 2 birth defects. And thankful they are working on getting the DNA to Seattle Children's soon to test for the rare chromosomal disorder, ABM, so we can have answers.

I am so thankful for this little boy, Super Dude, and his family. They have been such a support and role model to us as we have been on this journey. I am grateful for these two miracles and that they were finally able to meet each other yesterday.