Ashlyn Update… Ladybug Fingernails

 

Look Dad No Tube!

I am way over due to offer an update on our Ashlyn. The last time I posted we had come home… she with her tube, (she called it a tail) was running around with the tail flapping in the breeze and her using it mostly as leverage to get some additional attention.  Four-year-olds know how to work it.

The older kids have been working on a video storyboard of Ashlyn’s experience.  They keep telling me it is “almost done”.  What I have seen of it…I really like and I was hoping to share it with you guys in my next post about Ashlyn. But I can’t wait anymore to give an update.  (But maybe it will be finished next week..I promise I’ll let you know.)

Ashlyn Learns to Fly a Kite

I’m doing it Dad…I’m doing it!

 

Sometimes your up…and sometimes your down

 Sometimes you hold on to things..or they hold on to you.  And sometimes you need to let go of things…and they need to let go of you.

So here is the latest…  Her tail/tube has been removed for about 2 weeks now.  Her x-rays show a miraculously recovered lung with fully 75% of her lung looking so healthy that you would be hard pressed to even find scar tissue or evidence that it collapsed.  The remaining portion will continue to heal more slowly.  But because children continue to grow lung tissue into their 8^th year of life we have every reason to expect her to make a full and complete recovery.  She can be a track star like her mommy was if she chooses too.

So what do you do with a miracle?  You recognize it, your celebrate it, you pray that you will never forget it, and you continue to strive to live in a manner that truly shows your gratitude and love towards a merciful and loving God.

What do you do with your miracle child?  The same thing you try to do with your others.  You look at them,  you love them, teach them, pray for them…hope for them, hurt with them, encourage them… and help them in any way you can to prepare for the future that they will help to create and the families they will someday have.

That of course includes flying kites, planting gardens, doing yard work, hugging, playing, dancing and all manner of chores and family activities.  

What is Ashlyn doing right now?   Her brothers and sisters are in school, Rebecca is at the gym and I can hear her up in her room singing and talking to her stuffed animals and dolls.  Something wonderful is happening up there…and soon I will sneak up and try not to be noticed so I can watch an imagination creating a world of wonder.  Then I will whisper another prayer of gratitude and come back down to my office feeling wonderful inside. 

Want to color with me dad?

And several times a day she’ll pop in my home office to check on me.  Sometimes she brings crayons and we hang out… sometimes she just crawls in my lap for 10 minutes then get’s down and runs off.  Other times she bursts through the door at full speed, runs around the desk, pulls me down, hugs my neck, and kisses my cheek, then runs off yelling… “I love you Daddy…you’re the best.”  When she does that I feel like I am my best…and I want to be even better.  And if  faith, prayer, hard work, and time…can help Ashlyn get better… then with those same ingredients … I can get better too.

   “Look Daddy.. I have ladybug fingernails!”

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