Growing Up

She really is, and I am so proud. The day I held my beautiful Allison for the first time I never dreamed she could grow into such a lovely young lady by the age of 9. On that day I had no idea she would love painting, planting, cheer leading, rock collecting, reading, new hair cuts, and french manicures. I had no idea she would end up with her daddy's fun loving spirit and silly sense of humor. I had no idea she would grow to be so independent and so strong at such a young age. On that day all I could see was her outward beauty, but today I got to witness some of her inner beauty. She is precious and I LOVED watching her today. She touched my heart as I watched her from afar. Visiting with friends, patiently waiting her turn to test, flipping her hair, straitening her clothes in the mirror, carefully washing her hands, being silly and sweet, a little shy at first and then gaining a new confidence as the day went on. What a joy it was to spend this day celebrating this accomplishment with her. She is not only my daughter, she is also a precious, little friend to me.

It wasn't easy leaving Ash behind this morning, but I know Allison needed me. Ash continues to struggle today and into this evening. We had every test we could think of run on her today. Her white count is trying to recover and our hope along with her doctors is that she will begin to recover as it comes back. At this time we have no definitive proof of anything other than her unusual fussiness, cough, and drainage. Last night she spiked a temp for a very short period of time but when we called our transplant team it had gone back to normal. She tested negative for RSV and the Flu today. Her chest x-ray was unremarkable. Her lab work still looks good. The only thing left to do is wait on her line culture to grow or hopefully not to grow. Our local doctor and our doctor in Omaha are suspecting it is viral and that she picked it up while her count was so low. I pray they are right. I pray it is not an infection in her line. I want so badly for her to begin to feel better. I haven't seen that contagious smile in days and I am missing it.

Dave and our moms did a great job juggling between our office's appointments and Ashley's appointments. I know it wasn't easy and it took all three of them to make it work, but they did it. I know I am blessed to have such a group of people who love our Ashley as much as I do to fill in for me. There is NO WAY I could do this on my own. Graypa even jumped in and ran to the school to pick up Blake for us. Ashley is so blessed. She is so loved by us all and there is nothing we wouldn't do for her. She is sleeping now and seems to be more comfortable while she sleeps.

Thank you all for praying for us today. The support and encouragement you offer to us carries me along on the good days and the bad days. Thank you for reaching out and allowing yourselves to love our Ashley. Someday I hope to be posting about my Ashley being all grown up and attending the Math Olympics just like her sister. Wouldn't that be amazing? By the way Al did not place in the top 5, but it didn't matter to us. We were so proud she was chosen to go and represent her class. Tomorrow she will receive her scores and her ratings and a "shiny" new ribbon. Her comment after the announcing of the top 5 scoring students was, "Oh, well at least I will have a shiny new ribbon to hang on grandma's fridge and I didn't have to be in school today." Silly girl, like I said "she's growing up".