Life

Ash with her Gotcha Day Cake June 2009

I held our sweet girl on my hip this afternoon and beamed inside as I shared with her daddy, "She's got her life back. You can actually see the life in her eyes that has returned!"

Day after day she wakes us giggly and happy. Our sweet little girl who was born with such a passion for life has made her way back to us. She is so, so happy. All day long and late into the nights all she wants to do is play, play, play. What joy our hearts are overflowing with to see her once again have the ability to enjoy her life. It was a very long 8months, but one or two or seven now stretching into 8 days of feeling good again makes it seem like a distant memory. Our hearts are so grateful!

Ashley looks amazing. She feels amazing. Other than a leaking g-tube she has no signs of discomfort. Her eyes twinkle again and the color in her cheeks has returned. She is silly and sassy. Telling us all she can think to sign as fast as her little hands can go. This afternoon at bath time she let us have it. With a shake of her head, "no, no, no" and the swiftness of her hands she let us know that she would rather do anything other than sit there while we shampooed her hair and washed her back. At first she signed, NO. Then begged her daddy to pick her up. When that didn't work she pointed to the door and waved bye-bye. Then told us to drive in the car. From there she asked to go back to the living room. Could she just go read a book? All the while tears rolled down those scrumptious cheeks. I laughed so hard at her. It took a whole 10 seconds to tell us all of those things and then she just gave up and cried her little heart out. Oh, how I love this child! She brings out the very best parts of me. Of all of us.

Yesterday, I walked into our family room to find her lying on the floor, snuggled between two 13 year old boys. They had turned on her bubble machine(she received it for Gotcha Day this year and I have to tell you it was one of the best gifts I have ever purchased!) and it was raining bubbles down on their faces. Her little eyes were squinted and her nose scrunched up, but her smile was as wide as I have ever seen it and the giggles that erupted from inside of her were contagious. What an image! One I hope to never forget.


There is life in her eyes again and its the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. How I wish you could spend a moment or two with our girl and feel the zest for living that oozes out of her every part. I love her so very much and I had missed this part of her more than I even knew. Dave and I are enjoying each and every day with her. We can't get enough of the snuggling, the giggling, the playing, the everything.

Needless to say Rapamune is now one of the drugs on our DO NOT GIVE TO ASH list. Never again will I allow such a thing to steal her away from us. We know better than to go this route again. Our prayer is that God will allow the Prograf to do the job and keep her organs safe so that we might never have to look for another solution and never have to watch her suffer from such side effects again.

God continues to bless and bless and bless. Have a great weekend and I'll check in with you when we return from our weekend at the ballpark. On our way to Terrell this week. Take care. Trish