The day we have been waiting for….

HAPPY

1ST

BIRTHDAY

ANNABELLE!!!!!!!!!!

OH what a wonderful, much looked forward to day!

My daughter, my heart-healthy, ALIVE daughter… is playing in her jumperoo… in a cute pink dress to match her newly pink skin, playing with one of her older sisters.

It’s an answer to prayer, to put it mildly. We’ve prayed for this day for a LONG TIME.

As most of you know, there have been many many times in the past year when we wondered if she would make it, including the 4 times they did emergency CPR… and the 3 months we waited for a heart, watching her get a little worse everyday, unsure if we would get one in time. 

But while we celebrate today, my thoughts are going to a family out there who is enduring my biggest fear. The lost of their little baby 3 1/2 months ago.

They won’t be celebrating another birthday with their child. I can only imagine their feelings, their questions of “why” this happened and “why” God didn’t interveen on their behalf.

*sigh* I really don’t have an answer to that. I don’t think God allowed their baby to die so mine could live. I think God allowed something wonderful and good to come out of a very sad situation though.

And I know, beyond a doubt, that even though cruddy things happen in this world, God is still BIG, and He is still on his throne, and He still loves us like crazy.

So on Annabelle’s birthday, we ask that in your prayers and praises for our Annabelle, that you include the family that lost someone oh-so-precious in your prayers too. That God would surround them with His love and peace and grace. That the fact that a little girl lived to see her first birthday because of their gift of life (which organ donation basically is!) would help in the healing process, as well as the fact that their little one’s heart beats on in another.

If you haven’t seen her birthday party pictures yet… I posted them in yesterday’s post!

Will post her REAL birthday pictures from today in the next day or so!!!