Celebrating life!

We've had a FUN week here on The Writer's Alley, celebrating "wins."

As most of us know, the writing journey is filled with frustrations, so it is so VERY important to celebrate the wins along the way, both writing related and non-writing related.
Today... we are celebrating LIFE!

The celebration of life has taken on a whole new meaning for me lately. As most of you may know, I gave birth to a beautiful little girl a little over 2 weeks ago on July 20th. Little Annabelle Lillian Faith Phillips arrived around 11:17 p.m. and was 7 pounds 5 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long.
I'd LOVE to tell you how healthy and wonderfully she is doing, but Annabelle is a special little girl. She was born with a serious heart defect (in medical terms, she has an unbalanced AVSD with a hypoplastic ... or too small ... left heart.)

The last 2 1/2 weeks have been full of ups and downs.

UP: Her birth went well (just a week early!)Down: The doctors whisked her away minute later because she was having trouble breathing.

Up: The doctors told us that her breathing was much better was an up
Down: Hours later, her % of oxygen wasn't ideal so they had to put her in a tent thing.

Up: She went through her first open heart surgery on July 26th and everything went much better than they could have hoped.
Down: Less than 2 days later I received a call in the middle of the night that she was failing and needed CPR to be revived, then needed her chest reopened and her heart put on a machine to work.
Through all of this, it's really hit home how much we need to focus on the wins. Tough times WILL come. Rejections happen. But the good DOES outweigh the bad.

For me, I wouldn't trade my Annabelle for anything, including all the problems that come with her. Every moment I have with her is precious and worth all the trouble that it took to get her to that point.

So, today, I celebrate LIFE-- and Annabelle! Every crazy moment of it, and every crazy second of my little love's life!!
Of course, I can't celebrate Annabelle without giving you her most recent pictures! Enjoy!

*Side Note* I've dedicated my personal blog, reflectionsbykrista.blogspot.com, to Annabelle updates for the foreseeable future, so if you'd like to check up on how she's doing, feel free to stop by!


*Another Side Note:* If you'd seen her earlier pictures, you'll notice Annabelle has yet ANOTHER new tube... this one on her HEAD! Yes, the RA line in her stomach went bad so they had to put an IV in her baby girl heads! ACK! My head hurts just thinking about it! They say that babies don't mind it as much as we grownups do... but still!