A special day!

What a great day today was! We left the house about 7:45 this morning to head to my usual 2 Friday appointments. I was up at 3am today, which is a half hour later than yesterday morning. Yeah, I still haven't been sleeping well. We had our first appt with the OB. It went well and the Dr (whom I hadn't met before) was really nice. We then headed upstairs for our ultrasound. Praise God Noah is still looking great!!!! He has not had any negative issues thus far and they kept telling us to expect him to deteriorate. So far, he is beating the odds!! He still had his usual hand up by his face so we didn't get a good face shot today. But he is still looking chunky for supposedly being small. I do think he is going through a growth spurt as my appetite has been crazy this last day or so. If I remember correctly, my other kids didn't seem to put on weight until the very end of my pregnancy. They are predicting him at 4-5lbs, so who knows! Today was the first time I've walked out of both appointments without shedding a tear. I was so thankful to see he is still hanging in there, proving the doctors wrong. I know it's still a day to day thing, but I am holding hope to any small positive news I'm given.

After the appts, we went to spend the day with 2 wonderful gals whom I mentioned last week, Michele & Jen, that have been down this road before me. I can't even begin to tell you what a blessing they continue to be to me. It was such a relaxing, carefree day for me. A wonderful way to spend a Friday. All our kids get along great and they spent the day doing a lot together while us gals sat around and talked & laughed about everything & anything. ;) Michele was so sweet and had lunch prepared for all of us. What a special treat!!

And if that wasn't enough, they blessed me with the most precious, thoughtful gift for Noah. A beautiful memory box with "Noah Alexander" inscribed on it!!!!! A special place to hold his momentos. They each have one like this for their special babies that is just so dear. This is a gift we will treasure forever and I'm SO thankful for it!!

I also was given another gift by someone who I haven't met yet, but who also has experianced the sad loss of their infant. A friend of Jen's, Kerry, gave me an encouraging CD of music and scripture as well as a meaningful card. I hope to meet her and her husband Kevin tomorrow. Her husband is a photographer who took pictures for Jen and who graciously offered to take photos for us as well. I'm really excited for this but sad it's through our difficult circumstances we've been brought together. But I can't begin to express how thankful I am that these amazing people have reached out to us.

After being blessed with such special gifts, Michele pulled out a special ice cream cake in celebration of Noah!!! Between this and the amazing gift, it just brought tears to my eyes. It meant a lot to me that others are rejoicing and celebrating Noah's life!! He is no different than any other expected baby to be, despite his prognosis. And I know it meant a lot to my kids to have others acknowledge Noah like they would any other new baby. Here is a picture of most of our kiddos....between the 3 of us, we have 14 amazing children we've all been blessed with! The cake says "We love you Noah"!!

It was just overall such a special day to me. We stayed there until after 4pm. I know the kids didn't want to leave, and I myself hated to go. The day went fast. But it's a day I will always cherish. It's hard to believe it's only been a month ago we found out the news and that I was put in touch with Jen & Michele. But I feel like I've known them forever. I'm so thankful to have them in my life!!

Here's a picture of the 3 of us....Michele is in the green & Jen is in the white shirt! What special women God has placed in my life!!!!!