Home stretch

Vintage Belle.

Yesterday was an amazing day for her. It was the sweetest day, in fact, because she finally conquered her battle with low blood sugar. We were stunned. Arabella surprised all of us yet again. 

In a June 15th post we were worried about this issue continuing for months, perhaps even years. We wondered, "Will she ever grow out of this?"

It was hard for us to watch her go through it. Arabella was on drugs that were toying with her hormones and immune system. 

The extra hair on her forehead is a reminder (hopefully not permanent) of some of those drugs and their side-effects. 

It was actually the least damaging of all the side-effects, because it was purely superficial. We can easily look beyond that, and we still laugh about it to this day. "That's our Bella", we say. "Maybe someday we'll wax you!" 😂

It's okay that she's a little different. She's different in the best way 💗

"Wait a minute", says Belle, "I don't like that stuff you said about the waxing."

Sorry Belle. Dad's only kidding. 

We're slowly preparing to take this little girl home. There are a lot of things to manage and finalize, but it feels good to be in the home stretch. 

It feels like nothing can stop us. We've already been through the worst, and it made us even stronger. 

At this point we're veterans in the game. And now, we're kicking it up another notch to make sure that we can handle anything and everything.

Arabella had another great day. She continued to work on her bottle feeding, while dad learned how to insert and remove her feeding tube (mom's too squeamish).

There are a lot of particulars around the feeding tube, but it all has to do with maintenance and safety. Before Arabella receives anything, we have to check the placement of the tube itself. We use a syringe to pull back some stomach contents, and we test Belle's pH levels. If the pH is too high, the tube might be in the wrong spot. 

That's just one of the things to remember. 

Belle continues to check things off her to-do list, and so do we. Every day she inspires us to keep pushing forward.

We're extremely proud of her, and we wish to tell the entire world about her story. A gift like Belle is impossible to keep under wraps.