Dear Ella, You’re 2… Oh my

Dear Ella,

I will begin this letter to you letting you know that you are extremely special to me. You make my heart smile (actually grin!) all throughout the day and I’m so thankful for every moment that I have with you. From the day you were born I knew there was something special about your sweet, sweet soul. From the beginning you have been a little girl that turns heads, and puts smiles on people’s faces. There’s times where I just stop and stare at you and think to myself ‘Wow, what a beautiful girl.’

You definitely have not had the easiest 2 years that a normal little girl gets, but although you have faced death a couple of times, you are still here to continue making me want to be a better person. Ella, I couldn’t imagine my life without you, and I am thankful for every tear, every smile, every frustration, every moment that you give me.

This past year you’ve grown into this little girl with this strong personality. You are no longer a baby, although I still rock you to sleep almost every night. I treasure those moments, and hope I get many more! You love girl music, you love to dance, you love to sing, you love to order your brother around. You love babies, and act like a little mama. You talk more than I’ve ever heard a toddler your age talk before. And laughing lights up your eyes. You try to open your eyes as big as you possibly can and oh my, what an adorable sight.

You’ve become a little best friend of mine.

I can’t wait to see what this next year brings us, I pray it brings good health and lots of smiles. I love you my little princess, you hold a huge part of my heart in your tiny hands…. Happy Birthday!

Love, Mama

3 Days Old… now, that’s beauty!


10 1/2 months old
2 years old…. my little lady


I’m grateful that I am your mom. Thank you for choosing me ~ I love you my princess… now and forever.

My Little Smarty Pants

Yesterday I walked in the kitchen to catch Ella singing along to her ABC’s magnet. I was absolutely shocked when I realized that she was actually getting some of those letters right on and just looked so darn cute doing it! She’s not even 2!!! I’m going to have quite the smarty pants on my hands ~ lately it’s like Ella picks up everything. She’s talking in sentences, using terminology that a 23 month old should not know…. I know, I know, I’m bragging – BUT I CAN’T HELP IT! I am such a proud Mama! So, here she is singing along to her magnet ~ she just melts my heart!

My Little Smarty Pants

Yesterday I walked in the kitchen to catch Ella singing along to her ABC’s magnet. I was absolutely shocked when I realized that she was actually getting some of those letters right on and just looked so darn cute doing it! She’s not even 2!!! I’m going to have quite the smarty pants on my hands ~ lately it’s like Ella picks up everything. She’s talking in sentences, using terminology that a 23 month old should not know…. I know, I know, I’m bragging – BUT I CAN’T HELP IT! I am such a proud Mama! So, here she is singing along to her magnet ~ she just melts my heart!

Praying for Stellan – Remembering About Ella


Today my heart has been heavy with prayer for a special little boy. Stellan is fighting for his life, and fighting hard as I type this out. As you all know, I have a cardiac baby. I have sat next to her side as she’s been on ventilators breathing for her, because she had been in SVT for so long that her organs began to start shutting down.

The feelings that I felt will never be able to be explained in words. It’s so much more than that. When you look at the heart monitors and see that your baby’s heart rate is going above 200 and reach highs so high that the monitors can’t even read them you drop to your knees and you pray. You pray like you’ve never prayed before.

I am so grateful that I have not experienced Ella going into SVT for 1 year, 9 months and 2 days. I have gotten to the point where I’m not a mom carrying a stethoscope in diaper bag, because it’s been so long since there has been a problem. You can read about Ella’s story {HERE}

Stellan can’t get out of SVT. His heart rate is 220 + and has been going this fast now for 3 days and counting. How he has survived this long is probably beyond everybody, but he is surviving. I’m sure it has to do with the MANY, MANY, MANY prayers that are going on for Stellan. I have spent my night and day praying for this baby boy, as I know thousands have. You can read all about Stellan {HERE}

I’m taking this moment to say that I am scared to death of what Ella has. I am scared to death that one day she’s going to go into SVT and she’s not going to come out of it. I recently almost lost her to something so stupid and preventable, what if something I can’t prevent happens. You know what, I’d blame her doctors. I do not like my daughter’s cardiologist. What cardiologist in their right mind would take a toddler off of her heart medicine to “see” if she possibly doesn’t go into SVT. Yup, that’s what her great cardiologist wanted to do. Well, now Ella is on a different medication since her overdose and it happens to be the same medication that didn’t work for her.

Now I am just another mom carrying a Stethoscope in her diaper bag, praying that I never hear that fast heart beat EVER again.

And now, I’m just another mom praying for Stellan and hoping that my worst fear ceases in him and that he gets out of SVT and that he can give his mom another smile, another laugh, another day, another year ~ I hope she gets an entire lifetime out of him and I hope I get a get a lifetime out my Ella.

This picture is of Ella when she was going through what Stellan is going through right now. It is a picture I sometimes stare at and thank God that my little girl that was once laying lifeless in the PICU is now an outgoing, precious little girl that has stolen my heart in ways that I can’t explain.

Mckmama, Stellan & family ~ I’m praying so hard for you. Hugs for another SVT baby family. We’re here supporting you 110%…. I know that Stellan will pull out of this, because he is beyond a fighter ~ he is so awesome.

This is how we eat our ice cream cupcakes!

It’s {Wordless Wednesday}….

Photobucket
This is how a girl enjoys an ice cream cupcake from Cold Stone!

On another note……

I want to share one more thing! If you’re like me you are missing out on one of the BIGGEST blogger events this week. I’m pretty bummed, especially since my birthday is on one of the Blogher Conference days. So, I’m hosting a {Happy BlogNerd BASH}! I hope you’ll join me. It’s being launched on 7/23/09 and going through 7/25/09. There will be giveaways and link ups and lots of fun!! So, either follow me on {Twitter}, or Subscribe to my {RSS Feed} so you don’t miss out! You can also grab the BlogNerd button on my sidebar to help spread the word!!

I’m still sappy – oh, and a bash is coming soon!


I’m still pretty much in shock at what happened with Ella. I really feel like it’s given me a different outlook on my life. I’ve stopped fretting the small stuff, and while I know this won’t last a long time, I sortof hope it does.

The other day while we were driving Ella dumped popcorn all over her, the next day it was lemonade. Before I’d be so frustrated and dwell on this, that it would effect me. Now it doesn’t. It’s not that big of a deal that I’m going to have to clean something up ~ thank God she’s here so I can have something to clean up. What would my life be like if she wasn’t? I’d probably be praying for her to spill that popcorn a million times if I could just get one more smile, one more hug, one kiss.

I promise the depressing posts will stop soon, but for now I’m lavishing in the fact that my daughter is okay.

I’m going to say that I don’t blame myself for what happened, because I honestly did not expect her to get up on the counter and get her medicine, but the fact that it was me who put that medicine on the counter puts a little bit of a blame on my shoulder. I’m not going to dwell on it, I’m going to use this as a learning experience. I’ve learned that bad things can happen to my kids, and unfortunately all it takes is a couple of seconds and they could be fighting for their lives. This scares me. Life is so scary. I hope that my story will help other moms out there realize that it can happen to you.

On a completely different note…. I’m announcing something that’s coming to Garibay Soup from 7/23/09-7/25/09 ~ it’s a Happy BlogNerd Bash! It’s happy, because my birthday is 7/24/09 and it’s BlogNerd, because it’s for us nerds that aren’t able to make it to Blogher this year.

Stay tuned for more details and a button to share on your blog 🙂 Also feel free to start tweeting and sharing the word that Happy Blognerd is coming to Garibay Soup 7/23/09-7/25/09 ~ if you don’t follow me on Twitter you can do so {HERE}

When Life Throws You a Curve Ball

Every morning we as moms wake up to start our day. For the most of us these days follow our typical schedule and by the end of the day we are laying in our beds thanking God for one more day on this earth, for having healthy children, and for all of the many blessings that we are blessed with. After these prayers we snuggle in tightly and and wake up in the morning to repeat. However, during the day there were many moments of frustration over bills, housework, dinner, and the little every day things of life.

I am one of these moms. I have a cardiac baby, but nothing that has caused any issues since she was 12 weeks old. I wake up every day grateful for the blessing of being able to have a typical day. Being able to snuggle in my bed at night thankful for every blessing that I am blessed with. The only worry I am faced with is how crowded my bed has become, because a certain little toddler girl doesn’t agree with me on the fact that she should remain in her toddler, princess bed at night ~ even if it is literally RIGHT NEXT TO MOMMY.

Yesterday my day started out just like any other day. I woke up and had no idea what major turn my day would be taking. Ella has a condition called Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome. You can read all about her story with that {HERE}. Ella is on a medication to regulate this heart problem called Flecainide, which is a powerful drug that regulates her heart beat. It keeps it from going fast.

Little Miss Ella decided that she was going to pull out the drawers and climb up to get her medicine off of the counter. Her child proof medicine cap is not on it. It’s a blue cap that you can pull the top off to put the syringe in to make it easier to fill it. Now, I will refuse this easier cap. She drank her medicine. We don’t know exactly how much, but pretty quickly she was out of it and having a hard time keeping her head up and eyes open.

We jumped in the car and I drove about 90 to the hospital while my husband kept slapping her face to keep her awake. I was praying and praying and praying that she would be okay. We went to the hospital in Ashland, because it’s closer than Rogue Valley. Once they got the IV in they had an ambulance show up to transport her to RVMC where she could be in the PICU. Her BP was low, her HR was low, but we were all thinking that maybe she just needed to sleep this medicine off and she would be okay.

Boy, were we all wrong. Upon arrival to RVMC she finally woke up and sat up and was crying telling us, “All done! All done!” while doing the sign language for all done as well. I literally could feel my heart aching inside of my chest for my precious little princess. Right then she started to throw up, and in the middle of throwing up her eyes got big and bulgy and it seemed like she wasn’t breathing. The nurse grabbed her and I FREAKED! I ran out of the room crying hysterically, dropping down and praying like I’ve never prayed before. All I could hear was “CALL IT! CALL IT!” then CODE something being called. Then my head started spinning and in my mind I knew she was dying at that moment.

At this point I was sitting behind the nurse’s desk with my head in my hand praying for God to just please not take my precious baby girl away from me. I didn’t want to move, because I didn’t want to feel the pain that was going to hit me the minute I realized she was gone.

They had a lady from social services and come hug me so tightly and tell me that she’s breathing on her own. Her HR is low, but she’s breathing on her own. They were trying to get me to slow down my breathing because I was on the verge of hyperventilating. I’d never been more happy when they told me, “Mom, she’s waking up and she needs to see you right now.” I went over and I could tell that she recognized me, and when she said, “All done!” I was so relieved that the seizure didn’t defeat her!

After this we were informed that Ella would be mediflighted to Portland where they can keep an extra close eye on her heart. This medication messed up the rythmia of her heart and things were just not looking great.

At 2am the Panda team from Portland had arrived and Ella and I got inside of the ambulance and loaded up on a tiny airplane and got to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital around 4am. Ever since we’ve been here she’s gotten better and better. As of right now we’re planning a morning release. She had another EKG done and we haven’t received the results, but I’m praying that everything is back to normal!

Moments like these make us stop and appreciate what we have. Sometimes I might take everyday for granted, because I wake up and do the same thing every day. My days run together, but when life throws you a curve ball like this, you clutch your heart and thank God for every second you have with the ones you love. You NEVER know when you wake up in the morning what events will take.

Instead of complaining and getting stressed about the bills, the house, the mess, dinner….. just take a deep breath and be thankful that you are having one of those days when you’re doing the same thing you do every day, because it could be so much worse. You could be having to pray for the life of your child.

We are a RAIDERS family!

I know, I know, we have a terrible team, but IMO it’s just that we have a terrible owner. I just found this picture while looking through my memory card and I had to put it on here. I love this picture of us! We went on Superbowl Sunday to a house FULL of Steelers fans, so we showed up all decked out in our Raiders gear and rooted for the opposite team…. unfortunately we all know how that ended.