This has been an amazing year. We started our year out in Sacramento, where we’ve lived our entire relationship/marriage. Where our son was born. Where our family lives. Where our hearts reside. I found out I was pregnant in December 2006. So, I started 2007 out pregnant and praying and praying that all would go well. In 2006 I had been pregnant and lost our baby girl, Mya. So, we entered 2007 with high hopes that it would be a much better year than 2006 brought us.

April 7, 2007 we did the unthinkable. We packed our home up and moved to Oregon. I never thought in a million years I’d be able to free myself from the stresses of the City. I never thought I’d be able to leave my mom, my sister, my brother – my brand new nephew. But we did it. We knew that we needed to plant our roots. Jayden would be starting kindergarten and we wanted to have him go to school in a small town. We didn’t want the city life for him or our unborn child. So, with tears in our eyes and a heavy weight on our hearts we left everything we knew and loved for a fresh start at life. I’m happy to say that it was the best decision we’ve ever made. Although we miss our families so much, we are finally a content, happy, loving family. I couldn’t ask for more.

August 14, 2007 we gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Ella Marie was 6lbs 7 ounces ~ 18 1/4 in. long. Amazing. The most amazing part of this day was that Jayden was at the hospital. He had his ear to the door waiting to hear his baby sister’s first cry. Moments after she was born Jayden was in the room holding his baby sister. Our family at that moment was complete. It’s like a hole in our hearts was filled. Jayden was an amazing big brother from the beginning. Never an ounce of jealousy, which being that he was an only child for 6 years I was a little scared of this.

September 5, 2007 ~ 1 year since we lost our angel baby Mya. We sent her off balloons at Lithia Park and had a family picnic. It was a very sad day for us, but at the same time we realized that without Mya leaving us we wouldn’t be able to have Ella and we couldn’t imagine life without her.

September 11, 2007 ~ Jayden started kindergarten. I cried. I wouldn’t have cried but the PTA passed out a poem that made me cry. He’s been doing absolutely wonderful and he loves school!! He’s writing his name, adding, can tell you what letter words start with and is working on reading!!! He’s so smart and just an amazing little boy.

October 5, 2007 our world almost came to a crashing stop. Ella was hospitalized and we discovered that our healthy little baby girl wasn’t so healthy. She was extremely sick and we had brought her in to her doctors the day before and was told that she just had an icky stomach virus. I knew in my heart that something else was wrong with her. Something major was wrong with her. October5, 2007 Ella’s doctor called me and asked me to bring her in for a quick check right before the weekend. Thank you, Lord. Thank you thank you thank you! If he hadn’t asked us to bring Ella in Ella would not be with us today. Ella’s heart rate was jumping up to 280 and she had been in this state for so long that her organs were starting to shut down. A couple more hours and this baby girl would have stopped breathing. They ended up shocking her heart and thankfully it worked. But in order to repair the damage they gave her something that paralyzed her and put her on ventilators so she didn’t have to work on breathing while repairing her organs. She got mediflighted to Portland and we learned that our baby girl had a heart defect called Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome. We now are aware and I can instantly tell when something is wrong with her, but we’ve had quite a roller coaster with this. She now is on medication that she started on 10/25/2007. This medication is a miracle. After many hospitalizations she has been symptom free ever since she started this medication. I am so thankful that she doing so well now. She will be able to have a procedure when she’s older where they go into her heart w/a catheter and fix her problem. Until then we are lucky to have a medication that works.

Besides Ella’s heart condition we had a miraculous and wonderful year. We’ve never been happier than where we are at in our lives. I am now able to stay at home with my children while I work for my Grandparents through my house. I couldn’t have ever asked for anything more wonderful. It’s like everything we’ve ever dreamed of us happened to us in 2007. I hope that 2008 brings us as much joy as 2007 has.