Happy Birthday To Toodles

Well, I'm only 12 days late, but Happy Birthday to Julianne! She's 4 years old now! We celebrated in a big way this year, but more about that later. :) Julianne is quite the wild woman these days. She's also quite the interrogator...ha ha! Many of our conversations go something like this:

Me: "Julianne, do you want to help me water the plants?"
Julianne: "With what?"
Me: "The watering can."
Julianne: "What watering can?"
Me: "The green one."
Julianne: "Why?"
Me: "Because the plants need water to grow."
Julianne: "What plants?"
Me: "The plants outside."
Julianne: "What Plants outside?"
Me: "The green ones by the bench."
Julianne: "What green ones by the bench?"

And on and on and on...seriously, it could go on forever I think. I feel like Abbott and Costello sometimes...you know, "who's on first".

Julianne's heart rate still seems to be remaining stable! AWESOME!! Unfortunately, she's not eating too great these days. I'm praying it picks up before we have to start tube feeding her again.

She's still LOVING her dance class! Julianne makes a precious ballerina. It's such a joy to watch her having fun in there.

One of Julianne's favorite songs right now is "Blessings" by Laura Story. I hear her sweet little voice singing along with it in the car, in her room as she plays and while she's swinging on her swings. The song:



I love this song too. At first I thought it was too "simple" and didn't like it, but the more I heard it, the more I liked it. Toward the end of the song she sings, "The pain reminds this heart, that this is not, this is not our home". Over the last five years, God has really put that in my heart. I just didn't think about it like I do now...back before I'd experienced the pain of losing a loved one, or seen my child go through more in four years than most adults have experienced in a lifetime, or watched friends grieve as they've lost children. As much joy as we experience here on earth, there is still pain, but one day, when we are home with Jesus, that pain will be erased. Julianne will never have another IV stick, and we will shed no more tears. On September 5th, my grandfather passed away. That one line in this song kept ringing in my head. "The pain reminds this heart that this is not my home." It certainly did remind me. I hope that will hold true for Julianne as she grows. I pray that the trials and pain that she experiences will not make her bitter, but instead be a reminder that "this is not our home". I'm thankful that I know that my grandpa is home now.

We have carefully explained where "pawpaw" went to Julianne. We've been cautious to not make her scared at all of heaven or of the word "die". I guess we made it sound pretty good, because she has now told us multiple times, "I want to go to heaven!" :) Of course, we remind her that (God-willing) she'll be old, old, old when that day comes! She still asks off and on "where's pawpaw?" So, I know she doesn't entirely grasp what happened. That's ok though...

Now, for happier things...

How did we celebrate Julianne's birthday, you ask? IN DISNEY WORLD!!! We have WAY-HAY-HAY too many pictures! I will post some soon. :)

Happy Birthday, my sweet Julianne! We're so thankful God gave you to us!! Look how much you've grown this past year:

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