Sunny Autumn

Happy is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

Going through the valley of balsam-trees, they make it a place of springs; it is clothed with blessings by the early rain.

The Lord God is our sun and our strength: the Lord will give grace and glory: he will not keep back any good thing from those whose ways are upright. O Lord of armies, happy is the man whose hope is in you. Psalm 84

 

First cold days of autumn are coming over here and we need to look more closely at our sweet daughter, who is very sensitive to temperature changes. Actually it is not too cold (we do not even have a hard winter here), but for Vitoria it is enough to have hypothermia if she is not very well wrapped up.

Fortunately, she is getting more adapted and is keeping a good temperature, while we also use warm clothes, heater and thermal blanket, especially at night.

We are also having lot of sunny days, so we stroll outside to bask in the sun. She loves!

She is going well, but she has been a bit angry last days, I think her teeth are perturbing her again, trying to grow (her gums are very swollen), and in some moments she is a bit unwilling to eat.

Thankfully we have a good reserve of energy for these moments!

Onde year after surgery!

Jesus, looking on them, said, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for all things are possible with God. Marc 10:27

On May 19th, one year ago, our beloved daughter was submitted to the surgery that closed her cranium, and that allowed her to come home healthy, strong, with no risks of repeated infections.

We thank immensely God for this great miracle in her life. During pregnancy and during three months at hospital we heard this surgery was impossible. 

Actually it was also the most difficult decision we had to make, since there were risks for her. But after many prayers we decided to make the surgery.

Look how she is beautiful and strong today, and one year ago when she was recovering from surgery.

We are also thankful to God because He put in our way amazing doctors and nurses, who took care of her during that hard time.

Prayers for Fabio Gabriel

I´d like to ask prayers for this precious baby called Fabio Gabriel.

He was born on April 8th, 2011 in Barbacena, a very small town in Minas Gerais, Brazil. He is still alive, at home with his parents Fernanda and Fabio.

They found out during pregnancy that their first and beloved baby had acrania. When he was born, he was also diagnosed with anencephaly. Despite this difficult and terminal diagnosis, he showed conditions to live: he was born well, big and strong, and could stay with his mother in the maternity room. He spent 12 days at hospital, when he received antibiotic like a preventive measure, and he was also submitted to some exams. He could be breastfed for one week, but he was getting very tired and needed a feeding tube. After that, he started to be bottle-fed with a special milk to prevent vomiting.

Now he is at home spending amazing moments with his family. Fernanda is a nurse and she changes twice a day the dressing in his head. Doctors suspect he has a heart problem too, and in some moments he needs a bit of oxygen.

Fernanda found Vitoria´s blog during pregnancy, and since then we kept in contact. She was very nervous but she and her husband decided to love and wait for their baby, respecting God´s purpose for his life. Now she told me she is living the best moments of her life with her first son. She told Fabio Gabriel is so sweet, he cries loud and stop crying when she kisses his face, and he also loves to take bath, when he gets calm and open his eyes.

We pray that God bless Fabio Gabriel, and guide his parents and doctors about the best way to take care of him. We hope they can live many more precious moments together.

I also pray that, hearing about Fabio Gabriel´s story, many other families feel encouraged to love their babies with acrania and anencephaly, and decide to respect the precious time of life God has planned for them.

Birthday cards

Last week, on May 11th, was my mother´s birthday. Vitoria helped me to make some birthday cards for her, remembering some special moments.

Dear grandma Alice!

Congratulations for your birthday!
You are very special.
We love you so much!

With caring,
Vitoria, mommy and daddy

Appointments, trips and fun

Last weeks have been very busy, full of appointments and also with some challenges and many victories.

The good news is that we found out an excellent public institution where Vitoria will have all necessary therapies. She is being evaluated for a team of doctors and therapists and I believe she will start therapies next month.

Up to now she´s doing only physiotherapy twice a week and she is having many progresses in her physical development. She is sustaining much more her head and trunk, what is a very important step in neurological development. She is also hearing much better, paying more attention to our voice when we talk to her.

The bad news is that we found out in a routine exam that she is with an urinary infection again :-( She is very well and apparently didn´t present any symptom, but we´ll need to pay more attention because it is the second urinary infection she has in half a year, so we´ll need to make more exams to investigate its cause.

nurse Carla and her husband Celso visiting us

Last days we received a visit from Carla, nurse who took care of Vitoria at NICU.
Carla was the first person who took care of Vitoria when she was born, in her first moments of life (when doctors expected she would live only a few hours). She always took care of Victoria with much love and became a great friend of us.

 



visiting our friend Andrea



visiting our friend Andrea

 

she loved this swing


I´d like to share some beautiful photos we took in Easter holiday last month. We went on a farm and we spent pleasant moments very close to nature with our beloved daughter. She was very attentive and we clearly saw that she noticed the great change in environment.
She loved and was relaxed but at the end of the day she was very tired!
After so many activities, she slept a nice nap lying on grass.

what's that up there?

 


what a different place!



playing in the swing with mommy



yay! look over here!



 

a bit angry... I wanna slep!

friends Rita (and little friend baby in her belly), Andre and Isabela

enjoying nature

hit the road





dad is also tired



a train ride in Grandma's lap

tired!

very tired!

sleeping on the grass while the sun sets

what a delight to sleep!

a little fishy!

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time to rest!