Empty arms but full hearts.

Squeals of laughter are radiating down the hallway from our bedroom, pure joy is flowing from our pores, GOD IS GOOD! Now in the background praise and worship music can be heard as we all sit around listening to some sweet sweet words together! Your prayers are felt! GOD IS GOOD! We Celebrate!

Our days flow, Mayla is a gift that we always treasured, but find ourselves treasuring even more. Every sprint to the potty, every giggle, every whine, every hug, every thing she utters from her mouth is a gift! She has said Arabella's name 1000 times over the course of the last couple days, she is her big sister, she knows it, she's proud of it, and she gets it! GOD IS GOOD! We Celebrate! You can tell she's picking up on the differences of life when around 10:00 am today, she looks up from the ipad (yes, there's a chance she has gone past her max playing/viewing time, but that's just ok, God told me it was:) and with extreme confusion and excitement she exclaims 'I still in jammies Papi'!! GOD IS GOOD! We Celebrate!

We got Mayla back Sunday night around 5:30, we were nervous, we were excited. She went right to my belly and started "talking to Baby Nani'. I was motionless, I wanted her in my stomach so bad to allow those dreams to continue, but I had to face the truth, I just wasn't sure how to do it. We wanted to find the fine balance to protecting Mayla, being honest with Mayla and allowing God to work through us. This needed lots of prayer. We had to go shopping for a blanket for Arabella and some premie clothes, we thought it would be special to include Mayla. We kept dropping little hints in our 25 minute car ride, and while walking up and down the baby aisles that held so many fulfilled dreams for other families, but not ours, we were burial shopping.  Mayla kept picking out all different shoes for her and Arabella, it broke my heart to have her put them back on the shelf, explaining that Arabella won't need those, Jesus was making sure she was perfectly clothed. I did almost cave in, just to allow her the freedom to pick them out and put them all in the casket, but I knew that was just the desperation in me thinking, and it wouldn't help anything! Our goal walking in was a white blanket with a lamb on it, too much to ask....NOT for God!! Almost to the end of our search we came across a white blanket made by the company Lambs and Ivy that had a wood lamb attached to it. DONE AND DONE! GOD IS GOOD, We Celebrate!!!

We were asked when we walked into our first store, what we were looking for, I said, 'preemie clothes' thinking that would make our search quicker...the lady asked if we had a premiee...I wanted to run, yet stayed and said, 'yes, but she's in heaven now and we needed to complete her burial outfit.' She then looked like she wanted to run as tears streamed down my cheeks. My new life, GOD IS GOOD, We Celebrate!!

We took Mayla out to dinner and tried as best as possible to explain in toddler terms that her sister won't be coming home. Mayla processed it well at first, then halfway through dinner she says, 'me want to go to heaven and see her' and then she just lost it and caved into Will's arms.
There we sat in Moes, all heart broken and longing for the same thing, our hearts hurting but praising Jesus we were all going to go through this together. GOD IS GOOD, We Celebrate. 

We got to go to the funeral home last night and spent an amazing 2.5 hours with our sweet Arabella. We had been praying for that moment and God was there. It truly was a celebration, memories were still being made together, with her and for each of us. Mayla was so excited to go see her little sister, but when we walked in the funeral home she buried her head into Will's shoulder and wanted to sprint back out that door. We thought we would at least try and see what happened. As soon as she laid her eyes on Arabella she was captivated and her fear was gone. GOD IS GOOD, We Celebrate!! 

We are hours away from attending our daughters funeral, otherwise known as a Heaven Party at our house as it just sounds so much better and exciting when talking to a toddler about it. It will be a celebration and we are so looking forward to this time with family and friends. We continue to submit and surrender everything to God. We are in absolute awe of the support/love/encouragement we have received. I would love to hug you all individually and tell you how much your love has meant. We will forever be grateful and never have enough words! GOD IS GOOD, We celebrate!!!!! 

Funeral Information for tonight at 7pm. Everyone welcome:)
http://www.lifestorynet.com/obituaries/arabella-ellis.108625

We did 3D impressions at the hospital, however on accident the feet got thrown away (we submit), our hospice frirnd KINDLY came to the funeral home to help get more! What a blessing, we celebrate:) 

It was so fun!!!!!

We LOVE our family photos!

WE CHOOSE JOY!

Big Sis and Lil Sis, matching bracelets. 

Sister Love...FOREVER!!!!!!!!!