Miraculous, Mysterious, Magnificent, Celebrate Everything...

It's hard to imagine any five words being more influenced by the events of any day than miraculous, mysterious, magnificent, and celebrate everything.

Today may be the most unforgettable day our family has ever experienced. It's a day that began with:

1. A rotation of family members holding Arabella through the night to make sure everything was well. 
2. Perfect strangers delivering hot chocolate to Keri and I as a way to start our morning. 
3. Beautiful friends delivering breakfast from Qdoba, before running off to their own doctor appointment for their baby-to-come.
4. Day dreaming and chuckling about all the things Papi was going to do with Arabella when we got her home because we had to do as much as we can before we lose her, e.g. boating, skiing, go-karts, roller coasters, and more.
5. An incredible friend who spent time and money, shopping for dolls and doll clothes to help solve the unsolvable non-fitting hat problem.
6. A photographer coming by to shoot photos of Arabella and our family, who ended up fainting and falling into Keri's arms, not before we had the opportunity to dress Arabella in adorable clothes and pose her for beautiful photos.
7. Moving our family from labor and delivery to a general women's floor; we essentially went from two large rooms to one small room. We easily broke all capacity limits for the new room and fire codes.
8. A flurry of guests who came to see our beautiful daughter.
9. A one day old birthday celebration with cupcakes and singing Happy Birthday, everyone in the room had a huge smile and celebrated together.
10. Baby Arabella being alive long enough and going strong enough that she was 'admitted' and assigned her own doctor. 
11. Discussions with nurses and doctors about being discharged on Friday. Including significant concerns about the fact that we are 100% unprepared to bring a baby home. When you are given the Anencephalic diagnosis, we essentially throught out any possibility of bringing Bella home. 
12. Incredible victories feeding with Arabella where she is eating from a nippled bottle and struggles with pumping and thinking there was not colostrum. However, feeding her and feeding her with what God made for babies!
13. Emotional moments watching our incredible niece hold Arabella for the first time, and possibly the last.
14. A number of nurses who began as care-takers and left as friends, a number of whom took the time to pray over us, our families, and Arabella.
15. A daughter who, as she was passing away, was so alive showing a side of her we have not yet seen, including smiles, yawns, movement of her eyes, opening of other eyes, squeezing hands, and more., honestly the most INDESCRIBABLE moment of our lives!
16. Lastly, a daughter who not only did not pass away, but seemed to come out of it stronger than ever because she is now off oxygen. The downside of this is that we lost our possibility for Arabella to donate her organs to Gift of Life. The plus side, we celebrate, we still have Arabella at 2:14am!

This day has been an emotional roller coaster unlike anything we ever could have imagined. We learned a lot about each other, faith, family, friends, our Father. We learned to celebrate absolutely everything, and by absolutely everything, I mean EVERYTHING! We wouldn't trade today for anything in the world. We have seen the hand of God at work in ways we never would have expected, nor could we have predicted. What the next few hours and days hold is a mystery to us. A few things are certain however, they will be magnificent, there will be miracles, and we will celebrate everything.

We now find ourselves exhausted in a way we could not have predicted. With Arabella losing her chance to donate organs, it gives us the chance to simply enjoy our time with her. Relish in her beauty. Speak life into a little girl who is statistically on her way to heaven. And of course, the three of us fall asleep together, in the same bed, holding each other as our daughter prepares to run into Jesus' arms!

We are learning that we are more blessed than we could imagine, by individuals we never would have expected. It's a reminder that the road we are walking is not about us, it's not about Arabella it's about our God and Father. And his story is bigger than us, bigger than Arabella, bigger than Anencephaly. His love knows no limits and has no boundaries.

Somehow, someway, miraculously, mysteriously, & magnificently, she is still alive, she was close to death tonight and yesterday too, so close that family gathered around, mourned, and said goodbye. Despite being on the brink of death, it's clear He is not finished telling His story and touching lives through her. He is the same today, as we was yesterday and ten months ago. He is good and we celebrate every single moment he is giving us.

Thank you father, and thank you to all of our friends, family, loved ones, strangers, and stranger strangers. We are humbled by your outpouring of support and encouragement, and we are excited to find out exactly what the Lord has in store for our family in the coming days.