Thank you Lord Jesus.

Well we certainly have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We are so very grateful for all three of our daughters. It is so amazing to know that God loves us and He cares! WE especially can rejoice that Ava is alive. She nearly lost her battle just a few short weeks ago. We know that she is strong and that she is a fighter girl!

So we are still in the same boat, Ava is trying to take in liquids and some solids but not much stay down. We carry around "the bowl" where ever we go now. Sadly we have grown accustomed to it. It breaks my heart that she feels so sick. There really is nothing that they can do for her. We have to wait this out. Her intestines are just not healed enough to do the surgery yet.

So my life consists of being a Mommy and now a nurse. Here we are changing her Hicman line dressing. (Emeline was the photographer. A little blurry but we take what we get.)


Now this is me getting her nutrition bag ready. I have to mix the fats and the vitamins into the bag then prep and fill the IV line.

In this picture I am giving her Protonics (acid reducer) medicine. This medicine you have to push through her line for 2-3 minutes and then flush it for another 2 minutes. I sure have learned a lot in such a short time. (This is definitely not a great shot of me but the photographer- Emme- tries her best!)


Well we started Ava's line tonight and I looked about 10 minutes later and there was two feet of blood backed up in the line. Yikes not again. I called the home health care nurse and we just stopped it and started a brand new bag and line set up. Something was definitely wrong with that one. I just hate when things go wrong because I am not trained for this. Panic yes that is me. Okay so then I took a deep breath and began thinking of trouble shooting things. Thank goodness the second line we started was fine. So after all that Ava woke and she is wide awake now. It looks like it is going to be another LONG night.

One more thing...I want to thank Carrie from Mazzio's. She helped to put out a donation cup for us. Brian was telling me all about it today. Bless her heart she wrote up a little information about Ava's Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia and what was going on now in our life. We have already got over $150. from that donation jar! I am just always so humbled by how God takes care of us. He is good. Thanks again Carrie. We really appreciate it. (Debbie we hear you have one too at Goodie's Galore. Thank you as well.)

This is Miss Ava doing what she does best, messing with the TV!


Good night to all and thanks again for your prayers!

~The Helmick's