Overwhelming blessing and more doctor visits!

It hits me every so often, in the midst of this crazy life and the hecticness of being a mom, just how blessed I am.  There are moments that I have to stop and remember how I thought this moment would never come.  To have this beautiful amazing little girl in my life, given to us, entrusted to us, by her heavenly father to raise up in His ways and love, to love and cherish and grow to be all that God has created her to be.  It is overwhelming and the task can seem daunting.  But it is the highest honor a person can ever have!  Many days are hard, and the 'twos' are definitely upon us!  But all that is needed to break me in those stressful moments is her smile.  And then the frustration of the day she gave me just melts away.  That's the beauty of parenting.  That is unconditional love at its finest.  I told Sean recently... if only we could all be that way with each other.  How awesome would our marriages be!  How amazing would our family relationships be.  Having a child really teaches you what love is all about.  It teaches you patience, humility, and reveals things about yourself you may have not necessarily wanted to know.  But God uses these little ones to bring you to your knees in need of daily guidance and strength and begins to change you from the inside out.  We are growing right along with her.  And it is an amazing season of life!!!  I am so full right now!  Full of life and joy and peace!
And growing she is!!  Last night she got, yet, another belated birthday present from a friend who could not make it to her party.  It was a dress up set complete with necklace, earrings, ring, bracelets, purse and heeled shoes!  As I was dressing her up, I had one of those moments.  She's not just the baby I always wanted, but the daughter I always wanted!  And she's right here in my living room, playing dress up, and talking to me!!!  It's hard to believe!  She is learning so many words and phrases now too!  In fact, she has been going to our friend's house on Fridays and some Wednesdays when Sean and I both work. She is with the three youngest of their kids all day.  And we immediately saw a difference in her vocabulary and communication skills!  She's definitely forming longer sentences and more sentences than ever before.  Her new favorite is "I want...".  And she says it all the time.  And she doesn't give up... ever... even after I tell her no ten times!  She is a persistent little bugger!  And the hard part is sometimes I have no idea what she is saying, but SHE DOES!  And so she is set on making me understand!  This is where patience comes in. lol  Here are a few examples...

I want go outside... I want uncle (after my brother came to visit this past weekend)
... I want oiuyuyuiyoiu phone... 

I want uyoiuuipoiou up... I want in (shower)... 

I want eat, I want run, I want walk!!!  lol

sometimes its I want I want I want I want...  over and over and over again! lol  And its all at inopportune times that I'm not able to let her do what she wants.  She is persistent and so it is SO frustrating sometimes!  But its all part of this precious part of watching this little baby grow up into a person.  It truly blows my mind some days to see her progress!!!

An update on her growth.... I knew going for her two year checkup with a brand new doctor would probably end us up having more labs and tests.  And sure enough!  But our new pediatrician was great.  After getting her old labs from her previous doctor, he called me on my cell and talked with me for a good 20 minutes.  He brought up some things that could definitely be causing her to not grow as quickly as she should.  One of the things that has kept me awake at night was the thought of Cystic Fibrosis.  Although she thankfully did not have the tell tale signs, her low weight and short stature and the fact that she has, once again, had an ongoing night cough, caused him to want to test her for it.  I was, honestly, scared to death, but at the same time wanted desperately to rule it out.  She went it for the test and the next day we got the results... they were normal!  Praise God!  It's not so much that I am a paranoid, hypochondriacal nurse mom.  But being a nurse, I am more aware of things that could contribute to slow growth that the normal person would never think of.  So this makes me open to tests and ruling things out.  Sean on the other hand has a hard time thinking about the possibilities and feels the doctors are freaking out without warrant.  We talked at length about this and agreed on a plan as parents.
Up to date, she did have more labs done and everything, once again, looked great.  We ruled out CF along with Celiac Disease and malabsorption issues.  We started her on an antacid in case she has what they call "silent reflux".  The dr said this can cause her to not want to eat and/or not eat very much.  (I hate to say I have not been diligent about giving her this)  We met with a GI specialist and agreed to watch her, start her on daily pediasure for increased calories, and followup in May.  From there if things don't progress well then he may want to do Endoscopy to look at the GI tract (which I don't think we plan to do unless it is really warranted).  This week we met with a new Endocrinologist simply to continue to be followed since she started with one in fresno.  Its funny.... he hated that she is on pediasure and said it only takes away from her eating normal meals.  Sean and I agreed and so I'm thinking we'll only use it for those times she doesn't eat.  He also resonated what Sean says in that Emery may simply be a skinny, petite kid and drs always try to fit these kids into a "normal wt" mold and then they get fat and have to deal with getting them to lose weight.  lol  Again... we agree.  I knew Sean would like this doctor!
I feel at this point that we will probably not go any further with testing or treatment if she continues to meet all her developmental milestones and continues looking healthy.  Neither one of us want her to be put under anesthesia for Endoscopy or be poked and prodded any more.  All looks well so far and, as Sean says, we don't want to hear any more about it.  There is power in the word and the things people speak over your children.  Even doctors when they say 'she is this or that'.  I say... No she is not!  She is perfect and I know God will give us wisdom if there is truly anything going on that we need to be aware of and treat.  But otherwise, I daily speak over her that she is growing big and strong and that she is perfectly as God created her!  She truly is healthy and right on track and I praise God for that!!
So all that to say.... there really is nothing new to tell. LOL!   There was so much I wanted to blog about... fun stuff we've done lately, all her funny new stuff she's doing, etc.  And of course my short term memory has set in.  I will work on being more timely so I can get these things in here for me to have forever!