Written Monday Night, November 27th 2006

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We sure did as we obviously have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful first and foremost for Kelly. She is hands down the strongest, the most loving, compassionate, caring and beautiful person I know. Each day I thank God for her in my life. We are thankful for Abby, Emma and Maddy. They have taught us so much in this short time and we are thankful and proud that we are their parents. We are thankful for God and our faith that we will see Emma and Maddy again. And of course, we're thankful for our family and friends. You all have been so incredible during this and we appreciate everything.

Okay then...enough of the mushy stuff. On to the Abby Girl.

Abby has been doing well lately. Her feeding therapist has decided to let mommy feedAbby some rice cereal with a spoon and she did fantastic! Since the rice cereal is thicker than the milk, Abby has an easier time controlling it in her mouth. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t get some around her face though, as she isn't very used to the spoon and the whole opening her mouth thing. Take a look at these pics!





Abby is also doing well with her physical therapy. Below are some pics of Abby at her physical therapy appointment. Abby goes through a series of exercises with her therapist holding her on an exercise ball. The goal is to strengthen her muscles and coordination as she is forced into different positions. Another good exercise is tummy time, which is what she is doing in the other picture.







And finally, here is a shot of our little angel wrapped in her “Daddy’s little Girl” hooded towel from her bath.



We are very excited for Abby’s new feeding adventure. Our hope is that the thicker consistency with the rice cereal will really help Abby take some good steps forward with her feeding. Remember, the sooner she eats on her own, the sooner we can take her G Tube out. We don’t anticipate this to be anytime soon, but it’s still nice to see some steps in the right direction. By the way, her G tube and her shunt are still working well and don’t seem to cause Abby too much irritation at the moment.

Let’s pray that Abby’s feeding therapy continues to go well with the rice cereal, that her physical therapy continues to go well and that her g tube and shunt continue to function properly.

That is all for now friends. Thanks again for checking in. To all you silent ones, feel free to hop on and post some kind words as well. We truly enjoy all the comments.

The Gaya’s