We Are Walking in Honor of Briella. Please Help Us Meet Our Goal.

Friday, December 20, 2013

2nd Thanksgiving/Announcement

Briella's 2nd Thanksgiving was spent at home. We are in isolation due to RSV & Flu season. My parents brought over a feast. Last Thanksgiving, I had blogged about being hopeful that the next year Briella would be home with us, eating mashed potatoes. Well this girl loves her some potatoes! She also was very found of Grandpa's famous green rice & Suzie's sweet potato casserole. She can eat! She eats at least half of moms food. 

Dad nor mommy can have a plate of fold without Briella crawling to us & pulling herself up to our plate wanting not just bites, but a meal. I am so thankful for that. Our little girl who had a feeding aversion now loves to eat. I love watching her enjoy food. 

We have been blessed with an amazing honor! We are Kansas City's 2014 March of Dimes Ambassador Family!!  This means we get to share Briella's story and hopefully save other babies! Without the March of Dimes, Briella wouldn't be here. They funded the research and development of artificial surfactant. Something that Briella's lungs weren't making at birth. Without it, she would not ever have left that hospital. 
If you are local, we'd love for you to come out & walk with us! We will be speaking before the walk. 
You can join our team here:
Www.marchforbabies.org/BriellasJourney
No matter your location, you can be apart of our team! You can be a "virtual walker!"



Thursday, October 31, 2013

Briella's 2nd Halloween!

Today was a joyous day. Last Halloween was such a scary day. I was so afraid for Briella's life. 

http://www.briellasjourney.com/2012/10/prayers-needed-today-halloween.html?m=0


This year, we made caramel apples, dressed 
up, took photos outside, ate our usual jack o 
lantern pizza... Just normal family stuff! It was 
So great! We are a family of 4!!!!

We started off the day with the girls being 
"Mary had a little lamb."
Briella's 2nd costume is the Dalai Lama. The reason 
behind that is Briella was born En Caul, or in her
sack. In Tibet, babies born En Caul are sought out 
to possibly become the next Dalai Lama. So when 
Briella was days old, we started calling her our little
Lama, short for Dalai Lama. Then as she grew older 
It turned into our little lamb. So there are the reasons we picked these 
costumes for our daughters 2nd Halloween :)











Thursday, October 3, 2013

365 Days..

I just spent the last hour reading my facebook posts from the week of Briella's birth last year. On the night she was born, I updated begging for prayers, that my little baby was here & the doctors were trying to save her. One friend commented " Her destiny is to Live! Briella King you will live! You will Live! We declare that over your life. You are one that raises the bar and goes against all odds. You are an overcomer!" and another friend-"Praying for briella to be saved in Jesus' name." 
I just want to thank each and every person that prayed, commented, sent messages & positive vibes, we couldn't have made it this far without you!!!!!


It is surreal to see how God has given me such a happy, bright eyed, strong willed gift & blessed our family for life.
My next update was "Briella made it through the night & is stable. 1 pound 6oz. She is having a blood transfusion now. Thanks for the continuous thoughts & prayers. I am in a peaceful place & we are hopeful. And lil Miss Aubrey is soooo excited." 

I remember the amount of peace that I had. Which is completely unlike me, ever. It was the Holy Spirit, I believe. Something I had never felt.  I just wasn't terrified as I think a mom in my shoes should have been. I was calm. 

There has not been one day (and night) go by that I forget to thank the Lord for giving me Briella. I see her smile and laugh and I cannot imagine what life would be like if the slightest thing would have happened differently. I have no idea what He has planned for Brie, but it must be amazing. 



Saturday, September 14, 2013

1st Birthday Party Pictures!

This is going to be hard for me to choose what pictures to share, as there are soooo many great ones!!!
Thank you so much Stephanie from Stephanie Smith Photo
The cake...It has an Eiffel Tower cake topper behind the 'B.'

Dessert table




Some of Brie's 1st outfits & pictures of her in them

The party room




 
The Food

 Dessert table



Cookies
Cupcakes

 Briella's "Smash" cake
Macaroons

 
Donuts, Aqua water & Aqua Milk

 
 I love this picture! This is from Briella's view she had while eating cake!!! Fun!

 

Briella got so much cake on her she had to change clothes!

 
 
 She had fun opening presents

 Brie loves Sophie!

 People were to guess what the bag of Jelly Beans represented: Briella's weight at birth!

 Look at the diapers grow in sizes!



 What Briella grabbed for is supposedly what she will be when she grows up.
We set out a soccer ball= athlete
Microphone= performer/entertainer
Money=Wealth
Stethoscope= Doctor/healer
Mommy was voting for the stethoscope but she picked the microphone!


 Excited when she saw her cake coming!


"Hey, you're my size!"

 
.
.
.
.
.
.


AND DO YOU SEE THE TWO TEETH?!




Monday, September 9, 2013

Celebrating Ms Briella's 1st Year of Life

What a busy busy weekend we have had!!! Ok, really it's been a busy summer. I have been planning, painting & pasting for months in preparation of celebrating Briella's 1st Birthday.
We chose to celebrate her birthday 26 days early. Her actual birthday, October 4th is during RSV season which we will be in isolation for until next summer. We wanted to have all of Briella's family here to celebrate with us the accomplishment of this 1 pound baby turning 1. For some of the family it would be the first chance to meet her!

We started the day with a Re-dedication at church. Briella was baptized hours after her birth in the hospital. My Pastor came to do the baptism in her isolete because we were afraid of what could happen. 

So yesterday was a joyous day. The family gathered and Pastor Rich made it a very special service for our family. He showed the picture of her on her original baptism day, just barely bigger than my hand. Now, I hold her and she is huge!! A whopping 17lbs!!!

Immediately following the service we had a party at my parents home for Briella. Since this was mostly an adult party to keep Briella healthy, I searched for games that we could involve the adults in. I had all of the guests make guesses as to what Briella would be when she grows up.
I placed 4 objects in front of Brie to see which one she would be drawn to-that object would represent what she would be when she grows up. It's actually a Korean tradition but I LOVE the idea. So I placed a stethoscope-which represents a doctor (I say she should become a Neonatologist to save other small babies), Paper Money to represent Wealth, a Microphone, which represents an Entertainer, and a Soccer Ball which represents an athlete. What do you think she picked?!?!

Before I tell you, let me tell you that I put all these items on the floor, just out of her reach in hopes she would roll to the item she wanted. Well, in front of everyone, she starts to crawl towards the items!!! How cool her 1st time crawling was in front of everyone & being photographed?!

Okay okay. So after the initial lunge for the Soccer Ball, a quick turn to the microphone and a two hand grab, she pulls it to her and tries to eat it. So an entertainer she shall be. Although I think she can be all the above. Especially a soccer player as this girl can kick! A second round she went for the money an was playing in it. And then in her high chair she played with the stethoscope, so we will have to wait and see. Wherever her journey takes her, it will be great. Full of lessons for us along the way.



After the great career debate, we put her in her high chair and let her eat cake. Well, like a proper micropreemie, she oh so delicately touched the icing, barely getting any on her and licked her fingers. Daddy and I had to put her hands in the cake to get it started. I think she would have been happier just having us give her a bite. I hope this is not the start of the famous sensory issues that micropreemies are known for. We haven't seen any other symptoms before.

After cake and lots of pictures, she opened presents! She did so good tearing into tissue paper. She ate almost every envelope.

It was such an amazing day full of pure love. Just simple joy that my 23 week baby has still not come out of her "Honeymoon" stage the doctors waned us of after birth. If you remember, they told us over & over after the honeymoon stage, the 1st 48 hrs, she would take a turn for the worst. Then they said it sometimes lasts a week. Well thank GOD that we are still in that Honeymoon stage!!!!
Tomorrow is Brian & I's 2nd anniversary. Last year on our 1st, we decided to share on this blog the name of our unborn child. What a year. On top of being thankful for my daughter's life & health, I am thankful for all of the people I have met on this journey. This is such an unexpected great community of people......other preemie parents, nurses that have turned to friends, doctors that are our heros, other kids that are inspiration and lots and lots of hope.

We had this party photographed, so when I receive the pictures I will post a new blog, but here our some my sister in law, Kristina took :)












Designed By Boutique-Website-Design.com