Very First Day of Daycare

2 years, 5 months, and 9 days after she was born with a severe right-sided CDH, my beautiful baby girl had her very first day of daycare. The emotions that filled my heart as I prepped her lunchbox and other school supplies the day before were extremely overwhelming. On a daily basis, I stand in awe of how far my Luna has come. But that night was a particularly emotional one. I cried and I cried. Mostly happy tears along with some tears of gratitude mixed with tears of amazement. I prayed so so hard for this little one. She continues to prove how strong she is, how strong we all can be when faced with the impossibly difficult hurdles that life can sometimes throw at us. So when I dropped her off, I was okay because most of me knew that she would be just fine. Although she cried for me and her dad to stay, I knew she would be okay. And guess what?

She did great! Her teacher said she calmed down quickly once she met the other kids in her class. She sat on the potty twice. She made her very first arts & craft project which I will treasure FOREVER. And she even napped the whole afternoon. I could not be prouder of my baby girl. Here's hoping to many, many more good days at daycare. :)

Our First CHOP Fetal Family Reunion

Wow! Has it really been over a year since I last posted? So much has happened since then. We welcomed a beautiful healthy baby girl into our family in August 2013. Her name is Emilia. We call her Mimi and she is just as amazing as her big sister. Speaking of which, our super girl turned TWO this past March! She is growing so fast and she is doing so well health wise, thank God. We celebrated the wonderful occasion by having lunch with some family and friends and then enjoying the circus. We had a GREAT time!
Another wonderful event that we wanted to share was our very first trip to CHOP's Fetal Family Reunion which we attended the weekend before last. We spent the weekend in Philly (which has a very special place in our hearts for a couple of reasons) with the girls and Abuelo and Abuela. We spent Saturday at the Philadelphia Zoo. It was a very fun-filled day!! Later that night while the abuelos watched the girls, Riq and I had dinner at Distrito which is the restaurant where we celebrated Luna's discharge the day before she came home. It is soooooo yummy!

Then on Sunday we made our way to CHOP for the Family Reunion. It was so overwhelming seeing the incredible amount of people who have lived the very same journey we have. We got to see sooooo many little heroes with smiles on their faces. It was a beautiful day with so many fun things to do. We can't wait to participate in it again next year.

Road trip! Mimi did not make the picture because she was buckled into her rear-facing car seat. Sorry, not sorry, Mimi!

 

Back at the Wood Center. But this time for a celebration!!!





Our CDH hero!!!





Luna and Mimi having a great time with Abuelo and Abuela.

Luna waving to Abuelo from the Coast Guard rescue raft.
 

We made it into the famous Family Group Picture! Soooooo many families!

Before leaving Philly, we stopped by the Ronald McDonald House where we stayed during Luna's time at CHOP. We wanted to deliver all the soda pop tabs we collected for Luna's Annual Birthday CDH Drive.

We collected about 15 pounds of tabs thanks to our wonderfully supportive family and friends! It felt great doing something, although small, to give back to the house that did so much for us.