It's been another good year!!

Hi all!!

Hope this finds everyone else doing well. We just past our "Happy New Years" moment and I thought it was more that time for us to update. A few days off from work makes it feel tolerable to get on a computer...LOL. Ava gave us quite a scare back in July. She had to have her whole shunt removed and externalized and was admitted for a week to remove any possibility of infection and re-internalize it. Ever since, she has been doing great! She has now had 4 brain surgeries and this is the first time that we are really confident that it is working the way it is meant to. It has been the best 6 months I can remember. She is happy, healthy, and thriving. Ava is learning all sorts of new things and enjoying her mobility. Shs is able to sit on her butt and scooch all over the house. She is imitating faces, nodding yes and no, and performing things like "pat-a-cake." She is using some sign language and more words. She is saying cheese for pictures, mine, more, hi, bye, mama, dada, baby, and no. I have heard all of these multiple times, but she refuses to say them on command aside from mama and dada. She is a little stubborn that way, which we are more than fine with. She is pointing and showing interest and just started moving her feet around as if to mimick walking when we put her in a standing position. She is rolling over more since she isn't hating tummy time so much. This might not seem like a ton for a girl who is 20 months old, but for us, this is miraculous, and for our own good, not what we had set ourselves up for mentally. The last 2 years have been so scary, exciting, and rewarding at the same time. Our family is flourishing and Nicholas is proving to be a great big brother. We couldn't be more blessed as a family and I am so thankful that we stopped going to the doctors we were using the first 20 weeks of our pregnancy with Ava. The news that was given to us with no compassion. respect or understaning and was followed by encouragement to terminate our pregnancy has become God's perfect way of blessing our family and receiving the Glory for bringing multiple people to know Him.