Wednesday July 17, 2013

With only a week before Ariella's victory celebration,aka, her first birthday party, we have been working hard to put together an event worthy of our miracle warrior. In typical Botts fashion we can't help but say thank you in advance to three key contributors that are helping to make Ella's first birthday party a hit. Madrina Jessie our baker, cousin Ticia our decorator and Yadira our cateror, thank you so much for everything you have already done and for what you are yet to do.

Being this close to Ariella's first birthday means we had to have another round of follow-ups with her specialists. To say that all of Ariella's doctors are pleased with her development doesn't quite capture how impressed they are at our conqueror's progress.  Each of her doctors were so impressed by her range of movement and versatility that in some cases they forgot they needed to examine her. In particular her neurologist once again reiterated how the initial diagnosis was clearly a mistake and her current development puts us on a completely different trajectory of  growth and development benchmarks. In fact when I showed him the video of our baby walking with her nurse Jennifer, he said "wow, look at that, she looks really good, I guess she will walk, actually she will walk". That's right the same man that had initially given our daughter a death sentence was smart enough and big enough to say - SHE WILL WALK. Thank you Jesus.

As we get closer to Ariella's first birthday, we are not simply celebrating her life, because it is quite possible that our baby could have lasted a year, but could still be in the hospital, she could be immobile, her health could be deteriorating, but that's not the case. We are not simply celebrating life, we are celebrating abundant life through Jesus Christ.

Thank you all for your constant support, continuous prays and financial investment. The upcoming celebration is as much a recognition and expression of gratitude for the village that has been formed to surround our baby with love, support, and financial help as it is a celebration of our miracle and all that she has overcome. Next week we celebrate the fact that we are all More Than Conquerors.