a month of special Christmas blessings: the wrap-up begins

Hoping all of you had a very Merry Christmas!

I have not written much recently because we have had a whirlwind month.  It feels like our Christmas started three weeks ago--when DH's two week vacation began and we headed out on a roadtrip to Colorado--and is still going strong today--thanks to new toys and the leftover gingerbread boys we brought back with us from Great-Grandma's last night and the Christmas specials we have not yet had time to watch! It has been a wonderful couple of weeks, full of family and good friends and special moments and focusing our hearts and minds on Jesus--all the best parts of Christmas.

So I will give a few updates in the next couple of days, just to share some of the good times with you all.  Even though I have not been writing, I have stayed current with the blogs I read, and so if you are a blog friend and have not yet done YOUR post-Christmas summary, just letting you know I'll be looking forward to it! : )

Tonight I'll start with the reason for our trip to Colorado in the first place:

Yes, we drove out to meet our new little niece, baby S, whom I wrote about before and whom I've decided to nickname for this blog.  So, baby Sweetness is really doing well overall, but is still struggling with issues from being such an early preemie (born at 27 weeks gestation, now at 34 wks) and with such low birth-weight (she is finally up to 2 lbs 10 oz!  whoo-hoo!).  Her lungs are the greatest concern, as they are having trouble developing and are being scarred by the high oxygen content and pressure they have to keep her on most of the time. She is really precious, and I was in awe the first time I got to be present during her  "cares" (when they change her diaper, tubing, etc.).  I did not cry, though--until I saw her little hands and realized they were exactly like her mommy's, except in miniscule proportion.  She has her mommy's hands!  And her mommy's jawline, although you can't see it in this photo.

I also took this video that same night:

The image quality is poor because the light was so low there in the NICU, to protect little eyes--and my camera sometimes decides to auto-focus while I am recording.  But it is good enough to see the sweet, tiny girl a little.  She does not look very small in the video--until you see her mommy's hands over her, and realize one of her mommy's fingers is almost the same size as each of her arms.  And her mommy has smaller hands than me!  Sweetness is so tiny, but just a perfect little baby.  Those of you who have been praying for her, thank you.  It means so much to us.

More of our trip to come!

UPDATE: anyone having trouble viewing the video uploaded above can go watch it here.