Leah continues to get stronger. Travis and Ethan headed home on Sunday, and Travis's parents are here to help out for a couple of days. The nurses are starting to teach me how to do all the medications that Leah will be on when we leave the hospital. I also have a couple of teaching sessions on what all the meds. are for. They are looking at possibly releasing us from the hospital sometime this week. We will then be living at Ronald McDonald house for a couple of weeks and doing different appointments throughout the day. I wasn't expecting to hear that we might be leaving the hospital this week, but we are excited about the possibility. Leah still isn't eating a whole lot, but we know that will get better eventually. We can usually get her to smile pretty easily, which I love to see. We praise God for how far she has come in just a weeks time.

It's been a long 3 1/2 weeks but we finally got to see some of Leah's fun loving personality come back. Matt & Shelby came out to visit and Leah was even smiling for Matt. She also ate breakfast and supper on her own(without us practically forcing it into her mouth). And for the first time ever, chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. Please pray that she would continue to get better, and for her eating and drinking. Thank you all. Neither this girl nor her parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in her life. John 9:3 *paraphrased

Our superheroes where glad to be back together

We weren't sure how today would hold out for us. Yesterday Leah's liver numbers went up again, so they scheduled a biopsy this morning if they didn't come back down overnight. Praise God, her numbers came back down, so we didn't have to go through another biopsy. The Dr's. also gave us a pass to spend a few hours at Ronald McDonald house together. It was so nice to get out of the hospital for a while. Leah is still taking it slow. She walks and plays some, but we are having a hard time wanting her to eat. We are trying all kinds of food, to get her interested again. Thanks for your continued prayers,

It's been a good 24 hours. We were moved back to 7B last night and Leah had one of the best nights of sleep since she's been here. Her diet restrictions were lifted around noon. We ordered pizza for lunch and mac & cheese for dinner. She didn't eat much, but seemed to enjoy what she had. Her throat is still raw from all the times of being intubated. She loves to drink ice cold water. She also walked for the first time since surgery and did very well. Physical therapy is working with her every day. We are pleased with her progress in just the last 24 hours. God is good

It's been an up and down kind of two days. We were happy to be moved to 7B on Saturday night, but sad to be moved down to the PICU on Sunday night again. Leah's hemoglobin had dropped, so they gave her a blood transfusion, but discovered her hemoglobin numbers had dropped again despite the transfusion. She threw up once and they thought it looked like old blood in that. She was also having a lot of bowl moments throughout the day. Because she had lost so much blood, they decided to put her back into the PICU to keep her stable.They also gave her another transfusion. She did really well through the night with no more incidents. This morning they did a Esophagogastroduodenoscopy, where they take a scope down through the mouth into the stomach to see if there's any bleeding. They determined that she has gastritis. This can be caused by so many different medications and also the stress on the body going through surgery. We were just glad it wasn't an ulcer. She has been able to keep water down but continues to have some loose BM's. We were given the ok to head back to 7B, but they do not have a room for us at the time. We are hoping for one soon. I was glad to have my parents here through this whole episode. Travis left Sunday morning and will be coming back out either Wednesday or Thursday with Ethan. We know that God is complete control of Leah's situation and we continue to trust in him through all the ups and downs.

Great news, Leah was moved to 7B, the transplant floor. We are excited to be here. It feels like we were in the PICU forever. We are in room 724. Continue to pray for Leah's liver numbers. She is on a steroid to help with rejection. They did an ultra sound today, to make sure everything looked good. We haven't heard the results yet. We are assuming they are good because they cleared her to start eating. Thanks for all the encouraging words and prayers. They are felt.