Spring Brings New Life!

On March 15, 2010 our daughter, Isla Ann (pronounced eye-la) joined our family. She was 6 weeks early and weighed only 4 pounds, yet God gave her to us at just the right time!

Elias and Isla meet for the first time!

Isla began her journey nice and dramatic and decided to make her entrance that way too! At 3 months along I was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma (as you probably all know). Isla underwent many rounds of chemotherapy with me and despite a number of scares, stayed strong and healthy the whole time. At 34 weeks along I came down with the flu. The intensity of the vomiting most likely caused my water to break, although it took me peeing my pants, 30 minutes of non-stop peeing and a phone call to my mom from the toilet to realize that my water had actually broken. Being an adoptive mom, I was obviously new at this part! Isla came 12 hours later after 45 minutes of pushing. The cord was wrapped around her neck and she was purple and not breathing. From the moment I saw her until I heard she was okay were the most terrifying moments of my life. She was easily recessitated and taken to the NICU where she spent the first 3 weeks of her life. It was a long and trying journey for our family but we have our baby girl with us and it was all worth it and more!

Elias loves his little sister. He wants to help with everything: bathing, feeding, rocking, holding, etc. He calls her baby or baby eye-a. Here are photos my mom had taken of them when I was in the hospital for a number of days. Elias is 22 months and Isla is 2 months.

Elias Besufikad

Isla Ann

I will give a quick update on me. With the birth of Isla and bouts in the hospital my last rounds of chemotherapy had to be postponed a few times and I just finally finished yesterday! It was so nice to have my treatment and know I would not be going back in 2 weeks! In a few weeks I will have a scan and get the results which will then determine if this journey is over for our family or if I will need to continue on with radiation therapy. We are really looking forward to being done with this and just spending some time being "normal" and enjoying our two wonderful kids. At that point I will definitely blog more and tell you all about the ways God has blessed us through these two incredible little people! ...And what future little people He has in store for us!