Remember Remember the Fifth of November

November 5th is a special day in our family. We have written about this before, but this is the day that Olivia came home from the hospital, 39 days after she was admitted into the NICU.

We always celebrate today because there are a few things that happened. Obviously, Olivia coming home and being free of all illnesses. God had his hand over her all 39 days and I truly do believe that she went through this journey for a reason.

The second was Myke and I had completed what was one of the biggest tests of our relationship. I don’t know if anyone has ever been through the pain of almost losing a child, but it was very trying for us. We were sleep-deprived differently than the average parent, we were home together with no child, in or out of my belly. Stressed with driving the long way to CHLA and I was recovering from surgery and gripping with the fact that I wasn’t able to breastfeed my baby like I was hoping. There were emotions all over and this was the day that made all of that worth it. I’m also happy to say that Myke and I became stronger and closer than before Olivia was born.

Now looking back on where she started and where she is, you wouldn’t even know that she had a rough start. She is wicked smart and copies us all the time. Sometimes in subtle ways, she’ll start doing something or saying something and it will take us a little to figure out what she is saying or doing.

The most recent example is how she says her name. She shortens Olivia into something that sounds like “Dia” and for a few weeks now, she’s been saying what sounded like “O Dia”. We just thought she was still working on saying her name, but she would say it over and over again, often during times when it would be weird for her to say her name. Last night we finally figured it out. The girls were in the bath and Meghan was doing something and then Olivia started saying “O Dia” while grabbing Meghan’s hands. Then it clicked! She was saying “Oh Dear!”

This is what we say in our house when something is going wrong, the girls are about to get into something they shouldn’t, and when we’re surprised. Olivia had picked it up and was using it in the correct context.

It’s crazy to look at pictures from two years ago and think about where we are now.