UPDATE on our sweet friend IVY JOY

THANK YOU so much to those of you who have been supporting our friends & their sweet baby girl, Ivy Joy via prayer.  Ivy & her Mommy (my friend Mary) did end up having to travel from Arizona to Boston so that Ivy could have yet another open heart surgery (her 5th, I believe, in less than 10 months).  The surgery took place just this morning.  Ivy is already off the bypass machine, which is AMAZING!!!  This baby girl has such fierce strength & tenacity, she blows all of us sitting on the sidelines away again & again.  

I ask that you please continue to keep this beautiful family in your prayers.  There is still a long road ahead.  But my goodness, God has His hand of love and support on this little angel.  She is His, and we are thankful!

A link to Mary's blog and Ivy's story below:

Loving Life with Lexi & Ivy Joy

PRAYERS NEEDED for my FRIEND

 Grace's U.S. Readoption November 2012

 "SWEET Kissing Sisters!"  December 2012

 Merry Christmas from our family!  TWO very sweet & one VERY SASSY girl!!

THIS picture captures Grace better than any other we've taken.  Joy, laughter, energy, and sass!  I could not possibly love this child any more than I do!! 

Our family is doing well, very well.  And we are so thankful.  Grace is flourishing.  She's growing, thriving, bonding & attaching so beautifully.  She sleeps mostly well, although we have our ups and downs in this area.  She loves with a vengeance.  She giggles, laughs, runs, plays and takes on new challenges like they are welcome new friends.  Her speech is expanding & she is very verbal.  We are in awe of her.  We are blessed by the love that she and Georgea share so freely. They are sisters at heart.  They love like sisters, play like sisters & squabble over favorite toys-- like sisters!!  It is such a joy for us to see the sweetness between these two.  It is a gift.  The very best kind of gift.

I have a dear friend though, whose first daughter, Lexi is the same age as Georgea & who came home from China just after Georgea did.  And my friend has another daughter, Ivy Joy, who is Grace's age, and came home just a month before Grace.  This family's story, it is different.  This beautiful family has walked a road of medical mystery, trials, errors, hopeful, prayerful healing...and many surgeries, many tests, many hospital visits....a year of struggle.  A year of faith.  A year of joy & pain.  The details are many.  And they are laid out with painstaking detail in my friends blog.  Sweet Ivy Joy is back in the hospital at this time, and it is serious.  I haven't blogged in many months, but I am here now, reaching out.  Hoping that those who are believers in the power of Jesus Christ.  In the power of His healing hand and in the power of prayer will join us in lifting Ivy Joy and her entire family up as they walk this next part of their journey.  The blog link is here, if you feel led to join in, supporting this beautiful family...will you, please?

Loving Life with Lexi & Ivy Joy