Look At Her Now!

Here are lots of new pictures of Miss Ellie without tubes on her face. We also added in a picture of her belly. She has many other bruises and her skin is pretty beat up but her belly is the worst of it. We tried to keep it hidden from the girls but it was uncovered yesterday when we came in. Reagan looked at Ellie and just said, "She's beautiful mommy!".
There's also pictures of the girls visiting us at the hospital. We were so happy to have them! Dave is getting ready to pick up the girls from my sister's house and take them home. How nice that will be for them. We realized today that because of the ice storm (we had no power for 4 days), Ellie's j-tube surgery and then the rest of her hospital time that they have not been home since Dec. 10!

On a last note, Dave was talking to one of the nurses and she said that she had never had Ellie, but that she had checked in on her and that she couldn't believe how far she'd come. Seems like we get a lot of charge nurses and others we have never met who know her. I think having that silo on her tummy for so long really stood out. Speaking of her silo (bag on her belly that was then wrapped in gauze), we just have to share some the names that were given to it by nurses and doctors: belly turban and tower of gauze.

**New news: we just heard they are doing orders to send Ellie to a regular floor. Yeah!