Awe and Amazement

As I sat in the ICU this morning holding our little girl, just enjoying the peace and stillness of her presence, I couldn not help but think of the the many many people who were thinking and praying for Cate at that moment. This little girl, who has not done anything, by the worlds standards to "deserve" love, is so loved by so many people. I got an email yesterday from a friend of mine in Houston saying, people who we did not know read about Baby Cate and wanted to know what they could do to help our little family, besides pray. So, they are coming over Saturday to rack my yard, I am just kidding...I will totally let them use my mulching mower. As I drove back home yesterday from the middle of nowwhere I teared up, NOT CRIED, because my heart was truly overwhelmed by all of your love and support. Please now that it does not go unoticed, in the craziness of these times, if we forget to stop and truly show our gratitude, its NOT at all because we do not appreciate everything yall have done, are doing, and will do, in the weeks and months to come. Now, lets get to the real reason you are here, although I am funny, you want to know about Cate.
Oh that little girl is something else. She is eating very well and they are now letting her eat on her own terms of when she wants to eat. She apparently has ALOT of her mother in her, because she seems WAY more interested in sleeping than eating. But when she wakes up its like FEED ME NOW! She will suck down an 80cc bottle in less than five minutes, close her little eyes and go right back to sleep...little stinker. She has lost a little weight over the past two days, but the nurses are not concerned at all with that, she is still only 5oz from her original birth weight, so hopefully she will start packing on the pounds before long. We are truly hoping that she will be home for Thanksgiving, her Dr. has had his week off this week, so we won't know anymore until he gets back on Monday. All the nurses in the ICU comment on how pretty she Baby Cate is and what a good baby she is, to which I am like, she gets that all from her mother, man, thank God I married up!
Ok, a couple funny Cantrell stories, our kids provide hours of entertainment and stories to tell. My wife always gets mad at me because I will either write or include stories in talks that I give about stuff that either she or the kids say or do. I will often get the disclaimer, YOU CANNOT USE THIS IN A TALK! I did get a in a little bit of trouble about Ella talking about Ali's "elbows" but I was willing to take one for the team because that was funny. I will go on an embarass Ali's sister now and I will leave it a mystery to which sister it is, but this morning my house phone rang at 7:00am I was like ARE YOU KIDDING, but it ended up being worth it. One of the readers of the blog called to tell us that when one of Ali's younger sisters was a small child, Ali's family had gone over their house to visit. The lady was breast feeding her child to which Ali's younger sister commented, Wow, Miss so and so, your "elbows" are soooo big. So apparently our family has some anatomy issues we need to work out, if any of you have diagrams that could help us, it would be appreciated.
Charlie Thomas, aka Dude, has now become very familiar with Ali's pump. The other day Ali caught him with the pump attached to his belly button saying, "Mommy, I make milk for Baby Cate, She my best friend." Later that evening as I was trying to herd both of them upstairs for bathtime, I walked in the kitchen and he had the actual pumping mechanism in his mouth and was blowing it like trumpet, but everytime he blew it, the actual pump flew out, to which he thought was cool of course, and realized he had now made a weapon out of Ali's pump.
Oh our kids, they really have been a source of comfort and fun during this crazy times. Well, I am going to get some work done, but I thank you all for staying up to date on Cate's progress and our sanity, or lack there of at times. We love you all and appreciate you more than words.