Counting my blessing

I've never been very poetic or speak or type for that matter in such a way that I can portray the emotions I'm feeling but I'll try...
I'm so very grateful for my blessings.

Baby Ella Pearl taught me that. Ella was a little baby that was born to my friends a little over four months ago. She was the 4th child and the doctor's had foreseen no complications. When she was born, it was determined that she had Trisomy 18. This genetic disorder is rare and fatal. The number of children that even make it full term are slim. My friends and their family held Ella and expected to say goodbye to her, a week after delivery. The tubes that were helping her breath were taken off, but Ella just kept breathing.

My friends were blessed enough to take her home and take care of her there. One month turned into two and then three, it was unbelievable that this tiny baby was still alive. She had me on my knees praying for her family and her every night. And counting my blessings every day to have the 3 healthy boys that I have. At 119 days, Ella went back to live with Jesus.

I know she is in a better place now, a place where she's not sick, a place where she doesn't have to have a tube down her throat to feed her, or have a defective heart; but I'm so selfish, I want her back her, I want her with her mom and dad and sisters and brother.

I must remember now, even though Ella is gone to count my blessings - to name them one by one.