Several weeks later, I started an in-home Bible study, on Saturday mornings (what were we thinking?!) where we studied "Breaking Free". I came to hear about the marvel of my friend, super woman. Melissa would awake every morning at 4:30 to begin getting ready to feed Julia. She required medicine before eating, was fed with a syringe, and had to remain upright for a while after her meals. She required breathing treatments, chest physical therapy, and never turned down a good cuddle. Melissa would spend around 9 hours a day showering love and careful care on her sweet firstborn. Even though Julia was never able to communicate, we lived for the rare smiles and sweet eye contact (and those curls!! Loved her curls).
Since our first meeting, in 2009, Melissa and her family have become some of our dearest and best family friends. When I was awarded (sarcasm) the gift of bed rest when I was pregnant, Melissa occupied me with a nearly continual string of text messages for the whole six weeks. In 2010, our Nina inspired to have the crazy, wild man, Elliot in 2011. (The story behind Melissa telling me she was expecting was just too precious. It included a sausage biscuit, a smiling 3 month old, and me dancing. Kind of like a modern day John the Baptist leaping in the womb story. But with a biscuit. And not our Savior... Anyway...)
This past January, our sweet Julia went to be with Jesus and was able to get reprieve from all of her earthly ailments. She truly was a miracle when only given 3-6 months to live at birth, she was able to spend 16 1/2 years spreading joy to us lucky folks here. Here is a pic of Nina and "Hoolie" as Nina loved to call her.
(I nearly cropped the photo, but was overwhelmed by Elliot's adorableness and Cami's creepiness. And the fact that Brad and Lee are completely unmoved by either. Due to Julia's suppressed immune system and Nina being a grubby toddler, I rarely let her touch Julia's hands. I must have been a slow mover that day, bc she is totally sneaking a hand-hold there)
Today, we ran the Race to Remember 5K in honor of our sweet girl. Melissa started training early and worked through asthma attacks to make it happen. We had more than 30 people get together to run and walk to show our love for Julia and our support for Brad, Melissa, Cami, and Elliot.
There were a ton of awards given out (Even Brad got one for walking. And he walked with our friend, Yancy, who had a backpack full of peanut butter cookies and a thermos of coffee. Serious competitors here, people. Serious.) Besides bookoos of individual awards (I got second in my age division to my dentist. Probably smart that I didn't beat her since she has sharp instruments in my mouth), our group won 1st for most participants and 1st overall team score.
Here are the trophies on the Dorsey's mantel
