Another trip to Texas Children's in the books! We left Haddie, Ruger, and Davis with Derek's parents to take Sunley to Houston for an echo, X-ray, holter, and consultation with her cardiologist.

We had hoped to stay with Oliver and his family, but unfortunately didn't get to because of sickness. Tis the (flu) season. We got a hotel instead, and started the morning with breakfast with a newer heart buddy, Zelie, and her mom, Marie. Sunley was SO excited to have a new heart buddy, and on the way said “I hope she has golden hair, like me!”

Those two hit it off immediately, and even showed each other their scars on their chests and bellies. When they saw their matching scars, Zelie said, “We're twins!” Sunley wants her to move in with us so she can have a twin.

It's always wonderful (understatement) to just sit and chat with another heart mom. There is so much unspoken understanding. We are veterans from the same war. We know of similar sights, sounds, and the thinnest veils. God has intertwined our paths to be side by side.

We arrived to the hospital, and all Sunley wanted to do was play with the touch screen maps. We saved that for after the appointment, hoping it would help motivate good behavior. I don't think it had the effect we wanted. This girl is FIERY. We try to encourage polite manners, but hospital days are long and tiresome, and homegirl is sarcastic and in charge of her own destiny and…look, we do our best. Overall, she did great. Not great enough for ice cream; but great enough for touch screen maps ;)

The echo tech was great, and we were able to see some really beautiful pictures of Sunley's heart. It really is incredible to watch both valves flapping open and closed into one big ventricle. She doesn't have a small right ventricle – she has NO right ventricle. It's fascinating. Even the tech commented, “This is a really cool heart.” Not usually the words you want to hear, but we are way past that. It is pretty cool. And it's working beautifully.

Checkups went very well. Sunley's heart is not enlarged at all which is really kind of crazy – that tells me it's not feeling worn out. Her X-ray is totally clear, and her echo looked unchanged, which means her heart is holding up very well. Everything is working as it should! She is coming home on a holter monitor that she'll wear for 24 hours and we will mail back. We won't have results from that for a few days, but we have no concerns. Please pray it shows absolutely nothing unique! Sunley has never had electrical issues, and I'm really hoping we get to skip that complication…among many others.

Having a good report again feels like dodging about 100 bullets, again. There is a vast amount of possible complications after a Fontan, and we are so grateful to be enjoying her health right now. Besides chronic pain and occasional “low days,” Sunley's quality of life is so good.

She is not healed. The tree grows bigger. But so does my faith. I want to change His mind, but I feel my will changing into His instead. To me, a grand physical healing feels like the ultimate victory…but I sense there is a bigger miracle at play. How much better is it to worship “even though.” How much more of a miracle is it that we have joy “even in.” We have certainly been called to stand in a fire – but here we stand, uncharred. And if you look closely, you see that we do not stand in it alone. He shows us how to dance in it.

That dance can look different in different seasons. This week, it will look like making gingerbread houses, decorating Christmas cookies…and probably a few literal dance parties. Making our house messy because life is happening in the fullest degree.

After the hospital, we had plans to go to the zoo. Unfortunately, they closed early that day, so we opted for a Hermann park train ride instead, with plans to do the carousel and park after. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain, so after a very wet train ride, we decided to just get to the airport early and try and catch an earlier flight home. Unfortunately, we missed it by 10 minutes. But there was a pretty rad rainbow on the way, so we call that a win. I looked back in the car, and one end of the rainbow was literally covering the hospital district in a colorful fog. I was trying everything to get a good picture, and then my very wise husband said, “Do you think maybe He just wants that image for you and not the whole world?”

Fine. You'll just have to imagine it. It was pretty great.

Next check up will be in 9 months. Thank you Lord for another 9 months of just being a kid. Here we come, soccer season!

Her hair is wild

And she is strong

Her words are fire

And she is strong

Both palms are up

An empty bravery

Eyes full of sun

Against time’s slavery

Her song is yellow

And she is strong