No pictures, please

Miss Anna seems to think she's a rock star today. No touching. No pictures. All drama.
In the second day of her young life, she's tested us in ways the other two kids haven't dreamt yet. There were moments when things seemed to be going perfectly. There were a lot more when we knew they weren't. It's been an extremely emotional day for both Jessica and I.
Fortunately, the end result is she's stable, and the doctor's optimistic. She remains on a ventilator, albeit a different kind than yesterday, and they hope to get her lungs to expand. Eventually, the goal is to have her breathing on her own, of course, but right now we're happy things are stable.
That's been the toughest lesson for both of us to learn. Sometimes things staying the same is progress. It doesn't seem like it should be. But we got a taste of a downward turn, and stable is much better than that.
A highlight of the day was when our parish priest, Father Alphonse, came to visit. I'm not sure he knew what he was in for, but he happened to come during one of the roughest patches of the day. He baptized Anna while she refused to breathe with the machine.
If you don't believe in miracles, here's another example. Since Anna's baptism, everything leveled off. She's stable. She's beautiful. And she's here for another day.
David Trinko