Elizabeth Rose

Elizabeth was nicknamed little bit as a baby. It has kinda stuck for forever, ha ha. Sometimes we just shorten that and call her bit or bitty. Her pet peeve is to be called little spit, her brothers are slowly learning ha ha. Elizabeth was born about 6 weeks early, at first she did great but at 17 days she quit breathing. It was a trial but she obviously made it through that.
When Elizabeth was about 1 year and 17 days old she was walking across the floor and she tripped on a strip that separated the carpet in the dining room from the carpet in the living room. Anyway she fell directly on a cord that was loosely wrapped around the shampooer. I was in the shower because it was the first day I was allowed after having a baby. My husband had stepped outside to grab some fire wood. Bobby came to get me and I told her to get her dad. I climbed out of the shower and wrapped in a towel ran to the living room. To this day I am thankful my husband got there first. She wasn't breathing, her face had turned blue and he was doing CPR, between breathes he was begging god for mercy. After about 10 or 15 minutes she took a breathe. But it was still so scary. She was in shock and shaking really bad, we had to call 911. And when they got there they of course loaded her up in the ambulance. They let me ride with her and when we got a few miles from the house the guy in the back leaned over the seat and said,"ma'am your daughter is gonna be just fine." then he turned to the driver and said,"we need to go faster and turn the siren on." When we got to the hospital, they told me that they couldn't keep her breathing on the way there. When they let me in her room, she didn't recognize me. It was like I was a stranger. It was horrible. The doctor came in and told e she wouldn't make it through the night. That she was to sick to stay in Grand Junction, she showed me x-rays of Bitty's throat and it was crushed, thousands of pieces is what it looked like. So then they life flighted her to Denver. When we got there, the X-rays were gone, so they ordered new ones, when Elizabeth woke up from the flight, she looked right at me and I could tell she knew who I was. There was no fear when she looked at me. She was in the hospital for 1 week and was released directly from intensive care. She was completely healed, except that she couldn't walk anymore. She refused to use her arms for anything, and she wouldn't hardly talk to us. When we were on the way home from Denver in the car I noticed she kept reaching over and rubbing Ezekiel's head. He was barely over two weeks old, but she remembered him and wanted to touch him all the time. When we got home we had a lot to take care of. Everyday I worked with her, tried to get her to walk I would work with her legs and nothing. I couldn't get her to crawl or to eat on her own. I had to feed her and hold her bottle. Even though she had been broken from it the hospital had put her back on a bottle cause they didn't have sippy cups. When I would feed Ezekiel she wanted to sit right beside me she would grunt at me until I lifted her up onto the couch and sat her right beside me. I was getting worried it had been two weeks at home and still she wouldn't use her arms or hands,except to rub Zekey's head. And she wouldn't use her legs for anything. I really started praying that god would show me how to help her. The next time I fed Ezekiel I felt to move over just a couple of inches, Bitty leaned over and kept her hand on his head. So I moved some more and she leaned farther. So I stopped for that day. The next day I started a few inches away from her and scooted twice so she had to move to touch him, and the little booger did. She scooted right over so she could rub his head. I kept working at it everyday and eventually I sat on the floor and she would scoot across the floor, the she started crawling to him. Finally she started walking. It was funny because she only would move to get to her brother. When he started crawling she was finally walking and could keep up with him. When it was over it had taken her 6 months to learn, to crawl, and eat, walk, do everything herself again. But we stuck with it and she did wonderful.
Because they claimed Elizabeth had brain damage, we were told she would never be quite right. That she would be considered mentally challenged. She wouldn't be able to walk, and she would be a virtual vegetable her whole life. Well, last year when Elizabeth started First grade, she did not know her whole alphabet. She deffinately didn't know the sounds of the letters, and we hadn't even started learning math. AT the end of the school year, she was at grade level in reading. And she was in advanced math starting multiplication. She is the smartest girl, probably not in the world but she's pretty smart. She is also the most truthful kid. If you don't want to know the truth don't ask her cause she is mean truthful ha ha. One day before church I had put on a dress and did my hair and asked her if I looked okay. She said seriously mom, you are not gonna wear that dress. It makes you look like your sick. At first I was a little offended, but then my husband came in and said you know that color just makes you look so pail. Don't you have a brighter dress to wear. She didn't mean to be mean to me she was just telling me what she saw ha ha.
Elizabeth has always been a comfort to me in times of sadness. She just has this comforting touch. Even when I'm not sad she hugs me, quite frequently actually. She hasn't been able to sleep without a hug and a kiss since she was about 2. I keep thinking she'll grow out of it but she doesn't. Her and Daniel go to the same school, and when she see's him in the hall she always to his great embarrassment runs up and hugs him. He is always asking me to tell her she can't hug him at school anymore. But I still think it's cute that she looks up to him so much ha ha. I did actually talk to her about not embarrassing him, but she doesn't understand, just yesterday when we went to pick him up from sumer school she ran right over to hug him, and he hollered mmooooommm didn't you have something to talk to Elizabeth about? I just laughed cause he got more attention yelling than her hugging him did.
Elizabeth can be annoying because she is very matter of fact. She points out the rules and tries to line everyone out. Because that's my job it does annoy me sometimes ha ha. Like I said all my children are special in their own ways and Elizabeth is no exception. Her love and caring attitude is one of the things that set her apart from others. I hope one day that she is a great servant to the brethren. Right now she wants the same thing, but I have found as they get older their thoughts on life change drastically.