Wanted to give you all a few pictures of our beautiful angel. Not angle. Angel. And thank you all for being respectful and not pointing out my typing inadequacies yesterday...

Yes, this is Matt again. If you want to see them, and don't care about what I have to say, go ahead and scroll down. If you change your mind, you can come back after absorbing her preciousness.

We did get to hold Anna Joy for a couple of hours, and she floated through the arms and hearts of her family during that time. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, even great aunts, got to cradle her, and we all cried and enjoyed feeling her warmth as we snuggled with her. She opened her eyes a few times and looked around, which was amazing. 

When the ECMO was turned off, Anna Joy stayed with us for about half an hour, and even in that she stayed longer than they expected. The nurse came and listened for her heartbeat a few times, and commented once that it was a lot stronger than they all had expected. Unfortunately, or hope that God would come through with a last minute Christmas miracle was not fulfilled. 

Even so, we are grateful for our time on earth here with little Miss Anna Joy Peppley. We count our blessings that were provided, the joy and sorrow included. We thank God for the miracle of her conception, and are greatly honored that He would chose us to be her parents. As I said before, God is good, all the time. And that includes now, even in the midst of our sadness. We are loved by Him, and nothing can ever take that away from us, except maybe ourselves. So we chose to love Him. 

As I said before, I'm not going to be done writing about Anna Joy by any means. Not by a long shot. Not in a million years. Not on your life. And not by any other over-used cliche that you can think of. So, if you want to hear more about her, and our thoughts about her wonderful little life, please, check back. And please continue to comment too. I'll still read them. Thank you once again for being with us.