At 9:25am on Wednesday, July 30, 2014, Victoria Ruth Brackbill entered this world by c-section after 20 hours of labor. We became parents – her parents.

She had a full head of black hair just like her mama did. Beautiful blue eyes.  Perfect features.

We were amazed at her beauty and her calm – but expressive – personality. She was gorgeous from the beginning. Perfect. And those eyes!

She grew and developed normally and we had no reason to suspect that anything was wrong…until January 7th, 2015. She was five months and one week old. The beginning of the journey to the diagnosis of Krabbe can be read here and the rest of the story is under the Tori category.

  
   Today is bittersweet because she has reached the halfway mark of her life expectancy. Instead of watching her learn to walk, eat new foods, play with toys, and learn to speak, we are instead simply thankful that she made it to one year. We are thankful that she is doing very well given the prognosis. 

  
But we don’t want this to be halfway or more than halfway. We want this to be the beginning. We continue to plead with God for her earthly healing, even though we know He may choose to take her home to Heaven. And, if that is the case, then we plead with Him to not let her suffer here on earth any longer than she already has. It is such a delicate balance between hope that wants to keep her here and love that is willing to let her go if that is what is best for her.

  
In the meantime, we still choose joy. Today we will celebrate her year of life and check some items off of her bucket list. Every single day is still worth celebrating!

Victoria has been such a blessing and a joy to us, and we have learned so much throughout her time with us this far. She has taught us how to love unconditionally, how to appreciate every moment of life; about patience and grace; about Jesus and His love. She is so wonderful…

She may not smile anymore, and her eyes don’t open as wide, but she tells us in her own ways when she is happy…that she loves us. We know she does.

We chose her name because it means victorious, and we pray constantly that she will be victorious over Krabbe here on earth! But if God takes her home, we will celebrate her homegoing as well, because she will be healthy and healed.

What the next year holds is uncertain, but one thing we do know is that we will treasure her every moment of every day that God allows us to have her. ❤️