The title of this post is a great description of this so-sunny day as compared to our very dark night last night. We are feeling ridiculously hopeful. We might be getting ahead of ourselves, but things really are looking shockingly good for now, and we’re going to enjoy that, whatever comes later.

After implementing the changes planned by the ICU team this morning, Lilyan has, as was expected remained more sedated, but way more restful all day. She is so very peaceful and has been sleeping what appears to be a good deep sleep most of the day.

Her oldest sister, Kristie came for a visit today, and while Scott, Kristie, and I chatted and relaxed, Lilyan slept like a little angel. We coaxed her to open her eyes just long enough to say hello and pose for this picture.

Here are some other beautifully encouraging changes we’ve seen throughout the day:

• Almost NO coughing episodes, and the few she has had have been very mild.
• Her fever suddenly went away and has not come back. She looks and sounds so good that they have decided to stop ALL antibiotics!
• She is starting to take breaths on her own, along with the ventilator’s help!
• Her wheezing is gone! In fact her last exam just now, done by the respiratory therapist, resulted in the words, “She sounds perfect!” (There is still fluid all through her body, including a bit around her lungs, that needs to be eliminated, but her lungs are sounding so, so, so much better.)
• And finally, we think the reason all of these things have changed so drastically is that they got so aggressive with fluid removal today. At her last check a couple of hours ago, her body had put out 1000 ml MORE than she had taken in. That’s how severe her retention has been. She still has a lot more to get rid of, but it’s happening for sure now. The swelling in her face had come down so much by late this afternoon that I was finally able to read her lips as she tried talking around the breathing tube. Three times. This made her so happy! She said, “I want water,” to which we had to tell her not yet, but we could wipe her with those almost useless wet swabs. Then after the pitiful swabbing of her mouth she said,  “With a bathroom cup,” asking again for an actual drink. We told her that we felt pretty sure it wouldn’t be much longer now. Lastly, she said, “iPad.” We tried to help her get set up to play a bit, but her hands are still too swollen to control her touch enough to play yet, and she fell back to sleep soon after that. But when we look into her beautiful face now, we are seeing our cherished Lilyan Moriah. Welcome back, baby.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the hundreds of prayers. For now, she is doing phenomenally. My gut feels like she has finally turned a corner today, but no one else has said that to us, yet, so I may just be getting too excited. But it feels so great to see positive things happening so rapidly, one after the other, that we’re just going to let this excitement carry us along for right now.