Surprise!

Ellison and I had the coolest surprise ever the evening before her birthday. The day had been long, I was in a funk, and we were at dance class. Daddy came straight from work and met us there. After Elli went into her class, Jonathan (who was in on the secret) got me to go over to watch Ellison on the screen. While we were standing there, me clueless, he finally pointed out, "Wow, doesn't that girl look just like Olivia?! (my oldest niece)". I just kept whispering back and forth with him, "Holy cow! She's got her little body, even her mouth! That's creepy!" The girl was standing with sunglasses on (yes, I'm slow) watching the other class. Finally after Jonathan realized I was being a complete idiot, her went over and said to her, "What are you doing?!", when Olivia broke cover. I started crying and hugging her and wondered how the heck she got there! Then my parents walked through the door, too! It was SO great!

I told my parents Ellison would likely come out of class to go to the bathroom, and sure enough she did. They hid, but I couldn't stand it any longer, so I spun her around where she caught a glimpse of Grandma, and she got a sheepish, confused look on her face. She started hugging me, and looking back at them, then her little chin started to quiver. She was simultaneously crying and smiling, and kept repeating, "I just can't even cry!". I think she was trying to say she just couldn't stop crying. It was like she had all this pent up sadness over missing them and it all just poured over. It was the sweetest thing ever. The couple of weeks leading up to this Ellison had been saying how much she missed Grandma & Grandpapa on an almost daily basis, and would pretend to pack her bag because she was going to fly to Michigan to see them. Anyways, she then wanted to be in Grandma's arms and have Grandma take her to the bathroom. I thought for sure she wouldn't want to go back into her class, but Grandma convinced her. It was such a great evening, and just what our spirits needed. In the couple of weeks before, I actually suspected they might do this, but then Jonathan notified my mom that she needed to do a better job because I was reading into things. And they indeed threw me off, then, and I was convinced they weren't coming for Ellison's birthday.

A very happy camper hanging with our special visitors. Her cousin, Olivia, got to come along for the trip because she's doing so well in school. :-)

[November 4, 2010]