Ella Larue's start to mortality

Our beloved Ella Larue,

You must have been so excited to come to earth. Your precious smile tells us so. Despite all that you've been through, your face would light up with your little smile.

You so dearly wanted to become like our Heavenly Parents - to be as strong, beautiful, and happy as They. Their joy is full. To become like Heavenly Mother was your dream.

Heavenly Father's plan made your dream possible - all through the grace and merits of His Only Begotten, Jesus Christ. But to know great joy like Them, you would also need to know great sorrow. Mortality was the perfect setting for each of us to learn and experience such. Pain, suffering, and sorrow would be felt to make better our pleasure, love, and joy.

You left our heavenly home and started mortality without reservation. Like so many others, your little body quickly came to know sickness. A few hours after you were born, daddy retrieved you from your adoring uncle and aunt. Immediately, the Holy Ghost helped him discern your darkening color. You were turning a deep shade of purple and blue. 

We stimulated you to cry and quickly called the nurse. She whisked you away and discovered your oxygen sats to be in the low 20s (an alarming number). Oxygen was administered via bag and mask and CPAP no sooner became your lungs' support.

God sent Doctor Anderson to be your angel. When Anderson first came to see you, he noticed that your body was limp and frail. Your arms lay lifeless at your side. Thanks to the training and experience Father had so mercifully given him, Anderson

straightway suspected infection. A blood culture was drawn and antibiotics were started immediately. He told us that these signs of "lifelessness" were common symptoms seen shortly before death in infants. We needed to act quickly.

The next day we were told that your little body was infected with Group B Strep - a bacteria commonly found on adults. Though harmless to a grown adult, it can be devastating to newborns. As protocol demands, I had been tested for this bacteria ten days previous. I tested negative. What would have been two doses of antibiotics for me became three weeks of antibiotics and procedures for you.
Why would Father allow this to happen, you ask? Because He loves you and He loves us - your novice parents. Because of your sickness, you started life relying completely on the Savior. Angels attended you, His grace empowered you, miracles occurred within and around you. Not only were your parents and grandparents praying for you, but so many others. We were awestruck to hear of the friends and ward families from home, California, and even our mission in Washington DC who exercised their faith in Jesus Christ in your behalf.

With the help of our kind Savior, Jesus Christ, we were able to make many big decisions in your behalf - i.e. spinal taps, MRIs, transporting hospitals, and many more. Surely, He was intricately involved and intimately invested.

You are precious Ella Larue. I marvel at how beloved and treasured you are by the King of Heaven and Earth, our Father Above. Though it was heartbreaking and painful for your little body to endure, I am grateful Father saw it fit for you to come to this earth with Group B Strep. Like the man born with his world darkened by blindness, it was not because of your sin or the sin of your parents, but it was God's will for "the works of God to be made manifest in [you]" (John 9:3).


As said by the man Paul, who endured great trial and affliction:
"And [the Lord] said unto me: my grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong."

We love you, Ella Larue.

Love,

Momma Julia and Papa Austin