Happy Birthday, ZuZu!

What a year this has been! At 12:39 am on March 6, 2010, we met Tzofia Zerachia Smith, face-to-face, for the first time. She didn’t cry, and the delivery was so fast, that I remember asking over and over, “Is she okay?!”—afraid that something was wrong with her. But she was perfect!

Within several hours, however, her blood sugar was “critically low.” They came in and told us that if they didn’t put in a feeding tube right away, we could risk blindness and other terrible things. Between the red marks from tape on her face and the foot pricks she was getting every three hours to test her blood sugar, we had one beat-up looking baby!

I also remember thinking they would never let us take her home! But on the fourth day in the hospital, we were allowed to leave. We had to go back in the next day for some uneventful lab tests—and when we got home, I could hear Moses from outside, running through the house yelling, “She’s back! ZuZu is back!” I don’t know if he thought we weren’t going to bring her back, or what. But his loving acceptance of his sister was obvious from the beginning. He never questioned for a second why we brought this little bundle home. She was his sister, and she belonged to him.

By March 23, something was seriously wrong. I’ve blogged about that before, with the summary/update here. But by September 6—almost 6 months to the day of her birth date—ZuZu was healed. She went to bed one night still sick, and woke up the next morning perfectly healthy. Praise God!

That’s when her personality really started coming out. Up to that point, we had seen nothing but “sugar” from her. After that, the “spice” started coming out a little bit more! But while she is such a stinker, she is still a sweetheart at heart. She is so tender and cuddly and loving. Her heart is broken so easily, and her feelings are fragile. She is definitely a girl! But she can play with tractors and trains—and climb—with the best of ‘em.

She is loved and adored by us all! We are so excited to be celebrating her First Birthday!

Happy Birthday, ZuZu! We love you more than anything!