Celebrating Diversity Among Americans

Last week, Breanna poured herself into an essay in regards to diversity and placded 3rd out of over 30 essays turned in. The following day, we attended her school's night at Barnes & Noble, which each grade had students take part in, whether it was speaking, skits, dancing, or singing. Breanna, bravely stepped in front of the crowd and read her essay. To say we are proud of her is a huge understatement. 

Below is her essay:

Good evening. My name is Breanna Biddle and I am here to talk about Celebrating Diversity Among Americans.

Diversity helps us live the way we do today. Without it, our world might be crazy and we might be separate from blacks, whites, Hispanics and all types of other people.

When a white and black are friends, they will learn from each other. Let's say your friends with a hispanic and he/she teaches you a part of their life, maybe they will teach you about cooking or their language. Knowing me, I have been all around the world, like Germany, El Paso, TX, Arkansas, and Paris, France. Since I have been all around the world, I know a little German and Spanish. I have so many friends that are black, hispanic, white, and Puerto Rican. Knowing different people, they may want you to be like them or start doing a couple things like they do. Having a different friend is good for you.

There is this one friend I have to tell you about and her name is Mrs. Glenda and she is from Puerto Rico. One time she came over to our house with her family to spend the night. For dinner she made a really good meal for us. It was different from American foods because it was something she learned in Germany. Having different people in your life as friends is good for you. Without them, you will never know what it is like where they are from or what they eat and do.

The reason our world is the way it is today is because people a long time ago were separate from each other and nobody liked that. Awhile back, this world didn't have diversity. A bunch of people tried to have diversity. Think of Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln. They both tried to free people and bring all types of people together to become friends. You could thank both of them if you have a friend who is different from you.

Diversity is a big thing and without it, people would not have the friends they do now.

Bre's Birthday Photo's

I know, I know - I was suppose to share photos from Bre's birthday party more than a week ago! What can I say? It's been a bit chaotic around here and I have some MAJOR catching up to do!

You can read about Breanna's Birthday Party by clicking HERE.

Me and Whitney

Bre's bday cake she decorated

Bre and her close friends from school

Bre and my sister, her aunt, cutting the cookie cake - that tasted very yummy!

Bre with her Grandpa's

Bre with all the grandparents

Bre with her grandma's

Nic and Gavin

Me with my nephew, Gavin

Dustin playing on Bre's bike

Dustin "jumping" on Bre's bike

Kev and our nephew, Mateo

Kev and Mateo

Happy 11th Birthday, Bre

At this moment eleven years ago, I was in Labor and Delivery listening to Breanna's heartbeat stop... I was in the process of being prepped and taken back for a C-section.

This was my post on Facebook a little after midnight,

Happy Birthday to one of my reasons for living, Breanna. 

Eleven years ago right now I was "trying" to rest while in the hospital knowing that within the next 48 hours I would be giving birth to a preemie and terrified of the outcome. For 15 weeks I had been on bed-rest and fought like hell to keep my unborn baby alive. I had spent more time admitted in the hospital than I had at home and had heard my daughters heart slow in beats and stop at times. After an Amniocentesis the morning of October 25, the docs had a better idea of how developed Bre's lungs were and alerted NICU that they would be inducing that afternoon. Within a couple hours of them inducing, Breanna's heart stopped beating and I was rushed to the OR where a perfect and tiny, 5 pounds even little girl took her first breaths. It took a few minutes for them to get her to breathe and for us to hear the soft and sweet cries... Kevin was able to hold her briefly and I was able to kiss her head before she was rushed off to NICU. Within a couple of days, we were able to take home our baby, weighing 4 lbs, 7 oz...

We have faced many obstacles with Bre in the last 11 years, but have been blessed with a smart and beautiful little girl that we were told would never live. She has beaten the odds and brings a smile to the faces of many.

Happy Birthday, Breanna! Thank you for changing our lives in the way that you have. We love you and are so proud of you, kiddo!

As I wrote that last night, I found myself with tears rolling down my face. What an eleven years it has been. In exactly 50 minutes eleven years ago, Kevin and I welcome a tiny baby, not even weighing what a bag of sugar weighs, into the world. At that moment, our lives were forever changed. It it hard to believe that so many years has passed and that our little girl is now turning into a young lady as every day passes. My heart still aches for the little girl she use to be, but pride swallows me as I see the intelligent and beautiful girl she has turned into.


Thank you to those that came out this past Sunday to celebrate Bre's special day with her and us. It was the first one in nine years and has made this birthday extra special.

Stay tuned for the birthday photos!

Bre Turns 10!!!

After a long day of cleaning and thinking, I still cannot come to terms with Breanna being ten now. Where have the years gone? Ten years ago I was doing everything I could to keep my baby alive and to not have her pre-term. Yet, through all of my hopes, fights, and prayers that was not in God's plans. I ended up having Breanna right before we hit 35 weeks via an emergency c-section because her heartbeat went from real slow to non-existent. In my life, I have never felt the fears and worries that rushed over me that day and the weeks leading up to that day. For over 15 weeks we fought and fought for just one more day on not having her.

Bre was 5 pounds even at birth with no fat at all on her. She was so tiny and could literally fit into Kev's hand. Amazingly, we brought her home a couple days later with her weighing 4 lbs 7 oz. Until that day, I had never seen a little one so small. The morning of the day we had her, I had to have an amniocentesis to determine if her lungs were developed so that the NICU would be able to be better prepared for her.  Within a few weeks, we learned just how underdeveloped her lungs were when she had to be placed on the Apnea Monitor. Bre remained on this up until she was almost one.

When we became pregnant with her, the doctor tried to convince us to terminate our pregnancy because of my health and reasons with her.  We fought him on it and decided that we would take the chance. Right before 20 weeks, I went into pre-term labor and spent more nights admitted into the hospital than I did at home for close to 15 weeks. There were numerous times we came close to losing Bre and to this day, we find her a true miracle.

Many people always told us that she may be delayed in things, milestones and learning abilities due to her being a preemie. The only thing she was behind on was her size for the first five years. Other than that, she has been on target for everything. She started walking at ten months, she was talking by one. She is an honor roll student who amazes us more and more with every passing day. She is a miracle to every one of us and each of us are so blessed to have Breanna in our lives.

So, on this day, I am very proud to say Happy 10th Birthday, Breanna! You have made the past ten years of our lives amazing!

Adventures in Haircutting

Last week was a personal catch up day for a couple of kids in the house. On Thursday I had to take Bre and Nic to the salon for haircuts, as you can tell in the pictures they were in much need on one! Breanna has decided to get more of a girl cut and get rid of the stringy hair that has been driving me crazy! She never wanted to take time to style it, so it was literally hanging in her face and just looked a mess! I LOVE her new cut and how she carries the style now. 

Nic was beginning to look real shaggy and close to like he had no home, so he was also in need of a cut. He did great through his time in the chair. Normally, Kev shaves his head, but this time we had to get it cut somewhere else. The picture of his final cut is as he was sitting in the chair and the stylist was trying to add gel to make it look cute. His hair was just not in an agreeing mood this day. (The cuts were on April 28, not 29).

I Believe I Can Fly

Breanna ran outside holding Macho in the air singing "I believe I can fly". As they got closer we noticed our dog had on pink fairy wings and of course asked her if she realized that he is a boy. Her response, "Duh Mom, but he's a dog so he doesn't know...Plus, he is flying, so let him have fun." After that she continued holding him and singing "I believe I can fly".

As always, the Biddle kids keep us full of smiles and laughter!

Bre's Brave Day

What a busy day Breanna and I experienced yesterday! After about 3-4 hours of sleep, the two of us ended up waking up a little after 5am to get ready for Bre’s surgery. Kevin had to work the night prior, so he ended up staying home with Nicholas and also go Caitlin off to school. He did get up with us to see us out. I think that helped Breanna out as well. We left the house around 545 to start our journey to Beaumont. We checked in at 630 and began the waiting process. Why is it that they Army’s famous line of “Hurry up and Wait” must even play a vital role with the children? We sat in her room until a little after 10 before heading out to the OR triage room. Bre went into surgery around 11 and was out and in the OR recovery room by 1145.

Before the surgery she held herself together a little too well. She acted like it was no big deal. She had a room with another little girl, Caitlin is her name. She is seven. She went to the surgical floor before Bre. As soon as the nurse came into get her, she just broke into tears. It crushed me! She too had to undergo a tonsillectomy. Following her leaving, Breanna and I sat in the room for a good while longer waiting. She colored and watched her tv. We talked. She ended up getting pretty restless and tired of waiting. I can’t lie, so did I. Once we were on the surgical floor and in her triage area, Breanna just melted into tears, which you all know, broke my heart. I hate seeing any child cry, but especially my own. She told me that we needed to just go back upstairs, let her get dressed and leave. She didn’t want to go through with the surgery. I ended up putting the side of her bed down and crawling onto the bed with her. We sat there just talking. I explained to her why this procedure was necessary and how the first few days would suck. However, I also told her that she could have as much ice cream, popsicles, frozen yogurt, applesauce, and anything else that is soft that she wants. That seemed to help ease her fears a little. I also explained to her how much better she will start to feel in the weeks to come. The doctors and nurses were in and out of her area, asking her questions and explaining a lot of what all was going on. They had her take her inhaler again to help keep her airways open. Then the time came to take her back. This is when the tears really started to come. Of course, when they pulled her away, so did mine. It was such a long 45 minutes of waiting.

The surgery went without complications. She did great throughout it! Following her surgery, the doctor pulled me from the waiting room and explained to me all the details concerning the surgery and how her recovery should fall into place. When we reached the recovery area, Breanna was pretty loopy. She was fighting with the nurses, not wanting to be messed with at all, and being a total pain. Haha. When she realized I was standing there, she sat straight up, put her arms out, hugged me, and said “It is so good to see you again, Mom”. Lol, I could not help but to laugh at this comment. It had not even been an hour since we last saw each other. It was too cute and made me feel pretty good.  At another time she was almost asleep when she shot up and told me Caitlin is nothing but a liar. I asked her where this was coming from. She proceeded to tell me that Caitlin is a liar because Caitlin told her that she would wake up talking like this….. This ended up sounding like a dying frog. Needless to say, Bre had a voice. After about 15 minutes of sitting there she told me that she had to go to the bathroom. We had to call the nurses over, who told us that never before had they experienced a patient needing to urinate that soon after a surgery. Leave it to my child to pull this one! Lol. We had to get the head nurse to approve her getting up so soon after the procedure. Yes, she actually had to go! After that, she told the nurses she felt real sick to her stomach. They ended up having to give her phenegran. Which knocked her out! She was completely asleep when her eyes popped open; she looked at her left arm and asked, “Whoa. What is that? Take it out because it is hurting my hand”. Breanna had just taken notice of her IV. She kept trying to pull her IV out because she just didn’t want it in. Talk about a fight we all had on our hands until the morphine and phenegran finally hit her.  Then she slept for almost three hours. Typically they keep people in that area for about 45 minutes to an hour before sending them back to their room on the 6^th floor to be monitored for a few more hours there. As I said, we spent almost three hours in the OR recovery area. This happened because her oxygen levels stayed kind of low when she was asleep so they wanted to monitor her more there. A lot has to do with her asthma and lung development. She stayed between 88-92 on her own, so we had her hooked up to oxygen which kept her between 94-98 for the most part. Once she was able to start keeping her levels up on her own, we headed back to her room, where we sat for about another hour or so. She slept for the most part, except when the nurse came in and mentioned ice cream. 

As we were preparing to leave, Breanna asked me if we could still go to Hobby Lobby for some wooden dolls she wants to color. (She also sat up in the OR recovery area and asked me about this. She actually asked a few times.) She was dead set that we were going to Hobby Lobby. The nurses said if she felt up to it then there was no reason we couldn’t go in, but only for a few minutes. Of course, we stopped by for her to get a couple of the dolls. Following this, we headed home. Once at home, she took a few naps on the couch, which is where she slept all night. Except when I woke her up to take something for the pain before it got out of control.

Today she seems to be feeling okay. Bre is just in more pain than she was. We told her tomorrow will probably be the worst, which is typically is. Then by Monday, she will slowly start to feel better. She just needs to remain patient and take it easy. Of course, she loves the fact that she can eat as much ice cream as she wants! She sent me out for more ice cream last night. She has more popsicles than I really think she knows what to do with, as well as a frozen yogurt and applesauce. She made an attempt to eat mac and cheese last night, but learned she is just not ready for it yet. So, she went back to juice, water, and the easy things to eat!

Thank you for all the prayers, love and concern! We all truly appreciate it all. Breanna is doing great for all that she went through. She’s a strong little trooper! Thank you for all the text messages, phone calls, comments & emails on FB, and any other way you have been in touch throughout this! We love each of you and are very blessed to have you in our lives.

Before the surgery. We were waiting to go to the Surgical Floor

Before

Bre was getting irritated at this point & ready to get it over with. 

We were in the OR triage area... she was trying not to cry.

Trying to keep the tears from flowing...

She broke down and I felt so bad for her. This killed me.

So, I climbed onto the stretcher with her & we took pictures.