Monday, October 3, 2011

We will welcome another baby!


So, some people may have heard that we are having another baby! I have not posted in so long, but I just have to say what's on my heart, which is that I am so excited and feel so blessed to have this new baby coming (it could be any day now too, because I am 37 weeks).

Why have I not posted about this already?
-I think news tends to get around on its own.
-I don't think that many people read my blog.
-I felt very sick and felt like not doing much for a long time.
-I had some problems during my 1st & 2nd trimester and was worried I might miscarry.
-I had so many emotions that are hard to express about many aspects of our situation.
-I admit a little part of me felt some people would be ashamed of us (because Matt was laid off when we got pregnant).

I just want to be straightforward with everybody that we planned this pregnancy. We tried for this baby.

Last August Matt and I both had similar experiences about a name for a daughter that we would one day have. Neither of us had been thinking of having another baby any time soon. When he told me about a specific name that had been put on his heart for another daughter, I was shocked because the exact same name had been clearly spoken to my heart, literally out of the blue, only a couple days earlier. Suddenly we felt very strongly that we needed to try for another baby soon. Of course, I was wondering if God would have a sense of humor and send us more boys to keep us trying until we finally at last got that baby girl who had been conceived in our hearts already.

So, we were feeling very eager to soon start trying for a baby, but we waited for 2 main reasons: first, because of my health (anemia), and then also because not much later Matt was laid off. Soon, Matt had a good job offer. He was all set to start on the date they told him. And I was no longer anemic! We immediately started trying to get pregnant. The day before he was to start working, he learned the job would not be his after all. I was already pregnant by that time, but I didn't know it yet. I had a positive pregnancy test on Feb 13. I felt both excited and worried at the same time. Because I was so happy to be pregnant and I felt that no matter what, this baby was a blessing, but in my gut was this awful worry that I would get bad reactions from some certain people that had been unsupportive of some of my previous pregnancies. I didn't want to deal with that. I hoped Matt would get another good job offer and that I could just share my news with the world at that point. I told Matt I was pregnant the next day after I took the test, Valentines Day. It was hard for me to wait even that one day to tell him but I wanted it to be a special memory. I made a Valentine from the Baby to Daddy. I know he was happy to hear the news, but I could also sense he was worried about finances, and probably about what a few certain people would think.

That same day when I told Matt the news, I began to have pregnancy complications (bleeding...sorry if that is more than some people may want to hear). I did not go to a doctor, because I did not have insurance anymore and I also knew that if I was going to miscarry (which I've had happen before) that there was nothing a doctor could do to stop miscarriage at that early stage. I basically put myself on bedrest and prayed my heart out. It was a scary time for me.

After 7 weeks of bleeding, from weeks 4 through week 11, I finally went to a doctor. My diagnosis was a large subchorionic tear. Nothing could be done except wait and see if the tear would eventually heal. Thankfully, it did stop when I was between 14-15 weeks pregnant. I began to share my news with some people. But I continued to worry and even had some awful nightmares about losing the baby. I also had awful 24 hour morning sickness that lingered long into my second trimester. And then I got a bad sinus infection! and when it got better I felt like for the first time in months I felt kinda like my normal self. After a few days of feeling okay, a sinus infection started up again and lasted a couple more weeks. It did not help that during much of that time of feeling various sickness, the sun did not shine through the clouds for literally weeks at a time. I felt very gloomy during what I wished to be a wonderful time in my life growing this little person inside me. I was so glad when the clouds finally parted and the grass and trees and flowers started sprouting.

There are some people, even family members, who have not and will not give congratulations to me. Perhaps it is partly because they think one more child is a bad idea right now because of financial or other reasons. (Matt has not had a well-paying job through this whole pregnancy) But we are happy to receive this baby and we know each baby is worth any hardships that may have to be overcome, whether it is financial or physical or emotional trials, all of which we have had through this pregnancy.

Last Saturday, I was able to meet an amazing woman, Gianna Jessen, an abortion survivor. She was born alive even though her mother had an abortion. A woman working at the abortion place called an ambulance and prevented the abortionist from having an opportunity to end her life outside the womb. The abortionist ended up having to sign the birth certificate. She weighed about 2 lbs and has had serious health problems from her mother's choice. She was adopted and has had many hardships but has been such an amazing influence for good. Listening to her speak made me realize even more the importance of what a mother does when she welcomes a baby into her body and into her life. I have always believed that anyway, but seeing Gianna was such an overwhelming confirmation that I do not need to feel apologetic in the least to those who might think I made a bad choice to have a baby in less than ideal circumstances.

I have avoided those people and tried to just feel peace in my life about what we are doing and what we will have to do. But you know what? It feels really sad when it seems some other person thinks my baby's life is not worth that much.

I love each of my children more than words can express. I already love this little baby inside me (and just so you know, the ultrasound tech said this baby is definitely a girl)! We loved her and longed for her even before she was conceived inside me. She may not be valued by some other people in the world, but she is valuable to us. And I'm so excited to hold her in my arms.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

BUBBLE FUN

Jacob experimented and figured out how to blow huge bubbles while washing his hands! This was the best picture I got, but he actually blew some that were way bigger.



Then WesLee was eager to learn also...



I thought it was pretty neat and they sure had a lot of fun doing it!

Bounty

I was so happy (and kinda surprised) when our garden grew ALOT of food!
I'm not trying to brag because I think maybe gardens just grow easier here than some other places. But we are definitely doing this again. We had lots of lettuce, spinach, cilantro and basil until the weather turned hot and they 'bolted', going to seed. We've had delicious tomatoes every day (and still getting more)! We have so many jalepenos, which I know we won't use all of. We got many loads of squash, cucumbers, and enough onions to last us for several more months at least... and the food from our garden has been so flavorful! We got about a dozen mouthwatering cantaloupes. The tomatoes are so sweet. And my eyes water so much when cutting these onions.



All the kids (except Preston) got very good at cutting veggies up for meals.



The kids love to go out and pick food from the garden, and for the most part they have been careful to only pick food that is ripe.
They wanted me to take a picture when 2 yellow squash were grown together:



The things that did not do as well as I'd like in the garden were:
-peas (just didn't get much of them for some reason)
-brocolli and cauliflower(I found out too late that I should have folded the leaves over the tops of the cauliflowers)
-carrots (we got lots of carrots, they just don't taste that sweet. I let them grow longer than required to see if they would get a "riper" taste but they didn't. Maybe my soil is not a carrot's favorite.



My little broccoli:



We were also able to get even more food from the CSA farm that we joined. It was so nice to become friends with them and I learned so much about organic gardening just from asking questions. (I didn't use any chemicals on my garden) We also got several foods that we'd never had before, such as white eggplant, husk tomatoes, mulberries. We went to various farms around here to pick food, such as PEAS, since we didn't get many of those from our garden...



APPLES!


CHERRIES!



BLUEBERRIES!





It was a lot of fun to get food from our own backyard garden and from these other farms. Its a good thing that each farm we went to had the policy that you can eat as much as you want while picking! That's all that Preston did!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

SSSSnake!

Jake found a snake. (In our backyard)

When they told me this I was a little worried,
until they showed me...




In case you can't tell, it was really little! It's head was around the size of a clover leaf! Upon closer inspection, I could tell it was injured (most likely one of our cats was playing with it), so we took it back to the ditch and tried to hide it where our 2 cats wouldn't see it. When we checked later and it had slithered away already. The kids were really glad that it was still able to move around after being hurt.




I'm sure they will always remember the day there was a snake in our backyard!
(I'm just glad it wasn't a big one!)

Zonkey


...Petting a half/Zebra half Donkey!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Preston "reading" like the big kids...


Preston has enjoyed walking around since he was 6 months old. I guess he was always so busy walking aroung that he didn't really think to sit down much.

He has recently discovered how easy it is to climb up on chairs and couches. I guess it had to happen sometime, despite my worry that he could fall off the side or the back.

Thank goodness he has actually been quite careful about it.

He finds a book and climbs up and then looks at it. I guess he figured he should be like Jacob, WesLee and Faith who he saw reading books all summer long for the summer reading program. He always climbs up to sit and look at a book now. Its very cute!

Just trying these on for size...




MAYBE NOT...



Oh, hi Mom, I think I'll just cling to your legs instead~

Saturday, August 14, 2010

First taste ever of a lollipop!

We went to a Dr appointment, and they offered the kids suckers before we left. I was so fortunate to have my camera with me in the car to catch the reactions Preston made when he tasted his first sucker ever:

He just put it in like it was a toy,
not knowing it was anything special..



But then he realized it WAS something special--











WesLee is pretty smart. As we were driving away and they were all sucking on their lollipops, he said "Mom I think I know why they give us suckers. They think if they can get people addicted to sugar there will be more sick people, and they will make more money."

I'd never thought of it that way!

Did you ever want to know how to catch a dragonfly?

I guess you'll have to ask Wes to try to teach you.
He hasn't succeeded in teaching me how he does this yet.



I guess he takes after his Dad who can catch flies in mid-air like Mr. Miyagi. (Seriously, not kidding)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

First Day of School!

Today the boys went back to school, and Faith had her very first day of Kindergarten! She is so happy to join her brothers. I couldn't stop myself from tearing up after she walked into the school. They have all grown so fast. My kids have grown faster than I ever imagined they would.

Here (!) are my 2nd and 3rd graders:



And now, my Kindergartener...



She was so excited, she couldn't stop dancing around when I was snapping her picture!



With barely a wave, off she went to greet Mrs Quimby...



I know she's going to love it and she's going to do SO great!


When we took Faith to Kindergarten registration a few months ago, they gave her a sunflower seed with a poem directing her to "plant this seed and watch it grow" and "when it's as tall as you, off to Kindergarten you will go!"




It grew very fast and she kept asking anxiously about it... when it was almost as tall as her, she asked if she would go to Kindergarten soon. I said yes, soon.




Not much later it was taller than her, so she figured Kindergarten might start the next day. Well she had to wait longer than she wanted, because it grew tall VERY fast. I told her it was because she took such good care of it! (which she did!)




So now a couple weeks after it bloomed she finally got to go off to Kindergarten. Boy was she happy!


SCRAPED KNEES

Preston scraped his knee for the first time a couple days ago.

It didn't even really bleed but I had such strong feelings when I saw it...

a sort of reminder that I can't always control whether bad things happen to my children. I wish it was in my ability to prevent them from ever getting hurt, but I know it is an essential part of life for them to experience pain and sadness and that they may have major trials in their lives at times.

And then came the peaceful reminder that healing is possible... that even if we aren't always able to heal from physical ailments, God will always heal our hearts and spirits, if we stay close to Him.

Summer FUN~

The last day of swimming lessons:



Jacob and WesLee KNOW HOW TO SWIM. (All over, even in the deep end). Faith can too, she just doesn't know it yet. The way I see it, if she can swim with her feet off the ground in the shallow end she can do it in the deep end too, she just isn't comfortable yet. They all did an awesome job!


Preston got a little time of his own in the baby pool:







And everyone loved the sprinkler hung over the swingset:



And of course, mud is always nice option too...




Thursday, July 29, 2010

right place at the right time


Faith was playing outside and she just happened to notice something wiggling, she looked a little closer and saw a "leg sticking out of a cocoon". She called WesLee over too and they watched this Monarch butterfly come out of its cocoon! She said it happened all at once, very fast, when it came out. They came to get the rest of us. Wes carefully let it onto his finger. I wasn't sure if that was best but he insisted he would be careful so its wings could dry. He eventually put it on the yellow flowers where it continued slowly flapping its wings to dry and then flew away!



Faith showing me where the cocoon hung:



I thought that was awesome. God's creations are amazing.