yep, ethan is having a little sister!!! caroline grace is her name, and she weighs 12 oz. that's pretty tiny. her face was smushed up against the placenta, so we weren't able to get super great shots of her... but you can see that her head is shaped just like ethan's! and in a few pictures, she looks like her cousin, karina, who is due in about 5 weeks! in the last picture, you can see her little legs and feet dangling... so sweet.
the dr. said everything looks good... so now the appointments just get boring... measuring my belly, "yep, you're getting bigger", blah blah blah.... BUT oh what fun we will have getting ready at home for sweet caroline!!!!!
i've been meaning to post this update on lorelei... she is home from the hospital but is continuing to vomit and lose weight. as of last week, she was being given continual feeds through a feeding tube. hopefully, this will help alleviate the vomiting. her neurologist said that her shunt looks good, so this feeding issue is a separate problem. kim & josh are taking her to a GI specialist to try to figure out what is going on. the many tests thus far have not given any indication to what could be causing this. please continue to pray for lorelei and for the medical professionals that see her... kim & josh are worn out and so badly want to know what is wrong with their little girl. one praise is that the neurological issues seem to have been resolved for now. thank you for praying...
well, eric and kristi and the kiddos are gone. they are actually gone. they left town from my house about 30 minutes ago... and i miss them already. i was proud of myself for not bawling like a baby when they left... but i'm sure i'll make up for that later. i spent the morning watching lydia and steven so that eric & kristi could sign closing papers and take care of last minute packing, and then we had one last lunch together before the kids melted down and they drove away. i'm sure kristi will eventually blog about the frustration that has been thrown upon them by the woman who is supposed to be buying their house, but i'll just say that they could use your prayers today. we are all confident that God will work out the details (when does He not??), but this lady has been shoving these last-minute, greedy bargaining attempts at eric & kristi as they have literally been trying to load up their kids in the van and make an 8 hour drive to their new home! so anyway, just pray for their safety and sanity today. and eric doesn't have A/C in his jeep, so pray for some act of God to cool him off along the way.
i'll post more pictures of our last days together later, but here's some shots of our busy morning... and last minute good-byes.
ethan's gonna miss his partners in crime...
kristi wanted this picture taken before they headed out, and i said, "wait, let me change out of my pjs"... but she said this would depict real life with us... and she's right!
last minute instructions from daddy...
wait! i'm coming with you!
now you see them....
now you don't...
i'm praying traveling mercies and good kids for them today...
well, i have so much to blog about... i hate getting behind on my posts... but usually the reason i get behind is due to all those things that i want to blog about! LIFE happens! when i have free time to blog, there's nothing to blog about... go figure. SO all of that to say that i have a stickie note of things to blog about when i get some free time. but with a teething child, best friends that are moving away in a week (sniff sniff), father's day, my birthday, dear friends that i miss so much coming to dinner friday, and a day trip to see family next saturday, things are only looking busier! and that just makes more to blog about! (see the vicious cycle??)
but hang in there--in like 2 weeks, i will have probably 10 posts to catch you up on life. :) ethan's first birthday is also just around the corner... gosh i can't believe it's been a year! oh, and next wednesday, the 28th, i have a sonogram to find out if baby #2 is a boy or girl!!!! that will most definitely be blog-worthy!
have a great week... maybe i'll find some time to get on here one night this week. don't be a stranger for long. i'll be back, i promise...with lots of fun pictures and stories. eventually. here's a commercial of fun things to come:
-pictures from kristie's baby shower for karina- beach theme- amazing sand castle cake!!!! -shots of last days hanging out with eric, kristi, lydia, & steven -blooper shots of TRYING to take ethan's 11 month pictures...oh dear.
so stay tuned for that and much much more...
(for you bird watchers, the eggs still haven't hatched...i'll keep you posted.)
granddaddy is now at Home... the Home we all talk about as a better place, a place of no pain or suffering, a place of perfection and glory...he's there now. granddaddy died yesterday morning, and i wonder what he's doing right now.... i picture him running, jumping, bending over... all things he hasn't been able to do for so long. his eyesight is no longer diminishing... he can see everything! especially JESUS! that just overwhelms me to think of that being a reality for him. though i miss him already, knowing that he is singing praises for the rest of eternity with the angels brings peace to my heart. i remember granddaddy to be such a calm and quiet man that it makes me smile to think of him skipping down streets of gold, singing at the top of his lungs. :) i've been trying to imagine what else granddaddy is probably doing in heaven right now... maybe remodeling a house or two? nope, probably not, since Jesus has already prepared the place for us (john 14:2-3)... i doubt he's working on cars or chopping firewood. if there are gardens in heaven, granddaddy is enjoying blooms that don't wither. if there are jigsaw puzzles, he's loving that no box is ever missing a piece. :) and if he can look down and see earth (but why would you, when you've got HEAVEN?), he can enjoy all the beautiful sights he & grandmother didn't yet see in their camper. granddaddy was always helping someone with something... i guess we won't need help with anything in heaven because it's a perfect place, but it's strange to think about my granddaddy NOT serving others. the more i think about what heaven will be like, the more i just want granddaddy to be able to send me a postcard or something! boy do i sound like a 6 year old! i can't wrap my brain around the reality of it all, though by faith, i know it's real and true... what a blessing that is. and one day, praise God, i will join granddaddy and so many other loved ones in this perfect place. i can't wait to see him again. i think he'll be sitting in a comfy chair with a flannel shirt, drinking his coffee. he'll be able to see me, and i can already hear him say "hiiii, em-ly!" (yep, 2 syllables...he's from tennessee). that will be a sweet sound, but not as sweet as hearing jesus say "welcome home". welcome home, granddaddy. i love you.
this morning, my mom received a call from my uncle saying that my granddaddy was not doing so well. he is well into his 80's, and his body has just seen better days. my grandparents realized last year that they couldn't keep up their precious house anymore, so they sold their house last winter and moved into an assisted living home. since then, granddaddy's health has really been declining. he has been in and out of a couple of rehab/nursing home type places after falling, and he has been in a similar facility since our last visit in march. this morning, my uncle couldn't wake him, and he had a high fever. my mom packed in a hurry and headed up to nashville this afternoon, though we weren't able to go with her. i just talked to her a few minutes ago, and she said that granddaddy is very emaciated. his eyes were open, but he was staring off into space. he didn't seem to be aware that anybody was with him. i also was able to talk to my grandmother, who seemed to be at peace with how everything was going. watching him slowly go downhill has been exhausting for her, and i know she is ready for him to be with the Lord. what a blessing we have to hope in the Lord. earlier today, i was rereading the post i'd written after grandmother and granddaddy sold their house... how these words ring ever true tonite. thank you, God, for Your Eternal Glory:
though these gloomy emotions came over me, i found peace in the fact that this house is just a house. all this stuff that i've grown up loving and visiting is just....stuff (and a whole lot of junk!). one day, this house will be destroyed. everything will be destroyed, but my grandparents will have another home, a permanent dwelling not made with hands. one day they will live for eternity in a mansion in Heaven, and there won't be junk and there won't be dust. Matthew 6:19-21 says,
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
i am thankful that i have Hope in more than a sweet little house surrounded by beautiful trees. i am thankful that i have Hope in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He causes my heart to be filled with joy instead of sadness, and He has given me a treasure greater than i could find in the endless storage at my grandparents' house. praise God for His gift of grace and mercy that allows me to look past the momentary trials of this life to the glory of our eternal God.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
as my granddaddy is literally wasting away outwardly, he is about to achieve that eternal glory. WOW. may i remember to fix my eyes on what is unseen, for that's what really matters.
sweet little lorelei is back in the hospital as of monday. the only information i have is that she is not gaining weight and that the doctors are worried that she is starving. please pray for this precious baby who has been through so much in her short little 6 weeks of life.
i'll try to keep this updated with news from my family and from lorelei's situation. thanks for all the prayers.
if you've been to my house or been in any conversation with me talking about my house, you probably know how much i hate our windows. they are from the 60's, and they have this awful reflector tint on the outside. they're just ugly windows. it is my dream to replace these windows in the not-too-distant future, but i will say that in the past week, i've found a unique benefit to the unbecoming reflector tint. because of this tint, you can't see inside the windows during the day....
and last week, i noticed a couple of doves flying to and from our living room windowsill. i looked closer, and they were building a nest! on the side of our house! they couldn't see me because of the reflective tint, so i was able to get right up to the window to watch. anyway, i was intrigued as the male bird would bring a twig to the female, and then the female would put it in place. the male bird would fly off in search of another twig, and the female would move that same twig around 2 or 3 different times (rearranging the furniture, i guess!). then the male would SWOOP back down with another twig, which was quite a sight to see a bird coming RIGHT at me! :) this nesting (literally) went on for a couple of days, and then the female bird just stayed put on the nest. she raised up her tail feathers, and then a little while later, she got up off the nest....... and there was a little egg!! in our windowsill!! (i realize this is not the caliber of the discovery channel... but how cool is that to have a close up view of a bird family??) then the daddy bird came back to sit on the egg, and i guess the mommy bird took a potty break. anyway, the mommy bird stayed put again, and the next time she left, i saw 2 eggs! that was a few days ago, and i haven't seen her move since. maybe she's working on more eggs. we'll see. i can't wait to hear little baby chirps from that window! i'll keep you posted.
enjoy the pictures- they're not the greatest quality because they're through the window and the screen... and well, doves aren't really that pretty. but it's just the whole experience that makes it fun. there's also a little video for your viewing pleasure... youtube makes it such low quality, but you can still get the idea.
our new neighbors moving in
spying on the lovebirds
the nest they made
baby #1
daddy birdiesits
mom keeping those babies warm
see? their kids will be close together, too! :)
all this has me thinking about the children's book "are you my mother?" such a good one!
...a stay at home mom who is seeking to glorify God every day as i take care of precious ethan, sweet caroline, busy amelia, and brand-new hallie! i am married to brian, the love of my life and the best daddy in the world! my audience for this little blog is my friends and family, though i understand it's available for all the world to see. in an effort to preserve my family's privacy, i choose to write without using last names and specific locations whenever possible. i've got to look out for those forty little toes!
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