Still kickin...

Believe it or not, I am still alive. Not that you would know it from the activity (or lack thereof) on my blog. :) I guess there just isn't that much interesting stuff going on. Geoff had his shoulder surgery on my birthday (rotator cuff repair and removal of bone spurs off his clavicle). This is his 3rd and final week off of work, and I think he's really ready to go back. He can't totally stay away (he's been by there a few times already), and I think our house is getting pretty boring to him. I was afraid he would get really sick and tired of sitting around the house and being around me and the boys all the time, but it hasn't been bad at all. :) We are working on getting our house ready to put on the market, with a goal of listing it in January. Time to move to the "promised land" (aka Lynden). We'll see how long it takes to sell, but we're going to price it well and hopefully it won't take forever. :) Of course we are also getting ready for Christmas, which is so fun with the kids. Because Geoff's arm will be out of commission for a while, I got to cut down our 10th Christmas tree. Hard to believe we will celebrate our 10th Christmas since we got married, and our 10th anniversary in a few months. God is and has been so good to us.

We continue to seek God's will for our family. We really want to add to our family, but we are considering how it affects my health (and how my health would affect a baby), not to mention concerns of autism. We definitely feel a pull toward adoption, but we would have to figure out just how to fund that. I also have a heart for foster care. It's something I've thought about since before we had Jaylen, as something that would be great to do when our own kids are a little older. I'm still hoping that God will bless us with another little one, and then from there we could add to our family by adoption/foster care. It's all a lot to think about and pray about! I know God has a plan and we can't wait to see it unfold!

So that, for now, is our update... and here is a picture of us. :)

Doing good in heaven

So it's been a long time since I've updated. A really long time. What have we been up to? Well, Jaylen has started first grade (which thankfully he likes so far), and Trevor is starting preschool in a few days. We had fun at the fair, took a trip down to Seattle to take in the Pacific Science Center, joined the fun at the Nydam family reunion, visited with my sister, Wendy and her family, took the trailer over to Winthrop to camp with my brother and sister and their families, and to Idaho to Silverwood Theme Park. Yes, it's been a fun summer. We didn't really get summer weather till August, so it went really quick! And just last weekend we took the trailer over to Moses Lake for the weekend. The guys got to go 4-wheeling in the dunes, and we rented a 3-seater quad thing that the kids could go on too. Pretty fun.

So where did I come up with the title? Well, that would be complements of Trevor. See, he's only 4, but he sure knows that there is someone missing in our family. A couple of weeks ago, he wanted to pray for our baby, and I told him our baby is in heaven so we don't really need to pray that our baby is doing good (and we talked a little about heaven). So instead he prayed, "Thank you that our baby is doing good in heaven." He talks about our baby quite often. I sure hope the Lord blesses our family with another baby. :)

Now for one of the reasons I haven't blogged in a while. My friend and faithful blog follower, Rebecca, is now doing good in heaven too. She battled cancer for 3 years. We mostly communicated through our blogs, commenting on most of each other's posts. We hadn't actually talked in years (she lives in Iowa) but I would always think of Becca when writing my posts, because she was one person I knew would be reading them. :) You see, Becca was so influential in my walk with Jesus. She was my counselor at Box T camp when I was 16, and then we counseled together for two years. People say, "What would Jesus do?" I would sometimes think, "What would Becca do?" Her love for the Lord was so apparent. She had an amazing talent with her violin. She could play so beautifully - and she did for our wedding. We used to play together, her with her violin, and me at the piano. I miss those times, now especially. Towards the end, Becca was so sick. You can read her blog here: http://beccarankin.blogspot.com/ . What a comfort to know that she is breathing deeply, living with her Savior. She was married and had 2 little girls, just younger than our 2 boys. I think of her family and pray for them often. I guess I like to think that maybe Becca is holding our little babies we didn't get to hold. And I can't wait to see them all someday!

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

I've had this song running through my head since about 12:30 Thursday night. Thursday afternoon, I had a check-up with my OB doc. Toward the end of the appointment, my doctor was going to check for the baby's heartbeat. He was having a little trouble locating the heartbeat, so he said, well, let's just go see it quick on an ultrasound. Neither he nor I was concerned at this point. I was thinking it would be fun to catch another glimpse of my little baby, and being almost 15 weeks pregnant, we should get a good view. Unfortunately, when the baby showed up on the monitor, the little flashing heartbeat that always accompanies this sight was not there. The doctor searched for several minutes. As I was laying there, it sunk in that there was no heartbeat. I didn't even know what to pray, other than, "Please, God, Please. Please, God." The doctor asked me a couple of times how far along I was so I told him, 14 weeks, 5 days. He did some measurements and said the baby was only measuring 13 weeks. I can't tell you how devastated I was when he came over and put his hand on my arm and said, "I'm so sorry."
He was so sympathetic and took so much time with me. I called Geoff and he came right away from work. The doctor wanted to do the measurements on a better, clearer machine, just to be sure to what stage the baby had developed, so we had done that while Geoff was on his way. It was too hard to look at the screen and see our perfect little baby on there, but knowing this baby was no longer with us.
Basically, my options were to go home and let this happen on its own (with a chance of still needing a D&C because I was so far along), or schedule a D&C. We opted for the D&C. This wasn't an easy decision because, honestly, I hate to think about what is done during that procedure. It's awful. But having a little control over how and when this was going to happen was preferable. We scheduled a D&C for the next day.
Needless to say, I didn't sleep much Thursday night. That's when "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" started running through my head. Such simple words, but so true. And knowing our little baby is now in Jesus's arms just made it so much more... applicable.
Friday we left for the surgery center and met my mom there (she had the boys since before Thursday's appointment). She stayed with us for a while in the waiting room and it was good to just have her there. We went back and we got started with everything you have to do before surgery. I really appreciate all the nurses, but some are very compassionate, and others, well, they try joking with you or talking about the weather. I was just not in the mood for that. This was a tramatic thing for me. The procedure went well, and I was in recovery for a couple of hours before we were sent home.
What I was dreading most was telling the boys. They were SO excited to have a baby brother or sister (they were convinced I was having a girl), that I couldn't stand the thought of having to tell them this news. And when we told them on Saturday afternoon, it went pretty much like I figured it would. Jaylen cried for a bit, he kept saying, "This is so sad, I really wanted another kid!" And Trevor just didn't really get it at first. Once we talked about the baby being in heaven and never getting sick or owies, and getting to see Jesus, they were pretty OK with it. Kids are quite resiliant like that. Trevor told me this morning, "I told you I was going to hurt the baby." (He would say this when he gave me a hug, he didn't want to squeeze too tight.) I tried my best to make him understand he never could have caused this and this didn't happen because of anything anyone did.
For the last 11 weeks, we have known about this little one. We have prayed for this little one. We have planned for this little one. We bought paint for the nursery. I have to remind myself that I don't need to look for diaper coupons or baby sales anymore. I don't understand why this happened, and I probably never will. But I know Who my Redeemer is, and I know Who holds the future.
"What have I to dread, what have I to fear, Leaning on the everlasting arms? I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, Leaning, Safe and secure from all alarms; Leaning, Leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms."

My 30th birthday present!

So it's not until November, but I already know what I get for my birthday this year.... :)
This little one is due November 26 (I'm 11 1/2 weeks), and we are so excited to meet him or her! We praise God for this baby and are praying for health and safety over the next 6 months!

Just a few random pictures...

Trevor caught his first fish this weekend up at Silver Lake! Camping was fun, but VERY wet and rainy the first half of the weekend!

Jaylen reading to his little brother. I LOVE it when these two get along so good!

Jaylen and Moby. He sure loves this kitty! Thankfully the feeling is (pretty much) mutual... most of the time. :)

My Boys!!

Trevor Bevor is 4!

Okay, I'm way behind, so have to post Trevor's birthday first... Trevor turned 4 the end of February and we celebrated by going down to Jungle Playland! It was SO fun! All the kids loved it, and almost everyone made it despite the snow in the area... Can't believe my "baby" is 4 - he hates it when I call him my baby! Trevor's a sweet little guy, but he's got a little fire in him too. :)

The kids ran and played and slid and jumped and rode and got a ton of energy out! Trevor loved his caterpillar cake, and we all had a great time!

My Trevor

This little guy is such a sweetie. :) We were at 5 Guys Burgers & Fries (which I highly recommend, by the way - kinda like In & Out) and he just put his arm around me and gave me kisses on the cheek, just because. I love it when he does that! We took the boys bowling for the first time last weekend, it was SO fun! They had loud music playing, and Trevor just started dancing and moving, jumping around. He's got rhythm. Unlike his mommy. :0)