Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Sad News


On Sunday we woke up and it was a normal morning. Dan had left early for church to set up the music. Vander and I slept in (well until 7:30) Van is up in the morning until 8:30 and then he goes back down until 10, we leave for church at 10:15. When he went down for his nap, i crawled back in bed, not feeling great. It was Luke's dedication at church that day and Dan's family was in town from Minnesota. I took an hour power nap and then got myself up and ready for the day.  I had No clue what the next 24 hours would hold for our family. The rest of the day I didn't feel great, started having cramps, so I layed on the couch and took it easy. Cramps by themselves I know can happen early in pregnancy. My mom was at work that day so I called her and she said go on bedrest, drink lots of water.  Then at dinner I went to the bathroom and my thoughts went from everything is probably ok, to there is definitely something wrong. I started not only having cramps, but bleeding also. We called my mom again and she said there is nothing they can do at this point, stay in bed and we will see the dr in the morning. The night was the longest night ever. I cramped all night and the bleeding just got worse. The dr. in the morning told me to go to the er since my bleeding had become so severe. Well having my mom working at the hospital made this process much easier. We went to the er and had my blood work done and my mom went and told ultrasound that we were there and ready. This process, even though sped up was still 2 hours. We finally got wheeled over to ultrasound. Dan and I were so nervous. I know my body and know that something is not right, but until you see it there still is a glimmer of hope. Dan was watching Rory do the ultrasound and she was explaining what she was seeing. Then we saw what is making this even harder. The red flash flickering on the screen. Our little baby the size of a blueberry still has a heartbeat. Dans eyes filled with tears, Rory started to cry. Rory said she doesn't normally show patients but asked if i wanted to see. The heartbeat was there, but there are definitely bad signs.  The heartbeat is very weak.  It is only beating at 73 beats per minute, it should be at 150. There are signs that my body is preparing for miscarriage, the bleeding and cramping mainly. We met with the dr. in the NICU parents room, since there were no beds in the er. (again thankful my mom was there to pull the strings) She was so sweet and told us it is threatened miscarriage, but there is still life and our little blueberry is fighting. She scheduled an ultrasound for today at 1:15. There will either be no heartbeat, or there is a slight chance the heartbeat will improve. So now we are in the waiting game. We came home and I am on bedrest and we are waiting until 1 when Dan will watch the screen of the ultrasound, searching for the red flicker.  Dan and I spent the night laying in bed, talking, praying, crying. We feel so loved during this time.  Flowers were sent to the house, people have been texting and praying, friends came by, family brought food over, people have overwhelmed us by the support and love they have so graciously poured out upon our family. I didn't even mention Vander. Vander has been so well taken care of. Trent came over in the morning and took care of him all day while we were at the hospital, Dan played with him while I rested the rest of the day, and then he went to Grandma and Grandpas for the night. He is such a blessing during all of this and one of things that makes me break down is thinking about what a great big brother he would be.  Dan and I pondered a lot last night particularly about prayer. We serve a sovereign God that has a plan  for our lives, and our blueberries little life. If he has a plan,  and the pages are written, do our prayers matter? Will they make a difference? Will they change His mind? Is praying more for us to let things go? All the prayers being said for us, we KNOW they are heard, is God's answer going to change because of them? These are some of the questions we wrestled with last night. What we found comfort in is GOD is GOOD. If we truly believe that God is good than the way he chooses to answer our prayers, whether it be the path we would have chosen or not is going to be good. He loves our baby more than we do. He has a purpose for our little blueberries life, whether that purpose is fulfilled in 7 weeks, or 90 years, He has a plan.  We believe that if God chose to He is capable of doing much bigger than saving our little babies life, our faith isn't based on if HE chooses to spare this life, but rather our faith is in HIM and that He could if He chooses to.  What we do know is God chose this plan for us and we want to glorify Him through it. We were reading Ester last night and one thing that stood out to us was when Mordecai said to Ester," Who knows that you have come to your position for such a time as this?" God has us in the palm of His hand.  We are in this situation for a reason and we desperately want to be faithful to fulfill the mission He is calling us to!

Update: We went to the dr. and had an ultrasound that showed no baby at all. My body had flushed out the baby, so as of now it looks like we won't need a dnc. The dr. said if the bleeding gets bad again then I will need to have the cleanout surgery.  Both Dan and I really like our dr. and he left us with a thought that worth thinking about, he said"The best is yet to come!" Isn't that the truth?? In our lives here but also what we have to look forward to in heaven, the best is truly yet to come!!!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

More One Year Pics




These are more pictures from when Rachel came over to do his one year pics. We had so much fun taking these and every time we have a session with her we are amazed at how she captures his little personality. We are truly thankful for her!!













Sunday, January 6, 2008

Such a joy



We have had such a blast with Van and we feel tremendously blessed that God chose us to be his parents. That He entrusted us with this precious life. What an honor, and also what a privilege. He is growing up so fast and every stage that he enters is my new favorite. Right now with his new found freedom of walking it is absolutely precious to see the wonder and awe in his face as he spends most of his time outside exploring new things. He definitely is not my baby any more. He is turning into my little man right before my eyes. Vander has brought our family more joy than we imagined possible from such a little bundle. So much so that we are going to do it all over again! Yup Van man is going to be the big brother! We are thrilled to see him as the older brother and know that he is going to be great.
On a different note, good thing I just ordered a size 8 dress for Emma and trav's wedding, I better change that to a 18 since I'll be about to burst:)

Monday, December 31, 2007


This Christmas season came and went too fast. Katie made it in on Christmas eve and I have been soaking up every minute with her home. Van man decided to start walking a few days before Katie got home.  My aunt is convinced he was a closet walker and has been walking when we weren't around . There was no walk for a little bit but not be good at it. HE woke up on a Friday morning and walked everywhere the whole day. We now spend much of our time outside as he loves to explore with this new found talent. He continues to have such a sweet spirit that can't help but make you smile whenever he is in the room. He has become my busy bee boy. From the moment he wakes until his little eyelids hit the pillow for the night, he is on the move! Just in the last week he has really been testing Dan and I to see where the boundaries are and what he can get away with. We are really trying to be consistent with our discipline as we want to lay the ground rules early on.  With walking he has gained a whole new freedom and I think we are going to be spending a lot of time at the park!!! Since walking he has already gotten several bumps and bruises from walking into things, falling, splitting his lip open on a chair and the scariest for mom,  almost falling out the the bleachers at a basketball game. He got his leg caught in one of the bars and ended up falling but hanging from the bleachers upside down from his foot.  Katie was there with me and yelled HELP HElP and the man standing in front of the bleachers was able to help us get him untangled and he didn't fall. It was quite embarrasing as my dad came running over(during his game) and several people after the game asked me if he was ok. Katie said good thing I'm not Britney Spears because the tabloids would have been all over that story:) My aunt came down to visit from up North and we were out back catching up and letting Van romp around outside. Vander was walking happily around and he was a few feet from walking right to a spot on the patio that would knock him in the head. I made an interesting comment saying its so funny how we can sit here and see he's clearly headed for a bad situation where he will get hurt, and he has NO idea, he is  just walking along no clue he is headed for such danger. My dad said " I wonder if that is what God says about us" We all kinda chuckled, but it is interesting to ponder.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Stuck in Africa


We have been patiently waiting for today since Katie landed at 11:30. Van is soo excited to see her, we had it all planned, he was going to walk down the runway and it was going to be a great reunion! Until her plane stopped in North africa and broke!!!! What a bummer!!! Now we have no communication with her, she is stranded in some random airport that has 2 flights a day and we are ready for her to be home. As of now the flight for today has been pushed back again, so please pray it would get fixed and she would be on her way. If the flight doesn't leave until 9:00 she will get to atlanta at 1:55 and she would arrive tomorrow night at 5:55, if it doesn't delay AGAIN.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Better late than never


White elephant gift exchange!! 

Team photo! These girls have so much fun together and are a crack up!!


Looking for our 7-8 ft tree. Is this how tall Van is going to be?

On Dan's shoulders starting the search

Vander likes this one:)

We finally have our tree!!! We had the APU girls over for a Christmas party last night, so we knew it had to be up and ready by then:) It was fun shopping for a tree with Vander. He wanted to touch all of the trees and had a blast being on Dan's shoulder's looking for the perfect tree. Dans method is funny. He doesn't pick a tree that is unwrapped. We always go and he picks one of the ones that is still wrapped up. He says that is part of the fun is getting it home and seeing what kind of tree you got. I have to admit we do have fun when we get back to the house. SO far all the trees we have got have been great. I am secretly waiting for the year we get home and have a tree that is bald in a huge spot or something funny:)