Nothing 2 Bring: Updates

Wow. We have been up to a lot of life around these parts. I’m going to single handedly attempt to update you on this without writing a novel, overwhelming you, or confusing you. We shall see what happens.

As you know, Shep got his trach out in late March. We have adjusted to life without our precious nurses, though that’s largely because we still see most of them. They are still family. They just don’t get paid for it.

So now,instead of the day to day care of Shepherd, we all load up in the car and head to lunch dates, and strawberry patches, and bounce houses and pizza and ice cream. Geesh! It’s rough. And we love every.single.second. It’s another way in which God has worked together the details of our lives for our good. “Good” things don’t bring nurses to work full time in your home,caring for your child,right? As Ann Voskamp reminds us, hard things are usually just “white horse” moments. Does one often see moments and memories for what they really are intended for in our lives? Are our eyes practiced at seeing the good that God is weaving in and out of disaster?

So,yes, we enjoy the generous hand of many who love my entire family, not just my youngest boy. And we praise God for how they got here. And we gladly pick strawberries with them and bring them soup when they are sick. We want to keep them forever ad we hope we do.

Aside from picking strawberries at our most favorite farm with our most favorite people,

We recently spent a Saturday morning watching a guy chop down a VERY LARGE, VERY DEAD tree from our backyard. That was nice.

Seeing as the other option was to cower in the hallway every time a storm came through, just sure that the mammoth tree was gong to fall on our tiny house and kill us all.

Even the dog enjoyed the sight out my bedroom window.

Also,my niece graduated. This here gal was only 9 years old when I met my husband. Turns out,we've been married longer than it seems and sometimes the only way I can keep up is by watching my nieces and nephews getting older right before my eyes. Then I start doing the math and realize that my children are "this old" which is "this much older/younger than niece/nephew x was when I met them and this time has gone by soooo fast and just that fast I'm going to be taking pictures standing next to tall men in gowns"...that sounds odd...I mean my sons graduating...anyway, it's all around terrifying.

A great time was had by all.

If you haven't been to a homeschool graduation yet...let me tell you something.

It was absolutely precious and intimate and focused on the beautiful past,present and future of these young people and their families. It made me look forward to my boys' future with great hope.

It made me grateful to be homeschooling.

Becuase there was time to spend on each graduating senior and less students to get through, we got to hear about teenagers who are quite exceptional.

Teenagers who are ,

Volunteering in the Emergency room and already a certified EMT, and heading off to med school.

And there was the kid who enjoyed unicycling.

The kid who is the national champion Pokemon collector.

The kid who is going to solve the problems of the world's hunger and poverty.

You get my point.

It made me wonder if we should be homeschooling.

Ok,not really, but I am sure of this.

Though Kassie is neither planning on going to the circus or the Peace corp,

she's going to be exceptional in what God has planned for her.

We are proud.

We also recently spent some time at the beach, after Shep got his trach out. With this being the first time he could be in the water from the neck up, we thought it appropriate. A dear family friend blessed us with a couple of days there. I shared some pictures a bit ago, but these are the rest I just got developed off of our wind up camera I had to use.

Like I said, My homeschoolers aren't weird at all. whew! I'm safe.

Aslan is trying to shield himself from possible bird poop. The gulls were everywhere.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the sandwiches from our picnic-by- the-water that were being fed to them by the boys.

On the way home from the beach, we HAD to go see the Railroad museum in Wilmington for Sheppies sake. He's not gong to be a 3 year old obsessed with trains forever.

These are all at the Railroad museum.

Right before we checked out from our hotel, we did some more digging and creating of obstacle courses for our remote control cars. It was too cold to get in the water but we could care less. The beach is the beach.

Look at Aslan and Noah. Like father,like son.

I love it and I hope he develops more of his father's likeness. Not just his mannerisms.

Our last night there, we played putt-putt. The hotel was one of those family friendly places that had this kind of thing as part of the deal.

All I can say is it was amusing.

VERY amusing.

And last but not least.

SO not least.

We've been up to this...

We love being parents.

REALLY love it.

It may be because we have the greatest kids that have ever walked the planet and I learn from them every day. Or maybe it's because God was right when he said that children are a blessing straight from Him.

Either way, we are truly blessed.

And in the end of October, we will be welcoming our fourth blessing from God.

We took the boys out to one of my favorite burger joints after our "gender ultrasound."

The one where we didn't find out the gender.

I like good surprises.

Any guesses on your part? Will the color pink finally enter into our atmosphere? Will I keep getting to say, "Let's go boys?"

Will we have to figure out how to raise little women or do I get to keep populating the world with stylish men who use beebee guns and go to the Tea Room to enjoy a lump of sugar with their scone?

Hmmmm.

The mystery deepens.

I,for one, haven't got a clue.

I'd be more surprised with a girl than a boy but that just may be that I have never had anyone in scrubs say to me, "it's a girl!" before.

Having had a child be born with birth defects,complications,high risk pregnancy,etc, in the past..

causes these ultrasounds to take on a little more weight than they may have in the past. What was just a nagging fear in the past becomes a sobering possibility to those who have walked the road in reality. I was more nervous about this ultrasound than any in the past. But God has continued to give me immense peace with this pregnancy.

I really don't have control over the outcome at any point in the journey. I simply get to be a part of this baby's life in whatever way God chooses for however long and for whatever purposes.

I'm going to enjoy it.

I'm going to rejoice in life at all stages and in whatever way I get to be touched by this miracle.

The ultrasound showed everything to look great and we have no reason to think that this baby would be born with heart defects,too.

But as general protocol, they will do an echo in a couple of weeks to look at baby's heart.

I'm not worried.

I don't have to.

Life is not fragile. God is not fragile.

God is able.

To squeeze the most beauty possible out of every detail of life.

White horse kind of stuff, if you know what I mean?

One thing I do know...is that the baby snuggled up in my tummy right now...

will, in the blink of an eye, be grown.

I found Shepherd sleeping during his nap the other day all snuggled up like a baby in mommas womb and I couldn't help but take a picture to be reminded that they grow so fast.

In our tummies,

outside of our tummies,

in our homes,

outside of our homes.

God grows them and may we be a present part of the process.