Proud Mama!

Luke and Wyatt (my sweet little nephew) are getting dedicated on September 28th. Not that you have to plan out a baby dedication, but this just came together last week. Why now? Well, three real motivating factors:

1. It is never too soon to formally dedicate a child to God (This is already done in our hearts).
2. My brother-in-laws parents will be here from Omaha, NE.
3. My mom is having knee surgery next month.

So for all the right reasons, we are doing the Baby Dedication next Sunday. With that being said, little things have cropped up this past week. For the first three kids, we invited other friends and family, which we haven't done yet. I love sharing special moments! Also, we realized that Noah's soccer pictures were smack dab in the middle of the service. The pastor schedules dedications during the last service. We usually attend an earlier service. Noah never thought twice about missing pictures with his team. He said that he would rather Luke be dedicated sooner, as it is much more important. This is only one small example of how he puts others first.

Reflections On Pregnacy!!

Luke at 20 weeks

Luke at 32 weeks

My little Luke is a precious gift from God. I must admit that I prayed for him before conception. I consistently asked God to protect my baby in the womb and beyond. My prayers were specific, asking for physical and mental health. The experience of loss that I will talk about in the following paragraphs inspired me to have my sweet little Luke. It wasn't that I had stopped yearning for a baby, but I let age (and the opinions of others) become an obstacle. Through a surprise pregnancy, my maternal desires for a newborn were reawakened. I felt as if God was opening the doors to adopt and have a baby.

Just six weeks before I became pregnant with Luke, I lost a set of mono-mono twins (and possibly another singleton). It truly was devastating! It was not only a loss of two (or 3) babies, but it was a loss of my lifelong dream of having twins. Okay, lifelong is a bit of an exaggeration. I had reached the ripe old age of 10 when I began to wish for twins. For a moment in time, it looked as if my dream had a chance to come to fruition. Obviously, it was not to be! Well, at least not in the way I had hoped for. Being a little further removed from the situation, I am glad to have been able to carry those little ones. They were not meant for this world, but they were very real and alive. God's full purpose will never be known on this earth. I was brought to my knees in prayer. It was difficult to understand why God would allow me to conceive (a wonderfully unexpected surprise) only to experience loss. As far as I can figure, those babies had a purpose in heaven. Bless their little souls! On the other hand, Luke was meant for this world and he brightens each and every day. Just as I say about Faith, I am so glad that we did not miss this blessing.

It is with mixed emotions and reservation that I actually decided to blog about this, as I know people don't really like to reopen chapters like these. I just felt that it would be wrong not to acknowledge that these babies were very real and alive, if just for a short time. God did know them in the womb! As I think about the debate on life, I am so sad that to some people my babies never really existed.

Got the Giggles!

Too Cute to Miss!! This is one of my favorites.

Bouncing in the Jumperoo!!!

Luke loves to bounce! We think he is tiggerific!

In the background of the video Evan is trying to take a still picture with our camera phones. We discovered these are not so good with motion.

Baby Bobblehead - Bouncing Back to May!!

Coming Home from the Hospital ~ 5/25/08

The pictures shown below were taken on Luke's birth day!

Mama Bear, Mama Bear - What Do You See?

I See A Blue Bear Looking at Me!

This pictures of Luke were taken on 8/15.

We Remember! September 11, 2001

Unspeakable tragedy struck our nation 7 years ago today. We will never forget! The images of those planes hitting the twin towers is forever etched into my mind, along with the heroism of the passengers of Flight 93. I often think of those that died at ground zero, the pentagon and on a PA field. I think of all the babies that were born after their fathers were tragically killed by cowardly terrorist. I also think of the mothers, fathers and children that never returned home that day. I will NEVER forget why so many have sacrificed for us to live in a FREE and relatively safe country. I also learned that it does matter what people are doing on the other side of the world (and in our own backyard). We need to stand up for what is right! Freedom is not free! Thanks to our military past and present. Thanks Dad!

September 11th brought out the best in many of us. We were more patriotic, compassionate and prayerful! God Bless the United States of America and her heros - firefighters, police officers, moms, dads and everyone who cared for and inspired us.