Kylie May

Kylie May

Layla Faith

Layla Faith

Zoey Noelle

Zoey Noelle

Boyee

Boyee
Our baby boy, due March 16th.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Lesson. Learned.

click to enlarge

I saw this picture online on Friday morning & thought it was pretty funny, yet true. There's a fine line between assuming/imagining/hoping for a "yes" and being okay with hearing "no". I think I had this well figured out with Layla. Hoping for a change, but also being okay "even if He didn't" change anything.

On Friday morning, I realized that I wasn't okay with a 'no' on the house. I felt like we deserved it, after all we've been through. But, after I read this comic strip I had a nice little chat with God. Basically coming to terms with the idea of not getting the house. And being okay staying in the duplex if that's what will happen. Letting go & letting God.

Ironically, we got a phone call on Friday afternoon at 4. We got the house (technically)! They countered our offer & we accepted. We have an inspection on Wednesday & are hoping to close in the end of March if all goes well. This is what we were waiting for, but it's still a waiting game. Praying that everything will smoothly move forward. Once we actually close, we'll have to repaint the entire house & put new flooring in.

We know we're crazy. This would all happen in the beginning of April. So we'd have a couple weeks before Zoey comes! Please pray with us that everything goes smoothly! We're excited :)


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Spring Fever

Every morning this week I've been waking up ready for spring. This winter weather is getting old. It's still so pretty, but not fun anymore. Bryan will agree that I'm definitely nesting. I can't get my house clean or organized enough. I'm running out of energy a lot faster these days. I need to sit and take a break before I even leave for work! It's exhausting. Thankfully, I get to sit most of the day. I get up for a short walk to refill my water or go to the bathroom pretty often.

Still no news on the house. We're still hopeful that our offer will be accepted. Right now, I'm questioning if we'll be able to move in before Zoey's born! But, we'll just wait and see. Please pray that the bank decides soon! I just want to know what's going to happen, of course.

We had our 31 week appointment for Zoey. We haven't agreed on a middle name yet. I've been saying 'Zoey Boey' or 'Zoey Bean'. At some point we'll pick a real middle name! The appointment was great. Her heartbeat was 160. She's head down, but hasn't dropped. All is good & we'll probably pick a c-section date the week of April 15th. (Any suggestions for a date? It's weird to pick a birthday!) I have another normal appointment at 33 weeks and an ultrasound with Dr. Hayes at 35 weeks. Should be fun to see her cute face one more time before she comes. If she's like the other girls, she'll have tons of dark hair.

I think we've figured out what our schedules are going to be like this summer. We'll see what happens. Kylie's going to summer school three days/week and home with myself or Bryan the other two days. We're still working out the details for Zoey. Hoping we don't need someone for too much with the way our schedules work out. It was so nice to have Bryan home with Kylie, we were very blessed to be able to do that. Technically, we could do that again, but we both like our jobs too much. I think that's a good thing. Happy at home & happy at work, both doing what we love. Only took us a few years to get it right. :)

So, we'll take suggestions for birth dates and middle names. We won't guarantee anything, but it would be fun to hear some ideas. We're hoping to do some wintery maternity pictures on Sunday. I'm sure I'll share them when we get them back!

Here's hoping for an early spring & some nice weather from now on. I've been itching for a vacation this month. I realized that I've been to Florida the last two years in March/April, which is probably why I want to go so badly. Maybe next year with a five and almost one year old.

Happy Wednesday! :)

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

An Eye-Opening Discovery

I came across a blog post on Facebook the other day. The title caught my attention because of our journey with Layla. I read the post and have been thinking about it for days. I know that I share my opinion often on this blog. I am shocked at the number of people who read this. I don't expect you all the believe in the same things that I do, but something about my openness & honesty or just plain curiosity is intriguing to you. With that being said, I'm going to share my opinion again.

The topic of abortion is heavily debated in today's culture. I don't typically share my opinions on this and I am not a fan of the people who protest at clinics and all that stuff. I don't want to get into a deep discussion with anyone about this. This is merely my take on this particular story that I read. I hope you find that it challenges your thinking and maybe even pushes you to do something about it.

I don't want to share the blog that I read. There is only one post on it. It is a women's story about her pregnancy. The summary is that she had a 21 week ultrasound for her second child. They received a diagnosis that the baby's limbs were short, he had fluid in his brain, and his rib cage was too tiny for lungs to expand. She was given the option to carry the baby, with the prognosis that he would not survive past birth or terminate the pregnancy. She chose to terminate. Hospitals don't allow late-term abortions, so she had it done at a clinic in Chicago. There are more details that are just horrifying and I don't care to share them. Basically, something went wrong during the procedure after they had taken the baby. She was rushed to a hospital and because of the mistake that was made, lost her uterus. Her blog post was written as a speech to Planned Parenthood to plead for them to allow late-term abortions to avoid what happened to her.

She ends her post by saying "No one should have to suffer while trying to do what's right for their children."

I was shocked after I read this. I had to take a few days to process it. So, please bare with me while I try to explain my thoughts.

If you don't know our journey with Layla, please read this post for an overview of the initial diagnosis. It is very similar to what this lady was told. Layla's limbs were short, her chest cavity was too small, there was swelling around her head. We were told it was a lethal skeletal dysplasia. In fact, this lady's baby was diagnosed with a dysplasia in the same category of Layla's. It was listed in our possible diagnoses in the beginning. I looked up her baby's diagnosis. There are 6 people who have lived with it. If you look up Layla's, there are zero.

I know you can see these similarities in our stories. But, there is one major difference. I had my baby. I let my baby live for 34 weeks inside of me. I held and kissed my baby. My daughter met her sister. My family held my baby. My baby made a difference in people's lives and she still is.

This lady is looking for sympathy for what she did. She wants people to feel bad for her. Because she aborted her baby at 21 weeks. And because of that, she lost her uterus. The last sentence in her post says, "No one should have to suffer while trying to do what's right for their children."

What a selfish statement. She is saying that you shouldn't have to suffer for nine months knowing that your child will die. She is saying that it was right and better for her child to not be born. Life shouldn't be hard, right?

Clearly, we have differing opinions on this.

It's ironic that a cell found on Mars is considered life, but an unborn child on Earth is not. I believe this is because there is no expectation of 'life' on Mars. On Earth, one's life is expected to be a certain way. There should not be down's syndrome, or deformities, or chromosomal abnormalities, or skeletal dysplasia's. And, to some people, if the life inside of them will not meet these expectations, they don't keep it.

Until I read this post, I was ignorant about abortion. For me, termination was not even an option. I was shocked to read a story of someone in the same situation as me, who chose the opposite. I don't want to be a crazy "pro-life" person. However, I didn't know that someone had to suggest "keep your baby". Keep your baby, even if the doctors say it won't live. Keep your baby, even though it will be hard. Keep your baby for so many reasons.

I feel like it should be assumed. Like people should instinctively say, "I'm keeping my baby". Little did I know, people make the other choice.


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Have Patience

It's been a while since I posted! I've been busy having fun & finishing Simply Fresh Films projects before our baby comes! A lot of late nights editing, after working my job & getting Kylie to bed. Bryan's been working until 10 or so, which give me a couple hours to work before he's home. Two more projects left and then I'm rewarding myself with a pedicure!

The other day, we posted this picture online.


We finally decided to tell people "Beanie"'s name. The first person to tell, officially, was Kylie. She started practicing writing it right away. That 'z' is tricky! Bryan and I had Kylie's name picked out before we got married. But, for both girls, we wrote lists of other names. Zoey was on the list for Kylie, and it was our number two option for Layla. After liking the name for over five years, we thought we should use it. :) Zoey means "life", which is very fitting for our situation. (We're still discussing middle names.)

It's fun to call her by name around the house. Kylie writes her name all the time. We still call her Beanie on accident & most of the time Kylie catches me & Bryan!

We had a 29 week appointment last week. It had been four weeks since seeing my doctor. It was nice to talk to her about our 'plan' for delivery. I was two weeks late with Kylie. I was induced with no progress for 2 days and ended up having a c-section. I had Layla at 34 weeks. We were in a hurry because we wanted her to be born with a heartbeat, so a c-section was the best option. With all of that, our doctor said we could schedule a c-section sometime after 39 weeks. We haven't picked a date yet, but I'm sure it will not go as planned.

God is so good at reminding us that everything happens in His timing. I'm a planner. My maternity leave and pay was so perfectly written out in a spreadsheet when I was pregnant with Kylie. Much to my surprise, I worked a 40 hour week after my due date! And the same with Layla. We had just decided on a delivery date, and shortly after we had her. All of that to say, it would be so nice to plan everything for Zoey. To have everything in order before we go to the hospital. That would be ideal, right? But, I'm sure it won't happen. We'll walk in patience and trust. He has a plan.

You may remember a post a long long time ago about putting an offer in on a house. We submitted our offer on November 15th. It's a short-sale and our lease is up in March, so we gave the bank until February 14th to get back to us. This week, we extended the deadline to the end of February! It's a little frustrating, but we've got this patience thing down.

We've had some people ask how we can be so patient and laid back. I think we've always been that way, but even more after going though Layla's pregnancy. We couldn't do anything, and we just had to wait. So, we learned that there's no reason to worry or get anxious about anything. If it's part of His plan, it will happen in His timing.

The only hard part about waiting for the house, is not knowing where we'll have Zoey. My sisters threw me an AWESOME baby shower on Saturday. They didn't let me help at all, so everything was a surprise to me. It was so perfect at my favorite restaurant (Mackinaws). Family & friends came to shower me with love & gifts. My mom, sister, aunts and cousins, my best friends from Stevens Point, and a group of inspiring Christian moms that I respect, who have been so encouraging to me in the last couple years. I'm so blessed to have such a cool group of real people that support me. 

 I feel like this post is a little jumbled. Anyway, that's an update :) Bryan, Kylie & I all have off on Friday. We have some fun family plans. Our next appointment is one week from tomorrow. We have another ultrasound on March 19th at 35 weeks. Of course, I have another post in my head. I'm sure I'll write again later this week.