1 week to go!

One week from today I will have a 7 year old!  S E V E N!!  How did that happen??! 

She lost another tooth Saturday night so the official count is now 6 for my sweet 6 year old. She gets excited about numbers, just like her mama :)

I wanted to capture at least one sweet picture of that new smile and I think this is a good one...

Speaking of numbers. For the better part of a year now, the number 320 seems to follow me around. I'm not superstitious, but when the number kept popping up over and over again, I had to look it up. I was even waking up in the middle of the night and every time I would look to see what time it was, there it was 3:20. Silly of me, but it actually took me several months to realize "320" is also my birthday!

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon "angel numbers" but the meaning of 320 was rather intriguing and precise. However, for me, every time I see the number, my mind immediately goes to Ephesians 3:20...

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

Almost as a reminder that no matter what I may be facing, God is in control. There is such an incredible peace in resting on that promise.

I pledge allegiance...

This morning was a very special morning at Grace's school. I mentioned {here} about one of Grace's little classmates whose dad is in the military, currently stationed overseas.Paityn's dad is in Afghanistan, serving the last 3 weeks of his 6-month deployment. He is scheduled to come home December 28. We are all anxiously awaiting his safe return.Grace's class has sent several care packages to Paityn's dad while he's been overseas. He always sends the most uplifting notes back to the kids, telling them how much the cards, pictures, snacks, and prayers mean to him, teaching them about freedom and being good citizens, and telling them he can't wait to visit the class - Bryan's Bears - when he comes home. He also sent a very important package last time...Paityn's dad flew an American flag for one week over where he is stationed in Afghanistan in honor of Bryan's Bears. He sent the flag to Mrs. Bryan and today, Grace's school had a ceremony and flew the flag in honor of Paityn's dad!I would love it if you would join me in praying over Paityn's dad...for safety during these last 3 weeks of his deployment, for a safe return to his family, and for all the troops still overseas.Thank you!

our week...

...the busier, the better, right? At least that's what I've been telling myself these past few weeks. But I'm secretly hoping for a little lull in the busyness. Maybe after this Tuesday... Tuesday is our big fundraiser for the nonprofit I run. Hoping to raise lots of $ for child abuse victims. So if I make it these next couple of days I think I'll take a day to hibernate and catch up on some zzzz's.

This little guy was sick all week. Took him to the doctor on Monday... diagnosis: croup. Poor thing sounded like a seal all week long. No MDO for him this week and I think he was getting a case of cabin fever. A little impromptu, mid-week ice cream date sure made things better.This little pumpkin earned her swimming key and she's now in the Advanced Preschool class! Still with Miss Megan, her favorite teacher so she was super excited. Way to go, Grace!Up super early for the annual Donuts with Dad breakfast at preschool. Hudson wanted in on the pic too. So sweet in his jammies and since Lance took the little pumpkin to school I was able to sneak in an extra snuggle session with my little guy who was feeling much better :)Friday was super busy. Right after Donuts, it was time for a field trip. Noonie stayed with Hudson so that I could go with Grace for a couple of hours. Thank you, Noonie! Here they are learning all about nutrition and digestion...Hands-on learning...love it! Part of their weekly unit was about pets. I love these fun block pets they made.Saturday we celebrated Kennedy's 5th Birthday. Grace loves Kennedy to pieces. This is their second year in school together and they are so silly and funny when they're together. Kennedy had a Candyland themed birthday, complete with an old-fashioned cake walk and an ice-cream cone relay. Fun times!Happy 5th Birthday, Kennedy! Right after church I had to head to work to finish working on some last minute details for the fundraiser. When I got home I was beat. So I declared it upside-down day and made pumpkin pancakes for dinner from {this} yummy recipe and a pumpkin pie to send to school tomorrow with the little pumpkin for a little taste test as part of their Native Americans/Pilgrims/Thanksgiving unit. My littles LOVE upside-down day, they get the biggest kick out of it.

We're working on table manners...hmmmm, guess we need a few more lessons on napkin placement, right? HA! Lance was telling Grace where to put her napkin if she had to get up from the table during dinner and Hudson decided he had a better spot for it. I couldn't stop laughing at Hudson's
"jacket napkin". And yes, his hair and shirt are perfectly coated with equal parts maple syrup and whipped cream.Between my sweet boy's "I lot (love) you, Mama" and the little pumpkin's sweet whispered prayer tonight, "I'm thankful for Mama...she makes the best everything", my love tank is full and I'm ready to give it my all these next two days to raise money for littles who experience hurts no child should ever know.

Would love your prayers for a great event on Tuesday.
Have a great week!

Little Lady...and Remembering.

The little pumpkin loves dressing up...what little girl doesn't, right? So today she was super excited to don her butterfly fairy costume and head to Lovi's Ladybug Birthday Party.Bzzz, Bzzz...sweet friends McKinley & Grace ready to have fun at Lovi's. Three little ladies having fun decorating ladybug cupcakes...Red velvet - YUM!Jewelry...a girl's best friend ;)
Off to the land of unicorns and fairies, I go... Everybody gather around for......LADYBUG RELEASE!Happy 5th Birthday, Little Lady!Changing course for a sec...

Today is National Infant & Pregnancy Loss Day...a "club" I wish I didn't belong to, no one does.Before we had our sweet Grace, Lance and I had a surprise pregnancy. Unplanned by us...but not by our sweet Lord in heaven. From the moment we found out about our little miracle-to-be, we were overjoyed. Head-over-heels in love. I remember wanting to wait a bit to tell our family and friends, but Lance was sooo excited to become a dad, he wanted to shout it from the rooftops. We ended up deciding to tell our families and closest friends. Everyone was surprised - as we were - but excited all the same.

Then on April 28, 2006, at my dear friend Bridgette's rehearsal dinner, without a single symptom other than a full bladder, I went to the ladies' room and suddenly realized something was very wrong. Lance and I made the 1-hr drive back to our city and headed straight to the ER. One of the longest hours of my life! I remember the silence from the ultrasound tech...I remember looking at the screen, knowing by now we should have been able to see more, a heartbeat. But nothing.

The doc came in, tried to reassure me by saying maybe I was just mixed up on my dates and I was only about 5 weeks along. Nope, no mix up on the dates. The baby had just died between 5-6 weeks gestation. An ultrasound 2 days later at my then OB's practice - thank you Dr. L, the on-call doc, for opening your practice on a Sunday afternoon to do a courtesy ultrasound! And thank you for making that call, Mom! - revealed a little pocket of blood where the placenta was already separating from the uterine wall (sorry if TMI). Things weren't looking good.

A couple of days later and several labs later, a D&C was scheduled for May 3rd since my body was not reacting as it should. I remember riding up to the OR and the well-meaning nurse telling me, "You are young. You will have other babies. It happens all the time. I had 3 miscarriages myself." Well-meaning, but not the thing you want to hear when you are in the middle of losing your baby. The baby you love, the baby you want to still be growing inside of you.

I remember the diagnosis on all the paperwork..."missed A/B"...that's "missed abortion" in case you didn't know - a medical term meaning your body has not spontaneously released the baby following a miscarriage. By God's great love, why on earth would you put the word "abortion" next to a person's heartbreaking miscarriage. Adding insult to injury - that's exactly how it felt. I wept.

The physical recovery was very easy. The mental & emotional recovery, not so much. I remember completely breaking down the day before the D&C, sobbing in my bed. Lance trying to console me. My mom on the phone loving me through her words. Feeling like my world was crashing down around me. But God is good. He is faithful. He was there for me even when I felt completely alone and abandoned. Even when I questioned the purpose of what I was going through. And 2 months later we were blessed beyond measure...we were pregnant again - this time with our sweet baby girl Grace.

I know everyone is different but for me the 2 hardest things from losing a baby through miscarriage were this: 1. having people pretend it didn't happen/afraid to acknowledge the loss/thinking you should be "over it" and 2. losing the ability to have a worry-free pregnancy the next time. Once you've lost a baby through miscarriage, every other pregnancy is one scary ride of "what if...", "please God, not this time" and so on. You worry over every little symptom. You count down the days until 12 weeks (end of first trimester), 20 weeks (mid-way), 27 weeks (viability greater than 90%), 37 weeks (term) and so on.

Don't get me wrong, there is still joy all along the way, but it's not that free, glowy, nothing-could-ever-go-wrong joy. It's a cautious joy. It's a let's-wait-to-tell-until-it's-safer joy. It's a please-check-my-hcG levels-over-and-over joy. It's a check-the-progesterone-levels-too-while-you-re-at-it joy. It's a forget-running-and-exercising-maybe-it-had-something-to-do-with-my-previous-loss joy.

If you've made it this far reading - thanks for still hanging in there! - Maybe it's because you've had a loss yourself, and for that my heart is heavy for you and I pray you've been comforted by our Heavenly Father. If you have not experienced a loss, I hope you take away this: don't be afraid of bringing up the loss to a friend for fear of "reminding" her of something hard. Believe me, she has not forgotten. Your kind words will not hurt her, but silence will. Compassion heals.

To my sweet angel in Heaven: I can't wait to meet you one day!
To sweet baby Hannah (08.15.07 - 08.15.07), my BFF's baby girl born at 19 wks. gestation - I'm thinking of you today too...you touched many lives in the short time you were here with us on earth.

Dear Lord, I would have loved to have held my babies on my lap and tell them about you, but since I didn't get the chance, would you please hold them on your lap and tell them about me? - author unknown

This scripture has always been special to me and it has carried me through some dark days more than once...
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not into your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6.

nutella, movies, pie!

Yes, in that order!!

Well, I've let go of all parental common sense and am now feeding the littles "nutella waffles" for breakfast...don't worry, there was a side of banana and a tall glass of ice cold milk to balance things out. Healthy, huh? This is right after the sugar rush...Oh my, it was all over them and they were all over the place! This is one breakfast that won't be making our school rotation in a couple of weeks. But it is summer after all so all the rules have gone right out the window. I had no intention of taking the littles to see the Smurfs movie because frankly the littles have no clue who the smurfs are, but it was 110° out and they'd been so good on our little shopping excursion and I did have reinforcements with me (i.e. Noonie) and it so happened that the next showing was just 10 minutes away, so............off we went to check it out.

Can you tell they were melting? Oh my, we're so ready for Fall weather! We went to a 3 o'clock showing...after skipping naps...they both did surprisingly well. This is how Hudson spent the last 40 minutes...he he he.And then today, we went to Books-A-Million because I had seen a sign the other day that said "Princess and the Frog...Saturday, Aug. 6th...12 noon" Silly me, I didn't ask about it. I just assumed it was some sort of character appearance where they read a book, you know, pose for pics, etc. like they do at Barnes & Noble from time to time. Nope, it was just a showing of the actual movie, popcorn & green apple slush included. We only stayed for about 20 minutes, all the while Lance was chasing Hudson in the kids' section as he attacked the Thomas the Train display. But this little pumpkin was happy to take a break, talk "princesses" with some other girlies, and smile silly in between popcorn bites. My, oh my, I'd forgotten all about those 2 year old temper tantrums...especially out in public - fun times - but we finally managed to distract Hudson with some sips of the sugar-coma inducing apple slush long enough to buckle him in the car and head for a local family diner that has THE best pies for at least a 1000 mile radius.Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum!We came home and we ALL napped. Yes, including me! HA! I never nap - just not me. I'm blaming it on the heat...and the pie :)

Hooray for lazy summer weekends...hope yours has been relaxed and spent with loved ones.

Lots of prayers being sent up for the families of the 31 troops killed in the helicopter that was shot down in Afghanistan. May we never take our freedom for granted, nor the sacrifices of those who make it possible.

with heartfelt gratitude {Memorial Day 2011}

'Thank you' doesn't even begin to cover it. It seems like such a small word to express such strong feelings of gratitude for the men and women who put their lives on the line each and every day to protect our freedom. {Photograph taken at the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis, TN}

I am proud to be an American and I am forever grateful to the service men and women who have paid the ultimate price to keep our country safe.Both my grandpa Pedro and Lance's grandpa Woodrow, who Hudson Rowe is named after, were members of our military. My grandpa was a soldier in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Lance's grandpa was an officer in the U.S. Air Force. Such a legacy of courage and honor... {Photo taken at the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis, TN}

To the families of our men and women in uniform, thank YOU, for the sacrifices you too make each and every day while your loved ones defend our country. I can not imagine how difficult it must be to have your loved ones away, especially away from little ones. May God continue to protect our military as they protect our nation and the values of freedom and democracy that we often take for granted. Thank you for your courage, thank you for your dedication, Thank you for your loyalty, Thank you for your selflessness, Thank you for your strength, Thank you for your patriotism, Thank you for your faith...THANK YOU FOR YOUR LEGACY.

Praying over you...and remembering.

Walk to Cure Diabetes

This morning we laced up our tennis shoes and joined Millie's Hot Shots Team for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk to Cure Diabetes!

Cori and Amelia

Amelia & her family Getting ready to WALK!
Neither the heat nor the humidity could stop us! Our stroller walking buddies - Julie & Preston! When the little pumpkin got tired of walking she and Hudson traded seats which meant Hudson got to ride PIGGY BACK for the first time!!! Millie's t-shirt design won 1st place in the Family Division!!! We had a great time walking for a great cause! Way to go Millie's Hot Shots!!!
Can't wait for next year's walk!