The Last Night

Tonight is our last night here at the house on Aspen.  Hmmmph. 

It's the last night sleeping here, the last night I'll do a load of laundry here, the last night I'll put my kids to bed in their first rooms, and the last night I'll bathe them here.

I feel sad.  Andy feels excited, and so do I to a point.  It's hard to be excited when we still don't know if the new house is actually ours yet.  We do have first priority as buyers with the new house, but even now people are still able to view it and visit it if they're interested.

We are preparing the girls as much as we can to let them know that soon we'll be leaving our house and someone else will live here and we will have a new house. (This is not super clear for Georgia.  She said, "And some little boy is going to sleep in my bed?")  But we have to also explain that where we are going tomorrow is not the new house, but a friend's house and then when our new house is ready, we will move there.  I don't like living in limbo.

The thought that this will be someone else's house does disturb me a little bit.  This house will still be home in my mind for awhile.  I think I will want to drive by to see it, but it'll be strange not to pull in the driveway and walk inside or swing with the girls in the backyard.  I will want to walk through the house to check on it and see if they changed the colors of the rooms.  They probably will and then I'll know it's not home anymore.

Update on the White Family

Many of you have asked how my friend Sara and her twin babies are doing.  We went to visit Sara on Wednesday and here is an update of their condition:

To start, the girls have names and they are beautiful!  Baby A is Lydia Beth and Baby B is Magdalene Grace (Maggie).  They are considered micro-premies and have both lost a little bit of weight as most babies do in their first days, but are hanging on in the 1 lb 8 or 9 oz range.  They have heart murmurs, which is to be expected since the fusing of the heart happens right before full-term birth.  They both had brain scans on Monday and they came back perfectly clean.  This is a huge praise, since they know many brain development issues can arise in ones born so early.  Sara was able to change their diapers for the first time on Wednesday, but they warned her to be so incredibly careful because even slight movements could rip their skin.

Sara is staying at the Ronald McDonald house and seems to be in good spirits.  She is still fighting off an infection besides healing from her c-section.  They are having a hard time finding the source of the infection and even suspect that it is the cause of her early labor.  There isn't a way to know for sure.

They will remain in Iowa City until about the time of their due date, which was October 7, though it's possible it could be as far out as Thanksgiving.  They would be very grateful for your continued prayers.

Book I Am Currently Reading

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson

Calling All Prayer Warriors

If you read my blog and if you pray to the mighty King of heaven, I'm going to enlist your help to do that RIGHT NOW. 

My dear friend Sara delivered her twin girls at just 24 weeks this past Tuesday morning.  I still cannot believe that it has happened in this way.  We've been having fun being pregnant together this time around and this turn of events has been a shock to everyone.

She was admitted to Iowa City hospitals in pre-term labor last Saturday.  The doctors did all they could to help stop and prevent labor.  She was on many meds to stop labor and steroids to help the babies' lungs.  But Tuesday morning she had an emergency c-section and her precious twin girls came into the world at 1 lb 9 oz and 1 lb 13 oz.

We've heard that the babies (we don't know their names yet) seem to be doing as well as can be expected for ones born so early, and that is a praise.  However, these little ones have a long way to go and this family needs all the prayer that we can give them.

Please pound the gates of heaven for the White family  - Chad, Sara, big brother Ollie and baby girls; that God would be merciful in saving their lives and blessing them with good health.  We serve a big God - He was not surprised by this and He is not beyond miracles.  And we know that God is good ALL THE TIME.

Book I Am Currently Reading

Church Behind the Wire by Barnabas Mam
a story of faith in the Killing Fields

Baby Update

For those of you who aren't aware, Andy and I made a decision that was a little out of the norm for us. We decided to find out the gender of our baby. I know! You're shocked, right? Andy and I have loved NOT knowing the gender of our first two children and being surprised on delivery day. And we love it! The surprise, the shock, the adrenaline rush when they say, It's a girl!


However, at our ultrasound appointment (tho we told the ultrasound tech we didn't want to know), about halfway thru I said to Andy, Are you sure you don't want to find out right now? He said he didn't care if I didn't (despite 2 or 3 discussions about it ahead of time) and we decided that if this was possibly going to be our last child, then we wanted to know what if felt like to discover the gender of our child BOTH ways: in the delivery room and during the ultrasound. So we found out that....it's a boy! Woo hoo! We were both shocked and VERY excited. Georgia is mostly excited, but keeps telling me she wants a girl. :)


Now that I know both ways, I have decided that if for some reason we do have a fourth child, we will wait until delivery to find out if it's a boy or girl. It's waaaaay more fun. It was fun at the ultrasound, but just not AS fun. There is so much more excitement in the delivery room when you discover gender AND you get to have your baby at the same time. Yes, I will have planning time, but that doesn't really mean anything to me. I can do things to the nursery just as easily after the baby is born as before.


All in all, I just can't believe we're having a boy....oh boy. :)

Beautiful

I know it's, like, way late for this, but I have some Easter pics of the girls I just can't resist posting.  They look so sweet and fresh in their Easter dresses and sometimes I just stare and them (no matter what they're wearing) and think, my kids are so beautiful.  Do other people think my kids are this beautiful, because MAN, my kids are so beautiful!

Book I Am Currently Reading

Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist
thoughts on change, grace, and learning the hard way

Beach Beauties

I Lied

Ok...so I lied.  I didn't update those posts, did I?  In fact, I'm not even sure I remember what they were.  But the blogging bug has been creeping up on me in the last few days and last night my friend said, "Yeah, Lacey, you haven't posted since February."  What?  I had to check for myself because I didn't believe her!  So let's try this thing again.  Let's see if I can find the long lost blog love.