Beach time!

What a fun time at the beach with my friends! Jennifer and Ansley and of course my Asha-bug! We are having a blast! It has been quite a while since I posted any pics on here or a blog, so I need to get better and keep it updated.

Finally...more pictures!

Bath Time!

We got out Asher's tub tonight and had a splashing fun time!!!!

Updates!

Wow! Two months can fly by when your having fun! Well, I can't say that two months ago I was actually "having fun"...considering I felt like a washed up walrus. BUT, the past 3 weeks have been amazing! We welcomed our second child into the world on February 3!!

I have not kept up with our blog very well, I guess in part to me being just overly tired the past couple months. One would think that I would be more tired now that Asher is here...but I beg to differ! I get more rest now that he has arrived than I did when I was 8 and 9 months pregnant. This is because I suffered from RLS the last few months of pregnancy as well as a severe case of insomnia. I am talking no sleep for 48 hours in a row!! That is just insane. Oh yeah, I also suffered from lardism (a technical word for being big as a house). S0 anyhow, now that I am up around the clock with my 2 hour blocks of sleep, I feel much more rested!

Our son's debut into this world was very quick! I worked a full day of teaching the day that he was born. I began having the good hard contractions around 3:00 that Tuesday. By 4:30, we were arriving at the hospital. They were shocked to check me and find out I was dilated to 8 and 100% effaced. I was quickly whisked away to L & D room (I think Kenny was still trying to park the car). At 5:10 I was recieving my epidural and praying that it would work. The doctor came in to give it to me and said he didn't think he could help me because I was too far along. I let him try it anyways! Praise the Lord it took! I think that Asher would have been born by 6:00, except he was still not dropping due to my high levels of fluid. My doctor was very close to deciding on a c-section and then it happened. He dropped! He finally dropped between 8-9 and I was able to begin pushing a little after 9:00. Asher arrived at 10:05! He was born at 38 weeks but weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs even! He was a very lengthy 21 1/2 inches long and we are still trying to figure out where the length came from! We named our son Joseph Asher. Joseph is from my father and Asher means blessed. Considering the fact that Asher is a complete blessing and brings such great joy to our hearts, we knew that was the perfect name for him!

We are settling in to our routine and loving our precious little boy. He is wonderful and such a gift. We are trying to treasure each moment with him, as we know this time will pass all too quickly. 3 weeks has gone by in a blink!! We posted some pics so you can see just how precious he is!!

What a chunk!

We had our 28 week doctors visit this past Wednesday...and we found out that our little boy has been doing a lot of growing here recently! I measured about a week ahead at 29 weeks 4 days, and Asher has packed on the poundage! He weighs in now at around 3lbs 2 oz!! We are sooo excited! We could all tell by my appearance that he had grown, we were just hoping that he was close to 3lbs by now...and he is!! On the ultrasound, he was doing his usual tricks and kicks. He also was drinking fluid and we got to see his little lips moving and sucking. It was adorable! All of his organs are working wonderfully and his heartbeat sounds beautiful! Now, we are down to the last trimester and still praying for our little guy to keep growing (within reason) and for my health to continue to be great.

Welcome to Holland

I had a parent of a child with disabilities tell me about this poem a few months ago. It is an amazing poem that reminds me and others of how blessed we are. It also helps me to remember that I am not in control and can not plan every detail of my life...even if I would like too. God has a better plan and he choose me and Kenny to be the parents of a very beautiful and precious angel. We consider ourselves lucky and among the elite chosen ones to be blessed with our little angel. Even though we did not have the opportunity to raise our little girl, we can still very much so relate to this poem.

"I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It’s just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland."

So as you have read, Holland is just as wonderful as Italy. Just because our trip was different, it doesn't make it wrong. We were blessed to have had the opportunity to take a trip to Holland. And now as the arrival date approaches quickly for Asher, we do still dream of taking the trip to Italy...but we will NEVER forget the amazing journey we took to Holland and cannot wait to see our little Rembrandt when we get to Heaven.

27 weeks! Our little Ash-man is growing!!

Here is a recent picture of me and Asher. He has really grown in the past couple of weeks...and it is showing in my belly!!