Cows, turkeys and cards...oh my!



Some of my favorites watching tv.

Cows.

4 turkeys across from the cows.

Friday I read some exciting but a little unexpected news from a friend that had her baby this week. Please be in prayer for this new little family.
This is her facebook post:


There are moments in life for which there are no words. Moments when the tension between joy and pain feels crushing. Moments when we know life has forever been changed.

Monday morning, in one of those moments, Steve and I met our firstborn son, Andre. Within minutes, he experienced respiratory distress and was admitted to the NICU. Before too much longer, we were told that our precious little boy likely has Down Syndrome, which was confirmed by tests over the next couple of days.

Since Monday, we have laughed, and we have cried. There has been great grief for the loss of what we expected, juxtaposed with great rejoicing for the precious little life with which we've been entrusted. We have so much to learn, and there is much we may never understand. But we are confident that our God is still God, and our God is still good. He has given us a good gift.

We have been overwhelmed by the love and support we've received from family and friends. Please continue to pray for Dre as we work toward getting to take him home from the NICU. He still needs to come off the oxygen and on to 100% room air, to eat/digest breast milk well enough to discontinue IV nutrition, and to complete 7 days of IV antibiotics with no further signs of infection.

We can't wait for you to meet our little guy. He is absolutely beautiful, and we are so blessed.

With love, Steve and Holly

Isn't he so handsome??

I love the way Holly expressed herself in this. BEAUTIFUL. Angie, my boss, was telling me when I told her about Andre that she had read a story of another Downs Syndrome Mom. The other Mom described this whole process like packing for a trip. You pack and are so excited to go to Italy. You get on the plane but when you depart the plane, you're in Jamaica, not Italy. Still an awesome and beautiful trip but not what you had planned for. I really love that analogy.  Holly is Lee's age and she was a youth leader at church when I was in high school and she was in college. We got to be great friends.  I admired her then and continue to do so now.

I went and got my girls and was happily surprised to see my nephews at my parents. We went home to meet Justin. We were leaving to meet the Garmans for dinner in Carthage. I was loading up Skylar into her seat and Skylar called Paili-Paili. Not sissy. I thought Paili was going to cry she was so crushed. I thought it was pretty sweet to hear her say her name. Paili was distraught that our baby is growing up so quickly. While driving to the restaurant we passed a cow pasture and Paili was explaining to me what makes a cow a heifer, what makes a cow a bull, etc. She was cracking me up. We stopped by the fence to see the cows a little better and I snapped a picture. I pass these cows every day on the way to work. Then to our left Justin was super excited to see turkeys! We had a fantastic dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Oriental Villa. Then we headed back to our house to play some cards. My sweet neighbor, Kellie, texted me and asked if we were still up because she wanted to park in front of our house while she got Damons brithday gift ready. When she got there I headed outside to help her. She put a cute little bow on his bike and a flashing light so he would see it better. Damon loved his new bike! Justin, Aaron, and Erin came outside to check the bike out and see Kellie. Justin decided our little tree by the road had to go and pushed it down. Boys!

Fitness: Fridays off!