O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Over the past few weeks, Julie and I had been looking forward to going out to dinner with her parents, Skipper and Dalma, this past Saturday night. They had invited us to eat and would not tell us where they were taking us, only that it was going to be a very nice restaurant. In the days leading up to the dinner, we talked about it several times and we were all very excited when the night finally came. Julie's parents picked us up at around 6:30 pm (we had a 7:20 pm reservation) and we headed out where all the best restaurants are. Along the way, Dalma asked us if we knew where we were going and, of course, we had no idea. She gave us a hint saying that she was going to order fried crab claws (I think) as an appetizer which indicated just how nice the restaurant was going to be. I got even more excited at the prospect of such a wonderful meal. As we got a few minutes away from the house, Julie's mom got a phone call from Julie's sister, Lori. Lori had planned to ...

Today at work I was reading through the Psalms and I was struck in a new way of the beauty of the poetry. As I was reading some of David's deepest, most agonizing thoughts put into poems, I thought of an idea for a poem of my own. I do not claim to be much of a poet at all, but as lines started to form in my head, I couldn't help but start to write things down. After a few minutes I was in tears trying to express my thoughts. While it is not great poetry or anything, I have decided to share it. My dear, sweet daughter August creeps this way Giving us the hope of holding you Desperate to delight in your beauty And share you with this world Loving hands that adore you Every precious moment more blessed Never will we be the same August rushes this way, my darling Giving us the fear of losing you, yet Rejoicing in the gift that you are And while in His perfect hands you remain Close to our hearts you will stay Eternally in the shadow of His wings As you can see, I wrote it as an ac...

I am so glad that Noah updated you just a few days ago. I really lack the words to express my heart at this point, and I am not sure how much more I will blog before we meet our sweet daughter. It always amazes me how many people talk about the strength that we have, but I feel just the opposite. Although my body is exhausted at the end of the day I lie awake just thinking about Magdalena and crying for her and the unknown of what is to come. Keeping busy by house cleaning and grocery shopping are attempts to get my little world ready for when I go into the hospital, but it only makes me more tired, which makes my emotions even crazier. I am sure a few women can relate to this feeling if I explained it well. We have known about this disease for a few months now, but I still didn't understand how I can feel her playing inside of me so fiercely but she will have problems once she comes into the world. When I asked the doctor about this, he explained that I was performing all of her m...

I feel it is time for a little update to keep people posted on what God is doing in our lives. Julie is much better at this, but I will give it a shot and let Julie fill in the blanks. Yesterday we went to the doctor for our weekly checkup, and we got a few more answers to some of our questions. As of now, Magdalena is laying across with her booty down. We are hoping some time in the next few weeks that she moves into a head down position that is the best for delivery. Because she is small (3.2 lbs., I think) and there is still plenty of fluid, there is a higher probability that she will still be able to turn. If she is able to turn, we will plan to induce on the Tuesday the 5th or Wednesday the 6th of August. If she doesn't turn, we will plan to have a C-section at that time, although we would certainly prefer to avoid that if possible for a variety of reasons. While we are nervous about many things that are still unknown, we are certain that our God is our Father and nothing is u...

Psalms 28: 7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. After posting yesterday that I was going to be mailing in my portfolio I realized how I have not shared the many of the blessings that have helped Noah and me to deal with this difficult situation. These are only a few of the many blessings. Professors at the university - Upon finding out about Magdalena's health, I was in my last semester of graduate school. Noah began to take off on Thursdays to drive me to the university a couple hours away for my class, and I really just became emotionally overwhelmed. It is university policy that a student be enrolled in the semester that they graduate, so it didn't seem possible to me that I would be able to ask for an extension in order to take more time to finish my classes. While I was barely keeping up with my work I wrote to my professors explaining the situation and asking what cou...

Just a few more days will mark Magdalena's 35 week birthday! The time has passed by so quickly that it took me by surprise how I needed to begin to get my things ready for the big day! Yesterday seemed so busy, and it seems as though that is how it will be for the rest of the summer. It is going to just fly by! Noah sells Serta mattresses, and yesterday we had one delivered. Although it seemed so comfortable in the store, last night I tossed and turned, which is harder as a very pregnant person. Noah slept soundly! He said that with a new mattress you have to give it a couple of nights before you can fully decide not to like it. Although, I have completed the work for my Master's I have to turn in my portfolio to be completely finished. I am working on that today, and the plan is for me to be done by the end of the weekend. To have it in the mail will be such a relief! I really can't drag it out because Magdalena could be here any day now! My next doctor's app...