Thank you!

We just want to thank all of our family and friends for the kindnesses that they've shown us this last week. I don't know how we could have made it through this week without your support. We've received so many loving phone calls, visits, notes and flowers. And I hope that everyone knows how much we appreciate them.

This last week has been one of the hardest of our lives and I have no doubt that the next few months will continue to be difficult, but likewise I'm sure Josh and I will make it through together. And we both have no doubt that our little angels are in heaven with their older cousins, Tara, Deric (my nephew and godchild) as well as my other unnamed God child. We also know that Granddaddy, Grandmomma Betty Ann, MamMaw, and PapPaw are looking out for our two little ones already celebrating in God's glory with all of them. As are Pumpkin, Mattie, Calico, Baby, Thorndyke, and Mendelson, Betsy, Camille and all of our beloved animals there in heaven. After all what would heave be like without our four legged family members present.

As for those of us carrying on down here...every day is making things a bit easier, although we are a long way from being normal again. I'm fairly certain normal will never be what it was before, but we will get to a new normal and I'm sure that it will be a good normal. We are going to go to the healing service at my church on the 31st of January and just yesterday a friend gave us information on centering prayer. I for one know that I plan to spend part of my day perusing it. I may not know much about centering prayer, but it intrigues me and it may help us to continue to heal which is important.

I also find myself dreaming of travel plans and upcoming trips. I'm going to spend at least a week with my great-Aunt this summer. It will be good for both of us. I want to record her stories and be able to write them down so that our family can continue to share them for generations to come.

You know, Josh and I have received kindness from some of the most unexpected places, including from my Department chair who took the time to call and reassure me. She had been through a similar situation twice, just as we are, and now has two lovely daughters. I'm sure if God is willing we will be in the same place that she and her husband are some day. If not...then I'm sure we'll grow into whatever plans God has for us as well.

In the meantime, I've found a mosaic class that I'd really like to take here at the County Arts center. I've been elected Senior Warden and have so much to do with that including taking a trip to Savannah this next month. I also know that I have plans to go see Beth Moore with a good friend in March. Momma and Annie and I have our annual Spring Break trip planned in early April. And of course I have my AP workshop week in Athens this summer. :) So travel plans are abundant and there's no shortage of activities to keep me busy.

Josh always has a busy spring, and spring has sprung early here. He's currently spending plenty of time getting ready for the Spring Musical with the local high school. He does the lights and sound for it as well as the stage design. WOW! Recital season will be coming up soon for all those ballet and tap and jazz students and Josh definitely enjoys setting up for and doing the lights and sound for those as well. So we will have a busy few months and I believe that's good, all things considered.

And to be honest as of this morning, I've begun toying with the idea of using the money we'd planned to set aside for August for the maternity leave to save instead for a trip to France with Annie this summer. I just know that Annie, Josh and I would enjoy it and we will still have plenty of time to save for maternity leave. :)

God will guide us with the help our of our friends and family. And in the meantime Josh and I continue to thank you all for your prayers and support.

Much love from our home to yours,

Betty, Josh, Abby, Rachel, & Shayne

Yesterday

Yesterday, our little one ceased to be with us. I began miscarrying yesterday morning about 8:30. By noon, we knew that there was no longer a heart beat.

The picture to the right shows the developmental stage of our child when we lost him/her. It is a picture of a 10 week old fetus.

I'll go for a follow up appointment some time this week. I'm having a really hard time right now and so I may not be posting for a while. I'm taking some time off work.

I appreciate your prayers. I'm sure our little one is happy to be with his/her cousins, god-sisters and brothers (my two godchildren that are there) and his/her uncle. I'm also sure that our late four legged children are watching over our little one, namely : Mattie, Levi, Pumpkin, Babe, BC and Thorndyke. And there's no doubt his/her great-grandparents are as well.

I've contacted the school. The assistant principal is taking care things for me. I'm just going to take the time off and ty to get myself to a point that I can return to school soon.

Please pray for Josh and me....this is a hard time for us both. He's holding out for the follow up appointment. I think we are both holding our breaths and hoping that somewhere, somehow they misdiagnosed us yesterday. But I think we both also know the odds of that are slim.

I don't know when I'll be back to post again, but know that I will.

In the meantime...please pray!

Betty

Houston, we have a heart beat!

What an exciting week this has been! My dear husband and I went for our first OB appointment. During this appointment the midwife did and ultrasound and we saw our baby for the very first time. Talk about a miracle!

Our little one is measuring on the smaller side of the normal range and we are quite pleased with that. She/he also has quite a strong heart. Not only did we hear it, but we could see the sound waves flickering as we watched her/his heart beat.

I never in a million years imagined we'd experience something so amazing. Hopefully, sometime soon I will post our little one's first photo and you can enjoy this experience with us too.

The second set of photos will be occurring when I'm about 20 weeks pregnant, so we have around 11 more weeks to wait until we discover whether or not our new family member is a boy or a girl. :) Considering the nursery is currently my office and is painted pink, it's vital that we know otherwise I suppose the nursery will become yellow or green, and it may anyway.

My dear family has donated a baby scale, lots of books and a sack full of baby toys to our little one. I can hardly wait to start setting things up for him/her...but for now they still stay in the guestroom. I think one of the coolest parts about these books and toys is that a lot of the books were mine as a child. I am ecstatic about sharing these exact books with our new miracle. Who would have thought that would be possible one day.

Obviously, there's no doubt our child will love to read! :) With parents like us, how could she/he not?

(I'm sitting in my room reading when I'm about three years old).

The other major bits of news are that I recently attended my first Advanced Placement (AP) workshop and had a blast. I begin my online class for teaching gifted students tomorrow. I can hardly wait.

Finally, I returned yesterday from Lincolnton. This was one of the two debate tournaments that I'd attended this year. I'm so happy that I did. I do believe this particular tournament is almost like a homecoming tournament for debaters. I saw people that I'd not seen for at least 5 months, if not a year. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, judged some great debates and became enlivened with the political discussions that ensued. In short, I couldn't have had a better trip. Plus, the food was excellent as always. I look forward to attending this tournament next year with our little one in tow.

Despite the busy activities of the last few weeks, I do find myself becoming more tired lately. Naps and I have become well acquainted friends. In fact, I suspect that I will be enjoying one of those this afternoon as well. In fact, I think we all should.

Enjoy your nap!

Welcome to the Jungle!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful New Year's celebration. I know that my dear husband and I did. :) I think we had more fun on New Year's Day than we did on New Year's Eve since I didn't manage to stay awake until midnight. But I did set my alarm so that I'd awaken at a quarter till midnight and we could celebrate the new year with some grape juice masquerading as champagne.

On New Year's day, we had company and had SO much fun. A few family friends came by. I went all out on the cooking and we had all of the southern traditional items, mainly greens and black eyed peas as well some not so traditional stuff such as mac and cheese, potatoes, hamburgers, sirloins, brats, chicken, candied carrots, bread and cornbread, slaw, cheese cake and an Oreo pie. Needless to say no one suffered for lack of food. After dinner the guys sat around the television and played video games, while we ladies visited. It was so much fun and one of the best New Year day's that I've had in a long time. I even talked to everyone about celebrating the 4th of July with us. I think we've decided to do that...even though it's a LONG way away.

OH before I forget! Free meat anyone? Josh's meat stash is currently taking up a lot of room so I thought I'd offer it to interested persons or creatures! ha ha! :)

Well...the jungle lifestyle began after everyone headed out for home. The microwave decided to revolt. Perhaps, it was rebelling against my last blog entry. Ha ha! But for fun, here's what happened: I put a cup of tea into it so that I could sit down, visit with my husband and just relax. Unfortunately, the microwave had other plans. It decided it was time to stop working permanently.

But OH NO! The fun doesn't stop there...then after my dear husband had gone to bed and I was piddling around the house I heard the water turn on in the kitchen. At first, I thought my husband was simply getting up to get something to drink...but the water kept on running and kept on running. So I decided to go into the kitchen to check it out.

I shudder to think about the sight we'd have awakened to had I not been up or decided to check it out. We'd have needed a row boat! There was water spraying ACROSS the kitchen. A hose to the dishwasher had decided it was going to go on strike, as well. Thankfully, my dear husband is especially handy and had no problem eliminating our new found waterfall.

Those activities combined with a conversation that I had with C last night...made her question whether or not I was standing the jungle. Okay, perhaps her question stemmed more from Shayne's playing with his monkey (it screeches when you squeeze it and he was squeezing it repeatedly while I was on the phone)...but nonetheless. I do feel like some days that it's a Jungle in here!