Our Christmas Gift, Charlotte

Well, I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd last written!  We now have a new addition to our family, Charlotte Grace Andrews.  She is two weeks old today!  She was born November 29, 2017 and was 8 pounds 5 oz. and 21 inches long.  She entered the world through a c-section because she was breech.  I was very nervous about the operation, but I'm almost all healed now and can do almost everything now like pick up Amelia, walk up and down stairs, vacuum, etc.  Thankfully, Josh took two weeks off of work to help me since I was unable to do very much.  He was an awesome help.

This is Josh getting ready to go into the operation room to watch our baby be born!!

Our first family picture :)

Charlotte (who we sometimes call Charlee), is such a sweet baby!  I know it's probably to early to tell, but it seems like she is so dainty, gentle and has such a quiet spirit.  She's adjusting well to our family and the world.

Amelia has been doing pretty well with the change.  She cried at first.  I don't think she really understood but she knew something was different.

She is learning to love her new sister.  She's been practicing feeding her doll a bottle and sometimes we let her help feed Charlee.  She gives her hugs and kisses and tells her "Hi!" and says, "Where'd she go?" when I take Charlee to change her diaper.

Amelia is not real fond of holding her yet :/

We are so thankful to God to have a healthy baby.  We definitely wouldn't have thought last Christmas (when we had a 3 month old) that we'd have a newborn again this Christmas!  God knew the exact time in history that she would be born, even though she was a bit of a surprise to the rest of us.  She was no surprise to God.  He created and formed her perfectly in my body.  It's so amazing how something that big, with fully formed fingers, toes, nails, and facial features was inside me just two weeks ago.  Simply amazing.  

Another reason we know that Charlotte is special is because she was breech.  In the olden days, they would have tried to turn her and give birth naturally, but often either the baby, mother or both would die during the process.  God made sure she was born healthy through an operation.  He has big plans for her and I can wait to get to know her gifts and talents and personality.  Josh and I are so incredibly blessed with two great girls.  This will be the Merriest Christmas yet!

Happy Birthday!

Dear Amelia,

     Wow, I can’t believe you are 1 year old!  This year has gone so fast, yet at the same time, if seems like you were just born!  I saw a picture the other day of you, right after you were born.  Boy, were you little!  In one year you have learned so many things and have grown up so big.  You now are able to express yourself through your personality and a few words.  You do so many goofy things.  You are so kind (you are always sharing your things-constantly saying “Here ya go, here ya go…).  You love Jumanji (the dog) SO much and love to tell him good morning.  Even though he plays like he’s annoyed, I think he secretly like you, too.  Like the time I caught him napping in your room with you J  You are such a joy to be around.  Yes you have your moments, but most of the time you are so joyful, energetic, sweet and fun.  I love to be around you because you make everything so happy!

     In two months you will have a little sister!  We’ve been practicing with baby dolls (although you just try to eat them!).  I know it will be a bit of an adjustment but you are going to be such a good big sister.  You get to show her all the things you’ve already learned (in your 1^st year of life haha).  You will be so kind and teach her how to have as much joy as you do!  I can’t wait to see the two of you grow up together.  I hope you’ll be best friends!

I love you so much.  Happy birthday, big girl! J

Love,
Mama

Crazy Season

Man, life has just been a little crazy lately!  Someone rear-ended Josh a couple of weeks ago and it totaled our truck...which leaves us down to one car at the moment :(  Thankfully he was unharmed and we weren't in the car but it was still very scary.  We had planned on buying a used SUV this month because our little Fiesta is cramped to the max!  We get the new car on Monday!  Woohoo!  So now we are also in the market for a truck so that we can sell our Fiesta.  Thank goodness for savings accounts!  Our other projects will just have to be put on hold for a while.

We were on our way to Tennessee for our family vacation when we got the call that Josh's dad was in the hospital.  We were only half way there and this seemed extremely severe so we headed back to Michigan to check in on him.  After a while it seemed the situation was not as bad as we thought, so we headed back to Tennessee.  After two days down there, we got called back because Josh's dad was having a very serious heart surgery.  The surgery went well but over the last few days he's had another stroke.  So please pray for him and his patience and cooperation in the hospital because, let's just say it's not his favorite place to be!

Amelia is doing great!  She's pulling up to stand now and we think she may be trying to say the word "dog."  She crawls around, is getting into everything and spreads joy everywhere she goes.  We think she should be a greeter at church because she waves and smiles at everyone! :)

The new baby is growing quickly!  I am 4 1/2 months along now and according to my research, the baby is about the size of a pomegranate!  It kicks quite a bit lately.  I'm convinced it's a boy, but we'll find out for real in 2 weeks at the ultrasound!  I know it was such an adjustment at first, trying to get used to the idea of having two babies only 14 1/2 months apart.  Now I am so excited!  I'm amazed all over again at the miracle of God growing a baby inside me and choosing us to be it's parents!  How cool!

Surprise!

Baby #2 is on it's way!  It was definitely a bit of a surprise to us too.  We're excited now!  Amelia won't even be 15 months old yet, yikes!  I'm sure it will come with it's challenges, but it will be a lot of fun too.  I just started the second trimester and am feeling much better now.  We went to the doctor yesterday to get another ultrasound and amazingly at just 13 weeks after forming, the new baby has a fully formed face and profile :)  Looks about like Amelia so far!  More news to come...

Our New Basement!

After lots of hard work, our basement is finished!!  We love it and it gives us quite a bit of extra space.  When we first moved in, there was mold all over the walls, nasty paneling and the grossest bathroom you're ever seen...Then.....Josh tore out the walls, put in new drywall, installed doors, and scrubbed the concrete walls with bleach.  I helped spackle and sand the drywall, we both painted the walls.  Josh painted the ceiling black, I painted the bricks on the wall, Josh made the crate coffee table, and he laid the carpet.  He did a great job!!  We both helped with the decorations!  

                                                                       This is my favorite reading spot! :)

Play area for Amelia

Still in the process of getting a table.

Appearances

Last Friday we took Amelia to the Children's Hospital in Detroit to get her head evaluated.  When she was born, she had to be vacuumed out, which pulled on her neck and hindered her from looking to both sides.  She favored the right, which made a bit of a flat spot on the back of her head since we always looked the same way when she slept.  After physical therapy, the doctor said to just keep an eye on the flat spot to make sure that it was rounding out over time.  The last time I went to the doctor, I asked about her head and she said that just in case, we should go get her evaluated to see if she would need a helmet.  On Friday they measured her head, scanned it, and did an x-ray and determined that her head does have a bit of a flat spot but it is not severe.  They said it was up to us whether or not she gets a helmet to form her head.  I wish they had just told us yes or no because it's so hard to make a decision...  We weighed out all the pros and cons.  She would have to wear it for 6 months...all through the summer :(

Through this decision I saw a flaw in myself called vanity...  I was worried what other people would think of her.  I was worried about all the questions I would get at places like church, the grocery store, vacations, friends houses, etc.  I had the idea in my head that somehow it would make her seem as if she's not smart and has something wrong with her.

With or without a helmet, Amelia is God's perfect creation.  It doesn't matter whether she wears a helmet has a flat spot or anything else.  God made her that way for a reason to bring himself glory.  I shouldn't get so caught up on appearances because it shouldn't matter to me what other people think of her, or me for that matter.

We decided not to get the helmet, since her head wasn't severe and since it's not a gaurantee that after 6 months it would even help.  It only helps about 50% of kids...  I'm glad we went through the process though since God had a lesson for me in it!

My Ministry

The other day I had an epiphany.  I was at our Young Adult Group, that Josh leads and I was in the basement of the church, again trying to get Amelia to go to sleep so that I could go upstairs and be a part of the Bible study discussion.  This had happened several weeks in a row and I was getting frustrated that I spent most of my time downstairs trying to get Amelia to stop crying.  Thankfully we drove separately because I ended up leaving since she was so tired, but wouldn't fall asleep and was crying.  She cried all the way home until we walked through the door.  I took her to change her into a new diaper and pajamas and she let out a relieved sounding sigh, as if to say, "Ah, finally home and cozy."

After I put her to bed, I had my realization.  She just wanted to be home, understandably so, since it was past her normal bedtime.  She wanted to be free to squeal and even cry.  She didn't want to be sleeping in the church basement by herself (yes I had the monitor upstairs).  I had gotten a bit frustrated with her not cooperating, when it was completely not her fault.  She was just being a baby and wanted to be home at bedtime.  I was the one trying to make it work because I wanted to be involved in the discussion upstairs.

Then I thought about how we could get the neighbors to babysit her...every Thursday...and sometimes of Sunday nights when we have another group...  But wait, what does shipping her off to the neighbors tell her?   It would tell her that church activities are more important than she is.  Then realized that God has not called me to lead Young Adults.  He has called me to lead Amelia.  She is my full time ministry and I truly enjoy leading her because God has called me to it and it comes naturally.  I decided that most nights I won't go to the Bible study because it's stressful for both me and her and it's not what God has called me to do during this season.  Yes, I will have to sacrifice something small like not being a part of a discussion but the reward will be so much greater.  I want Amelia to know that she's not last on the priority list.  She is number 3.  God first, marriage second and her third.  I was telling Josh the other day that I feel like I work more now that I didn't when I was "working" full time.  Now my job and ministry are one, and I do it at all hours of the night and day.  It's the best job God's given me yet! ;)  She's pretty awesome!

Now she's starting to get a little more personality!  She's been testing the volume of her voice and squealing quite loudly.  She also does this strange fake cough and sneeze thing to try to get my attention, haha.  I think she's figured out that she can do cough and sneeze and it practicing that aspect of her voice.  She also has a goofy little side smirk that I love!  She's rolling over now and on her way towards sitting up!