In the midst...

... of trying to paint a door, make lunch, get a baby awake to eat, and finish mowing the lawn, I realized that I had been putting the boys off all morning. I really don't like when that happens. I am sometimes so concerned over my own agenda and task list, that I forget to just "be." A real weakness for me... and I know it's probably a weakness for all mom's, but it honestly is one of my bigger struggles as a person. I believe they are in the way of my "agenda" when they should be my agenda! Teaching, training, etc. and so much of that happens when you're spending time together and interacting. So... I came in and said... let's play a game! We played Candy Land - they loved it. We had M&M's. We drank iced tea. We let Wyatt quit the game when he was only two spaces from honestly winning... but he didn't care. So Henry won and invited me to eat the candy castle with him. Wyatt came too. :) We "ate" all the candy on the board!

Aunt Tabby...

... came to visit us all the way from Grand Rapids, MI. We were excited to see her and the boys were excited to see Greyson, one of her kiddos that she brought along. We were able to visit all Sunday afternoon which was so nice since we only see each other about 2-3x's a year now. It was a special vist and as usual with sisters, never long enough. As you can see in the last picture, Myles is really packing the chub on!! He's filling out quite nicely and is moving into his 0-3 month clothes. Getting so big already!

Memorable Things Kids Say - Volume 13

It's amazing how much you can love a little body that you are just getting to know. We LOVE Myles. He is precious in every way. The boys adore him too. I love watching them... as they talk and laugh and poke at him and express great joy whenever his eyes are even half open... or he lets a 'squirt' into his diaper... or he makes a grunt... or a sneeze... or they see his little feet sticking out from under the blanket. Henry calls him the 'little guy.'

Henry says to me at church... "Mom, those men already walked by, but we need one of those papers and pens for the little guy." I whispered, "What do you mean... a paper and a pen?" He says, "B/c the pastor always says if you're new, raise your hand and we'll give one of these pens to you. Myles can't raise his hand. We need to do it for him but they already passed." Too cute... It's funny, b/c he said this way back when I was first pregnant -- that we'd need to get one of those pens for the baby b/c he'd be new. I was surprised he even remembered!

Uncle Dave & Aunt Sona

We had a special visit from David (J's bro) and Sona, his wife. The boys had a blast and really gave David a workout playing baseball in what felt like 100+ temps with 80% humidity. He was a good sport! :) Sona and I enjoyed Myles and the A/C. Btw, thanks for the sticker book... we've been working on it everyday! :)

Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Volume 11

Hmmm....

Dayton Dragons... Again!

The husband of my roommate from college is the trainer for the DD team. He got us great tickets and passes to the Fun Zone. The boys love it!!! I swear we're not baseball fans, but we sure do enjoy the games! :) Wyatt did great for his first game as well as did Myles. A fun family outing! (And don't worry, there was a net directly in front of us... no fly balls were endangering Myles' head!)

Siding

I can't believe Myles is two weeks old today. I feel like we have packed a lot in for two weeks. Including new siding... :) Thanks to home insurance and an act of God in the form of wind, we have new siding. The boys worked on their tool bench the entire day the "workers" were here. I'm sure they must have gotten a kick of seeing the boys upstairs looking through the windows the entire time!

Haircuts

Just pics for your enjoyment... also, if you happen to be in the process of buying a new mattress and kids are in your future, you should really consider a king size bed. We bought a new mattress the year Wyatt was born and we got a queen size. One month later, we decided we should have really gotten the king. So we actually returned it and they re-delivered us a king size. We LOVE it. We can all sleep in there and be comfortable... the other morning during the thunder storm, we had Myles in the middle in his little sleeper, Wyatt on Daddy's pillow and Henry on my pillow and all slept peacefully. Jonathan never even knew the two older ones were in our bed until he woke up at 730!

Upland

You gotta love Upland, IN. Whenever we go to Jonathan's parents to visit, we almost always have a short conversation about what it would be like to live in Upland again. Jonathan's parents have been there over 30 years! We always go to Ivanhoe's and eat -- we usually tell his mom not to cook b/c we really want a burger or a chix salad and a shake. We love to walk around Taylor or where we used to live in our old apartment (or shack :)) ha ha... it was great to go this week and enjoy their pool and just "be." The boys love going and had a blast. Henry was so excited about how much he got to play baseball with Grandpa and that Grandpa gave him a hard bat!! He has been obsessed with baseball lately... have we mentioned that? It's strange considering we have never been baseball fans, don't have ESPN, don't talk about sports, only watch the Super Bowl and Final Four, and he doesn't own any sports items... We did take him to the Dayton Dragons game and I guess if one or two games can inspire a 4-yr old this much, the Dayton Dragons sure know what they're doing!! :)

Days flying by...

... as with any new child, the days are flying by! Myles has proven to be a very sweet baby... quiet, pleasant, sleeps well, eats well... much unlike Wyatt. We had been preparing our minds for a baby like Wyatt, so this has been a nice surprise! :) The boys love holding Myles, especially Henry. He is very gentle and just beams when he holds him. For those of you who don't know, we did find out that Myles has no heart defects. I think the number is about 40-60% of kids with Downs have a heart defect that can require some type of surgery in the first year. So we were so thankful to our Father that He chose to spare Myles from this. He is also eating great and pooping great... which can be another hurdle, so again we are continually thankful for these blessings now as we prepare for hurdles to come.


The boys decided to wash their cars while Jonathan washed his car. A week before the baby was born, we sold Jonathan's 1999 Mazda that had 180k miles on it. We bought another car on eBay (our 3rd car purchase on eBay!) from a dealer in Cleveland. We were going to fly Jonathan one-way to get it last Tuesday night. He would have had to spend the night and then drive back in the morning. But we kept thinking... what if I go into labor that night? It would be 10 days early, but we knew it was a possibility so we opted to pay my parents to pick it up for us. As it was, my water broke in the middle of the night on Tuesday!! We are so thankful that Jonathan was here!!! That would have made for a crazy story...

Expectations

I suppose everyone has expectations as they prepare for a new journey. As a good friend pointed out, they are often not spoken and not conscious, and many times they are only realized when the path changes. We found out on Friday that Myles has Down syndrome. While this came as a shock and surprise to us, we are resting in the perfect timing of God's sovereignty in our lives. And as we work through all of our initial thoughts and emotions, we are asking God to help us trust in His goodness and His providence. We are confident that He loves us, our family, and that He works all things for the good of those who love HIM and who were called according to His purpose... and for the glory of His name. We find it a great privilege and blessing and are very humbled that God would give us any children as a gift to care for, but even more than that, a child who will have special needs. While we will have to deal with the range of emotions that come with being human, we know that God is already ahead of us and has every detail worked out. We also firmly believe that He has chosen this for us from the beginning of time, not only b/c He is working His will in us, but also b/c He plans on glorifying His own Name through this situation. We are now praying that He will cause us to be faithful in turning all things to Him. So, while this was not our expectation going into the hospital on Wednesday, we are thankful that we can cast our cares upon Him as we move forward. We can honestly, with peace, say we are excited about this opportunity.

We have been humbled by your love and support. We have an amazing family and friends supporting us as well as an incredible church that is poised and ready to walk with us.

Myles is awesome! The boys have lots of questions about the baby... "why does he only eat milk?" "when will he walk?" "can I carry him upstairs?" "I think he's looking at me!" They are precious! We are excited for as many of you as possible to meet him. Hopefully we'll be out and about soon. Thanks for all of your prayers! And the red hair... we are still amazed by that!

With love, Jonathan, Michelle, Henry, Wyatt, and Myles... :)