In the recent hours of the difficult news (described in the post below) Connor drew this picture...
This picture depicts Melanie and says it all about how we're all feeling right now...
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
An unexpected turn of events...
What began as a routine check up turned out to radically shift our plans in ways we have only begun to imagine.
Melanie went into the hospital early morning of 12/29 (with 101 days before her due date) and will be confined to the hospital until she delivers Amelia and Abigail. Particularly challenging is the fact that due to more stringent CDC guidelines to hospitals (re the swine flu scare). Connor is not allowed into the part of the hospital where Melanie is. It's entirely forseeable that they'll not physically see each other for over two months. The last forteen hours have been hard. It goes without saying that it'll be a challenge.
This comes at an interesting time as many of Ammon's side of the family came down from Utah (arriving 12/28) so there's been a lot of family support and company right now. However, everyone will be leaving by the weekend, Ammon goes back to taking full-time classes and Connor's break is over on the fourth of January. It's unclear at this time how Connor will be cared for following school as Ammon currenly works all through the afternoons and evenings Tuesday through Saturday. It's purely speculative as to whether or not he'll be able to change his schedule to better meet these needs.
As we swirl through the burdens we're grateful for our convictions of safety and peace in the truth. Ammon and his father gave Melanie a blessing a few hours ago and all through the ache there is the surety of testimony than none of these events have somehow fallen out of the grand design of our Heavenly Father's plan for us. The trust that this is very lovingly deliberate comforts our souls!
We know that many of you all have had similar experiences. Please feel free to offer any advice you think would be helpful... Melanie has her phone on her and Ammon will be checking her email periodically. Feel free to call Ammon's cell or email him directly also (869-5531, ammonmelanie@yahoo.com).
I don't know when we'll be back to blogging...
Melanie went into the hospital early morning of 12/29 (with 101 days before her due date) and will be confined to the hospital until she delivers Amelia and Abigail. Particularly challenging is the fact that due to more stringent CDC guidelines to hospitals (re the swine flu scare). Connor is not allowed into the part of the hospital where Melanie is. It's entirely forseeable that they'll not physically see each other for over two months. The last forteen hours have been hard. It goes without saying that it'll be a challenge.
This comes at an interesting time as many of Ammon's side of the family came down from Utah (arriving 12/28) so there's been a lot of family support and company right now. However, everyone will be leaving by the weekend, Ammon goes back to taking full-time classes and Connor's break is over on the fourth of January. It's unclear at this time how Connor will be cared for following school as Ammon currenly works all through the afternoons and evenings Tuesday through Saturday. It's purely speculative as to whether or not he'll be able to change his schedule to better meet these needs.
As we swirl through the burdens we're grateful for our convictions of safety and peace in the truth. Ammon and his father gave Melanie a blessing a few hours ago and all through the ache there is the surety of testimony than none of these events have somehow fallen out of the grand design of our Heavenly Father's plan for us. The trust that this is very lovingly deliberate comforts our souls!
We know that many of you all have had similar experiences. Please feel free to offer any advice you think would be helpful... Melanie has her phone on her and Ammon will be checking her email periodically. Feel free to call Ammon's cell or email him directly also (869-5531, ammonmelanie@yahoo.com).
I don't know when we'll be back to blogging...
Saturday, December 12, 2009
It's an emergency!
That's what Connor said earlier this week. We had just come home from a "Christmas Hunt" (where we drive around looking at the Christmas lights), parked the car in the garage and sent Connor up to his room to get his jammies on. Not two minutes later, he came running down the stairs yelling "mom, dad, it's an EMERGENCY!" Ammon asked what happened and he said "the tree fell down" and proceeded to open the front door to show him. Ammon followed thinking it was only a few branches that had fallen off but no, he was right- our front tree had blown down, roots and all!! (Connor was able to see it fall from his bedroom window. He thought it was cool and even asked us to "do it again!")
The weather was very windy and later that night, we received a lot of rain. We knew the tree was dead. In fact, almost weekly, we have had landscapers come by and offer to take the tree down- for a few hundred dollars. "No thanks" we'd always say. We knew it needed to come down at some point but we never imagined it was weak enough to be blown over. It had some obvious termite damage and so we figure that's what finally killed the thing and all it needed was a strong wind to wrench it out of the ground. That's exactly what happened; we're just lucky it didn't fall on the house! It did, however, fall into the road. So, Ammon and I, and later a friend, spent a few hours hauling the branches out of the road, driveway and sidewalk.
The canopy of the tree amazingly covered almost both lanes of traffic in front of our house! Here's Ammon standing in the road showing how far out the tree fell.
Surveying the house, minus the tree. He's standing where the tree had fallen out into the road.
Check out the enormous grub we found in the roots of the tree! (the green-white thing coming out of the bottom left of the picture)
Here is all of the canopy that we drug into our backyard. Ammon's been cutting it up all week for firewood. The saw-z-all we received as a Christmas gift last year from my family has been so great for this! Thanks again for the perfect gift for us do-it-yourselfers.
Cutting up the huge trunk with a chain saw.
Ammon was actually a bit excited that the tree fell for him rather than having to cut it down. The kid loves to make fires in our fireplace and scavenges all year round trying to collect fire for the upcoming cooler months- he'll help anyone take down a tree and even searches Craig's List for postings of "free wood", which usually means 'come cut my tree down and keep the wood' but he loves it! He says he loves the physical labor, which is a nice break from his job.
The weather was very windy and later that night, we received a lot of rain. We knew the tree was dead. In fact, almost weekly, we have had landscapers come by and offer to take the tree down- for a few hundred dollars. "No thanks" we'd always say. We knew it needed to come down at some point but we never imagined it was weak enough to be blown over. It had some obvious termite damage and so we figure that's what finally killed the thing and all it needed was a strong wind to wrench it out of the ground. That's exactly what happened; we're just lucky it didn't fall on the house! It did, however, fall into the road. So, Ammon and I, and later a friend, spent a few hours hauling the branches out of the road, driveway and sidewalk.
The canopy of the tree amazingly covered almost both lanes of traffic in front of our house! Here's Ammon standing in the road showing how far out the tree fell.
Surveying the house, minus the tree. He's standing where the tree had fallen out into the road.
Check out the enormous grub we found in the roots of the tree! (the green-white thing coming out of the bottom left of the picture)
Here is all of the canopy that we drug into our backyard. Ammon's been cutting it up all week for firewood. The saw-z-all we received as a Christmas gift last year from my family has been so great for this! Thanks again for the perfect gift for us do-it-yourselfers.
Cutting up the huge trunk with a chain saw.
Ammon was actually a bit excited that the tree fell for him rather than having to cut it down. The kid loves to make fires in our fireplace and scavenges all year round trying to collect fire for the upcoming cooler months- he'll help anyone take down a tree and even searches Craig's List for postings of "free wood", which usually means 'come cut my tree down and keep the wood' but he loves it! He says he loves the physical labor, which is a nice break from his job.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Girls!
Ok, so for those of you who don't know, we're pregnant with TWO GIRLS!! We're very excited. We feel so blessed to even be pregnant and are just overjoyed at the upcoming changes to our family. There is some bad news about the pregnancy but I won't share that now- I just want to relish in the happiness and goodness of God's love in blessing us again with children. It has been a long awaited miracle; one we have prayed for for many years. I'm getting weepy and so grateful just thinking about.
To honor the long journey to this joyous time, we decided to give them names of significant meaning. And, we want to refer to them by their names, rather than as 'A' or 'B'. The girls are arranged like bunk beds in my stomach, one on top of the other. They're fraternal, not identical.
Baby A (on the bottom bunk) will be named
Amelia Arabella.
Amelia is a family name on my side. We have no less than 6 family members from the 1800's that bore that name. In Old German it means "to strive", "to excel", "to rival" and in Latin it means "to work". Amelia is also a combination of mine and Ammon's names.
Arabella, in Latin, means "answered prayer". We thought that was so appropriate given the many prayers, fasting, and pleadings that were offered for us to become pregnant again.
Baby B (on the top bunk) will be named Abigail Grace.
Abigail is Hebrew and means "joy of the father", "gives joy", "father of exaltation". She already brings so much joy to our family. She is a joyful baby too constantly moving and kicking me, letting me know she's there.
Grace means "grace of God" in Latin. We know it is by God's grace, after all we can do, that will allow our family to be together forever. Grace is also a family name used about a half dozen times as well.
To honor the long journey to this joyous time, we decided to give them names of significant meaning. And, we want to refer to them by their names, rather than as 'A' or 'B'. The girls are arranged like bunk beds in my stomach, one on top of the other. They're fraternal, not identical.
Baby A (on the bottom bunk) will be named
Amelia Arabella.
Amelia is a family name on my side. We have no less than 6 family members from the 1800's that bore that name. In Old German it means "to strive", "to excel", "to rival" and in Latin it means "to work". Amelia is also a combination of mine and Ammon's names.
Arabella, in Latin, means "answered prayer". We thought that was so appropriate given the many prayers, fasting, and pleadings that were offered for us to become pregnant again.
Baby B (on the top bunk) will be named Abigail Grace.
Abigail is Hebrew and means "joy of the father", "gives joy", "father of exaltation". She already brings so much joy to our family. She is a joyful baby too constantly moving and kicking me, letting me know she's there.
Grace means "grace of God" in Latin. We know it is by God's grace, after all we can do, that will allow our family to be together forever. Grace is also a family name used about a half dozen times as well.
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