Thankful for my Cross

This Sunday, Westside has an illustration on the front of their bulletin that hit home with me this week. I felt the need to share it.

A ROOM FULL OF CROSSES

A young man was at the end of his rope one day. He felt as though he had tried everything he knew to remedy his situation. Seeing no way out, he dropped to his knees in prayer.

"Lord, I can't go on," he said. "I have too heavy of a cross to bear."

The Lord replied, "My son, if you can't bear its weight, just place your cross inside this room. Then, open that other door and pick out any cross you wish."

The man was filled with relief. "Thank you, Lord," he sighed as he did as he was told. Upon entering the other door, he saw many crosses, some so large that the tops were not visible. Then he spotted a small cross leaning against a far wall. "I'd like that one, Lord," he whispered.

And the Lord replied, "My son, that is the cross you just brought in."

The young man had just been taught that when life's problems seem overwhelming, he should look around and see the problems of others.

He probably will find — as we all would — that he is far more fortunate than he ever imagined.

When is the last time you stopped and looked around to consider your blessings?

-Tim Woodward

I think I needed reminded of this. Things could be so much worse for us right now. Yes, things are pretty serious. We have to deal with the thought that Noah may not come home with us. But then, if he doesn't come home with us, he gets to go to a home where he won't have to suffer, or feel pain, or face discrimination. Why should that be bad news? Yes, I pray every day that we will get to bring him home and will be sad if I can't keep him, but if we don't get to, I don't have to worry about him. Our situation could be so so much worse.  I'm thankful for my cross.

Hospital Tour

Just a small update.
Yesterday, A and I went and toured Mercy where we will be having Noah. I am so so glad that we went. We went and saw the room that I will be in, where the nurse answered all the questions that we had (usually before we asked them). It helped that they know about Noah's condition beforehand, because they were able to reassure us that they will be VERY careful handling him. I'm thankful for this because I know what could happen if they aren't careful. We were then able to actually go into the NICU and take a look around an empty room just so we know what to expect. It helps knowing our surroundings beforehand so that we won't be overwhelmed. We are very glad that we went and were very impressed with the hospital.


For those wanting to know what to pray for, here's a list of what I'm praying for.
1. That Noah continues to grow (especially his chest)
2. That when Noah is born, he is able to breathe with no/or very little help and that he doesn't have a lot of fractures.
3. For the Doctors and Nurses that will be with us during the C-section and taking care of Noah.
4. That, if Aaron and I have to make difficult decisions concerning Noah, that we will have peace with those decisions.


Continued thanks to everyone for their prayers for us and for Noah!

New Pictures

I thought I would share the pictures we received yesterday at our 33 week appointment. We received video also but I haven't downloaded it to youtube yet so that I can post it here. Hopefully within the next week or so I can get some of the video up as well. For now enjoy the pictures!

Profile

Hands in front of the face of course. My stubborn boy. : )

One foot

The other foot.

One of his little hands.

He finally moved his hand away to let us take a picture.

It may just be the mommy in me, but I think he's smiling a little in this one. 

: )

33 Weeks

Our appointment days are always an emotional roller coaster for me. On one hand I can't wait to see Noah again. In my head I keep hoping that we will be told his condition has greatly improved, that we don't need to worry about whether we will be bringing him home or not. Then the rational part of my brain kicks in and reminds me that while their might be small improvements, he's not going to get better from this. Today was really no different than usual, but we did learn some things today.


First, let me say that overall, Noah's condition has not changed. The doctor is pretty set on a severe form of Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Type II or possibly a severe Type III. We will be praying for Type III. He told us that if diagnosed with one of these, most of the time it is a dominant genetic mutation. Meaning that for it to happen again should be rare. Last week our doctor went to a conference and was able to listen to an expert on skeletal displasias and I think he learned quite a bit and felt more comfortable going with the OI diagnosis before Noah is born.


Second, to us personally he looks about the same. they were only able to get a good look at one of his femurs. It was broken in two places, but it looked to be lining up relatively straight. One surprise Noah had for us was that he has managed to turn head down. The doctor had told us that he would probably stay breech, but then Noah proved him wrong. No wonder my ribs have been hurting, he's been sitting on them. We were told an estimate of 2 lb 10oz for his weight, but honestly that's probably a poor estimate since Noah doesn't fit into normal standards. It was good to have a number though. We got more pictures so I will attempt to get some of them up tomorrow. We have such a cute little boy.


Last, we have some future dates set up. We will be touring Mercy on Monday just to get an understanding on our surroundings beforehand.  Next appointments are in 2 weeks for a regular appointment and 3 weeks for the next ultrasound. Last and most important is our C-section is scheduled for March 24. We will be having a lucky charm baby. Now all he needs is to be born with red hair like his daddy's. That would make my day.


I want to say thank  you again for all of the prayers going up for us and for Noah. Another thank you to the wonderful parents of snowflakes that I have been introduced to. It helps to have those success stories. All of you have been so wonderful during this very difficult time.

Nursery is 95% Done!

This weekend my WONDERFUL mother-in-law Janna came and did all of the fabric pieces for the nursery. It is beautiful! In one weekend she made the curtains, crib skirt, quilt, two crib sheets, three pillows, a tablecloth and a lampshade. We LOVE all of it. All we are missing now is the changing table and a shelf that we will hang on the wall. Here are the pictures!

I found this lamp at Target. It had a black shade on it, so Janna completely redid the shade. The willow tree figurine was my Valentine's day gift.

Curtains!

Here's a closeup of the curtains

The crib!

Close up of the quilt. 

Close up of the crib skirt.

We are absolutely in love with the nursery! On another note, our next appointment is Wednesday so there will be another update sometime that afternoon/evening. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Small Update and Pictures

Hi all! I realized it has been awhile since I've posted anything, but as far as day to day activities have gone there hasn't been much to post. So here's a summary of what has happened since my last post. I failed my 1 hour glucose, but passed my 3 hour test with flying colors. Thank goodness because it seems that sugar is the only thing I have been craving lately. 


We also worked on the nursery some more. Well, Aaron worked on the nursery. He put together our crib and glider. He painted the trim and put down the carpet. Then my dad came up and changed out the outlets. Everything is starting to look really good. Here are some before and after pictures of the carpet. It was a carpet tile that went straight down on the cement. It turned out really good I think.

Before

The first tile

After, plus a look at the crib. : )

Right now we are snowed in our house, so today I worked on Noah's nursery letters. I painted them and Aaron sealed them and glued on the ribbon. I'm excited with how they turned out. I pinned them on the wall with some owl push pins I found on etsy.com (possibly my favorite website ever!)

Here's a closeup

 Here's a look at the some of the push pins I used to hang them up. I'll use the rest of these somewhere in the nursery.

This weekend Aaron's parents are coming up and his mom is going to work on the curtains and the bedding! We are so close to being done!