The Goodbyes

I'm a see you soon person.  I despise the word goodbye and everything involved with it.  I never want to be dramatic and goodbye feels dramatic.  I hate change (as a general rule) and goodbye is loaded with change.  Like I said we had/have very dear friends in Wisconsin, my family is in Illinois, and the rest of the people closest to our hearts are east of there.  This was not a haphazard decision.  It was thought out meticulously.  We definitely knew we needed to go, but that did not make saying goodbye any easier.  As a mom, my heart breaks a little every day for Lily who left behind that kind of friend that you could spend every second with and not get sick of.  She talks about her almost daily and I pray for God to bring someone into each of their lives to meet that need.  Andy had great guy friends that he did hockey, kayaking, trips... with.  I had great Godly women that made my life richer in every way.  The coolest part was that they were mainly couples, when does that happen that you love the wife and the husband?!?!  Did I mention the wonderful 19 year-old girl that lived with us and loves our kids as her own.  Did I mention the best neighbors in the world?  You get the idea,  BLESSED!!!  This is why I say, 'see you soon.'  You can't put value on people and the way they make your days better just by knowing them.  God is good and we needed to come to this camp and be here!  God is faithful, and has placed amazing people in our lives here too.  I can't wait for Heaven where it will be the best and biggest reunion with no end in sight either!  So instead of goodbye we can say, 'see you soon.'

*I seriously went through our photo library to find pictures of everyone we love, and I'm so sorry if you're not pictured.  You know who you are(=

Ridge's Birth Story

As soon as we made the cross country trip to move out here(I was 7 months pregnant) my energy took a nose dive.  I didn't feel like taking my normal walks and I lost my appetite.  I'm not sure why, but that's what happened.  So when week 38 rolled around I was beyond ready to have the baby in my arms, more than ever before !  Andy had sensed that I would go early so my mom flew out a week early.  There were lots of wildfires in our area which led to camp being done a week early too.  All these were green lights for me to commence natural labor inducers(=  I called my friend here in town and asked her to make me a delicious castor oil smoothie.  I knew that if it wasn't time for baby to come out it wouldn't matter what I did.  So the next morning (Thursday, Aug 14th) I bought some bananas and dark chocolate and headed to her house.  She did the lowest amount of castor oil, raw milk, dark choc, bananas, and instant coffee, delicious(;   We hung out for a little bit then I headed home.  Things 'kicked in' around 11, but with castor oil it's hard to tell what's what...  I laid down with the boys and could just feel contractions rolling in every 10 min or so.  With labor I always doubt it's the real thing.  I'm just waiting for things to completely stall out.  They didn't! Around 3 I took a little hike with River around the property.  By 4 I called the local Dr. and asked if he could check and confirm that this was the real thing.  He let me come in at 4:45 and said it seemed like early labor.  Our hospital ended up being an hour and a half away so I needed to be sure this was the real deal.  I called Andy after and said, 'Let's feed the kids, get things situated and then head up to the hospital.  This was the pic I took right before we left.

We got to the hospital around 8:30 and my labor had intensified over that mountain road.  At that point I was having to breathe through contractions and they were coming every 2-3 minutes.  My midwife took a nap from 10:30-12:30 while we walked the halls, watched the late show with Jimmy Fallon while I bounced on the yoga ball.  Don't get me wrong it was uncomfortable, but still not 'I'm going to die pain.'  She came in at 12:30, broke my water and that's when you envy everyone else in the room.  They're all calm and your just trying to find a position to stay sane in.  At 1:30 ish am I could tell it was time to push.  I knew he was sunny-side up from having back labor.   This adds a bit of trickiness to pushing, but I basically decided he would be born by 2 by shear will if nothing else.  That small window of time is awful and amazing all at the same time.  Nothing like knowing you're about to meet the newest member of your family.  By some miracle he was born right at 2!  I spent Friday to Sunday in the hospital, awesome!  He seems to be calm, but let's you know needs. For some reason I'm co-sleeping which I've never done before, but I think we're going to get tough this weekend and move him to the bassinet, fingers crossed!  Ridge Allen is a sweet addition rounding us out to a family of 7!

My baby boy is 5

Seriously, I feel too fragile for this passing of time! How can it be 2 years since this.  Here we are, River turning 5.  Today he is rafting down the river with his dad and sisters.  Life is good for this guy!  If you want to take a trip down memory lane with me, his birth story is here.

A friend yesterday said, 'he's going to be a heartbreaker.'  I agree, he's adorable, mellow and strong... The perfect storm of manliness(; We prayed for him this morning, that he'll love God, people and nature.  So far, so good.  Happy Birthday Buddy!