The Infirmary

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still alive. Since we got home Raylen has been sick. She is just now almost well today. I haven't been feeling well since last Wednesday evening. Right now I have completely lost my voice, which is very frustrating. When I get frustrated I want to yell. So you can only imagine how insane I have felt not being able to speak above a whisper, let along raise my voice. I've decided that God may be telling me that I need to find a better means of communicating when I am frustrated. (I'm pretty sure I just heard a big "AMEN" from Josh and the kids!)

I have so much that I want to write about. Our evacuation was quite an adventure that very much deserves being written about. I have also been on somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster. Stress is partly to blame for this, but the other part is that God has placed some very strong and serious desires on my heart that I have been wrestling with. I am longing to share with you all and give you some specific issues to be praying about(we all know how my obsessive self loves to pray as specifically as I possibly can. Can somebody say "Control freak!"?)

Anyway, I told Josh that if I'm not feeling better by tomorrow that I'm going to go jump off a bridge. (I am totally just kidding. I just haven't been this sick for this long in many years. Seriously.) But hopefully everyone will be feeling great and things will be back to normal in the next couple of days and I can get to posting! I have been missing ya'll very much and I am dying to catch up.

Much love.

Love you

Home

We are home. We got here around 5:00 pm. Driving down our street there were power lines down all around. We knew we wouldn't have power, and by the looks of it, we wouldn't for awhile.
But....
the power came on about 20 minutes after we got here. Amazing!

It is good to be home, and I'm sure that I will post about the adventures of our evacuation, the damage, and what the clean up is going to be like. But right now I'm watching the news and crying. They are showing pictures of the devestation the occurred from High Island to Bolivar. So sad. A little too much for me right now.

Take a Hike, Ike!

Well, I just got back from my sister's this morning. It looks like we might be evacuating in the morning, no matter how much I don't want to. It looks like we have a pretty good chance of flooding. Apparently the levees here aren't expected to hold.

After talking it over with Josh, we decided that we didn't like the image of hold Luke and Ray over our heads as the flood waters filled our home. So we decided that we would probably leave tomorrow. I still don't want to, but I left the judgement call up to Josh. Somebody,(somebody most likely meaning me), will get up in the wee hours of the morning and check the weather....yet again.

An update on my sister....
She is pretty much the same. She begins having contractions any time she gets up. But she saw her midwife today and she still isn't dialated. Which is a very good sign. She only half jokingly asked her husband to research how to deliver a baby during a hurricane since they are right in the middle of the projected path of Ike. Inspite all that they are not evacuating. Hannah does not want to risk getting stuck in traffic while in labor. So they are going to hold down the fort where they are. Which is, uh, in the eye of the storm. Oh well. Maybe that is better than being on the dirty side, which is where we are.

Now for an update on baby Weston. He is doing great and is pretty much ready to be released from the hospital. The doctors at the hospital are ablsolutely wonderful and they are keeping him in the hospital until Ike passes through.

Thanks so much for your prayers for both my sister and baby Weston. Just continue to pray that my niece won't come for another week or so.

I will try to let you know our status if we have internet access in the next several days.

Brief Update

I only have a minute to post, but I wanted to throw out a couple of quick prayer requests and an update on baby Weston.

Weston has made alot of progress. He is doing better every day. His heart and blood oxygen levels are improving every day. He is able to take a bottle, but I am not sure if he is completely off of the feeding tube that goes in through his belly button. My cousin, Kami, was finally able to hold him for the first time a few days ago. Now she is able to hold him during feedings, so he is much improved. Kami has been discharged from the hosptial. She is healing well from her c-section, and she is holding up good emotionally also. It is still a very stressful situation. They are hours away from home and having to stay in a hotel indefinately. Keep the whole situation in your prayers.

The next situation that needs prayer is my sister's pregnancy. She was having strong regular contractions, so she made a special visit to her midwife. She is only 34 weeks pregnant, so she is on bedrest now. They want her to try to keep the baby in until 36 weeks, if at all possible. Hannah seems to think that that it not very likely. She is trying to stay off her feet as much as possible, but with 3 and 5 year old boys that is not very easy. Every time she gets up she starts having contractions.

I am heading to Houston tomorrow to keep my eye on her. I'll tie her to the couch if I have to.(I'm only partially kidding.) I'm going to try to finish up any last minute baby stuff, help with cooking and housework, and fend off her boys.

Pray that baby girl(she is yet to be named!) will relax and wait a few more weeks before making her grand entrance.

Last, but not least, we start school tomorrow. We are homeschooling Luke this year and tomorrow is the first official day of school. He gets a big breakfast of bacon(turkey bacon, of course) and what ever else he wants. I am so very excited!

I will do my best to post from my sister's house and let you all know how things are going there.

Thank you for your prayers.

Tailspin

It is so strange how the saddness can just hit you. Overwhelming grief. Within minutes I can go from feeling fine, to drowning in a sea of saddness. I haven't at all been able to figure out what triggers it.

I can talk in detail with my sister about her pregnancy and upcoming labor and delivery,(which, God willing, I will be a part of), and I feel anticipation and happiness about the big event.

I can hear that one of my closest friends is expecting. And all I feel is excitment for her.

I can hold, cuddle, and kiss my 6 month old nephew, and feel nothing but love.

I can work in the nursery at our church with babies and toddlers and feel right at home playing down on the floor with them.

I can see my cousin VERY pregnant with her first child, and feel completely excited for her.


Then I get the news.

My cousin delivered her baby by emergency c-section, and there were some complications.

Even though baby Weston is stable, something about the whole situations sent me into a tailspin.

I am completely blindsided by my emotions. I feel so frail. Josh went back to work tonight, and I was about to die at the thought of him leaving. I had to refrain from begging him to stay. There are many people that I could have called, and they would have been here in a second. But I didn't want anybody but him.

I have been anticipating the birth of my sister's baby. She is finally having a girl, and we are all so excited. (I'll let you in on a little secret, though. We would be excited no matter what she was having. We just love babies!). I have been able to witness the birth of her first two children, and it is EXTREMELY important to me to be there for the birth of her baby girl. I am confident that God will give me the strength and grace that it takes to be present for the birth of my niece. I know in my heart that it will be a completely joyous occasion. I just pray for the Lord to sustain my emotions. My sister is a very sensitive person. She loves me deeply and I don't want her for one second to restrain her delight in her daughter because she feels that it would benefit me.

You would think that all of the pregnancies and new babies that I am surrounded with would give me "baby fever".

But it doesn't.

It just makes me miss Treyson all the more.