Halloween

Halloween was so much for for us this year. Lincoln dressed up as a Ninja and Lacey as Anna.  Halloween day we lucked out and got great weather with no wind. Making it the perfect Halloween night for 'Trick Or Treating'. Lincoln and Lacey both had a great time going door to door in our new neighbourhood. We were amazed at how much candy they got, people were giving handfuls out as there weren't too many kids trick or treating.

Carving Pumpkins

It's crazy to think that Lincoln's last time craving a pumpkin was when he was 2yrs old and this was Lacey's first time. Lincoln kept asking "why do we carve pumpkins?" Yes it does sound crazy to cut into a pumpkin and put a face on it, but it's such a fun Halloween tradition. Lincoln wasn't to sure about touching the insides of the pumpkin, so he let Lacey do that part.

Lincoln and Lacey's master piece. Lincoln thought it was hilarious. 

More Appointments

Appointments seem to be never ending. Today we had three appointments in Calgary, an Ultrasound, OB GYN and Genetics doctor. So we made a day trip to Calgary for it. They like to do ultrasounds often to check on baby. Baby is doing as well as he can be for the situtation. He's weighting approx. 2 lbs. which puts him in the 60th percentile for weight. The ultrasound appointments are quite in depth, they usually take an hour. After that appointment we got to meet with our Calgary OB-GYN for the first time, she will be the doctor who will be doing my c-section at the foothills hospital. After that we met with the genetics doctor, who went over the Aminocentesis Test Results in person. We already knew our results but they wanted to meet with us to go over everything. Appointment days in Calgary are long, we are usually gone for 12 hours, leave when it's dark and come home when it's dark.

October 2015

Life just seems to be crazy and busy with everything thats going on. Here's what we have been up to. 

Josh's work is going well and  keeping very busy. He's been working on basement suite renovations, kitchen renos and bathroom renos. My Day Home is doing well. With Josh and I both working life keeps us busy. 

Lincoln is loving school and doing very well. He asks to go to school even on weekends. For the month of October Lincoln's school field trips was going skating with his class weekly. Lincoln has loved learning how to skate and being able to have Josh drive for the field trip (daddy time). We are thankful that Josh has a flexible work schedule to allow him to help out with Lincoln's class trips. Lincoln also gets snack days once a month, where he is able to bring a special person with him to school. For October he brought Nana Harker with him. 

Lacey is Lacey. We love her dearly, but she sure knows how to test her mom. I've always heard that potty training girls is easier then boys. They've never tried potty training a Lacey. She tests me daily and is teaching me lots of patients. I started training Lacey September 2014, so a whole year ago. Yes she still has accidents. There are days where she does great then other days she bombs it, but she doesn't what to wear diapers. So it's a work in progress. Lacey did good for her first 4 months but we then moved from the Caribbean to Canada, then to our own house after staying at nana and papa Yamamoto's house. So there has been a lot of change in her life this last year.

When you think life can't get any busier it does.  Being pregnant with a little one with Spina Bifida requires a lot of doctor appointments. I've never seen doctors so much before. We usually have at least 5 doctor appointments a month. From monthly ultrasounds, to meeting with all the specialists in Calgary (genetic specialist, paediatric neural surgeon, cardiologist, NeoNatologist and Perinatologist), Calgary OB-GYN, my local family doctor and my local OB-GYN. Thanks to my mom and grandma Thomas for helping out, so I can make all my appointments.

Needles to say life is busy for us and life is also going good for us. With all thats happening. It's made us realize that we need to focus on what matters most and enjoy the little things in life.

Lacey enjoying some alone time watching Peppa Pig. Lacey's favourite show at the moment.

October fall park day. We've been lucky to have a very warm Canadian fall.

I love being this boys mom. He holds a special place in my heart. He's caring, empathetic, kind, shy, silly, helpful and adventurous. He loves making life happy and enjoying every minute.

House project #1. Brick wall in the master bedroom. Lincoln and Lacey both loved helping.

I'll post pictures of the completed wall soon.

Lacey loves her daddy time. From playing with him, to going to work with him. She loves being by his side.

Bed time stories to end the day.

Decorating our Halloween sugar cookies.

Love coming home to these two after a long day of appointments in Calgary.... We've only had to do day trips to Calgary for my doctor appointments so far. But a day away from Lincoln and Lacey makes me miss them so much. Even though being a mom is not easy, I love being their mom.

Lacey loves to help, no matter what it is. And I love having her as my little helper.

Lacey only like cookies with nothing in them. No chocolate chips, no white chocolate chip or smarties. Just a a plain cookie. We don't understand why but thats how she likes them. If you give her a cookie with something in it, she will sit and pick them out before eating it. Funny girl she is. 

Halloween Fun

Josh had to work Saturday, Lincoln and Lacey were invited out to Nana Harker's house for Halloween fun cousin sleepover and my mom invited me to join her on a Calgary girls trip. It was a fun packed weekend.

Once Lincoln and Lacey arrived at Nana and Papa Harker's the kids made supper. They helped by grating cheese and wrapping hotdogs with dough. They made mummies (Lincoln and Lacey kept calling them "Mamas" - so cute!) as well as cheese and ham tortillas (shaped as Jack-o-laterns)

Saturday morning, Nana Harker had some crafts and activities planned. She bought spider buckets for the children to go trick or treating with, so we decorated them with foam stickers. Currently, Lacey has been obsessed with the colours pink and purple, thus her bucket mostly consisted of purple. Recently Lacey has been practicing writing her name, so she was not at all impressed that Nana's letters were all wrong because of the fancy print (not normal looking letters). So later that day Josh cut them so they would be right, haha!

Trick or Treating buckets all decorated.

They also got to make some fun halloween treats, from witches fingers and witches hats.

Here's Abigail, Lincoln and Lacey showing off their pumpkins they made.

I think everyone can say they had a great weekend. Thanks Nana Harker!

Aminocentesis Test Results

Back at 22 weeks, when we were in Calgary for our second ultrasound, to to look further into the concerns they had. At that appointment they confirmed our little one has Myelomeningocele, but also wanted to do further testing. So I had the Aminocentesis test done. The results are back, the baby for sure has Spina Bifida, which we already know from the ultrasound. The baby is negative for Edwards, which is a good thing. They also went on to do a 'array test', which tests the amniotic fluid further looking to see if the Spina bifida is genetic (chromosomes). That also came back negative, meaning Spina Bifida isn't a genetic birth defect in our cause caused by our genes but instead just a random occurrence. Some of these test seem so long and pointless, but I guess its best to know the most that we can before the baby comes out to better prepare us for the future.

Our New Normal Life

It's important to focus on the positive. I know it's such a scary and unknown time we are going through, with trying to decide how to move forward, have faith and trust in the Lord the Lords plan for us.

There are no accidents in life, there are no coincidences. Nothing caused this. Our little boy came perfectly from heaven... Perfectly created from a loving Father in Heaven. And sent him here knowing that he would bless the lives of everyone around him.

I know this time in our lives is going to test us and see how strong we can be. For me as a mother, to see how much I can give and serve without any thanks, how patent can you be after days of minimal sleep, how put together can you appear when everything feels like it's falling apart, how much can you let go of your other dreams and truly focus on this phase of your life. But in-spite of these tests on our flaws, nothing can prepare you for these moments. I know I will have moments of pure bliss and fulfillment that comes from being a mom. 

I know once our baby comes, we will have peace that he is perfect the way he is. Until then, the uncertainty of how everything will be just kinda takes over. Was I devastated because I don't know what to expect and because I feel utterly inadequate?? Yes!! 

From blessings, lots of prayers and fasting, it has helped bring that comfort that He was in control. I will writing about living our new normal– the good and the bad on our family blog.  I want this to be a place where I can share everything we are experiencing. Life is all about surprises, expecting the unexpected.

24 Weeks

Cravings: I don't have any particular cravings that I can think of.

 New Symptoms: I can feel baby boy move down into my pelvis a lot. He just sits there, he must be very comfortable there. He’s always kicks when I sit down, almost like he doesn't like me sitting and I'm cramping his space. 

Big Sister Stories: Lacey told me that she wants a baby that pees and poops a lot.

Big Brother Stories: Lincoln wants to name his brother Mikey or Leo. I'm not sold on these two name suggestions.

Thank you!

I want to thank you for your prayers and fasting on our behalf. I think we started praying and fasting that the baby would be okay... now we are more fasting and praying that we will be ok with how the baby is, and to be the kind of parents that we need to be to help this baby reach its full potential in life. Its hard not to want a miracle where the baby comes out perfect... but I can feel now that its not the Lords will. I know that all of the prayer on our behalf has helped both me and kayla to be ok with whatever the Lord wants us to do. I dont think I would normally be this calm and collected on the subject. With the trust in the Lords plan. After many prayers and a blessing we we have been blessed with a huge sense of peace. We don’t know the outcome of this situation, but we fell that no matter what happened it will all be okay.