Dear Prudence Turns 1

This past Sunday, we celebrated Prudence's 1st birthday. It was an absolutely wonderful day! Last year, about this time, Prudence was clinging to life in an incubator at Forsyth Hospital and this past week, we got to enjoy seeing her crawl, stand, play with Peaches, get in a pool, scream at the ocean waves, eat her birthday cupcake, sweetly fall asleep on her daddy in the pool and play with Curtis. We went down Sunday to spend the day with the Perez/Lamb family in Rodanthe on the Outer Banks. We were so excited to be invited to celebrate Prudence. And it was such a fun afternoon. Curtis got to be in a pool for the first time, which he was not too sure about, but eventually warmed up to. Lucy loved swimming around with her Papa Ash on her "boat" and going fishing. At one point, all 3 children napped and we got to have a quiet afternoon in the house resting :) We walked down to the beach where Lucy loved the waves splashing around her, although Curtis and Prudence both did not care for them at all. And then came the birthday party. I love one year old's parties. I love watching them with their cake. It's the funniest thing to see their excited faces as they taste the icing and get it all over their faces. Pru was no exception! It was a wonderful, perfect birthday party!

On Tuesday this week, I went back down for the night since Isaac was duty. This was a fun adventure. My birthday was Wed and the plan was to leave after breakfast Wed morning so I could get back and celebrate my birthday with Isaac. Well, Wed morning, we woke up to flooding and major storming. So I waited a little, and had a birthday breakfast of pork chops and gravy, eggs, toast, and sweet potato butter made by David and Tara, such an amazing breakfast! The rain was not letting up at all, so I thought I'd try and leave before it got any worse. I packed and began to load the car but got soaked so I gave up on that. At that point it was looking like I was going to be flooded in for the day. We ended up driving in to Manteo and it took forever, the flooding was so bad, but luckily by the afternoon it dried well enough that I was able to get my car out and beat the next storm system coming through. I finally made it back home, although I'd missed our date for the night, thankfully we were able to reschedule with our babysitters. It was a huge adventure and a fun one. If I couldn't spend the day with Isaac, spending it with Brenna and her family was an awesome substitute!

Ultrasound Training Part 2

When I began volunteering with the Keim Center 2 and 1/2 years ago, I was told there would be opposition from the enemy. I experienced it some, but not much. It wasn't until I began ultrasound training that the opposition became real. Satan has some pretty awesome tactics, not just attacking me, but the other nurses, our babysitters and even their families. I explained some of it in my last blog and how God completely worked everything out in His timing. We experienced much the same thing with the ultrasound class in Fredericksburg this past week. The plan (funny, we should never makes plans) was that my director, Shannon's, mom was going to drive up from Richmond to watch Curtis at the hotel both days during the class. Shannon texted me on Monday saying that her mom couldn't get out of a commitment on Friday and wouldn't be able to come to Richmond. So I tried not to panic and we worked on an idea. On Tuesday, we decided I would stay in Richmond Thur night and leave Curtis on Friday and we'd pick Curtis up there on our way home. That was the plan we were banking on as we left on Wed. Everything went well with the drive, Curtis did pretty good. He did great at dinner and went to sleep pretty easily Wed night. Well, he decided it was party time at 4AM so we were up for the morning which was gonna make for a long day of class, but it was ok, nothing I couldn't handle without never ending coffee. Curtis did great with Shannon's mom, he even ate some liverwurst :) which cracked me up. She got him to sleep, which was amazing. And I was able to feel comfortable, not worry and pay attention to class. The first day was all about the legal implications to what we do and a lot of the history of the pro life movement. I really enjoyed all we learned and all the info was incredibly helpful. I was on information overload, but that's to be expected after 8 hours of class. Around 4:15, I got a text from Shannon. He dad was going to the ER with blood clots in his leg. Needless to say, Shannon's mom needed to leave and so I left class just a little early and got Curtis. Thankfully, her dad was ok and did not have to be admitted, but we needed a new babysitter...at the last minute...in a city we weren't familiar with. We had everyone on the job looking for someone. Shannon had enlisted some of the staff at the Keim Center to find someone. One of our instructor's had a call in to one of her friends to maybe watch him. And my friend Tori had called a friend of her's who lived there to see if they knew anyone. God perfectly worked it out that a girl in campus ministry was home raising funds and had the whole day completely free. And even more, He worked out that we could have our room until 2 and our sonographer from the Keim Center was going to stay, so Curtis could stay in her room after that. Curtis loved his babysitter, and I, again, could easily pay attention learning ultrasound basics while Curtis was being taken care of.

It was so amazing to see how God worked everything out. I admit, I panicked and just assumed the worse, so easily not trusting in Him to work things out. But he did, in His perfect timing, not mine. And because of Him, I was able to learn more of the skill that will help me show women the LIFE that is inside of them. I am so thankful for all the things he worked out, so thankful for letting me get through the class, so thankful for the growing friendships that He's giving me through the Keim Center, and so thankful that, one day soon, I'll be certified and will get to perform ultrasounds on the women of this city showing them their sweet babies.

In a week and a half I have part 3 of the training, 2 days of testing. I have some studying to do between now and then, but I am looking forward to this final step.

10 months

Curtis is 10 months today. Like every other month, so many things are new, so many things have changed. It has been quite a busy month for us all with doing my ultrasound training and figuring out how to juggle all of that. With that, we did have some firsts for both Curtis and myself. Curtis took whole bottles from a few of his baby sitters, which was awesome since he had not done that since he was 4 months old. It was also the first time we had been away from each other for that amount of time. I didn't like being away from him for so long. I didn't like only getting to spend an hour or so a day with him. But am thankful for the reason that it was like that. The training went well, and we begin the 2nd leg of it tomorrow with a drive to Fredericksburg (more on that later). 

A few more new things and some things that just crack us up: He's begun eating more solid foods and chunky purees and seems to like them. He actually tried roast tonight. That's been the only thing he voluntarily puts in his mouth, I think mostly because he can't pick up the other stuff easily, but he will eat it if I feed it to him. He's begun babbling much more, so we're trying to work on "mama" and we're working much more on sign language, hoping he'll pick it up soon. We've let him play in the kitchen some and he absolutely loves the kitchen spoons and ladles with the pots. It's a great way to keep him entertained while I'm trying to wash dishes. And probably one of my favorite things is that he thinks he has to go everywhere head first. Anytime he's sitting on our laps, he goes for the floor head first, so we hold his feet (of course) and he walks on his hands till he's far enough away from the furniture to get down. It's pretty entertaining to watch.

Doctor's appts this month have been fun. He was almost 21lbs and 29 1/4 inches. And the best news, he is murmur free! We had an echo confirmation a few weeks ago to confirm he no longer has his VSD heart murmur, which makes this mama incredibly happy!

This next few months will be pretty exciting as we have Prudence's first birthday to celebrate and Curtis'. At the end of this month, we'll head to the Outer Banks to celebrate Prudence's life. We are looking so forward to that day, and know that it truly is a gift from God. Then, just 3 weeks later, we'll have an early birthday party for Curtis. So lots of exciting things ahead :)

Ultrasound Training Week is Finished

Last Wed, I began limited ultrasound training for the Keim Center where I've been volunteering at for a little over 2 years. It has been one crazy, wonderful, stressful, educational, awesome 8 days. I've learned several things about myself and about what it really means to be apart of a ministry. 

A little bit of the saga of the past week just at the clinics alone: The first 2 days, that I can remember went really well. The 3rd day was when we really started feeling the attacks from Satan, knowing he wanted to discourage us as much as possible from finishing the training. It started off with Curtis screaming every time I tried to put him down or hand him to his wonderful 3rd Grandma, Grandma Charlotte. Then, Tori's shoe broke. That makes a job wear you have to stand all day very difficult. And then, while our fearless leader was taking a much needed day off to work on her house that she's suppose to move in to next week, the printer on the ultrasound machine broke. It's not a huge deal at the time because the actual machine still worked, we just couldn't give our ultrasound models or patients any pictures, and could not print off our images for our doctor to review. Pictures for models are not such a huge deal, but for pts, when they are seeking an abortion after the ultrasound, for the clinic to use our ultrasound measurements, we have to provide the pictures, so this made that kind of impossible. So we got a trainee repair guy to come out and look at it while we rescheduled all ultrasound patients to our Va Beach clinic. The repair guy was shady, did not tell us from the get go how much we would be paying him, then gave us a way more than necessary quote for doing absolutely nothing and possibly making the machine worse. Saturday, we saw just ultrasound models, but still could not give them pictures. Isaac tried to look at the computer part and fix it, but it didn't happen. Monday morning, with our first model on the table at 9AM, the machine just quit working. We fiddled with it some, tried figuring out something to do to make it work, but it didn't happen. So, we moved everything out to the beach location, which was still open as a clinic as well. So now, we're doing our training and also trying to figure out how to see pts. That was interesting...but good practice for when Tori and I will be solo nurses at the clinic. Tuesday, we started our blessings (eucharistao) list because we needed to keep our perspective on Jesus and off of everything Satan was trying to do. I think it was that day that we were clearly told our ultrasound machine was dead and it would not be usable any longer. Wed was an encouraging day, but somewhat stressful as Tori and I covered the clinic as well as did our training. It started out with scanning one of my favorite people here in Virginia and finding a heartbeat and seeing that everything looked like we wanted it to with the baby. I wanted to do a little happy dance at seeing that little heart beat :) but I contained my self :) Then, our fearless leader was told there was an ultrasound machine in Chesterville, but they had to go look at it then, so she left and it was Tori, Heather and I. I then, had my first patient who, once leaving, told the advocate that she was leaning more towards carrying to term after talking to me and the advocate. That made my heart happy. Today was a wonderful last day. We had a pretty easy morning so we did our book work and reviewed, saw 3 patients and really didn't have much craziness going on. That is the type of day we like. And we were praising God that he provided us an ultrasound machine in Norfolk and can't wait to try it :) All in all, we did 57 scans in 8 days. I feel like I've run a marathon but am so thankful for the past week.

On the family side of things, Curtis stayed with 7 different babysitters, traveled from close to Portsmouth, to Va Beach, to Chesapeake, to Suffolk and has been a trooper the whole time. The first few days were pretty difficult and it just broke my heart to leave him, but he got to where he would take his bottle and eat food and most of the time nap for the baby sitters. We are so incredibly blessed to have so many friends to help us do life and make it through the harder times. 

Some of the things God has taught me this week:

1.When working for a ministry (or really anywhere) you have to be flexible. You never know what's gonna happen. I've always felt like I was pretty good at that, but God really stretched it this week and showed me that it wasn't me who was gonna make it happen. I had to rely on Him for the flexibility to not have my plans happen.

2.God has solidified in my heart that He wants me as a stay-at-home mom right now and it was the right decision to leave the hospital. It has been incredibly hard to leave Curtis every day and I hate only spending an hour or so with him a day before he goes to bed. And he has struggled as well. He would cling to me in the morning before I left, which is abnormal and nurse forEVER, which is not normal since he typically gets distracted very easily. I am thankful for this opportunity and look forward to hopefully working part time for the ministry in the future and love my days where I volunteer, but I am exactly where God wants me for now.

3. He has also taught me that this type of nursing is where he wants me. It's hard, mentally, emotionally, and sometimes physically. It challenges my brain, stretches my comfort level and sometimes breaks my heart. But it is right where He wants me that's exactly where I want to be. I love this ministry. I love it's purpose. I love having the privilege of being apart of saving lives and am so thankful for the opportunity to get to do that.

4. I have the best husband ever! I've told him several times this past week that he wins husband of the year and I've meant it every time. He has driven all over our wonderful city to pick Curtis up, and pick me up. He tried his hardest to fix our ultrasound machine. He took care of our crying, fussy, sometimes screaming child. He babysit for our god daughter while taking care of Curtis. He has helped with dishes, laundry, cooking, and cleaning. I am so incredibly thankful for him and know that if it weren't for him helping me, I would not have made it through. God knew what he was doing when He gave me Isaac :)

All in all, it was a wonderful week. We still have our classroom part in Fredericksburg,and then competency, but I think compared to this, that will be a breeze :) I'm looking forward to seeing what God will do.

9 Months

Our sweet baby boy is 9 months old today. I can't believe in just a few months, he'll be a year. The time truly does fly, but it is such a sweet, sweet time. I love how, as he grows, he is coming more and more in to his personality. Some of that personality is showing to be stubborn and hard headed, but that's only a small part. For the most part, he is an incredibly happy baby. He laughs all the time. He loves to make noises such as growling, screeching and yelling and then laughing at himself. He's learned to clap. He's learned to begin chasing Peaches around and loves it when Peaches comes and sniffs him because it tickles him. He loves playing with his little friends at church, but hasn't quite figured out that he can't pull up on them like he does us. He loves to stand at the door when Peaches is outside and bang on the door and yell for her. He's begun babbling some rather than just making sounds. He makes a sound that sounds like he's trying to bark, I guess because he hears Peaches bark, but it's hilarious. He keeps us laughing all the time. There is pretty much never a dull moment. At the same time, if he's not happy, he definitely lets you know it. He has a very pitiful cry that is hard to resist when he's mad or sad. 

Here are some of his 9 month pictures and a few others from this past month.

This particular picture is getting somewhat dangerous to do, so it might be the last month for that considering he definitely tried to come off the chair.

Isaac's tie and Grandpa Creed's hat. Sadly, he wouldn't keep the hat on very long, but it was cute while it was on.

Enjoying some kale chips

The happy face that he pretty much always gives Isaac.

Making one of his favorite screeching sounds

On the Move

As promised last week, this blog post is back to your "regularly scheduled program" :)

The last few weeks, Curtis has not only started crawling, but pulls up on everything and has become quite a master at getting around and getting in to things that he is not allowed to get in to. I can already see his very head strong (determined) personality coming out in his focus on getting in the kitchen and playing in Peaches' water bowl, and climbing up the stairs (gates are now in place), pulling off all the DVDs from the shelves, using his walker to pull up (very dangerous) and playing with various cords that we try to hide, but apparently not well enough. It most certainly has been a fun adventure but I am looking forward to him mastering this pulling up and standing on his own so I don't have to worry quite as much about him falling, busting his head open on some edge of something and/or getting a brain bleed (these are the things a nurse/mom thinks about). It's fun to watch his excitement over every discovery, over every new things. He loves going new places and being in crowds to see all the new things he can see. He loves being outside, but does NOT like his kiddy pool. Hopefully in August that will provide some entertainment, but for now, not so much.

Some new happenings in our family:

We have officially joined the Redeemer Norfolk church plant. We're both very excited to see this church take off, and hopefully spread the gospel to that area of our city. If anyone reading this is looking for a church, let me know, cause this is a great one!

Also, I have been given the opportunity to train in limited ultrasound at the Keim Center where I've volunteered at the last few years. We are still working out logistics with Curtis. He is not the easiest baby as he doesn't like a bottle or sippy cup, but yesterday was encouraging because he did drink about 1/2 an oz so I am hopeful God will work this out and allow me to complete the training. This training is going to allow me to be apart of showing mother's-to-be the wonderful LIFE growing inside of them, and hopefully help encourage them to carry that LIFE to term. I am super excited about this and am looking forward to how God will use it in the future. 

Isaac finished his school last week, passed all his finals, and so is now back to the ship. So we are back to duty days every 4th day and most weekends, he will either work or be sleeping. The 5 weeks away from the ship were a wonderful break from this reality, but I keep telling myself, we do have it easier than a lot of families and at least he's not deployed at the moment. God has blessed us with him staying here for at least 2 more years, so for that, I am thankful.

Learning to stand

Love those sweet eyes peeking over the couch

He loves his Daddy so much

Trying to climb the stairs

Playing with his diaper bag

His first unrestrained bath. 

The Real Reason American's are so Angry over the Hobby Lobby Case

I've been thinking about this blog for several days now. It's definitely not a normal post for me. Normally, people coming to this blog to see fun pictures of our family and friends, sweet stories about our little one, and that's about it. But that's not what this is. I'll be back to that later this week with some fun pictures of Curtis, but for now, I want to talk about Hobby Lobby.

The Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case is a landmark case. When I saw the verdict, I literally did a happy dance with Curtis in my arms because, though it small, it was a victory for LIFE, a victory for religious freedom, a victory for the first amendment, and, in my opinion, a victory for women. I have come to see, sadly, that this victory may be very short lived and that grieves my heart. As I watched Lila Rose on the news speaking about the bill being introduced in the Senate to overturn the ruling, and saw the hope that this would not gain popularity, I was right there with her, hoping and praying that people would see that the justice system got something right. But sadly, because I tend to be a realist, while I can hope and believe that God can change things, it will be a fight to not overturn this ruling.

I have a somewhat unique view point on this subject because I am of the demographic who would typically be outraged by this landmark decision. I'm a women in her 20s, of child bearing age who, until 9 months ago, had a very successful career as a nurse that I worked incredibly hard for. Most women my age are not married, still partying after work and on the weekends, still having sex with any man who buys them a drink, focused on their career and having a good time. So, I am different, but I'm not ashamed of that. I'm not ashamed to be married, to be a stay at home mom of one, but hopefully many more. I'm not ashamed that I never fell into the demographic of women my age who were just looking to have a good time. Because of these things, people may say I am wrong, or my opinion doesn't matter, but there's one other thing that makes me qualified to talk about this. I am a nurse who works with pregnant women in crisis, who sees the worst place a woman can be in, the scariest situation she's ever faced. I love these women, thank God that they come to our clinic, praise Him when their hearts are broken for the LIFE they see inside of them and rejoice when they make the decision to carry that LIFE to term.

Some facts about the Supreme Court decision that I have seen misinterpreted, skewed and downright just plain lied about:

1. Hobby Lobby insurance coverage offers several different types of contraceptives including the pill, patch, ring, shot and implant. Most of these, from a nurse perspective, I would not recommend, but I have no problem with women using birth control and neither does Hobby Lobby.

2. This decision DOES NOT make any form of birth control illegal. All forms of birth control that were legal before the ruling are still legal now. Any woman who chooses to use emergency contraception or an IUD can still use them. I've said it 3 different ways now, but I'm not sure it can be re-iterated enough, any woman can still use all types of birth control.

3. Hobby Lobby does not tell it's employees that they cannot work for them if they choose to have an IUD or use emergency contraception. In fact, I assume Hobby Lobby would never ask an employee such a personal question.

4. Plan B and Ella are over the counter medications. Sadly, the law is now, that any person can go into their local Walgreens and buy these medications without a prescription, ID or parental consent. So while it won't be covered by insurance, it is still readily available.

5. Any person can walk into their GYN office and ask for an IUD, and get one placed. Yes, it may be more expensive than other birth controls in the short run, but since it's good for 5 years, the cost really evens out. So while it may not be covered under insurance, it can still be purchased and used pretty easily.

With those facts stated and widely known for the public knowledge for anyone who has a TV, or access to google, the Supreme Court's decision should not be as controversial as what it is. It is not a war on women. It is not a bunch of white, republican men dictating what kind of birth control woman can or cannot use. It is definitely not men infringing on a woman's "reproductive rights". This is a simple decision if anyone has any knowledge of the first amendment's protection of a person's freedom of religion. The Bible clearly talks about protecting the least of these, it talks about how important LIFE is, it talks about God forming us in our mother's womb and how sacred that time is. No, not all people believe the Bible and I completely understand that, BUT Christians have to respect other religions, so other religions, or the lack there of, should respect what a Christian believes. The right to LIFE is one of the most basic beliefs we hold, and therefore, if the owners of Hobby Lobby don't want to violate their conscience by providing drugs that disrupt and KILL that LIFE, then other religions should respect that and acknowledge their freedom protected by the first amendment.

I see the use of emergency contraception and IUDs often where I volunteer. This post modern, feminist world is so excited about both of these things because it allows them to have freer sex, not worry about if they took their pill, if they have any shots left, if they brought a condom, or if the condom broke/slipped or whatever the situation may be. They think these methods of contraception are wonderful because, if nothing else, they're a back-up, but pretty much, they allow them to do whatever they want, when they want to. What I have seen and experienced, leads me to the conclusion that these are not good forms of birth control and for the most part, should not be used (there are a few exceptions such as a clotting factor problem).

Plan B can be used up to 3 days after having unprotected sex. It's kind of like birth control on steroids. It provides a very concentrated amount of hormones to stop ovulation, thicken cervical mucus so sperm can't get through, and the abortifacent part...thin the uterine lining to stop a fertilized egg from implanting. This is not meant to be used as normal birth control, but because it is so readily available, women use it all the time as their normal means of birth control even though it says on the website and instructions to not do so. 

And the IUD...the main function is to thin out the uterine wall to prevent an already fertilized egg from implanting. 

Both forms, you can still get pregnant. I've seen it happen several times. Pregnancy with an IUD in can be extremely dangerous. There is potential risk for miscarriage, birth defects and harm to the mother. These are not full proof methods. 

That's just my 2 cents about the those types of birth control in general.

I know my opinion isn't popular. I know it's "old fashioned" to think people should not be having sex if they don't want a child, and really shouldn't be having sex until they are married, but you can call me old fashioned. I'm okay with that. There would be a lot less uproar and anger over this decision if people chose to control themselves and only have sex the way God intended, the perfect way he planned. There would be less children murdered, less children without fathers, less broken hearts, less children abandoned. 

That is my prayer, that one day this will be a reality. That people will see sex as the gift from God that it is, and likewise, the result of sex, children, as the wonderful gift from God they are and then maybe there wouldn't be the need for all the arguing over whether or not someone provides insurance that pays for your birth control.