Family

Eliza and Grandma

Paul 14 yrs

Gina

Gina, Monica and Mishael

Ellina

James took this picture on his cell phone.  He was on a bike ride close to our house.

Monica holding Shawn and Eliza

 Pellets:   This is how we heat the house.  Every fall we buy 3-4 tons of pellets.  We have some wonderful friends to help us load them into the basement.  Down there we have a pellet furnace.  It's usually Mark's job to keep the hopper full.  Every 3 days in the dead of winter it will eat about 5 bags.

Mishael

Martha

Hans

Jon and Carson, 2012 new years day

Moriah, Ellie, Monica and Lynette Jan. 2012

This is a common site in our house.  Usually someone is at the piano.  Monica, James and Mark  can play for hours at a time.  Usually they sing worship songs and play.  It's beautiful.  Like having a CD playing all the time.

 

The kitchen when it's clean!

The upstairs family room

Gina and John

 This was at Eric's birthday party.  Mark is holding Shawn.  Mark and Paul are both 14 yrs old.  Holding baby's is very normal for our teen boys!

Eric's birthday and his cake that is a house on fire.

Martha and Tony the fireman

Kendra

Lynette

Servents of today

As I got up today and started a load of laundry, then went down and started a load in the dishwasher, I could have even started the roomba to sweep the floor.

I was thinking of how are different our lives are then yrs ago.
There was a time when servants helped people that could afford it. we sure have have interesting servants! Mine seem to brake or not work very well much of the time. Although my washer hasn't broken for many yrs. lately it's making a loud buzzing noise when it starts to spin. My dishwasher has been fixed so many times I'm not sure if it's worth it or not.
Well I am very, very thankful for my "servants" I love having a my automatic helpers. I dream about having someone come in once a week to help me get on top of housework. But then I always wonder what I would actually have them do, I don't want them to do my children's chores and my children grow up with out leaning how to clean.
Then I was thinking that if once a week or ever 2 weeks they came in and gave the bathroom and the kitchen a good detailed cleaning, while that day the children and I tackled some huge projects instead, maybe it would slowly but surely begin to get me caught up.
In the Philippines almost every household had a "helper" just someone to help mom. She usually had a broom in her hand. She would clean bathrooms, sweep endless tile, do laundry, cook dinner and babysit if you want her to. I would love having a "helper"

Ellina

Our little Ellina:  A  Miracle

Ellina is going to be 2 yrs old next week.  Below I pasted in her birth story and you can see why I say she is a miracle.  Born at 1 lb 6 oz at 24 weeks.  An identical triplet girl.  Her sisters are waiting in heaven for her.  But God gave Ellina to us to enjoy and we truly do. She is such a sweetie!

 Lynette holding Ellina

Birth from Grandma Joyce's view

You can see how tiny her hand is in this one.
She weighed 1 lb 6 oz at birth and has dropped to 1 lb 4 oz, but is coming back up now.







Mishael had been feeling early labor for a few days. It's hard to know when labor like that will turn into the real thing. The Doctor had said if she started labor they would not stop it.
On Thursday she was having some good contractions, but we asked the nurse to check the monitor to see if there was any regularity to them ( they are computerized here and can look back at all FHT's and ctx. any time) She said she had 17 ctx in the last 14 hours. Well, that's not as much as we thought, so we will wait and see.
I went back over to the Ronald Mc Donald house and ate some dinner, and Mishael called and said, I had another ctx. It was hard. Ok, I said, call me as soon as you have another one. I took a walk and she called again about 30 min later.
So I was getting ready to go back over when she called again and said are you coming? I rushed over to find her in the delivery room. The Dr had checked her and she was dialated only 2-3, but the bad of waters was funneling out of the cervix. This made her fluid level even lower then the already low figures of 4-5. But the Lord was keeping our little girl, as all throughout labor she never had any decels. They put Shell in a position with her head down, hoping for the fluid to go back in and with the remote hope that if the fluid did go back in the cervix that labor might possibly stop. With this hope still in mind of her labor stopping, it made coaching a little difficult. Besides for Mishael who is used to laboring being in any position she wants, in and out of water, very natural, etc. to laying in bed, tilted backwards, with IV, O2 monitor, baby and ctx. monitor, catheter, etc. it was different to say the least. We weren't sure to work with labor to get this done or try to stop it. It's a weird mind trip. Martha, Maria and Moriah were on their way, but still not there. Cody was not back yet, and knowing Mishael would only be holding one baby out of 3 made this was the hardest emotional birth. Mishael and I did a lot of crying during the labor. The nurse left us alone until I called her when Shell was feeling pushy after only 3 hours after her last call to me.
When the nurse picked up the sheet to check her we saw this horrible black fluid. It was not thick, but it was black and very weird. At the same time we had lost FHT's.
Mishael's pulse was 120 which made it very difficult to tell if we were getting mom's or baby's heart. Baby was 120 or was that mom? No one could tell. So they had a nurse come in with a doppler, she thought she got baby, but mom was 120 and baby 121??? We were doubtful. So she brought in an Ultrasound machine (waiting for Dr still, breathing through ctx, grandma thinking, lets stop looking for heart tones and push this baby out) They found the baby's heart on the Ultra sound machine and the nurse didn't want to say it out loud, so she pointed to the heart, It was not beating at all. She would look around again and come back to the same place. Point again at the heart. It was not beating at all! Mishael and I prayed, Oh Lord please don't let her loose this one too. Please Lord........
The nurse said to everyone (probably about 8 nurses in the room) "are you all agreed, we should just get this baby delivered?" Every one said yes, and I also said a loud yes.
So next ctx, Mishael pushed, when the ctx was over, we said keep pushing and she did. Our little Ellina was born and quickly handed to the NICU nurse (neither Dr was there still, the baby's Dr. heard that she was having a C section and ended up in the wrong spot in the hospital) The nurses were excellent. I was so impressed with their team work, know how and confidence. Everyone in the room thought we were delivering a baby that would need to be resuscitated or wouldn't make it, but before she was on the warmer table we heard a little noise, and the nurse said "she's respirating". Oh the relief and the tears. God breathed breath into our little sweet heart. Thank you Lord!
They immediately started working on Ellina and took her to the NICU. Mishael had to go back to the focus of delivering Ellianna and Emmalin. The Dr was there now and when Mishael said that she felt like pushing the Dr said "I trust your instincts". I wonder if he realized they should have listened to her earlier, LOL. The girls were delivered quickly. Both were born in their bag and it had to be broken. Their fluid was also black. 2 beautiful little girls. Since Ellina was in the NICU, Mishael and I enjoyed touching, holding our little angels.
Such a mixed, emotional, bitter sweet time.
Looking at the placenta and the very tiny fragile cords, it's a wonder that Ellina made it. She's a little fighter. The first time I went in to see her, she was waving her arms pushing off the Saran wrap ( they use saran wrap to keep the baby's warm). She would cry when someone would bug her. The Dr told me later that it usually is 2-3 weeks before they start crying like this.

New Birth Suite

We had a little change of plans!    

I sold the birth center in town to another midwife.  I sold it with the verbal agreement that I would be able to rent it on a per birth basis.  It sounded like a good plan. :)   But you know how life is.  Things didn't go as planned!  I had many baby's due and no place to conduct business. 

 After lots of praying, research, and figuring I decided to make a birth room out of our upstairs apartment.

This room at one time was a computer business our family ran.  Later it was an turned into an apartment, complete with kitchen and bathroom.  

So in order to update it for the birthing room, I mainly had to update the bathroom.  I put in a nice deep jacuzzi bath tub and tiled the bathroom.  It turned out really homey.  

It's very nice to have my business right next door. I've used it for a few births now and lots of prenatals.  We have classes in the main house living room.  

It actually works better all the way around, except for being 4 miles from town.

New vanity and tile floor:   

I had the filing cabinet and book case built into the wall.

 You can see my vitamin shelf.  I sell a lot of calcium and other vitamins, tinctures etc.  It's not so much a money maker, but as a convenience to my clients.

Here is the tile bathtub.  Hard to see in the picture.  But it's very pretty.

The Lion's and their Denner Guests

 The kids had a play at school.  They were the lions in Daniel's den. 
They are playing the chimes. 
They had a lasagna dinner for the parents.
This picture is Mishael and Gareth.

James and Jake

Laura, Beth, Monica, Joanne, Mark

James

Monica

Sprouts

Every month I do a class.  We call the classes
"Tea and Talk's"
This month I did a class on sprouts.
Sprouts are an amazing source of nutrition. So for the class I decided to try sprouting some wheat grass and sunflower sprouts.  This was my beautiful batch. 

 I got a new juicer too.  It's nice and little, easy to pull out to make some creation.  Wheat grass, celery, and cucumber is very good. 
It makes great ice cream too.

Coyote

On the way home from Kalispell we almost always see lots of deer, often see elk, once in a while see a moose.  This time we were almost home and we hit something.  It was a coyote.  Still damaged the van.

Happy Thanksgiving

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass;

it's about learning to dance in the rain.

We have so much to be thankful for! God loves us so much that He has been so good to give us "the bread of adversity" Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

I was just reading Isaiah 30:19-21 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction........

This part hit me, because again I see His goal is not to give us smooth lives, but lives that are being molded and shaped to be able to live in heaven for eternity. We can't enter heaven with pride, selfishness, hate, grudges, anger, lust. Even minor sins cannot enter into heaven. Jesus will clean us completely and prepare us, but sometimes that saving grace and preparation will come through adversity, affliction, prison, loneliness, health issues, losses, trials, family problems. He uses everything in our lives, bad and good to mold us, to clean us, to prepare us. He has plans for our good not for woe. Plans to give a future full of hope. Jer. 29:11.

We spend so much of our time trying to avoid the storms, trying to protect our children from problems in their lives, or trying to make our families or our life as smooth as possible. Then when the problems hit, we question why, we do everything we can to fix it, and we beg God to heal, provide or take away the problem. But can we learn to "dance in the rain"? Can we give thanks in everything?

It's an amazing transformation in our hearts when we can thank Him for everything. When we can thank Him for our pain, trials, and afflictions. Knowing, trusting He has a good purpose. Knowing He truly loves us and will only do what's best for all in the long run. For all eternity.

Thank you Jesus for your great love and compassion. We truly have so much to be thankful for.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Here is a song that goes along with my thoughts today:

We pray for blessings

We pray for peace

Comfort for family, protection while we sleep

We pray for healing, for prosperity

We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

All the while, You hear each spoken need

Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

What if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You’re near

What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear

And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near

We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love

As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

All the while, You hear each desperate plea

And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

What if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You’re near

And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us, When darkness seems to win

We know the pain reminds this heart

That this is not, this is not our home,

It's not our home

Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

And what if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You‚re near

What if my greatest disappointments

Or the aching of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can‚t satisfy

And what if trials of this life

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights

Are your mercies in disguise

Welcome trials as friends.

I am sending them to you to grow you up in Me.

They are sent to show you the faith you already have and to strengthen that

faith.

My plan is working out perfectly!

Persevere, dear daughter.

Perseverance makes you more mature.

You will end up perfectly mature and complete in the end...lacking NOTHING!

Rest in Me, God your Father

Misc. pictures

Lynette and Elina
Eliza

Moriah's tulips
Gareth
Elina

Lynette, James, Carson, Race: making funny faces

Kendra baking with Grandma
James

Mark
Paul
Misheal
Joyce dressed like a 50's house wife at Gina's shower
Eliza
Eliza hugging Grandma

Gina's wedding

I don't have many wedding pictures because my battery went dead. But here are a couple.


All 11 kids

Splinter

I was running down the stairs to bring the children to school one morning and the hand rail gave me a horrible splinter.
Since I was running down full speed, it went very deep. I couldn't see anything there to pull out, but my hand was extremly sore and unusable.
I was planning to go get some lidocaine from my birth kit and have a freind numb me up and dig around, but I ended up in the doctors office. Later i was glad it was the Dr, because it was really deep and took his skill to get to it.
Oh what a blessing lidocaine is!