Easter Weekend 2011

Easter weekend was packed with all sorts of fun stuff - 3 egg hunts, a jump-jump, lunch with friends, and of course candy and bunny loot!

Friday we went to an egg hunt with Jackson and some of his mom's friends from work. Sarah Katherine did so well sharing that Jackson left with all the eggs he got AND most of the ones she picked up. I love that so much about her!

Friday night a church here in town was simulcasting an event called "Secret Church". This is basically a service similar to how a service would be in countries where it is illegal to openly be a Christian. They have to meet privately, and because it is so dangerous they typically may not meet often but when they do it is for several hours. Secret Church for us ran from 6pm - 12pm. I didn't know what to expect from 6 hours of Bible study, but it was wonderful. I learned so much and was truly challenged through the message that was presented.

Saturday was the egg hunt at the church - fully equipped with a jump-jump, crafts, games, and everything. Unfortunately I had (incorrectly) told SK that there would be candy in the eggs. This was strictly and EGG hunt, no candy to be found. So we had to leave when my daughter had a melt down for the candy mommy had promised. We immediately went home and had lots of jelly beans right before nap time.

Saturday night David and I re-enacted a traditional Passover sader complete with home cooked lamb and kosher sides. It was so interesting to see what the Jewish traditions are and what Christ himself did right before the crucifiction. Even though it was our first attempt and we had some hiccups, I can see this being a new tradition for us.

Sunday kicked off with SK finding what the Easter bunny brought her - lots of princess socks, some flip flops, sidewalk chalk, sticky things you can decorate your windows with, a "pearl" bracelet, and of course candy.

After playing with her goodies for a bit we took her to get a bath (did you see that crazy hair?!) and got dressed for church.

During the service was when I finally slowed down enough for everything to hit me of how different this Easter weekend was than how I had planned it just a few weeks ago. We were "supposed" to have two little ones in pretty dresses, two baskets, maybe this was our first week back to church bringing our new baby girl. All that combined with our preacher mentioning Elizabeth Anne during his sermon sent me over the edge. I boo hoo'd in the pew and thankfully a friend brought me some tissue. I know this is going to be tough for every holiday and special occassion, but I guess it just hadn't sunk in yet. I am SO thankful for our friends though because Heather and Kyle had us over for lunch and we were able to have a great time hunting eggs and hanging out. I was completely surprised by how sad I was that day, and if we hadn't gone over there I would have been a big mess in the bed at home - LOVE YOU GUYS!

Parent's Night Out!

The weekend before I had to go back to work, David and I took an evening to stay downtown, go to a nice restaurant, and just relax before the craziness of work started back up. So, we dropped SK off at one her favorite places - Emma's house (her buddy) - then headed downtown for a night at the Residence Inn and dinner at Highland Bar and Grill. I even straightened my hair for the occassion, I needed a little change. Dinner was FABULOUS! This restaurant has been written up nationally, so I had big expectations. They totally delivered and it was even more casual than I thought. Here's a pic using David's phone so it's not the best in the world, but if you work that hard to straighten this hair you have to have a memory of it!

St. Patty's Day / Trip to Nana & Papa's

The week of St. Patty's day SK and I packed up and went to visit David's family up in Tennessee. We don't ever get the opportunity for just the two of us to go spend time with them, so we jumped at the chance. Nicole and Luke (David's sis and her son) are staying at David's parent's house while her hubby is deployed, so we got LOTS of cousin time in with (as SK says) "my Luke". Then the latter part of our trip David's other sister and her kiddo's got out of school for spring break, so we were able to hang with everyone!

First, here is miss fabulous on St. Patty's day. We rode with David up to Huntsville and hung out at his hotel until later that afternoon when Nicole met us at the state line to take us the rest of the way.
The last day we were there we got to go to a little farm that had a petting zoo, egg hunting, and even a little "train" made of barrels pulled by a lawn mower. Gotta love country creativity! Sadly Luke didn't get to go with us ladies to the farm - he fell the day before and was recouping from a long day in the hospital.

North Georgia Retreat

My wise father gave us some wonderful advice through everything - "you and David should go off by yourselves and process together". Most everyone knows, we lost my brother about 4 years ago, so Dad knows what he's talking about - he and mom have lived it too. So, we left Sarah Katherine with Mimommy and G'daddy for a few days and headed to north Georgia the day after Elizabeth Anne's funeral for some "us" time. It was truly the very best thing we could have ever done. We had time to talk, cry, laugh, then cry because we're laughing, and just decompress a bit. Stuff we couldn't do if Sarah Katherine was around because we don't want to worry her. David found a really nice place in north Georgia call the Brasstown Resort where he booked us a cabin room that was home away from home for 3 days.

The resort was also very close to the Cabbage Patch Doll factory "Babyland", so we had to run over and get SK a baby. I have to say it was an impressive place! There was a nursery, doctors and nurses, adoption paperwork, etc. In the end we got SK a small doll from the fairy tale collection - Little Miss Muffet.

Locks for Love

When I found out I was pregnant with Elizabeth Anne, my hair was already pretty long so I decided we could put this pregnancy to good use. Since the pregnancy hormones make your hair grow faster and much less of it fall out I thought locks for love would be a great venue. The weekend before we found out about Elizabeth Anne's passing I went and had 10" cut off to be sent to cancer patients in need of hair. The lady that cut my hair was saying it was a great commemoration for her (really she said good kharma, but that's all hooey). So, here is one more thing my little one was able to do without even being born. My gracious she has touched so many and never even breathed a breath on this earth. Imagine how much more we can do with our time here!

Before - in the salon.

After - at the cabbage patch factory (we'll get to that trip later).

Where to start...

As anyone who has this link probably knows, we recently suffered the indescribable loss of our baby girl Elizabeth Anne. She was 37 weeks along and everything was seemingly going wonderfully with the pregnancy. I went in for a "normal / boring" 37 week check up where we were supposed to just listen to her heart beat, measure my tummy, and move on to plan the more exciting appointment for the following week where we would schedule an induction date. When I went in my doctor was called away for surgery, so after waiting a while they took me around to another doctor for my "routine" visit. She couldn't find a heartbeat on the in-room monitor so they immediately took me to ultrasound. The ultrasound confirmed that my baby girl had passed away - no heartbeat, no blood flow in the cord, nothing. From that point everything gets very hazy and time didn't have a whole lot of meaning. I was taken to a room to call everyone I needed to and wait for David to get to me. Loving friends got there in what seemed like the blink of an eye and were there to cry with me, pray with me, take my mind off of things whenever possible, and just be there. My doctor came in and prayed with me as well as several of her colleagues. Through the cries of so many that cared for us, God scooped us up and physically carried us through what followed. I have no idea how I made it through the whole process, but underneath it all, at the foundation of everything I knew that if God had placed this situation in our path he would be there to get us through it all. He has truly shown Himself to us in very tangible, real ways as we have been processing it all and working toward some semblance of healing. I wish I could say we are completely on the other side of it all and any time we think of Elizabeth Anne now it is always with a sense of hope toward the eternity we will spend together. Yes, that feeling is starting to overtake the others, but the hole in our family and in our hearts definitely flares up periodically.

I want to express our gratitude to all the countless acts of love and kindness shown to our family, we are truly blessed beyond measure to have such faithful, caring people in our lives. The meals, the cards, the words of encouragement, the similar testimonies, the prayers, the acts of service, the donations, and on and on. The knowledge that so many people cared for us and our baby girl was one of the few comforts we had to cling to. May God bless each one of you for how much you touched our lives in a time it was sorely needed.

Now we are starting to pick up the pieces and see how to move forward from here. We have two little girls, and Elizabeth Anne will always be our daughter - just our little girl had a purpose in heaven that we won't understand until we can get up there and hold her tightly. Praise God we have our little Sarah Katherine here with us to keep us focused on the healing process for her sake. She has been my saving grace for the past two months. Her caring personality and loving demeanor have ministered to mommy in a way no one else ever could.

Elizabeth Anne was a beautiful angel and looked so much like her sister did, except while SK was bald Elizabeth Anne had black, curly hair. I will have to dream about when I get to heaven and finally have some hair I know what to do with on her! I know she has her heavenly body and with this is probably perfect heavenly hair, but surely I'll get a pass to do some pig tails and bows since I had to miss out here. Below are some pictures of our little angel, baby I can't wait to see you!