Please Pray for the Brandts

I am not sure how many of you know Rachel (Powell) Brandt. She attended George Fox and played basketball and track. She and her husband Tony had their third baby last week - David Howard and he has some serious health problems. They could use everybody's prayers. I am attaching Rachel's emails so you can know what is going on.

March 23 - David Howard Brandt was born Thursday, March 20. He surprised everyone and weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz (almost 2 lbs more than his brother and sister were at birth), and 19.5 inches. We would appreciate your prayers - God isn't through teaching us that our kids are His kids. He wasn't eating and they have found he has some lower small bowel obstructions and is currently in the NICU in Eugene. Doing lots of tests, surgery is a possibility, waiting to see what the doctors/surgeons want to proceed with. Sam and Abby are with grandparents, we are back and forth. It has been a very long 4 days and we still have a lot ahead of us at this point. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors, peace for us and health for David Howard.

March 24 - A better day today for David. Last night they had to give him morphine for pain, but today he did alright without any. He was much more peaceful and relaxed - which made it much easier on Mom and Dad. He had several more procedures, tests, photo therapy for jaundice and a biopsy. The biopsy is for Hersh-Shprungs (who knows if I spelled that right) Disease - where the muscle of the colon and rectum have a section that doesn't work, and would require surgery. The results for that and the Cystic Fybrosis testing will take several days - more waiting - but at least we know what we are up against. We are praying that both of these tests come back negative. Good news - he is having some dirty diapers, those are worthy of celebration right now! We were able to hold him more today, that is a gift lately. Thanks for your prayers - we need all of them we can get. -Rachel

March 25 -This morning we got to the hospital and things were looking great - the doctor and surgeon had good news to report on how David was doing, how his latest x-rays looked, etc. They were just waiting for the biopsy to make certain we were in the clear. 2 hours later the biopsy came back and the pathologists are 99.9% certain he tested positive for having Hirschsprung's Disease. What an emotional roller coaster to go from a high to a low like that. He will have surgery, but it hasn't been decided how soon that will be - more waiting. His meconium plugs are gone so they would like to try getting some nutrients and eventually food down him if he can tolerate that so that he would be stronger and older at the time of the surgery - if he does well he could come home after he is stable and eating well, until the surgery. Otherwise he will have the surgery sooner. The surgery will be done at OHSU in Portland and this surgeon will work with another surgeon from there to do the procedure. Tony told me that it is like Caleb and Joshua, when they spied out the land there were giants there, but they believed that God was bigger than the giants. Our David (and us too) is facing his own giant right now - but our God is bigger. We want to believe that God loves us and is going with us through this, even though right now we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel- to be honest, as a parent it is pretty dark right now. Thank you for praying for us - we need it right now! For now we will keep going up and spending the days with David - holding him, praying over him, singing to him, loving on him as much as we can. Then each night coming home to love on our other two precious kids. -Rachel and Tony

30 something days left

I like having information. Information makes me feel more prepared for what is to come. So - I have been reading a lot since I became pregnant. However, there are several things that I knew were coming but just wasn't prepared for.

1. Heartburn - I've never had heartburn before so I didn't know what to expect. I hate Tums, so I just drink water.

2. Lack of sleep - I know that this is just the beginning. Getting up to pee doesn't bother me - it's the fact that I had no idea my hips would hurt from sleeping on my side or that rolling over is such a chore. Thank goodness for Snoogles!

3. I did not expect to forget what my body use to look like. It seems like it was forever ago that I could look straight down at my feet.

This picture was taken of me last week at around 33 1/2 weeks. I had a doctor's appointment this week and everything looks good. In two weeks I will have my last ultrasound and will switch to injecting Heparin instead of Lovenox. It is absolutely surreal that our little munchkin could be here anytime.

People have been ridiculously generous. Friends have let me borrow maternity clothes, bouncers, swings and so much more. I have a closet full of clothes (although oddly - no pants, but that will be an easy fix), blankets galore, a car seat, cradle, a diaper bag and so much more! I am going to finish buying some things this weekend and then hopefully will be ready for this guy (still no name) to show up!

I also am inspired by all of you that are doing spring cleaning! I keep hoping for some energy so I can join you! I made myself a long list of things I would like to accomplish this weekend and hopefully will get most of them done!

Winter Kayaking

Two weeks ago Forrest and I went down to my mom's house in Oregon to help her get ready to move. They painted the family room and Forrest and his dad fixed all of the toilets and put in a garbage disposal. I had the job of swiffering all of the wood floors. Doesn't sound too difficult, but there are over 3500 square feet of wood floors. On Sunday, Nate and Ramie and Merrick, Hannah, and Grace came over to hang out. The boys decided it would be fun to go kayaking on the river.

Merrick had never been kayaking before so we put him in the Hobie, which in my opinion is the funnest kayak ever. It has foot peddles, so you just fly. Forrest and Nate were in the double kayak, and Merrick just went in circles around them. Hannah and I were cold, so once we sent them off, we went back inside. It did make us look forward to this summer though - warm sun, kayaking and boating.

FYI - I found some infant life jackets at Sam's Club for 20$. I bet Costco has them too.

Nursery Update

I promised pictures of our Nursery 3 weeks ago. The bottom wall is Seahawks blue and the chair rail the slightly darker Seahawks blue. Forrest and his dad also put in the base moulding, door molding, and painted the closet doors and other door white. Forrest made the window seat out of an old set of drawers that he painted white and last night we covered the top.

For those of you who have been to our house and slept in our guest bed that use to be in the nursery. Forrest and his dad made a frame for it, and it is now a day bed in our bonus room downstairs.

And a belly picture. This is me yesterday at 30 weeks.

A Post About Christmas...

I know, I know. I am incredibly late with these pictures. But better late than never right? Forrest and I went to Jackson for Christmas. It was wonderful to spend time as a whole family, remembering my dad and celebrating Christ's birth together.


Elisa is quite the personality and here is dancing to her uncle Ryan playing the piano.





I absolutely love snow. I find myself getting slightly depressed during winter in Washington, especially when right before Christmas we had tons of rain. It was great to spend an entire week in the white stuff. Forrest and I went cross country skiing and snow shoeing. Forrest also went snowboarding and sledding.

Sadie Pearl. She is such a cutie. I loved just snuggling with her whenever I could steal her away from her mom, Nana, or Aunt Michelle.

Elisa loves to cook. If she hears the Kitchenaid going, she will come running. She got an apron of her own for Christmas and here she is helping Nana make Poteca (a Christmas bread) for some friends. She also helped her aunt Amy make cinnamon rolls.

A new room

Here is a picture of me taken about a week ago. I was 26 weeks, 4 days. The bump is for sure there.

In other news, Forrest's parents came up and worked on the nursery with us this weekend. I say us, but I did very little. Forrest and Frank worked really hard and the room looks great. Here is a before photo, and as soon as I upload an after photo, I will post it.

Baby Update

Wow, I went to look at my ticker this morning and I am down to double digits in the countdown! That is just crazy! Everything is going great. I had an ultrasound two weeks ago and the baby looked good - he is measuring a little big - which makes me a tad bit nervous for the delivery. He is moving around a lot and is really active right when I want to go to bed. :) Forrest felt the baby for the first time this week. I get these email updates and all of them said that you could possibly hear the baby's heartbeat through my stomach, so Forrest put his ear to my tummy. He couldn't hear anything, but did get a couple of kicks in the ear.

I am close to being done with registering at Babies R Us and Target. We have picked out a crib, and when my mom comes to visit in two weeks she and I are going to pick out fabric for the bedding. We have done absolutely nothing to the nursery, but hopefully will start soon. I would like to have it done and out of the way sooner rather than later.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of me! Forrest is gone this weekend, and I forgot to ask him to take one!