Fall Turning to Winter

Fall decorations are down and this week Christmas decorations go up. I made my first Christmas ornament of the year. And I have discovered a new hobby, making flowers out of fleece and embroidering them. I'm trying to make the perfect flower to decal onto a white dress that my mom is making for Gracie. This is great therapy for me.

We shopped all over Longview/Kelso this weekend and found only 2 premie outfits in the whole town. And of coarse they were frilly pink, which I try to avoid but ended up buying anyway just so that I have something and don't have to worry about not having a single thing for her to wear since she could come at any moment. I'm hoping to get down to Portland this week to see if I can find something that's not frilly pink.

We had a great black friday, although we had to spend 3 hours at Joanne's fabrics due to the line up at the cutting table. We were able to pick out all the fabric for Gracie's blanket that my sister is going to make and we got all of it for 50% off with an additional 20% off the entire order!!

My nephew Jake, the most sensitive little boy you'll ever meet brought gifts for Gracie. He hasn't read the blog or anything like that but somehow picked out a plaque with a cross on it that had "Faith, Hope and Love" written on it! I feel like this is another reinforcement of God's promise that we all have an important purpose in this life including Gracie. I was looking for some inspiration for what colors to have Gracie's blanket made with and the cross had all the colors I liked on it.

Jake also gave Gracie a teddy bear and last night Gavin was holding the teddy bear and brought it over to my belly and said, "here Gracie." It's hard to know how much Gavin understands, but he does know his little sister's name.

I'm 25 weeks and will go in for another check up with our local doctor tommorow. I have started to hate going to the doctor. At home I can stay in my bubble and don't see the contrast of a "normal" pregnancy with my "new normal" pregnancy. At the doctor, I see all the healthy pregnant women sitting in the waiting room while we sit waiting to hear more disrepectful comments from the doctors about how our baby is "just going to die anyway,"" or "if she lives Gavin will have to learn to live with a handicapped sibling." I really have to put my shield up and try to deflect all this and let God bring me to His peace and even joy, remembering to enjoy every moment that we have with Gracie even at the doctor's office.

Last night I read about a little boy named Nolan who is 5 months old and has full trisomy 18. I have a lot of hope when I read his story because he has only been limited by his heart which is holding up great for him at this point. He doesn't seem to have any other problems except that he needs to be tubefed just because he gets too weak to eat from his heart problem. His mom is only 19 years old and has a great attitude and has done great caring for him with his special needs.

I also made a new friend on facebook who just delivered her baby, Charlize, at 20 weeks (a few weeks ago.) I know I ask for a lot of prayer but if you don't mind adding her to your list, she is really hurting and has to return to work on Wednesday and is very worried about people's reactions at work. She could really use as many prayers as she can get right now.