Y loved Sunny and just had to get a picture with her before he left.
Papa & Grandmere’s church (also the church Mark grew up in), sent a sweet gift basket to Emmie. She was thrilled to open it.
Army dude dress up!
A bit of selfies before Mama headed back to the hospital.
I got a car!
Shopping for a bigger stroller for Emmie. Looking at books for the rest of the gang.
Our friend, Tracy, agreed to grab some quick pictures of the kids. The downside was that it was over 100 degrees with humidity and Tracy had an allergy attack. So, while, the pictures were not the best. They provide a great memory and she did a great job editing them. We’ll call these their official school pictures. Enjoy!
Zoe, 7th Grade
Ace, 6th Grade
Liam, 4th Grade
Josiah, 3rd Grade
Y the Brave, 3rd Grade
Ceili Rain, 1st Grade
Bryant, Kindergarten
Malachi, Pre-K
Emmie, Super-hero Training Level 1
And our “class” shots.
We had planned a beach trip for the week before Y the Brave was to leave. Obviously, when Emmie fell, we had to change our plans. We contacted the place we had already reserved our rental with. It “just so happened” that he had it open the weekend before her procedure. When Mark explained what was going on, the owner was more than willing to change our reservation. It was a true blessing and a great house to stay in at a great price!
This was Y the Brave’s first time at the ocean. The kids would have all stayed in the ocean the entire time if we had let them.
Zoe and I scored a skimming board at Goodwill earlier in the summer. By the end of the weekend, a couple of the kids were getting the hang of it.
Malachi was not thrilled about actually getting deep in the water. But making super poses on the beach were just as good.
Emmie didn’t much care for the water either.
Cuddling with mama was on Emmie’s agenday much of th etie.
My absolutely favorite picture of us.
We worked really hard to get a picture before we left. But there’s always that one kid…this time it was Malachi’s turn.
Honey, we shrunk the kids…
…Into starfish
A gentleman walked up to Y in the arcade and gave him tokens to play. Needless to say, the kids had a wonderful time with those tokens.
Emmie loved the pool water even if the big ocean scared her.
Our little swing at the beach house filled with Emmie’s super sidekicks.
One of the highlights of the summer reading program is free tickets to Augusta Greenjackets baseball game. The game came the week after Emmie’s emergency trip and just before her halo traction. The problem we had was that we only had five tickets but there were eleven of us (counting Y the Brave). A neighbor had offered to get tickets for people through his work and we contacted him on a whim. Not only did he get us the extra tickets, but he got us tickets in reserved seating. On the first base line.
Oh ya’ll. The looks on all of our kids faces when they met the baseball players and saw the action up close and personal. It is definitely something I won’t soon forget. We all had a wonderful time. Got bobblehead dolls and watched our Y the Brave experience America’s past time for the the first time. Their biggest highlight was not having to stand in line at concession and getting the unlimited popcorn and soda!
About the sixth inning, it started pouring. I mean really pouring. We all raced to the covered stadium, danced and laughed. This was definitely a wonderful memory before all the stress and uncertainty.
He was due between March 27th and April 1st. But, because the early ultrasound showed the due date close to April 1st and I was likely going to be able to pick a due date since this was almost definitely going to be a repeat c-section, I told Mark we would go for April 1st. I was excited about the name Isaac. It means laughter. How appropriate to deliver a baby boy on a fun day, April Fool’s Day and to rejoice in laughter at the gift of a baby. We were ready for laughter. It has been a hard year.
Things were going good. Emmie was doing great and we were winding down and getting ready to say good-bye to Y the Brave (as much as we dreaded it). Then Emmie fell. And we were in the hospital for the most of August. I thought things were going well for Baby Isaac as morning sickness had settled in and I had, virtually, a week of bed rest while taking care of Emmie.
On the day Emmie was discharged, I had a red flag that things weren’t going as great as we thought for the baby. That was a Friday. The red flags kept coming throughout the weekend. The confirmation came on Monday at the doctor’s office. The day before Y the Brave returned to Europe. Baby Isaac was gone. His beautiful little heart that was so strong at just under six weeks had stopped beating.
The day after we said goodbye to Y the Brave, Mark and I quietly said goodbye to another baby. We had him at the same hospital I have had ten (almost eleven…the eleventh, of course born to a wonderful mama in another country) of my babies and his earthly body is resting with his brother’s in a beautiful garden that holds all the remains of precious lives that never got to walk this earth.
We didn’t tell the kids until recently. Our pastor knew and our close friends and family knew. But, we have held this secret for every one else until now. My heart has been aching to share. To let people know there was a beautiful child here and that he isn’t now. October is Miscarriage and Stillborn Awareness Month and I have seen post after post that cried out to me and let me know that I was not alone. I wanted to shout at the mamas who shared that they were not alone. That the feelings were still raw and real here too. Yet we have grieved ever so silently for this life that we feel is gone too soon.
And then come the gender reveals and announcements of pregnancies because mamas feel that the pregnancy is “out of the woods” for problems. I have rejoiced over and over with my amazing sweet friends. Especially those who have walked this all too familiar road and are now anticipating a beautiful little one. But the tears still come for our little one who we won’t meet. This first year after a loss is so hard. Please forgive me dear friends if the comments are short and quick. Please know we rejoice but know we also think about our little Isaac who is not here.
I know we have a lot to deal with with our children here on earth and our adoption and Super Ems. But our Baby Isaac, although a surprise, was very much wanted and loved.
So, we rejoice over Isaac. That we’ll see him again. And that he is in a much better place than we could ever imagine. I grieve over Isaac. Never having been able to hold his beautiful body. Kiss his sweet cheek. Watch his brothers and sisters ooh and aah over him. And we trust that God is the giver of Life and is with us through death too.
Photo dump time for July!
I love having kitchen helpers.
Trying okra for the first time. It got two thumbs up too!
First Krispy Kreme. Yep. Two thumbs up as well.
Double pig tails! She finally has enough hair.
Fort sticks…one of the best and most fun toys we own!
Waiting to get fingerprints with immigration. Our selfies are awesome.
Rain shower in the summer means ice cream break in the garage.
My hearts.
Opening a gift of a watch from a friend.
Curled up with Babbitt the Rabbit, unnamed pony and Dr. Snuggles. 
First milkshakes
Lego Junior building success with two funny brothers.
“Hello!” Practicing her phone skills early.
Playing in the rain.
Posing before bed.
Early morning snuggles.
As long as everything works out, we will be taking Zoe with us on a trip. To do that special trip, she needed a passport. To get a passport, she needed a passport photo. Because we are cheapos (okay, thrifty), we did the pictures ourselves. Here’s our outtakes:
This is her teenage look.
Lovely…Then we realized the background is patterned and you aren’t supposed to show teeth. Not sure why since teeth are pretty distinctive. 
Solid background gone wrong. 
Are you taking my picture or what?
Finally!
Ack, suddenly my big baby boy is now 5. Not sure how that happened so fast.
My little man went easy on mama for his cake request:
Ice cream cake. We made plans on his date night. He knew exactly what he wanted and he was thrilled when he got it.
Over the course of birthday discussions at the beginning of the summer, we realized that Bryant had never built a bear. This, my friends, is how we create traditions. We decided that 5 years of age is a great age to build a bear and so, subsequent five year olds in our family will be able to create their own stuffed animals. This suited Bryant just fine.
He chose a Superman bear with a Superman outfit and the Star Wars theme song. Oh yes he did.
My goal for the start of school was to take pictures of the kids like this:
]
Pre-k pictures (1st day of school pictures)
1st day of first grade
3rd day of third grade
With some goofiness in between.
And then Emmie fell. And then our first day pictures ended. Oh well. Maybe the second semester we can pick up where we left off.
Summertime and the pool. Ahhh, we absolutely love living in a neighborhood where we can walk less than half a mile to the pool and jump in. Yes, we have to pay for upkeep but we, personally, are not responsible for the chemicals and cleaning of the pool. I just love that.
All the kids were thrilled to have several pool days during this summer. One of those days, Mark took the camera and got some great shots.
Mid-air
Be still my heart…Y the Brave knows just what to do to make mama freak out!
This was a much better jump.
