Updates....

Ok so, I realize failure at this blog thing is happening. How did life get so busy that it's so hard to just sit down for 10 minutes and update this??! Well, here goes.... my life is pretty amazing. Our God is so gracious, wonderful, and breath-takingly awesome that I can't really put it into words. How did I walk into this life? I have not just one, but two more precious than anything angel babies. Every time I look into their little faces I see God's glory. I am married to man who is after God's own heart, and who is still and always my very best friend. We just celebrated 7 years of marriage. (That is just so cool!) ;) I can't wait till we can say 25 years, 50 years....basically I just really love this man! Will is going to be 4 in 3 short months!! How, oh how has my baby boy grown so quickly??! I love his crazy words for things and the seemingly endless things he learns every day. Leave it to a 3 year old to make you look at every single thing around you differently. "Momma, did God make that sunshine rise to love me?" Yes, baby, God loves us every minute of every day. Thank you Jesus for putting this precious boy in my life to be a constant reminder of Your love! Our little Brookie turned 1 in November. She is the sweetest, silliest little girl I have ever had the pleasure of loving. Her antics have me laughing every day. She has this built in knowledge of what will make us laugh and lives to act it out. Whether it be putting her brothers undies on her head (from the clean laundry basket), dancing, or her raised eyebrow smooches, she is quite the little character. I love her more than I knew possible. God is amazing! He knows exactly what we need and His timing is perfect! He has given me more than I could have ever dreamed of asking for myself. Praise be to God from whom all blessings flow!
I will post new pics soon!

Are we sure they aren't TWINS??!!!

Top: Will a few days after birth
Bottom: Brooke a few days after birth

No, you are not looking at two pictures of the same baby. How do I know this for sure?? Because our camera has a little display log that tells the day and hour of the pic. Is it possible to have twins 2.5 years apart??? It will be amazing to watch them grow and see if the similarities continue. What precious babies God has blessed me with!!

Remembering the arrival of an angel...

Brooke Lauren Pyron

November 9, 2009

11:29am

7lbs 13oz 19 3/4 in.

I know that probably every mom feels this way, but, how can it be possible that God chose me to be the Mommy to the sweetest little angel girl, our little Brooke Lauren. Just over a year ago we were happily living out our lives with our sweet Will, not even realizing what was missing. We didn't know then how dramatically, wonderfully, and beautifully our lives were about to be changed in the coming November. In March 2009, March 11th to be exact (which just so happens to be Jarod's birthday) I felt the strong need to get a pregnancy test. Even though we weren't planning another little one, I had the STRONG suspicion that one was on the way. Jarod and I had talked and decided we wanted to wait a little longer. This is a perfect example of why it is laughable to try and plan out our own lives without consulting God. God had other plans, and the test was indeed positive. I was TERRIFIED. Strange enough, I was not scared this time about losing the baby. God had given me this unbelievable peace about that part, I understood that this was meant to be by God regardless of the outcome. No, I was terrified that Jarod might be upset, mainly because I know how much pressure he feels to provide for his family. I nervously went to the store and found a very fitting gift bag that said "With God all things are possible" and put the positive test along with a note that simply said "I Love You" in a box and then into to gift bag, and added the bag to his birthday presents. When he got home from work, we did the traditional birthday things- had his favorite dinner, ate a birthday cake I made, and then began opening presents. I made sure the fate-filled bag was to be opened last. When he got to that bag I said "READ THE FRONT...MEMORIZE THE FRONT! ;)". My eyes welled up as I nervously waited for him to understand. To my joy, he started to cry and just held me...he was sooooo happy! *Phew* Now the LOOONNG wait to meet our little one began. We decided to wait till Easter to tell the family we were expecting, mainly to spare them the hurt if this pregnancy ended in another miscarriage. I was totally at peace, thanks to precious Jesus, I knew no matter what that it was God's plan and He would see us through. Easter Sunday came and I was approximately 10 weeks, and an early sono showed our little peanut looked healthy and was growing well. The doctor was convinced I had my dates wrong because "it just couldn't be". Well, we knew that God is not bound by our science, or our realms of knowledge. The baby was measuring about 12 days ahead. I got Easter eggs for each member of my family and tucked a little note inside that said " For Easter : A Thanksgiving gift to be delivered to you on or around November 19, 2009. " Our little Thanksgiving gift was on the way. What a reason to give thanks!! It took a minute for the meaning of the note to sink in, then the Easter table errupted in cheers and laughter amid many tears! As the months passed, this pregnancy proved much easier emotionally, but somewhat more difficult physically. I was SICK, from very early on till well into the fifth month when I finally got a little relief, only to have it return around month 7. Around the 20th week, we got to go to our sono to find out the gender (no, I didn't want to wait any longer than I had to this time either!) I really felt like it was a girl, but had convinced myself it was another boy. My Mom and Grams came with Jarod, Will, and of course me. The sono tech started looked at all the important things (heart, lungs, brain) and taking measurements first. After what seemed like forever, she looked and said well "It definately looks like a female!" That was it!! The tears started flowing and in that moment I realized how joyfully my heart had been wishing for a little girl to share this life with. I bawled the remainder of the sonogram to the point that I had to ask Jarod for details later on. We were in shock! There had not been a girl in Jarod's family for 48 years, and no girls in mine for 15 years. How very like our God to bless us with this child we were not expecting and to make her what we were not expecting. Immediately Jarod said, her name is gonna be Brooke Lauren, and so it was. The next few months passed in a blure of excited pink frenzy! I discovered that it is very nearly impossible to pass up the endless racks of pink, ruffly cuteness that is in every store! Everyone around us was excited to finally have an excuse to head towards the girl section of the baby stores. We asked Will throughout the early part of the pregnancy whether he wanted a brother or a sister to which he proudly exclaimed "Sisser!!" God is so GOOD!! As Fall neared I was starting to feel like this little girl wasn't going to wait all the way to November 19th. Jarod had guessed Will's birthday exactly right and his guess for this baby was November 9th. On October 27th I had a doctor appt and the doctor said I was 3 cm dialated and around 50% effaced!! Oh my goodness!! We started to wonder at that point if I would make it out of October before she came. This time around it seemed so much harder to wait for her, mainly I think because we truly understood what we would get at the end of it all. My mom vehemently DID NOT want her to be born on Halloween! :) When November 1st came, I was READY! I spent the next 8 days walking laps up and down the hill in our neighborhood in an attempt to move things along. On Sunday November 8th, Jarod and I disappointedly were going to bed, not happy to be facing another Monday. I was TERRIFIED that I would go into labor while Jarod was stuck in rush hour to or from work and he would not make it to the hospital in time. Monday morning I woke up and just felt "weird". It was around 5:30am. I put Jarod on red alert at 6ish. He called his boss and said he may be in late, or we may be headed to the hospital. I went out to walk the neighborhood and see if I could either get things going, or if it would pass. At 7am the first true HARD contraction hit. We called my mom to come get Will and take him to the babysitter. By 7:30 the contractions were coming hard and fast, about 2-3 min apart and lasting 1.5 min long. We knew we needed to hurry. Can I just say you have not truly hated morning rush hour until you have driven through it in full labor. It took us an hour to get to the hospital!! When they checked me there, I was 7.5 cm dialated. They started my IV and ordered a epidural right away to try and slow down the labor so they could get antibiotics in me to treat the Strep B I tested positive for. Ohhhhhhh...once again...bless that epidural man! After learning what it feels like to be a pincushion (first nurse could not get epidural in and poked me like 7 times) in walked the epidural King! He took maybe two minutes, and 1 poke and I was ONE HAPPY PREGGO LADY! By 11am I was ready to push. My mom had been in the room with me while Jarod stepped out to let the rest of family know the latest update. They told him to hurry back, it was time. My mom got to stay in the room and 29 min later at 11:29am on November 19, 2009 our little angel made her entrance. Jarod guessed the day right yet again!! I wish there were words to describe how it felt to hold her the first time. I will never forget when they lay her on my chest immediately after Jarod cut the cord and she reached out and grabbed hold of my finger with deliberate force. In that single moment she grabbed hold of my heart so completely I will never be the same. I cannot imagine life without this angel among us. Our hearts, and lives will never be the same as they were before this beautiful, suprise blessing from our most gracious God.

Cuteness!!

Can I just say...I LOVE my boy! It's funny how the moment they are born you think, I could never possibly love anyone more than this, then they give you their first smile, giggle their first giggle, and ohhhhh...tell you they love you all on their own, and you fall in love deeper and harder than you can even imagine. Every day is my new favorite day and every age is my new favorite age. I love that he is becoming his own person, even when the assertion of that will is sometimes very frustrating to a very TIRED mommy. :) He says new hilarious things everyday. Usually the struggle is...trying NOT to laugh when I should be getting on to him. I also am guilty of not correcting a misspoken word simply because it's just so stinkin cute, and ok maybe it makes him seem a little more like my baby boy ;)

These are a few CUTE baby words that we have been through...

I wish I had been writing these down as we went, I have already forgotten so many :(

Will's word * Translation

Hop-o-pus * Octopus

Algerator-ator-ator * Aligator

Pweese * Please

Al Gore * Elephant (do not ask me to explain this, I have NO IDEA.)

Hock-o-lopter * Helicopter

AmyDonalds * McDonalds

Bwanken * Blanket

AHH-Mee * Cousin Amy

Poo-cuter * Computer

Crank-a-lator * Calculator

Pie-art * Pirate

Buddy * Belly

I know there were hundreds more that are just escaping me at the moment :( I hate that my memory is so flawed. Thats why I am doing this though. To write down these precious memories to someday be able to share them with him. I thank God for that little boy every day, and I am reminded of how very precious he is with every memory of him I hold. Talk about making the cross more real??!! God freely gave up His little angel boy for me??!! I cannot fathom why, but I am so joyously glad that He did. What a glorious God we serve. Thank you God, for my beautiful precious little Will, thank you that you gave your precious son that we might live!

Remembering the arrival of our first joy...

William Michael Pyron

Monday May 21, 2007

2:47pm

7lbs 13oz 19 1/4 in.

I wanted to take the time to post memories from almost 3 years ago!! (How has it possibly been almost 3 years???!!) After surviving 2 miscarriages and learning to trust God in wholy new ways we learned we were expecting for the third time. I was scared to be excited, considering our past, but truth is....I WAS EXCITED!! I tried to convince myself the first pregnancy had been "meant to be" because I had gotten pregnant dispite birth control. The second pregnancy was "meant to be" because that baby was due on our anniversary. If you haven't guessed, my version of "meant to be" at that time was...all was going to be perfect with the result of a perfect baby after 9 perfect months. I know, I know.... After the first miscarriage, I felt very literally shattered, my faith, my heart, my very soul. I felt betrayed and confused and...bruised. When I got pregnant again right away, dispite birth control again, I just knew this was my reward. Compensation if you will for the precious baby I had loved to the depth of my heart and then lost. This miscarriage came almost right away. I was at home praying and was convicted that my attitude was that this was "my" child. MINE. With tears I began to pray that God would change my heart and help me to give this most precious child over to him. Within an hour or so of this, the pains started. This time I am ashamed to say, I was not just hurt, I was ANGRY! Why, when I had done exactly as God commands and layed my life, and my childs life in His hands, did He immediately take that life?? I know this sounds crazy. I give it to you Lord, but don't really take it. This was a HARD lesson to learn. Months of prayers and TONS of tears later and I am still a work in progress. I can say without a doubt that I do not take our little angel blessings for granted. They are God's, freely given. Little treasures who belong to Him. How in the world can we possibly ever be worthy of such a gift? The answer...I'm not, but despite this, our God loves us so much, He blesses us anyway. Hence...we were pregnant again! I took a pregnancy test in the bathroom at work, and with shaking hands read the two little lines that would forever change our lives. Its amazing how those two little lines can mean so much! I got home from work before Jarod, so I ran to the store and bought a teddy bear, and a bib that said "I Love Daddy!". Even though it was early, and even though I half expected this pregnancy to end in failure yet again, I kept thinking...but if not, I don't want the story of how I told Daddy they were coming to be anything but JOYOUS! So...when Jarod came in the door I met him with a teddy bear wearing the "I Love Daddy" bib, a positive pregnancy test tied to it's neck and a balloon that said "Welcome Baby". Do you know what his response was?? ..................Wait for it............he says, with this confused look on his face..."It's not my birthday???". If this were not histerical I might have been disappointed, but instead I started cracking up and said "Look closer, dear!". The beginning of the pregnancy was rough. I was spotting ALOT. There was more than one time that I was convinced we were about to suffer miscarriage number 3, but our God had other plans. I remember riding in the car during one of these times and "The Voice of Truth" song came on by Casting Crowns. This song talks of listening to the voice of truth and believing in Him that He will carry out His perfect will in your life. I had to pull the car over I was bawling so hard. Where was my faith?? I repented and I will never forget the peace that came over me. I knew in that moment that everything would be perfect. Not necessarily my version of perfect, but even better, God's version. After the spotting stopped, in part to my amazing OB (God truly blessed me with that doctor!), we got to go find out what we were having. And no, for those that are far more patient than I, I did NOT want to wait. I prefer this particular surprise as soon as I can find out. :) Jarod and I both had to work the morning of the sonogram although I doubt any REAL work was accomplished. Much as I hate to admit it, I was terrified (little faith again!). What if something was wrong?? What if there was no baby there at all??? What if, what if, what if......??? I was also worried about what the sex of the baby might be. Now, this is not what it may seem. We already had names picked for either sex. (William Michael-"Will" for a boy, and Bethany Grace for a girl) But...if you could have seen the longing in Jarod's face for a baby girl amidst all the boys in his family, you would understand. The doc thought the first miscarried baby was a girl after biopsies. Probably partially for this reason, Jarod REALLY wanted a girl, and I consequently REALLY wanted to give him one. Our parents also wanted a girl because there are none on either side for years! All this created...pressure!! I prayed all the way to the sonogram that I just wanted God's will for us and that He might bring all our families to love this child no matter the sex, because I did. I remember saying, "God, your will, I just want your will!" over and over. Turns out I should have been praying that God would lighten Jarods foot on the gas peddle while he was on his way to meet me at the sonogram. Maybe I should have been praying for the cop to have compassion for an extremely nervous, first time Daddy-to-be on his way to find out the gender of his unborn baby. But I did not pray that, and the cop was not compassionate. Jarod ended up with a speeding ticket. :) I might have(ok, probably would have) under any other circumstances been upset, but at the time, I was just grateful he made it in time. When we found out it was a little boy, we were shocked. We both walked out of the office in silent awe. There is NOTHING like seeing your unborn baby being formed by God's hands while still in the womb. Jarod had to go back to work, (I don't know how he got anything done) so I was alone on the drive home. That's when it hit me. How amazing it is when God answers your prayer verbatim and you didn't even realize for what you were asking. I was indeed having "God's Will." He was creating in me His perfect Will for us. How beautiful is our God. Jarod, our parents, grandparents, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, no one was disappointed as I feared. It was as if they too understood that this was God's perfect little Will for us and this child would be beyond anything we could have dreamed. From this same miraculous sonogram, shattering news came. Will was diagnosed with severe hydronephrosis. This is basically where there is a blockage in the ureter(tube that leads from the kidney) and it causes the collecting duct inside the kidney to be enlarged. Will's was more than 3 times the normal size. The doctor we followed up with said he should not have even survived. Talk about scary!! We were terrified, to think that this child who we had come to love so completely might be taken away was horrifying. Everything we could find out about hydronephrosis was scary. They told us he would have to have surgery within 24 hrs of birth (scary!!), and prognosis from there could be anything from shunts in his back to drain the kidney, to eventual kidney failure and the need to be on the kidney transplant list. I finally understood about being a parent. I understood the need to take away your childs pain and have it on yourself. Why couldn't it be me instead??!! For the next 4 months of the pregnancy we bounced between sonos every 1-2 weeks, to pediatric urologists, to high risk pregnancy doctors, all of them warning us, they may need to take him out at any time. We made it to 39 weeks and that Saturday night I started contracting. When the contractions were 5 mins. apart for more than an hour we decided to head to the hospital. Our parents met us there amid much excitement, including my mom leaving a friend's daughter's wedding early, only to find out that I was not changing so they were going to send me home. :( All day Sunday I contracted off and on. My mom and Grams took us out to eat for what my mom lovingly and teasingly referred to as "our last supper", meaning the last supper we would have without our sweet Will here. Sunday night May 20th, 2007 I had my first HARD contraction at 11:29. I got up to try and clock them and let Jarod get a little more rest. By 3am I was on my knees with my head in the recliner breathing through the contractions. That is how Jarod found me. While scolding me for not waking him sooner he started throwing stuff into a bag and saying "I don't care what you say, we are leaving now!" :) I love Daddies when Momma is in labor!! Cuteness at it's peak!! We called my mom and she said she was headed our direction. The plan had been for her to follow us to the hospital since she lives so close, and no matter how old you get, when you are in that much pain a part of you always still wants Mommy! Jarod got tired of waiting(he was still in panic mode!) so we started towards my moms house(just to be moving I guess). When we saw her car, Jarod did a u-turn out of Fast and Furious and we were speeding towards the hospital going around 90. Good thing it was 3 am and so there was no traffic. When we got to the hospital, Jarod jumped from the car and ran into the hospital while I was still waddling my way to the door. I had just gotten into the breezeway when another HARD contraction hit and I had to stop to breathe through it. Jarod, obviously very aggrievated with what seemed to him as doddling in a very inopportune time, came back around the corner, huffs and said "Aren't you coming??!!" LOL! I love that man more than life itself, and I assure you he is probably one of the most caring males on the planet, but the man does not handle medical emergencies in his family well! We finally got to the Labor and Delivery floor and were excited when they checked me and said I was already dialated a little past a 7!!!! Once they got me settled then I just had to wait for the only man who's name I didn't even know, but LOVED. The epidural man. To this day I do not know his name, nor could I give you even the most basic of descriptions of him. All I know is that man brought with him the GOOD STUFF, and delivered it with such expertise that I was singing his praises for the next hours while the monitors told of ever increasing contractions. Contractions that I could no longer feel. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! By 9:45am I was fully dialated and ready to start pushing. This is the point where fantasy land met reality. I, in my pre-labor dreaming thought that once you were read to push, it was a mere matter of moments til you met your little angel. As I said...reality entered. 5 hours, yes 5 hours of hard pushing later, Will made his screaming entrance into the world. His arm came out first with his head as if to cheer victory. There are moments in life you will NEVER forget. I will never forget giving birth. I will never forget the doctor yelling at the nurse "check his arm! can he move his arm??" I will never forget how it felt to have my heart pulled from my chest and then gently laid in my arms. I will never forget looking into those newborn eyes. Eyes that look like they have just seen heaven. Wise, beautiful, eternal eyes. I usually HATE Mondays! Mondays mean the weekend is over. Mondays mean less family time, back to work time, tired time. But this day, I loved Monday! Monday was the day my son was born, God's perfect Will. As if this miracle wasn't enough. As if the fact that God created life out of nothing was not enough, our miracle was perfect. In fact, after all the medical scares, our biggest worry was jaundice, and how best to clean stains out of Daddy's shirt when Will peed on him. At a follow up after testing with his urologist the doctor said " I have NEVER seen a child go from a situation as bad as his, to nothing at all. He is as perfect inside as he is on the outside!" God did not just get us through, or heal Will, He made it disappear completely! What a mighty and glorious God we serve!! Almost 3 years later we are not on a transplant waiting list, Will does not have multiple surgery scars, and he is not even on any kinds of meds. My little boy is perfect, he truly is God's perfect Will for me. It is a beautiful thing to be able to turn your prayers from the survival of your child to more eternal matters. I pray he loves God more than anything else, and that he is an example of what God can do to everyone he meets in the same way he has already been that very thing to his Mommy!