34 Weeks!

Okay, so I'm not in love with this picture, I think my head and face look really strange, but that's okay... It's a good belly shot to represent 34 weeks! I had Jamie capture this yesterday at the pool, and I was exactly 34 weeks pregnant yesterday. I will be full term in just 3 short weeks. Yippee! But... I could also go all the way to 42 weeks which is a LONG (or it feels like it to me...)8 weeks away. We are sincerly praying for an August delivery, not just for the comfort and convenience of me either, there are a number of factors playing into that prayer request, so please pray with us!

I think my asthma is a bit better. I'm not sure if it's the new inhaler kicking in or the more mild weather. It's not all the way better, but much improved! Thank you for the prayers and keep them coming.

Have a great day!

P.S. I attempted to post the following three posts in the correct order (Kids' Day, Kids' Day Part II, and Kids' Day Part III). It did not happen though and I can't figure out how to correct it, so sorry if it's hard to follow!

Kids' Day Part II

After Breakfast in Bed and giving Sophia a few small gifts... we headed over to our local park, Brookside Park. This is such a wonderful place. They have a huge pool, which is very nice and clean, and inexpensive (Sophia is still free!). They also have numerous play structures, picnic tables, mini-golf, a duck pond and a yummy ice cream shop. It is one of the nicest community parks I've ever seen and we love going there.

All decked out and ready to get in the "big" pool.

(you can't really tell, but she is fluttering her eyelashes - she's recently started doing this when saying "cheese" or when asking Jamie for something! :) )

Borrowing someone's fish floaty to take a float around the baby pool.

Now there's the life!

Kids' Day Part III

Brookside Park has a great Ice Cream shop, "The Merry Go Round." Lot's of yummy ice cream flavors, HUGE portions, and a whole wall of "penny" (well 15 -25 cents) candy. So fun!

One last go down the slide before heading home...

It's Kids' Day!

You may recall me posting about Sophia asking an interesting question on Mothers' Day, and actually, again on Fathers' Day. In our house we try to make certain days of the year special and do our best to make each member of the family feel honored, loved and valuable. These special days are definitely birthdays, Valentine's Day, and Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Well, Sophia's question was... "When is Kids' Day?" My first response was, "Everyday is Kids' Day," and we sort of just laughed it off.

As the summer wore on I couldn't get this out of my head. Why not honor our beautiful daughter (and once Bean is here, he/she will get to get in on the action too!) with her own, random, special day? So, the First Annual Abrusci Kids' Day was born! July 25 is the date and following you will get to see all the fun things we did to honor our daughter. If you have kids, I'd encourage you to create something to this effect of your own. It was just a fun, special day. Sophia loved it, and you know what? - So did Jamie and I!!!

"Goodmorning Sophia! Happy Kids' Day!"

It all started with breakfast in bed!

Sophia trying out her new swimming goggles :)

Jamie found a great little digital camera. It was only $15 and Sophia is just having a blast with it!

Bugs anyone?

So, my dear and longtime friend, Danielle (who currently resides in Colorado) is in Ohio this week and graciously made the trip down to Ashland today to visit us. Danielle is one of those rare jewels of a friend (actually, I have been blessed by many of these types of friends and I'm so glad she's one of them). She came bearing gifts today; some adorable baby clothes for Bean and ... a Bug Vacuum for Sophia! You may ask, what is a bug vacuum? Well, it's this toy that vacuums up bugs into this little compartment with an attached magnifying glass for extra inspection. You can then set the bug free. Well, Sophia has been having quite the time with this new toy today! She practiced with some little paper bugs we made and then found quite a few real bugs outside on our walk this afternoon! Thanks Danielle!!! :)

Seedling

When Sophia joined me for our morning cuddles this morning I was reading my Bible. She immediately said, "I'm going to read my Bible too!" She ran and found it and proceeded to sit next to me in bed "reading" her Bible. Jamie and I pray daily that the soil of her heart would be softened towards the Lord and seeing her enthusiasm to read His Word just thrilled my soul.

* we slept on the sofa bed last night because our room is very stuffy and hot right now! Just in case you were wondering. :) And yes, that blue rounded thing at the bottom right of the second picture is none other than my belly!

Rainfall and pink toenails

The weather has been so hot and humid lately. Our house stays cool for the first couple hot days, but then, not so much. It also really holds on to the humidity. So, for this VERY pregnant asthmatic, not ideal conditions. Today it rained, and it rained hard! No thunder, no lightening, just a long, hard summer evening rain. Soph and I had just finished dinner and were bummed that we couldn't take a walk. Well, I suggested we run outside in our bare feet and play in the rain! Of course I didn't have to convince Sophia that this was a good idea. I quickly threw some beach towels by the front door for our reentry, and off we went! I wonder if any neighbors were looking out their windows at us. It was so refreshing, so blissful, so fun. It definitely took me back to my childhood days of playing in the rain with friends in Africa. Soph had a blast running and jumping through puddles, splashing Mom and getting soaked. She said she was a bit chilly, but I was loving it so much I convinced her to stay out just a bit longer. :) By the time I was ready to go in though, she was begging to stay out longer!

After we were dried off we decided to paint our toe nails. Soph always likes doing that and has been asking me to paint hers for a few days now. What a good rainy day activity. So, we have matching pink toe nails!

Tonight's activities made me realize I need to cherish these last weeks of only having one kiddo on the outside. Spontaneous rain play and toe nail painting won't come so easily once Baby Bean is born, at least for awhile. Thankful for my sweet Sophia tonight.

Goodbye Rachel

Our dear friend, Rachel, is leaving Sunday. Of all our International friends here in Ashland, we have known Rachel the longest. She is the one that introduced us to Mandarin and faithfully taught us the language all of last year. She recently graduated from AU with her Master's of Education and plans to teach children - which she will be great at! She has been such a dear friend; always cheerful, kind and generous. We will miss her so much as she moves back to Taiwan. She's now added to the list of friends whom we'd love to visit in their home countries some day. Pray for Rachel as she travels and readjusts to life with her family back in Taiwan. Pray also that the Lord would keep reaching out for her that she might truly be a sister to us some day!

New Camera!

Jamie and I have been without a camera for a couple of years now. When our old film camera quit taking nice pictures we just got by with disposables for awhile. Then, Jamie got a phone with a pretty nice camera on it, so we just made do with that - of course that wasn't super convienient because he has to take his phone with him, often leaving me with no way to take pictures. Well, last month Jamie did super well in one of his sales categories and got rewarded with some extra money, so we decided to finally buy a digital camera! We are already loving it and are having fun taking pictures. Here are some random shots we took just getting used to our new toy.

Our beautiful daughter captured by her daddy.

Soph came out of her room with ALL her jewlry on, so I got in the dress up spirit and did up her hair and let her put on some of her glittery play make up!

What a perfect time to try out the new camera!

Whirlwind

Sunday we drove to Akron to be with our family and take part in all the funeral services for Grandma Hanna. Jamie and I wanted Sophia to be a part of the process while also protecting her from things that might scare her or just be too much for her to understand at her age. We opted to not take her to calling hours as there was an open casket and she understands Grandma is in heaven, so we knew seeing the body would not only be scary but very confusing.

Sunday evening there was a dinner for the family and Monday morning we had a short service at the graveside followed by a celebration service and lunch at the church. It was so neat to hear stories of Grandma Hanna and just see the love flowing from people who knew here longer than I did. One of the neat things she did was sew wedding dresses. There was a photo album full of brides in their "Hanna sewn" gowns - including my mom! Apparantly, all she ever asked for in return was a picture. That is a demonstration of her loving and generous heart. We really miss her and hurt especially for Grandpa, but God remains good and ever faithful.

God really gave Jamie and I wisdom and grace as we navigated our little girl through everything Sunday and Monday and we feel confident that she was able to be a part of it without getting scared or confused. Thank you Jesus!

My Dad is out with Grandpa today buying him a computer!!! He'll be learning how to surf the web, check our blogs and email. Hanna really had encouraged him to do this and I think it'll be a fun challange for him.

After funeral services on Monday we were going to spend the rest of the day/evening at my Mom and Dad's with Jeni and David to celebrate my Da'd's birthday, which was Tuesday. Since the Spring, my asthma has been horrible, and since our Dr. is still in Cuyahoga Falls, I had called to see if I could get in Monday afternoon before my Dad's birthday party to try and get a new inhaler or something to get my breathing (or lack there of) under control. Well, my regular physician was out of town so I saw her partner. Very nice Dr. and we liked her. She examined me and listened to me describe my symptoms. She started to get very concerned because things in her mind weren't adding up to just worse asthma. She suspected I could have a blood clot and that it could be in my lungs! So, she sent us immediately over to Akron City Hospital where Jamie and I went to the Labor and Delivery unit for further examination and testing. To say the least, we were scared.

Well, the dr. there examined me and determined I wasn't showing symptoms of a blood clot, so they drew some blood to rule out a few other things and monitored me and Baby Bean for a couple of hours. My mind of course is spinning with the varying opinions of Dr.s I've never met before. By the time we left the hospital, 10:15 that night, I felt confident with their diagnosis that it was just worsening asthma and not a blood clot. They prescribed a steriod inhaler and suggested I get some allergy medicine (one of my main triggers). I started all that new med. today and am praying I start breathing better, more consistantly, soon!

So, it was a whirlwind few days. I'm so thankful for God's mercy. I don't love having my asthma worse, but sure prefer that to a blood clot in my lung (potentially fatal, in case you didn't know)!

Baby Bean is doing just fine! Kicking up a storm and growing great. Sophia has two more days of swim lessons and is really having fun in the water.

Take care and have a great week!

Sadness and Joy

My Grandma Hanna passed away this morning at 4am. Three years ago, this October, my mom's mom died, and almost two years ago my sweet Grandpa remarried my Grandma's best friend of over 50 years, Hanna. About a year ago Grandma Hanna got diagnosed with colon cancer, and eventually her leukemia from long ago came back too. After a run of treatment, she felt at peace to just let the Lord either heal her or take her home. She had a great winter and spring overall and even when hospice came into their home a couple months ago, she always seemed pretty strong still. Things progressed a lot this past week and it got to the point that we were all praying for God's mercy to take her home to heaven. Last night He answered that prayer in what we can trust was His perfect timing.

Grandma Hanna is so special to all of us. My mom and aunts grew up as close friends of the family, Hanna even made my mom's wedding dress! Hanna was at both Jeni and my weddings and I can remember her far back into my childhood. She is the only Great Grandma on my mom's side that Sophia will have memory of, and let me tell you - Sophia loved her Grandma Hanna!!!

That is the hardest part. We've been preparing Soph for this, and in her sadness I've overheard her many times crying out to Jesus not to take Grandma Hanna to heaven. This morning when she came in to my room to ask why I was crying I told her. Jamie was already at work, so Soph and I just laid in bed cuddling, crying and talking. She told me that she had asked Jesus not to take Grandma Hanna. God has given me grace in my attempts to explain things such as not getting the answers from God we hope for and what heaven's all about and death, etc... This will be a hard time for sure as our little girl ponders these things and tries to make sense of them. Her heart is so tender and she was so in love with her Grandma. It breaks my heart.

Our family is close, so we will be spending a lot of time together these next few days. Pray for my Grandpa. He's so sad.

Well, thanks for listening. Services will most likely be this Sunday and Monday. Pray for wisdom for Jamie and I to know what all to allow Soph to be exposed to and a part of. Thanks!

Learning to Swim

The Red Cross offers swim lessons every summer for two weeks at our community pool. Sophia and I signed up for the "Mommy and Me" class (meaning I get in the water with her). Today was our first morning. The water felt cold at first, but the swim instructor was great at tricking the kids to get in slowly and to get wet slowly so they got used to it. Once Soph did that she just loved it and we had a lot of fun. She is a water baby for sure and I'm excited to see her learn some water skills so she can be safe in the pool! Jamie got to come along this morning to watch and snapped a couple pictures before we got in the water.

4th of July, Family and Hot Air Balloons

For the 4th of July this year we were blessed to have some family down for the holiday. Jeni and David - and their sweet beagle, Molly - were able to come down from Michigan for two nights. It was so wonderful spending time with them! On the 4th, Jamie's and my parents and some of my aunts, uncles and cousins also joined up for a backyard picnic and the annual Ashland Hot Air Balloon Fesitval. The Hot Air Balloon field is at the end of our street, about a 2 block distance. Unfortunetly, due to all the recent rain the field was too muddy for the balloons to launch from there. After letting Soph get her face painted and buy some "fair" goodies, we headed back home, only to see all the balloons flying right over our very house about an hour later! Some were quite low and it was fun to stand in our own yard to see the beautiful balloons.

Friday night we walked about two blocks from our house, in the other direction, to the high school, where they did the fireworks. It was our first time seeing Ashland's fireworks, and we were pleasantly surprised! They were really great and we didn't have to drive and deal with parking and traffic.

Saturday night, after dark, Sophia and I headed back to the balloon field where there were about 9 balloons set up and lighting their fires so that they would glow. It was really a pretty sight.

Sunday morning Jamie and I woke up to the sound of the balloons "breathing." We woke up Soph and ran outside to see about ten or so balloons flying very low all around our house. Many of them were landing in the grassy areas and parking lots close to our house to pack up and head to their next festival. It was a fun way to say goodbye to the balloons and the weekend.

Dad and me watching the balloons fly over our house on the 4th.

Sophia's pretty rainbow face paint

This is our backyard on Sunday the 6th. You can see how low the balloons were! (you can also see the awesome play structure my dad is building for Soph)

This is the view from the side of our backyard looking towards the high school. You can see the balloons landing to pack up.

Sophia was waving like crazy! She was sad to see the balloons go