Ethan is 9

My big guy turned 9 a couple days ago! Truly seems impossible that Ethan is 9 now.

This is him on the first day of 3rd grade. He loves being in school, he is my social butterfly, loves people, loves life. He is a clown and enjoys being center stage but he is also extremely sweet and enjoys his friends and family. He is especially taken with his new sister. She lights up when he comes in the room and begs for his attention with squeaks and grunts and then when he gives her his attention he is greatly rewarded with smiles.

Being a mommy has never been more of a joy. I couldn't have anticipated the journey it's been. 9 years ago I received one of the greatest commissions of my life, to see children raised up to be Godly, loving, amazing additions to society. I was created for this! This is the only job I ever wanted and I love it!

Ethan's birthday is also a bittersweet anniversary for me personally. His 6th birthday was the day I was officially diagnosed with the brain tumor. To see where I am 3 amazing years later, to see all that God has done, has delivered me from and taught me is astounding to say the least! What a treasure this journey has been.

Learning more everyday and loving life! I am truly so blessed!

Living in true riches!

We're back

Not sure if anyone is even out there still. I've missed blogging terribly. I think I felt like I didn't have much to blog about anymore... our lives have calmed down so much and fallen into a beautiful lull of sweet simplicity.

I haven't blogged for 8 months so I had better begin with some pretty major updating.

First and most importantly we have added our newest addition. Grace Elizabeth Burgess. Born March 12, 2010. The sweetest most perfect little bundle of love. She is now 5 months and full of more joy and peace than any lovely bundle could possibly be. She has a quiet personality, loves to sit and observe life, especially her brothers who absolutely adore her. When she wakes up from sleep they are the first ones there saying "Good Morning cutie"! Oh how my heart swells with joy at their love for their sweet sister.

Daniel is working like crazy. He is still painting for my dad's business and he is holding up the business for the summer for my dad.

Which brings me to his situation. Dad has bravely fought and won a battle with cancer!!! He began having some recurring pain from a tumor that he was diagnosed with 4 years ago, when he had another MRI in May it showed that the tumor had grown and needed to come out. Since they don't do surgery on the tailbone they decided radiation was the best way to get rid of it. In the process Dad continued to work like a dog. He is now on the other side of the radiation and we are praising the Lord because the cancer had not progressed into the bone marrow!!! So amazing considering the tailbone where the cancerous tumor was located is one of the places that bone marrow is manufactured! The Dr. was astounded that there was no cancer in the bone and we know it was miraculous!! God is so profoundly good.

In exactly 2 weeks from today my boys will be heading off to school. Last year was Ethan's first year in public school and I continued to homeschool Micah. This year we felt like both we to be in public school, so on Sept. 7th Ethan will be going into the 3rd grade and Micah into the 2nd grade!!! They are beside themselves with excitement. I have mixed feelings. I have loved having them home this summer, and I have enjoyed homeschooling, but they need more than I can give them here at home and we live in such an amazing school district that I felt it was time.

With the changing of this schedule I am having to reinvent myself. I haven't been a stay at home mom of a preschooler in many years and it will be so fun having her all to myself and actually getting to do things like clean my house and go shopping without lots of little ones to undo or make harder those jobs!

As for my health I am finally feeling 100%. I had to deliver Gracie cesarian section so the recovery from that was overwhelmingly hard. I tell everyone that brain surgery was a piece of cake compared to that!! But I am finally recovered and my body has rejuvenated from morning sickness and brain surgery... I feel better than I have felt in about 3 years!!! I have energy and stamina and a desire for life again. God has truly restored and I can't imagine having faced all that we faced without his amazing Grace.

So here we are. Truly truly enjoying the beautiful mercies he has given us every morning. Life is so good.

Life

We are literally days away from meeting our baby girl. I have more joy and anticipation daily as I feel her movements getting slower as she gets more crowded in there. It's amazing to me how the Lord so perfectly designed this season, how we get so uncomfortable as moms that we welcome every twinge of pain, any form of discomfort that would mean the anticipated moment is just around the corner. I don't like pain, but only this kind of awkward discomfort would make me anticipate that kind of pain, to bring about that kind of unspeakable joy!

One year and counting!

Well, an update is definitely in order.... I feel so bad that it's been so long since I've updated this blog, but posting everyday stuff just isn't that exciting.

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my surgery. I was quite sober all day yesterday. It was an amazing anniversary, one that I am so thankful to remember and never to experience again!!

So many things have happened this year and I am just in awe of God's great goodness. First of all, and most amazing of all is that the Dr's made no guarantees about our ability to be able to have more children. They said that because of where the tumor was and the way it manifested, it might be very likely that we could never conceive again. HOWEVER, God had different ideas. The whole time we were contending for my healing we would regularly receive a word from other people or from the Lord that we were going to have more children and that we would have a girl! Here we are just 8 weeks away from meeting our little miracle...

I have had so many people receive hope from our story when they are going thru something health wise that they never imagined they would have to go thru. We are so grateful to get to be witnesses of God's great goodness in the midst of trial and see Him proven faithful time and time again.

We are so excited about this new year!! With a new year always comes new life, new promises, new joys and new hopes. We pray that you will find everything the Lord has for you this coming year!

We'll keep you posted as the due date draws closer.

Happy New Year!

Heather and family

Sugar and Spice and Everything nice....

We are so happy to announce that our newest member due to arrive in March is going to be a beautiful baby girl. We are so excited.

While I was ready for another boy (which would have been a wonderful blessing, I adore my boys) my husband was sure this one was a girl and he is reveling in the fact that he was right.

Sometimes when you face a season of one disappointment after another it doesn't seem real when there is finally joy without measure. We have had to make a decision several times to agree with the joy of the season and not try to put a damper on it in any way. It's just joyful, joy upon joy!

Amazing

So the boys are getting used to the idea as well. Ethan was sure he wanted another brother, to keep the boys dominant in our family, but he has a twinkle in his eye when he thinks of all the ways she will adore and look up to him and Micah. Micah is sure we need to buy every pink girly toy we see right now.... when I assure him she won't be here for a while, and when she does get here it will be a while until she plays with toys he isn't quite ready for the wait.

We are still trying to settle on a name, but I think this time is different because there are so many that we do like. I guess we may just have to wait until we meet her to know who she really is.

One of my girlfriends put it best when she rejoiced with us and said "Beauty for Ashes".

Indeed!

In love with fall!!

Here we are at the beginning of fall and I am soo happy. I heard that fall in Central Oregon can be crazy, but I had no idea! Yesterday was 70 something and hazy from a near by fire, but today is lower 50's and hailing!!! Wow, here comes winter? or maybe this is fall....

Whatever it is I love it. Sunday was my amazing Ethan's 8th birthday. He celebrated and celebrated and celebrated some more. I love that my son has such a healthy self image. He really loves celebrating himself. So much like his mommy :o) It was also the anniversary of my original MRI and diagnosis of the brain tumor. To see how far we had come in 2 years, from devastation, having our feet knocked out from underneath us and not knowing what the future would hold, to a brand new start, a baby on the way and more joy than we thought possible. Amazing, simply amazing.

So much has happened in the last month since my previous post. I'll try to sum it all up.

• Ethan started 2nd grade in the public school system. Except for one day of tears, he is in heaven, absolutely LOVES school. We prayed that the Lord would give him the best teacher, and He certainly did! Mrs. Lence has been an answer to prayer in everyway for our Ethan.
• Daniel's cousin Paul got married. What a happy occasion that brought great great joy to all of the family. Paul married Fenny a wonderful woman from our church here in Bend. With the happy occasion brought lots of family.
• Which leads me here, Daniel's family all came in for the wedding. His parents were here along with his brother and family. We had a very very full house, but it was amazing. So much fun to finally meet Levi, the young man Neal and Diane (Daniel's parents) are foster caring for, and to finally meet Jon and Cyndi's twins. Justice and Jaxon are almost 8 months old and just a ton of fun.
• Micah and I began homeschooling again. He is doing just wonderfully.
• Daniel and Dad are still painting houses, even though work has slowed, God is so faithful and we are seeing amazing answers to prayer in our finances every single month.
• Had our second and third Dr. appointments. Saw the baby on the ultrasound, lots of wiggling and moving and then heard the heartbeat nice and strong. I'm beginning to feel movement and the majority of the morning sickness is over!!! God is so good.

So on we go with a new season literally. Looking forward to fall and all the joy this season brings. Praying your family finds great joy in this season as well.

First glance

We had our first glimpse of our little bundle this week. I was thrilled because Daniel got to be there and when they put the monitor on my belly to take a peek the baby just started dancing around. He/She moved almost the whole time she was monitoring... something I hadn't see with my other two. We just might have a wild child on our hands, at least a groove machine.

My morning sickness has been unrelenting. It "switched" off with my others at 12 weeks, but here we are almost to week 13 and I am still dealing with quite a bit of nausea all day long. It's been 6 very long weeks and I can't wait till this part is over. Seeing the baby was so helpful though because it really does give you a visual for all the problems that I'm having to endure. Soon we'll be able to feel the movement and I love that stage.

Our lives are constantly changing and "morphing" it's exciting but exhausting too. We've decided to put Ethan in public school for the first time this year. He is so thrilled and so am I. He is going into 2nd grade and he really thrives on interaction with others, I just know this setting will be perfect for him. I will have Micah home with me again this year and I'm looking forward to some one on one time with him that we've never really had. So in two weeks we'll be sending Ethan off and beginning a new school year.

Daniel's cousin Paul also gets married in about 2 weeks so we have a bunch of family coming in for that amazing event which is such a thrill. We'll have a very full house for a few days, but there is nothing more fun.

And to top it all off Fall is in the air, my favorite time of year. We are just counting all of our many amazing blessings, ones that seemed lightyears away this time last year. It's amazing how God truly does make all things beautiful in His time!!

We're grateful to be on the beautiful side of things now.