prego

a an out of state friend asked for a picture of my pregnant self...so here it is taken by malachi himself. i will be 27 weeks tomorrow! sitting down doesn't exactly give you the proper perspective on the size of this little man and my belly. because i now am used to people expecting to hear that i am due this month, but oh no i'm not...
this baby boy likes to kick a lot and seems to respond to malachi's songs and voice. malachi has named him gopi - he made it up himself.
i have had a few "contractions" so we are trying to relax - i'm keeping heavy lifting (aka the boys) to a minimum and so far that is working so they are getting not worse. i'll go in tomorrow again to check it all out with the dr.
i am enjoying this pregnancy although yesterday when it was 95 and our electricity was out I was not enjoying the day... so we'll pray that our air conditioning works the rest of the summer and i will remain cool.

our seattle trip to visit opa and oma

we spent a long weekend in tacoma/seattle with my parents. it was a great time to get away while ryan worked on the house and i needed to just relax. we went to the zoo and enjoyed animals and the beautiful view of puget sound and mt. rainer. we hung out at the tacoma children's museum on our only rainy day. we took the ferry into seattle one day and then later went to the rocky beach. the boys had a ton of fun, got a lot of attention, malachi got his lego fix, and abram managed to fall on his face again. we were thankful to make one last visit to wa before my parents relocate to chicago in june. so thankful for a great trip!! and thankful for a husband who worked night and day to finish the first phase of our remodel by changing the living room into the boys room - he finished painting just before we landed in long beach. now we just need carpet installed so we stop tracking all the dust around the house.
ok so i tried writing comments on the photos but they didn't line up so you'll have to just enjoy them...

bless bellflower

on saturday about 12 congregations in bellflower took over the city's easter egg hunt. due to fiscal cuts the city cancelled the 3 easter egg hunts so a friend, jane, who attends bellflower brethren church stepped up and mobilized over 200 volunteers in partnership with kingdom causes to put on the easter egg hunt. it went really well and you can see the article about it in the press telegram. there were probably about 2,000 people, an utterly chaotic and quick hunt, lots of crafts and games and people having a ton of fun.




http://www.presstelegram.com/search/ci_12121087?IADID=Search-www.presstelegram.com-www.presstelegram.com












on sunday we did enjoy the beach with the copelands, nespers and rob. it was beautiful, relaxing, the kids had a blast playing in the sand and water, and we had good conversation. love this tradition we have!

life

i have this word, "life," in letters in my kitchen. yesterday was easter - and one we probably won't forget in a long time, if ever. easter is about life - right - jesus risen life and then our lives changed forever in relationship with him. life is a rich word when you think about it and just examine what it means.

malachi got sick yesterday and i saw how precious life is, how fragile, and how God holds our lives tightly in his hand.

so our easter story this year involved malachi having his temperature spike quickly and having a febrile seizure. he has never had one before so we didn't know what was happening. thankfully i had laid down with him as i put him down for his nap because that is when it happened. i had just given him meds before we went down. he went stiff and his eyes were open but he was unresponsive and his face started to turn blue. his mouth was clenched shut and ryan and i both didn't know what to do. our land line was unplugged in our remodel mess and our cell phones got a 911 line busy message. thankfully our neighbor across the street heard ryan yell for help and called 911. malachi was seizuring for about 2 minutes and stopped by the time the paramedics, police and fire arrived. but we went on a ride to the hospital in the ambulance. his fever was 102.8 when we got to the hospital and they gave him more meds and it came down within a half hour. great nurses and a dr. watched over him and our nurse even prayed for him. he is totally fine today.

yesterday holding my oldest little boy and not being able to get him to wake up was probably the most frightening experience ryan and i have had. today we can look back and see how God took care of malachi and was there with us. i remember as the drama all unfolded hearing ryan saying, "please Jesus" over and over. we were in a desperate situation and we were literally crying out. i know he heard us.

this all happened on easter sunday - i don't think life's events happen out of mere chance. yesterday i didn't attend an easter service because malachi had a temp., but i met Jesus in a way that i have never experienced before. life. it is more apparent to me today how much i need Jesus in my life, in my children's lives, in my neighborhood, in my community. life abundantly - life given as a gift each day. so much learned and thought about because of a 2 minute seizure.

malachi is recovered today - full of energy and being loving, stubborn, funny, creative, a tease, a great big brother... we now know that he is prone to have seizures if his temp gets high and we need to make sure to the address fevers quickly with meds. there is not damage done with this type of seizure and now that we know when it could happen and what to do were supposed to be more at ease. right - everyone knows there is reason i am not in the medical field... their advice don't call 911 until it lasts over 2 minutes - ok - easier said than done. anyway we are thankful for everyone who knew what was going on for praying and just reminded of the amazing love people have for our little boy and family. a few neighbors stopped over and asked about him today because you know when there are lights and sirens in the neighborhood everyone comes out. :) one neighbor girl drew him a card that said get better soon, i love you malachi. our neighbor ladies across the street were amazing yesterday in calling 911 and coming over and just helping. thankfully rob was here to stay with abram while we went to the hospital... we are thankful for how God was with us and how he takes care of us. today we talk about it and it seems like a tiny story, not a huge deal after you have everything explained. malachi doesn't even remember it happening.

but it taught us more about our lives and them being Jesus' and how much you love your kids and how much i know God loves us because he let his son die for me. so this easter was different - don't want to relive it again. and just a side note one reason to keep your land line is so that you can get through to 911 in an emergency and they know your location immediately. just don't unplug it like we did...

we did go to the beach too and have a great easter egg hunt at the park yesterday so more to come.

spring break with rob and the huizengas

we were blessed to have ryan's sister ruthanne and jeff and baby addisyn come for spring break from mi - rob, ryan's brother, was also on break too from college - so we had a full house. as they came we also had tom and cindy schipper, friends from bentheim, mi spend a night too. so much fun to have all these great people be here with us.
admittedly we had a very full week of activity because we had guests, started to remodel our house, dr. appts, work, seder meal, a city wide easter egg hunt and ryan spoke at the city good friday prayer breakfast. wow! we were so thankful for all the hard work everyone did on their break - jeff and rob were amazing builders and ruthanne helped a ton with the boys and around the house. thank you guys!! it was nice to hang out with family and enjoy one another's company. here are some highlights of our week.




addisyn's 6 month photo session - easy to take pics of a beautiful little girl