Three Years Later

It was a very different experience returning to Josiah's graveside with children.

Last year we were in Enderby grieving my father's death, so it's been two years since we've been on site for August 2nd.

We cleaned his gravestone (and cleaned my grandmother's as well). Joelle was extremely helpful - she loves to clean :)

We were numb yet upbeat for most of our visit, but tears came for me as we were planning to leave. So we stayed there a while longer. It was surreal holding Conrad while remembering Josiah.

Joelle wanted to sing a song for "Siah" so her and Marie say Twinkle, Twinkle five times over. It reminded me of times I sang that to Josiah as he fell asleep.

I bawled.

"How long, O Lord?"


G&P
- Andrew

Joelle Marie Haak - Pictures!

I know you've all been waiting impatiently for more photos. Here you go!

If you want to see the photo captions, 'hover' your mouse over the slideshow and a 'text bubble icon' will pop up in the left-hand corner. Click on it and captions will appear for each photo.

If you want a photo of yourself removed please let me know :)

Thanks for all the love

- Andrew, Marie & Joelle.

She's Home!

Say hello to Joelle everyone!

She's Here!

Hello Everyone!

Joelle Marie Haak was born at 11:46 AM on Tuesday morning weighing 7 lbs and 4.5 oz. Momma and baby are doing superb. The ECG on Joelle revealed no concerns. Pictures will hopefully be up tomorrow (forgot the camera at the hospital). Thanks for all your prayers!

Glowing and Grateful
- Andrew & Marie

Maternity Photos

Our cousin Meagan this past weekend blessed us with a maternity photo shoot! We had a lot of fun. Here are just a few of the photos that we have from our afternoon together. Thanks Meagan!

If you like Meagan's work, check out her website: Meagan Hildebrandt Photography.

Enjoy!
- Andrew & Marie

Baby Updates - The Follow Up Plan

Just wanted to let everyone know a plan that has been set in place (at this point). After our baby girl is born the doctors will give her an ECG (electro cardio gram ... a few electrical probes placed on her body) to examine her heartbeat pattern. If the pediatrician notices that the ECG catches anything of a concern, then she will wear a Holter Monitor (another heart checker, but more detailed) for a day or so to gather more data.

It sure would be nice to avoid all that but we'll see what God has in store :) We're not worried, in that these tests are not foreign to us (familiar territory is sometimes oddly comforting), but the "What if's?" and "Here-we-go-again's" certainly have a way of popping into our heads. So much for having a 'normal' pregnancy and birth!


Grace & Peace
- Andrew & Marie

Baby Updates - Doctor Follow Up

Just wanted to let you all know that our doctor called last night to let us know that she saw no concerns in the ultrasound images! So ... baby looks really healthy and we have no reason why she has an irregular heartbeat. Baby right now is sizing about 6 lbs 11 oz with just a few weeks to go.

Marie wanted to pass along a recent quote from Josiah's best friend Sammie. This discussion occurred after Sammie was shaking and patting Marie's belly, saying "Wake up baby!"

Sammie (with his hand on Marie's belly): "Can I hear baby cry?"

Marie: "No, not until she's on the outside do you get to hear her."

Sammie: "Can you come downstairs to the car with us so that I can hear baby cry?"


Grace & Peace
- Andrew & Marie

Baby Ultrasound - Quick Notes

The day didn't go according to plan, but thankfully Marie still got in for her appointment! After waiting all day, some computer issues, lots of phone calls, mixed up communication, mis-filing and what not, Marie's requisition was finally found at the hospital and they brought her in with little wait.

From everything that we could see our baby girl looks very health: chubby cheeks, right size and weight, good bone development, active, in the right position and so on. The placenta and fluid also looks good, so now we'll have to wait a day or two for the doctors to review the images to see if anything stands out. Because she is so far along in development, it was impossible to get a good look at her heart (bone density created 'shadows' over the organs).

So at this point this is what we have: no visible concerns but no answers for the irregular heartbeat. Marie has another NST (non-stressed test) schedule for Wednesday and we'll how baby girl sounds then.

Thanks for your prayers! We are relieved to know to that there is no physical issues to be seen, but are still a little anxious to know what the irregular heartbeat is all about. My hunch is that we're not going to come to any answer and are going to have to wait this one out of the next few weeks until baby girl comes!

Many blessings
- Andrew & Marie

Hmmm ... How Did I Miss That?

So ... just reviewed my recent blogs and I realized two things: first, we haven't talked much about our soon-to-be-here baby; and second, I don't we ever mentioned here that we know we're having a baby girl!

Marie is due October 25th and we're rounding the home stretch as weeks are going to soon become days. This week she has been throwing us a bit of a scare (which has prompted me to leave this note) ... and it's not hard for Mommy and Daddy to crank the paranoia up to 11! 

During two check-ups this week our baby girl has had an irregular heartbeat, and so Marie's been booked to have an ultrasound on Monday to take a closer look at her. This is a recent development and quite unexpected since her heart looked very healthy at her first ultrasound (we had cardiologists and others confirm that), so it is possible that there may be a small hole in heart that hasn't yet closed up. 

Hopefully Monday results will alleviate our paranoia and reveal what's going on. If you could pray for our *PEACE* and for our little girl's health we'd be deeply grateful!

Trusting and Waiting

- Andrew & Marie