Spain Missionaries

Way back before we had kids we heard this missionary family at a church in Stanley.  They were looking for financial support to work at a Christian Camp in Spain.

Many years go by and they are back in the states and this time they are looking for a place to stay while they are raising their support in our area.  Jesse got the email and we talked about what we could do for them.  To be honest my first reaction was "I can't..."  "I don't..."  "My house is too small..."  That particular week we were suppose to be going back to schooling full time (we had been just doing 2 days a week since having Madilyn as kind of a maternity break for me) plus I had a lot of extra activities scheduled and I was already a wreck trying to figure out how we were going to get it all done.

We thought about it for a bit and then we were both like - we have to do this!  This is the least we can do for them.  Max can move out his room and they can stay in there.  All my stuff can wait and it will all work out.  We invited them to stay with us and they were so thankful for a place.

They were coming on a Wednesday night - which I had an Abiding Care Meeting and the kids had Awana and I needed to volunteer at also.  Jesse just happened to have a slower day and so he was going to be home and able to host them until we all got home.

Wednesday came and the kids asked if they could skip Awana so they could meet Pedro & Viky and hear their stories.  I was able to do my meeting via video and so we all were able to be here for them. A blessing I never saw coming.

It ended up being such a blessing to us having them here.  Hearing the sacrifices they make and how the money they have is only by the support they raise while they are here.  They told us that they don't know how they do until months later after they get back.  As of right now, before they came, they are $700 short every month.  It was the least I could do to open up our home, cook them warm meals, and pray for them.  

They were in the Green Bay Area before they came by us.  We didn't know anyone in that area so we asked them if we could get them a hotel.  They said yes.  The hotel we ended up having them stay at just happened to be the same hotel the Packers were staying at!  They use to live in the Rib Lake area and work at Forest Springs Camp so they know about the Packers and their kids are big Packer fans.  Their daughter, who was back in Spain, wanted them to get pictures.  Pedro joked that the Packers had just lost a game and so he didn't think they would be up for any pictures.  They never did end up seeing any players, that they know of, but they did see all their gear and luggage! 

Pedro & Viky were both born and raised in Spain.  They spoke English very well.  And it was such a neat experience for our kids.  To hear what they do.  To meet someone who can tell us first hand what it is like in their country.  Like how it is illegal to homeschool.  If the government finds out your homeschooling they will come and take the children away from the parents.  It is legal, however, if you in the circus or military.  I was telling another homeschool mom about that and she said, "We would join the circus then." and we started laughing so hard because really it feels like a circus some days anyways so why not make the circus a lifestyle too!!  

Did I get school done?  Nope.  But you know what - I decided that learning real life and learning to love on people was far more important than school books that week!  We have far more days to get out the books and learn!!

A Visit to the Big Kids' Room

I took Madilyn downstairs one day to check on the big kids.  I was being silly and I was showing Madilyn all around the room and I was teasing the girls by saying, "Oh Madilyn!  This is where you can come when you get bigger!  They have all the barbie hands to chew on!"

Well then each kid wanted to hold her and show her around the room.

Then we saw the little American Girl doll bed and wanted to see if she fit!

She did!

We were dying with cuteness!!

The kids then wanted to stage it more but Madilyn was over it and would not participate anymore.

A Touch of Sparkle

Last Christmas when we did our annual Girls Shopping Trip Mallory saw someone getting their ears pierced and then decided that on our next trip she would get her ears pierced.  

Saturday was that day!!!  

She seemed a bit nervous but would not let anyone know that.  I could sense it in her but she was putting her brave foot forward.

I even brought gum and Tylenol along for her.  I was worried she was going to pass out!  She doesn't do needles/medical things very well.  When Melanie was a baby she passed out during a blood draw for Melanie.  Ever since that moment she now has to stand in the hallway if anyone needs shots or blood draws.  

But they have come a super long way in their tools to pierce ears!!  It didn't look anything like I remember!  

They drew on the marker dots and we teased her (to lighten the mood for her) that was all she was getting... marker dots! 

I am pretty sure she would of sat her by herself but I needed to hold her hand.

I am also pretty sure I was squeezing tighter then her.  She was not holding my hand back... as you can see in the photo above!

One earring down!!

She's so brave!!  I had to get close to see if she was sneaking tears.  Nope!!

They do one ear at a time so she had to do it again!  See - she wouldn't hold my hand that time so I held her arm.  

Grandma Connie was expecting her to cry too and had a cute little stuffed pig for her to cheer her up. She never cried!!  She got her pig anyways!

Checking out her new sparkly self!!

Couldn't wipe the smile off her face!  She was so happy to have ears pierced!!

Piano Time

Mallory is our creative child.  She is constantly digging in our recycle bin and sneaking out items she thinks she can turn into something else.  Every few months we have to go into her room and clean house because she has so much junk snuck in there.

When I take Melanie to Story Hour at the library the big kids are allowed to have computer time.  Mallory spends her time watching DIY videos on how to make things for American Girl Dolls.  

This week she watched how to make a piano and immediately came home and put one together with all the pieces she had hidden in her room.  

She had some boards... which I think she snuck home from Grandma Connie's stash!!  She drew on the keys and then painted popsicle sticks black, cut them, and used them as the short black keys.  

I just noticed now that they are using a highlighter as a leg.  Ha.  The rest of the legs though are dried up old markers (painted black) with a wooden bead glued to the end as a foot.

I should of took a picture of Logan and his piano in her room but I forgot.  But she sets up her dolls into scenes.  Sometimes she even gets out her camera and makes her own videos.

Madilyn Grace ~ One Month

Look who is one month already!!  It feels like she has been with us forever, yet one month feels so fast!

She has been such a good baby!  She has yet to cry longer then 30 seconds!  For real!  She just doesn't cry!  She grunts a lot though!  I wake up to grunting instead of crying.  She is going to bed about 10pm and waking about 2am and then again at 5:30.  

She has terrible baby acne right now.

She loves her daddy!  Oh my goodness!  If I can't get her to settle down (which means she won't stop grunting and wiggling) I pass her to Jesse and he lays her on his chest and she calms right down and falls into a deep sleep.  The nights he is gone on an overnight she will sleep so rough and when he comes back - back to sleeping good.  

The kids adore her!  They love to hold her, talk to her, play her toys for her.  This may be the reason why she never cries.  Someone is always there in seconds with every little noise she makes.  Melanie is an expert and sticking a nuk in her mouth.  Being the recovering nu-nu addict she feels for Madilyn and gives her that nuk even when she isn't fussing.  

Max told me the other day that he would like more babies in our house!  That Madilyn was so cute!  And he didn't care if we had 10,000 babies and they were all girls!  He is such a good brother to all these girls!!

Trying to get these kids to put their heads together resulted in Melanie and Mallory crashing heads.  Melanie cried and Mallory gave me her I-want-to-hurt-you face!  Then they got goofy and silly.

I have Madilyn sleeping in her crib for one of her naps.  She sleeps really well in there.  Which is when I am able to work with the kids and do some good school work!

It has been super busy with 4 kids!  The days go so fast!  Trying to balance all the things (school, work, home, baby, life) has been a good challenge for me.  It also doesn't help that I do not have a memory or a brain at all right now.  It is driving me crazy.  I find myself hauling up laundry, distracted by the baby, finding the counters need washing off from lunch, distracted by another child, to oh yeah I started this mess with laundry and back to laundry!!  I also one day opened a sucker for Melanie and instead of giving it to Melanie I stuck it in my mouth and started eating it!!  It took me a moment before I realized I had a sucker in my mouth and then I could't figure out why I had a sucker in my mouth - oh my gosh it is Melanie's sucker!!  I was just suppose to open it!  

Madilyn Grace

With this baby and with Jesse's scheduled we decided that having an induction date would be the best route for this delivery.  We picked October 10th, which was the earliest day the mid-wife would let me pick.  I have to say that knowing the day when your baby will come is very strange.  It made me so nervous.

6am on October 10th the alarm goes off and I am to call into the hospital to make sure that they can take me and start induction.  We were told No!  They didn't have a room at the moment but it was their goal to get me in there.  I needed to call back at 11.

Mallory woke up early and came running upstairs because the kids were SO EXCITED to have this baby, find out the gender, and to meet this baby!!  She was so bummed when we had to wait a few more hours.

What does one do as they have to wait for 11am to roll around?!  Pace the house!  My goodness that was a hard wait.  But at 11 they were ready for us.  We called Grandma Connie and she came over to grab the kids and off Jesse and I went to the hospital.

By the time we got to the hospital it was 1:00.  We had to wait about 45 minutes for them to come and get us because they were just finishing up getting us a room!

At 2:30 the midwife came in and I was actually having contractions so she decided to just go ahead and break my water to get things started.  Then I was in charge of pacing around and walking and getting things going even more.  Bounced on a big exercise ball too!  I could feel the contractions getting bigger and stronger slowly.

I want to say at about 5:00 the midwife came back to check on me and she said that was at a 5/6 and if I wanted an epidural now would be the time to get one.  So we got that ticket in and I went to the bathroom and came back and my whole body started to shake and shiver except I wasn't cold.  Which usually means your body is going onto the next stage of labor.  So my midwife ran out and got her scrubs on because she said I was making her nervous that this was going to go pretty quick.  The last two babies went very quick once this stage happened.

Right before 7:00pm I had my epidural.  This epidural did not agree with me at all.  My blood pressure dropped and I felt awful.  They had to run fluids at full blast to keep my blood pressure up.  As soon as they would turn down the fluids my blood pressure would drop.

On top of the blood pressure issues I was having the worst heart burn I have ever experienced!  It was SO BAD!  They got me tums.  Did nothing.  A few hours later they got me something stronger.  Did nothing.

At 2am we are still not progressing.  Jesse is hungry so he leaves and goes to Taco Bell.  I keep fighting this heart burn and blood pressure and wondering why this baby is not coming!!

Jesse comes back and he lounges and falls asleep and I had to wake him up for a puke bag.  My heartburn is so out of control it now feels like I am going to puke!  Yup.  Now I am puking!  I have also just started spitting my spit because it now hurts so bad to swallow that spitting is just safer at this point.

I think Jesse and I even talked for a brief moment about this being the last baby because this was absolutely awful and I was so DONE!  We are both concerned if a c-section is in my future because this is just not progressing and I am loaded with pitocin.  We joked that this child's middle name was going to be Pitocin.  We talked to the nurse and she assured us that a c-section is not on their radar at all!!  My body had three babies - it would have this baby.  From her view everything looked good we just had to wait!

At 4am I still don't have a baby and I still don't have progress.  My midwife was on a 24 hour shift so she went to lay down for a bit.  My nurse came in and said she had some tricks she wanted to try to see if we could get baby moving.  I said do whatever you want.  I am ready to be done!  She comes back with a bunch of nurses and they tell me we are going to do "shake the tree" and she comes and shakes my belly for 3 contractions.  She says this gently gets baby out of the birthing canal.  Baby could of came down at a bad angle and if we can get baby back out and to come back down correctly it will help me to progress.  After "shake the tree" they tip me way back on my head.  Which they were scared to do because of all the heart burn I was having, but I was okay and could do it.  They left me like that for 15 minutes then they sat me up completely straight to let baby fall back down.  After that they had me do a few more tricks of laying on my side.

Needless to say a few more hours and my midwife came in and I was about to get all emotional because her time was almost up and I still didn't have a baby.  And this happened with Mallory - I labored with one midwife and when it came time to push I had to get a new midwife.  However, my midwife says, "Oh no!  I am delivering this baby!  Its time to push!"  And at just about this time my epidural was wearing off!!

As soon as I was given the go ahead to push - I pushed with all my might to get this baby out!  I was mad and wanting to be done!!  All I remember when baby came out was baby was crying!  I don't remember the other kids crying instantly!  I kept saying - "Oh baby is crying!  Why is baby crying!  Baby is crying!"  And the midwife says "LYNN!  Take your baby!"  So I grab the baby and now I keep saying "So tiny!  This baby is so tiny!"  And Jesse says, "Is it a boy or girl!"  I had completely forgotten we didn't know the gender!  So the nurse and Jesse investigate and say "Its a girl!"  Jesse and I were so shocked!!!  A few moments later and Jesse announces, "I guess we have to try for that boy!"  We all laughed, really hard!

Now to pick a girl baby name!  See we were pretty sure we were having a boy so we didn't worry about girl names!  It took us awhile to finally pick a name but right before the kids came to meet their new baby sister we decided on Madilyn Grace!  I picked out Madilyn and Jesse picked out Grace!

Madilyn Grace
7.10 Pounds
20.75 Inches
Born 6:50 a.m.