A new school year....

A new school year is beginning tomorrow. It's a mixture of excitement and sadness in our household!! Excitement to be able to see old friends, meet new friends, see who's returning to the school and just basically having the opportunity to re-connect with old friends. The excitement is also increased by the fact that the school will be moving to the new school building that's currently still under construction....we've heard talk about the classes being moved to the new building before the end of this calendar year!!! The girls are so excited about the new building!! Sadness in that the start of the school year signals the end of the summer....the end of our care-free days of sleeping in, swimming and just spending time with one another. BUT....the girls are talking about the excitement of school starting a bit more as the beginning of school also means we are even closer to the arrival of our new baby (due in November). There definitely has been a mixture of emotions and thoughts during the past few weeks about the new school year. For me, I'm dreading the start of the new school year at least as much as the girls are. I enjoy my time with them and I really miss the lack of time we have together once school begins.....selfish on my part???...you bet!!!

It's so amazing to think that I have children going into 1st grade, 5th grade and 9th grade tomorrow morning!

A new driver in our house!!!

Some exciting news in our family is that Mariah got her driving learner’s permit last week! She studied the instructional manual for less than a week and only missed two of the questions on the test. Her dad took her to the DMV bright and early the morning after her 15th birthday because she wanted to be there as soon as they opened the doors to the DMV! She was SO excited to get her permit! Of course, anytime one of our vehicles is leaving our property, she wants to be the driver! She's really a great little driver-in-training. All that practicing with driving the 4-wheelers seems to have helped, as well as driving the vans and dad's truck around our place. I’m proud of her and excited for her! The changes and the fact that she’s growing up always makes me a bit sad, but it’s also so exciting to see her growing up and hitting all the milestones of a teenager! She's the first girl in her class to get her permit (she's the oldest girl in her class), so that makes it even more exciting for her. She already has plans to drive to school on the first day of school. I can't believe she will have her actual driver's license in less than a year, now!

A bit of a scare

We had a busy day and eventful evening a week ago today. Mariah turned 15 on August 16th and McKenna's 11th birthday was August 14th. We had a party with our family members for both Mariah and McKenna in the evening. We all had a good time.

I had contractions throughout most of the day that day. In the past, they've gone away on their own after resting and drinking lots of fluids. Last week's contractions seemed different to me than the ones I had been having off and on the past week or so, and this time they didn'tn go away with resting and increasing my fluid intake. But, I had so much to do to prepare for the girls' birthday party that I just did my best to ignore the contractions. I started spotting late in the evening (Wednesday the 16th) after the girls' birthday party, and was having contractions about every 5 minutes. I called my doctor (who happened to be on-call for his office last night, thankfully) and he wanted us to go right to the labor & delivery unit for evaluation (this was around 11pm Wednesday night). My doctor came in to evaluate things with the baby and myself at the hospital. The contractions continued to occur about every 5 minutes until around 5am when the meds finally kicked in. I was finally discharged and allowed to come home around 7am this morning. It took two doses of anti-contraction medication at the hospital (several hours apart) to get the contractions to finally slow down enough for us to be able to leave about 8hrs after we arrived.

I was on bedrest for 24 hours, then allowed to get up on Friday to do light activity. Well, come Friday evening, the contractions returned about every 4-5minutes apart...so back to the hospital we went. We had an ultrasound that showed all seems fine with the baby. I will have another u/s next week...but the gender will remain a mystery (by choice) to us until this little one arrives! I was there from Friday night (about 10pm) until Saturday afternoon. I'm now at home on modified bedrest....meaning, I can get up and do light activity as long as it doesn't cause contractions. Unfortunately, just about everything I do had been causing them to return. Today seems to be the best day yet in regards to the contractions. It seems the meds are working at keeping them under control. I plan to attempt a trip to Portland with Steve tomorrow for a doctor's appointment he has with his orthopedic specialist.

The girls and Steve have been great to help me with things around the house so I can relax and just let this baby grow. My cousin has brought us a couple of very yummy meals and my parents brought us a dinner that was so delicious this week, along with some belated birthday wishes since I spent my birthday in the hospital! My parents also gave me a quilt that was handmade by my grandmother who passed away three years ago. My dad said, "every time you snuggle underneath it, it's just like Grandma wrapping her arms around you"...I couldn't agree more! Thank you Dad, Mom, Lela & Don!

My 2006 Graduates....

This is Miranda just prior to graduating from kindergarten! Look out 1st grade (and Mrs Clark!!)...ready or not....here she comes!!!

Mariah, just after graduating from 8th grade....and just after being selected for the "Christian Character" award and plaque for her school! What an honor and privilege! We are so proud of her!

My girls....

This is a photo of the girls enjoying a coastal sunset while we were on vacation in Westport. We stayed for almost two weeks up at our property on the Washington coast. The weather was amazing for the majority of our time there! Of course, it didn't matter if the weather was nice or nasty....it was just nice to get away for a while.

A peek at our baby!

Here is one of our ultrasound images that I scanned. It shows the baby looking directly at you, with his/her arm bent and the little fist tucked up under the chin! This image was from July 7th. At that ultrasound, the doctor said everything looked just great with the baby! Because I am what they now consider AMA (advanced maternal age) I have the option of many more tests, amnios, etc, but I've chosen to decline anything that would be invasive at this point. I don't want to put any risk to this little miracle.

I was far enough along that we could have been able to discover this little baby's gender at this ultrasound appointment last month. BUT, I have NO desire to find out ahead of time! I love the anticipation and surprise of waiting until our little peanut arrives to find out if we have a new son or a new daughter.

Today, August 11th, I'm now 24.5 weeks along...only 15.5 weeks left to go! Everything is going very well. My morning sickness seems to have subsided at this point, except for an unexpected bout of it now and then.

The girls are getting so excited about this little one! What a neat experience it will be to have three older children to share all the excitement of a new baby with! They all would like to be in the room when this baby is born and we are definitely considering allowing them to be there. I know I'm okay with having the older two present (they will be 15 and 11yrs old), it's just the younger one (she will be 7yrs old) that I'm not completely sure about at this point.

Can you guess what this photo is???

Yes, that's an ultrasound image of a baby! Our baby! We are so pleased and excited to announce we will have a new addition to the Roberts' household! #4 is expected to arrive in November. This is a most welcome surprise for our family. We had always wanted four children, but due to years of fertility difficulties (and many months of fertility tx after our youngest was born), we had come to accept that the only way our family would grow would be through adoption. Fortunately, God had other plans for us!

Article from the Hood River News

Here is the article that appeared in the May 3, 2006 edition of the Hood River News.

A Fish Story...and That Ain't No Fish Tale!!!

You always hear about "the one that got away".....well, this fish tale story is about "the one that DIDN'T get away"! Last Sunday, April 30, we celebrated the opening weekend of Washington State's trout season with our annual family picnic and day of fishing at Horsethief park in Washington with some family and friends.This photo was taken just before Miranda got into the boat with her grandpa and daddy. Before we left our house to go fishing, I asked Miranda to "get some fishing clothes on". Well, this outfit is what she came up with - except she did have a pink sequined tank-top on at first. I had to ask her to change into a shirt that was a bit warmer! Can you tell that her favorite color is pink??Miranda (6.5 years old) was the first of the girls to go out in Grandpa Joe's boat with Grandpa and Daddy to fish. Miranda insisted on using her little pink Barbie fishing pole she received last Christmas from Santa Claus. Not thinking she would actually catch anything with it, let alone be able to successfully reel a fish in on it, Steve decided to humor Miranda and let her borrow her Grandma's red Rooster Tail lure. Oh, little did we know, little Miss Miranda would out-fish EVERYONE that day with her pink Barbie fishing pole!

The One That Didn't Get Away!

Little Miss Miranda ended up landing this 6 pound, 3 ounce trout that was a whopping 24.5" long! She was pretty calm when she hooked into it, telling her dad, "this pole is getting hard to reel". She just kept reeling and reeling until she got the trout all the way to the side of the boat....all by herself! Her daddy netted it when the fish was right next to the boat! It was amazing that her fishing pole didn't break because it was almost bent in half while she was reeling it in....and that trout was almost as long as the fishing pole itself! After Miranda's good luck, her pole was considered the "lucky fishing pole" and even the older kids who were fishing with us wanted to borrow the "Barbie fishing pole"! By the end of the day, that pole had caught at least 10 trout!

Mud, smiles and fun!

Lots of mud today, plenty of smiles and a whole lotta fun for both Miranda and I.... Here is Miranda on our Raptor 50 quad. She's learning to ride on her own, and at the age of 6, she's getting the hang of it pretty quickly! She started out maneuvering around cones in our field, but just today she graduated to riding in the driveway, around all the vehicles (and company vans). She can steer, use the throttle and the brake...all at the appropriate times! She's very excited to be 'like the big girls' and not have to just ride with someone else -- although she did get a bit of a stern 'talking to' when she went around a corner too fast for my comfort!!! I don't think the word S-L-O-W is in her vocabulary....except for school mornings...when Mom needs her to hurry a bit more!!! Oh, my little girl is growing up way too quickly!

Okay, as I said, it was the Best Worst Year of our lives. I spent most of my last entry listing some of the "bad stuff" we went through. To counter that, here are a few of the "good things" and praises we are proud to share:

~My dad survived two major surgeries at the end of 2004 and went in to just a slight early retirement....just in time to enjoy all of his 11 grandchildren!
~My mom remains cancer-free after almost 7 years! Praise God! She spends much time enjoying and playing with her grandchildren...considering they have had three new grandbabies in less than two years!!! Courtesy of Lisa and Tyler!! =) ....
~We have the honor of living on a very beautiful piece of property in the Columbia River Gorge. It's more than we ever hoped to dream for! The move to this new home was and is such a blessing to us all.
~Our girls enjoy such incredible health and vitality. Watching them grow, mature and enjoy life is far more entertaining than any well-scripted movie could ever hope to be! Each day, I am amazed at the blessings these girls offer in my life. What I ever did in life to deserve the experience of the happiness of these girls is beyond me!
~Our business is growing and prospering, despite the circumstances we faced this year. We are thankful to have such a great staff of employees to keep things running smoothly during this rough year!
~Every time we were faced with an obstacle higher than we thought possible, God showed us a glimpse of a silver lining in the clouds...one we didn't know existed. It was more than we deserved and more than we ever expected.

My girls (Mariah, McKenna & Miranda) and I ~ October 2005

The girls and I, after carving pumpkins! They are all growing up so quickly!

The Year in Quick Review - 2005 - The Best Worst Year of our lives!

What a year it's been! I think I can safely say it was the "Best Worst Year" of our lives....if that makes any sense!?! If not now, it will by the end of this entry, I'm sure.

~2005 began with me working a temporary (6 month) dental hygiene job for a former boss of mine, in addition to working with the dentist I've been with for 5 years. The days, weeks and hours were long; however, Steve, the girls and I were adjusting to having Mom gone most of the week....settling into our own little routine. Our plan was to save up for a nice vacation later in the year. What's the phrase in that new country song, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans???" ... Little did we know the turn our lives would suddenly take....

~The first part of 2005 Mariah, McKenna and Miranda were blissfully involved in all the activities that go along with being active girls. Mariah was involved in private saxophone lessons, playing by invitation in her school's band (which was an honor as she wasn't an actual member of the band), being the pitcher for the Senior level little league softball team (the season was just beginning), keeping excellent grades in 7th grade at her school and all the other activites that teenage girls enjoy! McKenna was taking jazz dance lessons and was just beginning another year of minor level little league softball. She was also carrying straight A's in 3rd grade. Miranda was just getting ready to start her first year in t-ball, taking her second year of tap dance lessons and enjoying her last year at home during the day before kindergarten started in the fall. In general, just enjoying our busy lives! Little did we know the turn our lives would suddenly take....

~Steve began to have severe pain in his left hip at the beginning of this year, which he and his doctor both thought was just an injury, something easily corrected; so he began a journey of physical therapy. Again... Little did we know the turn our lives would suddenly take....

~Fast forward to April, 2005. The point in which our lives stopped on a dime. When life as we knew it ceased to exist. When everything changed. Steve, seemingly fairly healthy ~ was overnight faced with the battle of his life. The battle for his life. The battle to basically return from death's door. His doctors (at OHSU ~ Oregon Health & Sciences University ~ where he was transfered by ambulance) listed him in 'gravely ill' condition. I was told by his health care team to NOT promise my girls that daddy was coming home, because, in the words of the doctors, "most likely he will not survive this illness." From April-November 2005, Steve has been through three hospitalizations, life-support, a ventilator to breathe for him, gravely ill condition, TTP (now in remission), kidney failure, a period of daily kidney dialysis, plasmapheresis (where 80% of his blood plasma was replaced daily for almost 2 weeks), blood transfusions, a total hip replacement on his left hip, gall bladder surgery, to name a few. Even though the doctors did not predict his survival, they also prepared me for what it would be like IF he did survive. Words like stroke, brain damage, heart attack, life-long dialysis, neurological deficiencies, inability to work again, permanent disability, medicare, personality changes....were used often. He had hematologists, oncologists, a kidney/renal team, pulmonary specialists, orthopedic, critical care teams all working to save him and help preserve some of his quality of life. As I said, little did we know the turn our lives would suddenly take....

~But, as I said......little did we know the turn our lives would suddenly take.... it was the Best Worst Year of our lives: Steve survived. He not only survived, he surpassed all the expectations of each and every one of his doctors and medical teams. He's home, he's back to running our business, his blood disorder is in remission at this time, he's fighting to get his life back. What a miracle! Of course, there are differences in him and in our family and they are most likely permanent changes. His recovery will be a life-long process, one filled with steps forward and steps backwards, but at least it's a recovery....one that he wasn't expected to have. The changes and differences leave us struggling to find the "new normal" in our lives on a daily basis. But, we are so grateful to wake each day with the knowledge that God and His divine intervention saved Steve's life. I would be happy to explain his illness in more depth if you would like, so please email me if you would like more info.

~Again, little did we know the turn our lives would suddenly take....three weeks before Steve's illness hit, we found the home and land of our dreams. We made an offer, it was accepted and we were ecstatic about it! Two weeks later, Steve entered the hospital on a Monday and we were to sign final papers that Friday. Obviously, being on life-support is NOT conducive to closing a real estate deal, to say the least. I was in a bind...do I continue with faith, do I let the deal slide and hope we find another home if Steve survives, do I just stay put in our present home, keeping in mind that I most likely would be raising our daughters there alone. What I decided was to proceed in faith, because of a remark Steve had made to me shortly before they put him on the ventilator. He said, "if something goes wrong and I don't make it, I want you to raise our girls in our new home." Fortunately, the sellers were great people and they held onto the home for us. We were able to sign papers the day after Steve came home from the hospital the first time and we moved three weeks later! It was due to the grace, patience and help of my extended family that we were able to move 13 years of accumulation in only two days. What a blessing my family was to us in those days when we needed help the most. There is NO way that I could have moved us without the help of my famiy ~~ THANK YOU to each of you...you know who you are!!!! The hand of the Lord was in it every step of the way as we couldn't have planned the timing any better!

~Okay, maybe this wasn't as quick as I had planned, but a few more events to note: Mariah had appendicitis and had an emergency appendectomy in October, at the age of 14. The girls received 4-wheelers for their birthdays and are rapidly learning to navigate around our almost three acres! The house we moved out of sold two days after we listed it, cash offer for just barely under our asking price, closing in 10 days! It was amazing!

~If you've stuck with me this long, Thank You! I will try to edit and change things around to a more readable format in time. As this is my first attempt at a blog, please bear with me!

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

December 2005