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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Dearest Evan...


My dearest sweet Evan...

You will never know (although I hope you have some idea!) how much you mean to me.

I dreamed about the day, as a little girl, of the day I would become a mommy.

The day your dad and I found out we were expecting a baby was the happiest day of our life!

The day you were born and they told us of the complications, and that you needed to go into the nicu, was the saddest day of our life. I have only seen your dad cry one time in my life...and that was the day. We prayed non-stop for your health. We loved you soooooo much!

The day we got to bring you home was so joyful! We were bursting with pride.

I used to take you EVERYWHERE with me! Dad worked alot back then and you and I went everywhere together.

We went to Kalamazoo to geeg and papa's house. We went to Target (I'll never forget the older gentleman who was a cashier the first time I took you out and he remarked how gorgeous you were!). We went grocery shopping (Remember our salt bagels?). We went to the little mall (Remember chili cheese fries?). We went to the big mall (Remember the treehouse and the cinnamon almonds you stashed in your cheek?). We went to Tulip Time (Remember the goodies and dancers?). We went everywhere...you and me. I was so proud of my Evan.

I remember EVERY aspect of your life. I have a little "recorder" in my mind. I remember you going to your daycares (Remember Ms. Bev, Ms. Kim, and Ms. Jen?). I remember your first day of kindergarten and you marching off to the bus with your little backpack. I remember helping with your fieldtrips (the zoo w/ Nolan and Toby!). I remember the parties at school (Valentine's Day in the Butterfly room). I remember the first time you had to stay inside at recess because you and Zack were goofing off in Mrs. DeVisser's class! Stinker! I remember your auctions and trips to BK with Mrs. Costello. I remember Market Day, 5th grade camp...ewwww, you were nasty when you came back! LOL! I remember middle school...oh what a year of joys and stress! I can only imagine what high school will bring!

Anyway...I will continue to write to you in this blog...I'm waaaaaay far behind as you can see. This is always something I've wanted to do for you and Nate.

I just want you to know how special you are to me and dad. You are amazing and can do anything you set your mind to...don't be lazy! :-)

Keep God first always!
You are forever my baby boy...and I love you more than life!
Mom

Fast forward nine months...


Contractions started one evening right as Jamie was coming home from his second shift job...right around midnight. They came consistent and strong from the very beginning. They were every five minutes to the tee!

We called the dr...and just our luck...being a weekend, we got the dr. "on call". Dr. Gerard would not be delivering our baby. Boohoo!

They told us to wait till the contractions were at about every 2-3 minutes and then come to the hospital.

I think we waited till about 3am...something like that. I remember I kept telling Jamie to "Hurry up!" and he kept telling me "I can't speed!".
LOLOLOL!

We got to the hospital and we were greeted by our wonderful nurse Thelma...who told us she goes by "Tim"...ok, whatever. She was an older lady and ohhhh so sweet. I immediately told her I wanted an epidural and she assured me that "because this was my first baby, we had plenty of time".

NOT!!!

"It's time to push!", she tells me.
"I didn't get my epidural", I tell her.
"Well we don't have time now", she tells me.

You have go to be kidding me.

Eight hours of long strong intense labor...and...NO EPIDURAL.

I am the biggest wimp in the world when it comes to pain, but I can honestly say I am so incredibly proud of myself having gone through natural childbirth. She did give me some Stadol to "take the edge off"...yeah right. All that did was make the room spin...pain was STILL INTENSELY there!

During my labor, I spiked a fever. This led them to discover I was Strep B positive. Because my labor went so quickly I didn't get all of the antibiotics...so we were in for a long ordeal...

Around 8:00am Evan Brice made his arrival. He was 7 lbs 5 oz and 19 inches long.


Welcome little one!

Because I didn't get my antibiotics, Evan had to spend 12 days in the NICU at Butterworth in Grand Rapids receiving antibiotics. They also told me he was having respiratory problems and not feeding well. He lost a little weight. Trying to get information from the specialists in a nicu is next to impossible.

I always hear how so many families thank the nicu and staff for being so compassionate and caring. I never felt that. I never got close to the nurses, I never was able to speak to the drs. It was awful. Leaving your baby in the hospital after giving birth is the worst thing in the world. It is like having your insides ripped out. It is heartbreaking.

I prayed night and day for my baby Evan. I felt like I couldn't function...I couldn't live...I had to keep praying for my baby. I felt if I stopped praying I was a bad mommy. I was terrified for his life. I visited daily, I called over and over again to check in with his nurses. I was so empty...

Then came the day he was moved to the "intermediate nursery".
I was so excited! I called mom and told her, "He graduated!".


He was only there a few days. He started gaining weight, feeding well, and soon he was able to go home.

Welcome home little one!


...and baby makes THREE!

In 1995, we finally decided it was time to start a family...after much begging and pleading from me...LOL!

Once we decided to "try"...it happened immediately! The very next month, we were expecting.

We got a false negative on the first pregnancy test. And after many symptoms, I decided I better try a different test.

BINGO!

We're pregnant!

My pregnancy was as easy as pie. I felt better pregnant than I ever did in my life. I relished every moment of it. I had cravings for buffalo wings constantly. And amazingly enough...I didn't crave salty snacks like chips and crackers like I always used to...I had an incredible urge for tomatoes and cucumbers! LOL!

My ob/gyn was awesome! I loved Dr. Gerard. I was nervous at first about having a male dr. But he made me so comfortable. He was so sweet and gentle. And he had such a kind and caring staff.

Mom and Jess gave us a baby shower and we got lots of goodies...although not many from our registry. So Jamie and I went out and splurged on everything Winnie The Pooh for our nursery that you could think of. I think we were both sick of seeing Pooh by the time baby arrived! LOL!

...along comes baby...

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Our life together!

So, Jamie and I start our new life together!

We moved around ALOT during the first few years of our marriage.

Our first apartment was on Burdick St. It was an older "house apartment". A nice single mom and her daughter lived above us and we lived on the lower level. I must admit, I didn't always feel totally safe there...especially when Jamie was working third shift. It wasn't a "bad" neighborhood...in fact we knew several of the neighbors around us. There was another single mom, Cindy and her two teenage kids next to us. There was the landlord and his wife across the street. There was a middle age woman next door who seemed nice, yet eccentric...as she lived with about 25 cats! She was sweet though...she'd always snip fresh catnip from her backyard and give us some for our kitty. LOL! While we lived there, Jamie worked at First Assembly and then eventually his part-time job at Bronson Hospital turned full-time. That was a huge blessing. That provided a good income and great health benefits. During this time, I worked as the lead toddler teacher at The Learning Village. We were enjoying our new life together.

Then...Jamie discovered an apartment opening! It was an older complex...yet very well maintained and nice. We got it! We moved into Keenway around Thanksgiving I believe. It was great. A two bedroom, nice sized place for the two of us and kitty! It was quite a mix of neighbors there. Across the hall from us was an older man and his thirty-something son. They had frequent shouting matches. Then on the second floor...there were two older couples. Both were nice. I will never forget the one woman...Betty...she was always soooo nosey. Always peeking out her curtains! LOL! We'd go for walks at night and so would her husband Joe...she'd always be peeking out the curtains watching for him as he made each circle! LOL! On the lower level was younger gals...always smoking...not the most pleasant. But everyone got along. It was a nice place to live.

Then we had a big change! We got jobs as innkeepers at The Stuart Avenue Inn Bed & Breakfast! We had a great apartment in the Chappel House. The inn consisted of two homes built in 1886 and 1900, and also a carriage house. Our bosses turned out to be...how shall we say..."not what we had hoped for"...so things were about to change again.

We than got jobs in Holland at Prince Corporation. We had a nice apartment on Burke with great landlords. We loved Jim and Phyllis. All was great at Prince till JCI took over.

We had three more moves during this time. We bought a mobile home and lived in West Olive Estates for nearly two years. We were very lucky to have sold and broke even on that deal. We were fortunate to get out before it started going downhill. We then were able to purchase our home on Byran Dr. It looked like a dollhouse from the front. We really enjoyed our home. We lived there for approximately two years as well. We ended up selling there right as some subsidized housing was coming in. We were then worried about the value of the house and thinking about...school districts!!! We were very fortunate to have found Sundance. Our current home in Zeeland. Zeeland has awesome schools. We're close to Holland and Grandville. Great neighborhood.

...Which will bring me to my next subject in the next entry...

"OUR FAMILY"!!!