want to help me?

I was laying in bed, trying to sleep when I came up with this great idea.

Some of you have already offered to help make baby hats for the hospital Brenham was delivered at (thank you!) and I decided that it would be such an awesome way to honor Brenham's birthday by bringing a big basket of baby hats down there on his birthday. And what better way to get lots of help than by this blog?!? I need your help. If you can knit, crochet, sew or anything and have the time to make a hat, booties, or a blanket (or two, the more the merrier!) to help us recognize Brenham we would be absolutely honored.

You can make whatever pattern you want in any size or any color, and send it to me by the end of next month and I will drop them all off at the hospital on his birthday. Or if you have something else you would like to donate, you can do that too.

Brenham has so many special people that love him and we want you to be a part of this! You can email me at katielubbers@hotmail.com if you want to participate or have any questions! And thank you for honoring our precious son in this way!

~And I am making progress on my project, thank you all for your help and suggestions!~

Wordless Wednesday...well, sort of!

If you are following me on twitter you know about my great idea to start crocheting baby hats, and if your not, then you should..i'm katiejo11. Well anyways, I wanted to for two reasons. First b/c I love babies in hats and secondly, because I wanted to donate some little tiny ones to the hospital I delivered Brenham at for all the wonderful things they did for us. I started off with a practice one that could be for our future baby someday. So I bought all the supplies and the yarn was even on clearance and named 'yarn bee' which is perfect b/c we call our future baby 'bee' instead of saying 'the baby' all the time, so here is the bee's hat (if its a girl) so far....

What do you think? are you seeing my vision??

This is a nightmare, I do know how to crochet, but just in a straight line like this. I don't know how to do all the fancy stitches like half double stitch in particular and what does joining mean? I look up online tutorials and even watch videos on You.Tube but still can't get it to look right!

I haven't completely given up yet, I think I have to buy some plain yarn and not this fancy fuzzy kind. So wish me luck!! Any advice?

And speaking of how wonderful the hospital is, look what is hanging right outside the room where Brenham was delivered. it's a picture of a 'forget me not' and is framed with "In loving memory of all our babies who are now home in heaven but who are still missed in our hearts" written beneath it!

Love that!!

so much for 'wordless" Wednesday! i tried!

thanks for all the great advice on celebrating Brenham's first birthday. We haven't decided 100% what we will do yet, but whatever it is it will be perfect. thank you so much for such great ideas!

if your birthday was on leap day?

when would you celebrate, Feb 28 or March 1?

Just looking for some opinions as we think ahead to our son's first birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday Robb!

Today is Robb's 25th Birthday!

We celebrated tonight at home, I made him some of his favorites for dinner, lemon fish saute, green bean casserole and potatoes. That's about all we have planned for tonight but we will continue the celebrating over the weekend.

Hope you had a great day Robb! I am so blessed to have you as my husband and am so grateful to God for giving you 25 wonderful years of life so far. I pray we can celebrate more of your birthdays together in the years to come.

Welcome New Readers!

If you are just joining me, thanks for stopping by!! To catch up on why I started this blog you can read the beginning of my story here and keep reading to see how things unfold.

What's for dinner??

Grab a bite at The Trestle Stop Restaurant or Southside Inn Restaurant tonight and/or January 27. 15% of your total bill will be donated to Right to Life of Holland Area. What a great way to support a wonderful cause! We'll be there and I hope some of you west Michiganders are too!

Kelly's Korner

Kelly's Korner

PLEASE PLEASE PRAY!

Please pray for baby Brayden and baby Harper. I have been reading both of these new baby's momma's blog for quite sometime now and following their long journeys to and through pregnancy. Both babies are in critical care and things aren't looking good, especially for baby Harper. Please go and read their momma's blogs by clicking on their names and read more of the details. Leave a comment for them to let them know you are praying either on their blogs or on mine and I will pass them along.

Blessed.

Wednesday was a rough day for me, emotionally. I probably wouldn't have gotten out of bed until noon if my dog wasn't barking to go outside at 7 am. And I cried in a way that haven't done in months. It felt good to cleanse but i didn't want to be sad anymore, so I started to pray and the posted this to let you know I was praying other sad mommas and daddies too and also asking for other's prayer requests so I could pray for them too.
Just minutes after posting that, my inbox was bursting with emails, not only asking for prayers but also filled with so much encouragement. I needed that (and if you haven't gotten a reply back yet... its coming!)
What a blessing you all are to me. Thanks for being there for me, when you didn't even know I needed it. I am so glad to have 'met' you all!
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Also, thanks Patrice for my new button! You guys can grab the code for my button on the sidebar and post it on the sidebar of your own blog.

Enjoy your weekend!

There are no words

If you have ever lost a child, at any age, at any time, please know that ALL of you are heavy on my heart today.There are no words to describe the pain and hurt I feel along with you. You have been prayed for and are continually being prayed for by me and so many others.

I felt compelled to share this verse with you today: I hope it brings some comfort.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be No more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." (Revelations 21:4-5).

if anyone has any specific prayer requests today, please email me katielubbers (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Joining the Challenge

I signed up! ::blush:: (my kids are going to be soo embarrassed someday!)

There's nothing better than a happy hubby, and enjoying one of God's greatest gifts to married couples at the same time!
Check it out!! Are you joining too?

Christmas Catch up!

~Finally posting some Christmas pictures~

Our family Picture (minus one)

Remembering Brenham at Christmas

Grandpa and Grandma R bought this little Christmas tree for the cemetery, there was so much snow we couldnt even tell where is headstone was.
Ornament from Aunt Lisa.

Robb's mom had all the girls in my family over to make ornaments in memory of Brenham, they turned out so cute!

Brenham's ornament from Christmas 2007

More Parties

Can you believe this?

Paco Rocks!!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers these last few days!

We arrived in Rochester Sunday afternoon and started our tests early Monday morning. We both had blood and urine tests. Mindy's tests also included an 18 hour blood pressure recording and a renal clearance test. I met with a doctor and also had a needle biopsy of my new kidney.

This morning Mindy met with a few doctors to go over her tests, she is doing GREAT.

I met with my doctor again this afternoon to go over my biopsy results. We were all pretty nervous about this b/c the doctor we met with the day before rattled off a bunch of things that could show up, rejection, infection, inflammation, recurrent disease, etc. We were both prepared to hear that the disease was back since we had heard from day one that that was very possible. But that is not what we heard, Paco looks great! My doctor told me we could not have asked for better results!

Go Paco! Go God! Praise God, He is Good!

I also am feeling much better and my white blood count has gone back up a little bit. My meds were also adjusted to keep it in range. Yeah, 4 less pills to take!

back to my old stompin grounds.

Robb and I along with Mindy and Kyle are headed back to Mayo Clinic again tomorrow morning for our 3 month follow up appointments. We are anticipating a two or three day stay in which we will undergo tests and procedures. We are hoping to hear more good news on Paco's performance and praying that the needle biopsy will show no disease recurrence.
I'm not super excited to be going back, it seems like we just left, but I know I am in excellent hands there and I'm sure we'll manage to have some fun too (we always do).
Also please be in prayer for this nasty cold I came down with this morning. My white blood count level has been extremely low the last couple weeks so it's no surprise I came down with something but hopefully I get over it fast (but quite unlikely with such low WBC) but maybe they can adjust my meds once I get there to get that back up to the range they want it (it always should be lower than the average person to prevent rejection but too low is not good either.)
I'll be sure to keep everyone updated!

(is anyone else on blogger having problems with the spell check?)

Love Dare Challenge.

"The Love Dare is a 40 day challenge for husbands and wives to understand and practice unconditional love. Whether your marriage is hanging by a thread or healthy and strong, The Love Dare is a journey you need to take. It's time to learn the keys to finding true intimacy and developing a dynamic marriage. Take the Dare."

If you would like to join me in this 40 day challenge, you can email me or buy the book here.
This is a great way to start the year!