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| Bert and Beki, married 2007 |
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| Our cat, Oakley, was added to the family during summer 2010. |
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| Gwen Elizabeth joined the scene April 2011 |
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| 18 months old here |
Our second baby had a short life of 10 weeks gestation from March 2012 - June 2012. We will always be thankful for that life and long to know that baby until we finally meet in heaven. Losing our baby was the most faith-stretching and emotional experience I've had so far. I write a lot about that journey here.
Update 1/21/2013:
Baby #3 (Ezra) also died before we got to meet him. We found out via ultrasound that he was dead when I was 10 weeks, 5 days along. He lived to be about 8 weeks in size. When we found out he was already gone, it was a few days before Christmas so we decided to wait and see what would happen physically with the looming miscarriage. My body got the picture the day before I would've been 12 weeks, I experienced a very intense incomplete miscarriage which ended in the hospital and surgery. My D&C happened the day before Baby #2 (Joey's) due date. It all felt very cruel to be carrying a dead baby inside me at Christmas and hope felt like a joke. But those are feelings, not the whole story. We are receiving God's grace to pick up the pieces and trust His goodness. He doesn't only give pain. He is so much bigger than that. So we are learning to trust Him as he writes our family's story, though it is so much different than we had hoped.
So that's our story so far. Other important things to note about us:
- We love Jesus.
- We worked at a camp on the edge of the BWCA one summer which further developed in us passion for canoeing, camping, woods, community, and adventure.
- Bert hated vegetables when we got married and has grown exponentially in that area of life. Now he will even have tomatoes on his sandwiches!
- Bert was a math major at UMD. I was a communication major at Bethel University (English Literature minor).
- He is passionate about efficiency and I am passionate about group communication.
- We love our church Sovereign Grace Church so much. God has used it to keep us growing, learning, and loving him deeply throughout our engagement and marriage. We spend lots of time with small group, because we believe the Bible calls us to purposeful and frequent fellowship.
- I love Europe. One time I got to live there for 3.5 months, in an alpine castle.
- Bert used to fill a fish tank with rocks from Lake Superior in college and I would visit him and name all his fish.
- The first time we hung out when we like-liked each other (but still weren't dating) he played me a song he wrote and we ran around in a thunderstorm.
- Gwen was born during the first thunderstorm of 2011.
Things I blog about:
- Obviously, our family
- Books
- Projects and crafts
- Photos (beginner level!)
- Faith
- Fun dates or trips
- Our extended, and amazing, extended families
- Our small group seasonal events
- Thoughts on pregnancy and parenting
- Miscarriage
