Celebrating our marriage engagement day--3 years later

Dear Rose,

Today marks the 3 year anniversary of the day I asked you to unite yourself to me in a lifetime of marriage!! Looking through emails that i saved from that season of our relationship and browsing through photos of that morning at Willow River State Park, i am freshly reminded of how truly blessed of God my life is. Thank you for saying "YES" early that morning atop that tower that overlooks the St. Croix River Valley. May memories of that morning not ever cease to flood our hearts and minds, all of our days on earth!

I recall walking next to an open field and through the state park trails shortly after i had slipped the ring on your finger; we pondered all that may be ahead of us, who we wanted to include in our wedding celebration and so much more. Today, i celebrate God's unending faithfulness to us and His generosity towards us in so many ways. We have two beautiful children who have been entrusted to our care. We have countless family members and dear friends to share the good times and difficult trials of life with. Yet, above all these blessing, my marriage to you is my greatest joy. The time and effort I spend investing in our marriage may not appear as though our marriage is my top priority, but i trust God is helping me to move in that direction day by day. Thank you for your loving patience with me.

We are young, full of energy and, by God's grace, ready to follow our Lord Jesus however and wherever He may call us. It is my honor and joy to do this alongside no one other than you, Rosemarie!!

Declaring my love and commitment to you again, today!

Your husband,

Joshua

Psalm 37:4

Finally more photos

It has been a full, but amazing season of life. I've gone from having my Mom and Joshua's Mom here for the full month of April, to being on my own once again. Praise God it's been possible. For some reason it was daunting to think of being outnumbered two to one. Both the kids are doing great and adjusting well. As I'm typing this Azariah is standing on the couch yelling, "Mooommm!"

He's been a great big brother, and definitely lets me know when he's needing a bit more attention. He loves holding and kissing Evalyn. After he kisses her he says, "Awwwwh." He doesn't skip a beat or miss anything. So visitors... no cussing!

Well, I'll find some recent photos here and upload them for all you friends and grandparents who are sadly so far away to see. We can't wait to see you Tammi, Randy & Britta tomorrow. Mom, on friday, and Dad and Tamara in two weeks. We love you! Safe travels...

New Photos

We are all well and greatly enjoying spending time with our new baby. She has been a wonderful blessing and addition to our family. Here are just a few more recent photos taken within the last couple of days.

Azariah has expressed a great desire to be around and touch Evalyn. We've been brave enough to let him hold her a few times now, although he is just learning the meaning of "gentle." He tries really hard, but doesn't always remember how fragile she is.

Here Evalyn is sunbathing in the living room. I would like to think that her golden skin is the result of my husbands genes, but it is jaundice.

We hope you enjoy the pictures. We will try to put new ones up frequently as babies change and grow so quickly.

Eyes wide open

Here's a look at Evalyn with her eyes wide open. Big brother, Azariah sneaks in the video at the end!

Baby Evalyn's arrival

Friday at about noon I began having some cramping and decided to put Azariah down for his nap and take a nap myself. When I woke up at about 2:00pm I noticed that I was having some contractions periodically and decided to soak in a bath. I wasn't sure that I was going into labor, but remembering the speed of our first labor and delivery, decided to call Joshua anyways (he was at Disney and about an hour from home). At 6 we went for a walk and called our midwife to check in, although I had Joshua tell her I wasn't ready for her to come out to our house yet. At this time contractions were coming pretty frequently but seemed to be varying in intensity...I think perhaps I was in denial that our new baby would soon be here. From then on, I was pretty focused and continually deeper into the process. Our midwife arrived at 8:00pm, since she had about an hour commute, and found us in the hardest but final stages of labor. We moved from the bathroom to the floor in our bedroom and soon after, with just a few GOOD pushes, Evalyn departed her home in my womb and entered into the world.

We praise God for how smoothly the process went, and are thankful for all you who were upholding us in prayer.

Recent visitors

Update on Azariah and asking for prayer

It has been quite the past couple of weeks. After getting either food poisoning or a flu bug, I (Rose) suffered pretty severe dehydration, which lead to about 24 hours of contractions and other pre-term labor symptoms. It was quite the scare, since the only other time I'd had contractions like that happened just hours before Azariah was born. Thank you for your prayers, which God was faithful to answer and has restored me to 100%. Joshua also had the same bug, although recovered more rapidly, without dehydration.

We are however in need of more prayer as this

past saturday Azariah was injured at the park (as you can see in the photos). While going down the slide with me, the tip of his left shoe, which is rubber, caught between the slide and my leg, bending it backwards extremely fast. He was in quite a lot of

pain and could not put any pressure on his left leg. We took him to a pediatric urgent care Sunday, where they took X-rays, which showed no obvious break, then put a temporary splint on his leg. He still can't put weight on his left foot however, and we plan to take him to a pediatric orthopedic specialist hopefully tomorrow, if we can get in. Please pray that God would heal him quickly, give us patients in this season (as I'm 8 months pregnant and hardly able to carry him around), and that He would give the doctors wisdom.