On The Road Again...

We are off to go pick up our kids! It has been a wonderful week.  Our house has never been cleaner.  And the week was a great balance between getting work done and rest.  In fact, we had such a great time that Dave and I have been scheming about how we can postpone our trip out there;)  he he he....Thank-you so much Moms and Dads!!  

I am a bit cautious about posting our trip info on a public place like this.  But I would also like your prayers as we drive.  Rachel had a short spell this morning at 5:30 am.  I'm not nearly as nervous about this trip as I was on the first one.  Still, we know what can happen and we ask God for travelling mercies, health for Rachel, and for peace.  We believe that God knows everything about what will happen on this trip and there is no difference if we are here in Calgary or somewhere between Regina and Brandon.  He is with us.

Other than the spell this morning, Rachel has had a great week.  She's been so happy.  Some new things she is doing:
1. Shaking her head (her sign that she wants to play - we like to growl and shake our heads when we bite her...)
2. She is more agile with her fingers.  I can't leave her bottle sitting in her car seat anymore because she can grab it now and throw it around.
  
One project I was able to work on this week was Ethan and Abigail's scrapbooks.  Now, I am not a real scrapbooker.  I don't do anything complicated - it's all very simple.  I like to cram lots of pictures on one page. I also don't have much patience or an eye for color.  And so, I probably break all the rules of real scrapbooking.  I usually just do about four pages a year.  But I have fun nonetheless when I get to it.  It's been a few years since I have touched the kids books and I wanted to get past Rachel's birth pages.  

So, I'm cruising along, sticking in pictures of Christmas 2009, and pictures of summer fun, (planning to add the written stories in later) and then I get to Rachel's birth....I was just struck by the sudden thought - what will it be like for Abigail to see these pages years from now?  I didn't expect to feel sad.  But turning from this page.....

 to start work on this one...

was a a difficult moment for me.  I haven't felt that kind of emotion for a long time.  This beautifully captured moment - of Abigail's tenderness in loving her new baby sister tugged so hard at my heart... 

I love both my little girls.  I LOVE that they know each other now.  I LOVE that Abigail will grow up knowing that she has a little sister waiting for her - and she can anticipate being with her again.  I love that she can experience, even for a short while, the joy of having a baby sister.  God is so good to us! And at the same time, I know that Abigail will grieve the loss of her sister.  What a mix of feelings....