Happy Birthday Baker and Bubby!

February 5, 2012

Liddy talking to Baker 

I like to think she's praying :)

We've had a lot to celebrate lately! Three family members have February birthdays and a couple of friends too!

Bubby turned 32 on February 6, I praise God for his birth and the life he as lived thus far! The day before on February 5, we celebrate his first son's birthday. For those of you who don't know, Baker is my first nephew. He was born on February 5, 2011 and went to be with God on April 7, 2011. It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. I think this is why it has taken me so long to do this month's post, I simply didn't know what to say. So I'll leave with my rambling thoughts…..

On February 5, 2011, we all planned to go to church and out to eat at Char with the whole Jepsen/Troxler gang. Understandably, Abby and Drew could not make it to church that day. But we celebrated with a big crew at Char afterwards, and thanks to Bubby and Abby for throwing Baker such a special birthday party with all the family. I feel so close to the Jepsen/Hurt family after spending 2 months with them at the hospital everyday!

Here are some pictures of the beautiful flowers we placed in the church that morning for his birthday.

Flowers by Chapman's florist.... he does pretty work!

Allie taking Lids from Bubby.

Sweet girls! I  know Allie loves us! (Lilly Parker would not take a pic!)

(This is just more of a journal entry for me.... so do not read if you don't want to, it's going to get mushy!)

All I know to be true is that God is good, and He is good all the time. I'll never understand His ways, but we must still trust in Him. Life just isn't fair sometimes, and that doesn't make hard circumstances easier; however, the Bible tells us that being a Christian will bring about trying times. December 2010-April 2011 was one of the most trying times of my faith journey. I could not understand why I had my child 6 weeks early as I feared for my life, why she had to be away from us for 17 days as she stayed in in the NICU. Christmas that year was miserable and every time a present was opened, I cried. Until we finally just gave up and all went to the hospital! On Dec. 27, we got to bring her home finally and I thought my pain had ended. 

Until February rolled around… Abby (my sis-in-law) was admitted to the hospital 5 weeks before my nephew was to arrive. My poor parents, we both scared them half to death, why couldn't we just have normal perfect pregnancies??? Baker was born the day after on Feb 5, 2011 (almost 2 months after Liddy.) It was an emergency c-section, and I had a bad feeling the moment the doctor came out to show him to us. He was tiny, was already in an incubator with oxygen hookup. And me being the professional NICU mom (for only 17 days, HA!) asked 10,000 questions to that poor doctor and she could not answer any of them to my likings! The next two months were filled with more emotions than I knew I had and God taught me so very much about my family and me during that time. We stuck together!! We made it!! But it wasn't easy!! Baker lived all of his precious life hooked up to machines, and all but about 1.5 days of it in the hospital. He suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen in the womb. He was suffering from seizures, eventually had to be put on a feeding tube, and much more. The day he came home, I'll never forget! Drew and Abby were the BEST parents, they had learned how to work all the fancy hospital equipment and got it all set up at their house! After school Lydia and I went over to celebrate and she got to meet her cousin for the first and last time (until Heaven!) Praise God we get to know our loved ones again in Heaven. If you've never read, "Heaven is for real" please do so! It touched all of our lives after the funeral. After several rounds in the NICU at UMC, PICU at Batson, Baker finally gave up the fight on April 7th. It was long hard journey for my brother and sister. It was hard to watch them, it was more difficult to go to the hospital everyday and see his precious face and then come home to my now healthy baby. Everyday brings about new beginnings, but there's not a day that goes by that I don't praise God for Baker's life and his blessing he brought to all of us and I also praise Him for the health of all my family, especially Lydia. Life is precious, we should all treasure it!