Fall Family Update

Baby girl will be making her appearance in a few weeks, JJ is running, and we've made more house progress thanks to family and friends who gave their time and talents in the last month.

Family selfie at Home Depot in September 2018

Baby Girl Update

We are praising God for answered prayers! At a 32 week ultrasound, we found out that the placenta is out of the way so a vaginal delivery is still in the cards (Lord willing). At the 18 week anatomy ultrasound we were told that Emily had complete placenta previa, meaning the organ that feeds the baby was also blocking the exit. Research told us that in most cases the previa resolves by 32 weeks, so we waited to schedule the appointment until then and we were thrilled to get the news! Thank you for your prayers and positive thoughts! 

Emily is currently planning to deliver at Concord Birth Center, a midwife-run facility about 35 minutes from the house. Please pray for a continued healthy pregnancy and for lower blood pressure so that birth plan can stay in place. The due date is 11/4, but we are thinking we'll meet this girl sometime in October.

Miss Virginia Grace Monroe at 32 weeks (side profile - her nose is on top)

JJ Update

JJ is such a joy. He started walking at 9.5 months and now at 14 months he is running. While he falls often, he is brave and gets right up to keep exploring. His current favorite things are eating pineapple, riding in his new "big boy" car seat, and talking into cups and other items that make his voice sound echo-ey. While he isn't a redhead, his hair is definitely blond. We'll see how long that lasts! 

Josh and JJ: Two peas in a flannel pod! 

House Update

Josh made HUGE progress on our house over the last month, thanks especially to Dale and Gail who came out and stayed with us for two weeks. The siding is done on the front of the house above the porch roof (in progress pic below). Josh is still working on the right side of the house above the porch roof in an effort to get all the exposed exterior walls done before baby girl arrives. The last window was installed two weeks ago, and it really brightened up the third upstairs bedroom. We've got three of four bedrooms complete, and Josh is planning to get drywall up in that fourth bedroom (the third one upstairs, on the back right of the floor plan) in the next few weeks. We'll be hosting more family once baby girl makes her entrance, so it will be nice to have four fully functional bedrooms again.

Josh and JJ on the porch with the siding 3/4 done on the front second story 

It's been two years since we started the house renovation project. While it wears on us at times, it is also good to look back and think about how far we've come both on the house and as a family. Two years ago we had no babies, crappy insulation, and no real plan for moving forward other than "well, we have to fix what's here." Josh had found rot, missing support beams, shrunken spray foam insulation (such that every stud bay was effectively uninsulated)...and live carpenter ant colonies. Thankfully the days of battling ants are (mostly) over and we are moving toward finishing touches in lots of places.

One of those places is the first floor bathroom. Josh was able to re-do the floorplan completely and it is WAY more effective with flow and use of space. One thing he did was relocate and shrink a bathroom on the first floor. We've been living with a toilet and shower curtain for almost a year, which made the bathroom usable, albeit spartan. With Dale and Gail's help Josh got the vanity topped, sink and faucet installed, and door installed. So now we have a fully functional half bath on the first floor again. Hooray!

Our first floor "powder room" with its new sink and re-purposed door!

We are grateful to everyone who has helped us on this project with time, resources, babysitting, and prayer. THANK YOU! We would not be where we are today without you! God truly uses His people as his hands and feet.