Welcome Isla Rose!

Elated to be announcing the addition of our daughter Isla Rose to our family.  Isla was born on May 28 at 6:16pm, weighing 6 pounds 3 ounces and 19 and 3/4 inches long.  She is our rainbow among the storms and we are delighted to have her with us.  Big brother is excited and I'm confident big sister had us wrapped in her wings this entire journey!

I've been secretly blogging about my pregnancy with Isla and even the time period leading up to the pregnancy.  I've been reluctant to share until she was here with us safe, sound, breathing and alive.  I'll post some of these in the days to come - a very truthful depiction of our struggles and triumphs in our family's journey.  Some may not be chipper and cheer (though many are), but they capture my thoughts at that very moment.  Some I may not post at all, haven't decided yet.  Give me some time, as I'll be a little occupied in the coming weeks with the care of a newborn.  I can't think of a better way to spend the coming weeks!

What a blessing our children are - welcome Isla!  More photos and details of her delivery to come!  For now, I'm off to feed my baby (wasn't sure I'd ever get to type those words again).

More Spring Project Photos

Here are some quick photos of more spring projects, including updates on my fab new garden!  It's all planted and really thriving.  I attempted to take photos the day I planted it, but was quickly attacked by about 1,000 mosquitoes when I approached the garden.  I couldn't even turn the camera on without being unbearably swarmed.  I quickly ran back into the house, swatting along the way, camera bouncing around my neck.  It was as if I was being attacked by mountain lions.  Quite the scene for any of our neighbors who caught it.  We've had some freakish variety of mosquitoes the past couple of weeks due to recent flooding and hatching of mutant mosquito eggs that have been laying dormant for several years just waiting for some water to activate them and then hatch.  Needless to say, we had our yard fogged to kill the little buggers and it is MUCH better now.

These photos are about a week old now.  I should take some updated photos - the tomatoes are easily twice the size they were when planted.

 Peppers and herbs

 My nice little walk-in area and planting beds!

 Seeds yet to germinate - radishes, carrots, snap peas, and two varieties of lettuce

 Planting (amid the freakish mosquitoes and HOT sun)

 Batman will keep the mosquitoes away! (actually, he built a Lego "mosquito shooter" to keep them away - wasn't 100% accurate unfortunately :) )

I also have been working on a decor project for Gavin's Lego bedroom.  I had this big idea (not even inspired by Pinterest; a true "Erica" original).  I turned some yellow paper lanterns into Lego heads.  Now, yes, they are not the perfect Lego head shape, a little too round.  But it's about the best I could think up.  They are now hanging in Gavin's room, after some bickering between Brad and I as we attempted to hang them.  In true "Erica" style, the project wasn't fully thought out - e.g. how would we get them to hang facing just the right way while dangling from thin ribbon?  Didn't think about that ahead of time.  Again, the best we could do.  Originally I wanted to hang them above Gavin's bed but quickly realized they would become jumping/punching bags quite quickly and my hours of work would be destroyed like a pinata.  So, they are just outside of jumping/punch distance, phew!

Day of Grace

Yesterday, we celebrated our daughters second birthday in heaven. We had a somber, quiet "Day of Grace" reflecting. It was as close to perfect as it could be, aside from having her here with us. Grace ordered up some beautiful weather for planting flowers at the cemetery, having a picnic lunch with her, visiting the zoo, wrapping up Gavin's soccer class and releasing a lantern at dusk in her honor. It was very peaceful and lovely to be together as a family.

Many thanks to our friends and family for all of the love and support - texts, FB messages, phone calls, gifts, cards (oh, the cards, you guys are all so awesome!).  When you lose a child, it often feels like you're the only one living the pain and remembering her constantly. Yesterday, we learned that we're not the only ones who remember - we have so many friends and family (near and far) who remember along with us and honor our little girl. It means more than you'll ever know.  

 

With time, people forget about her.  New people enter our lives who never knew her story.  Life moves on, the world keeps spinning, and the demands keep trudging forward.  But I find myself, at times, still stuck on May 24, 2011 when she was alive and with us.  I often wish I could go back to that day and push pause on the DVR and just stay in the moment a bit longer.  Or revisit it as often as I like.

Some very dear friends arranged for a massive number of birthday cards to be sent for Grace's birthday.  They then decorated Grace's tree at the cemetery with the cards, secretly.  When we pulled up to the cemetery to begin our day of Grace, from a distance it looked like decorations in her tree.  I knew instantly who had done it.  But as we walked closer (just Brad and I - we left Gavin in the car, windows down, sleeping, he fell asleep on the way there), it was clear these were cards.  And they were from all different friends and family.  It was just lovely to see and feel all of the support of those around us.  Her name is rarely said (except in our house, all of the time), so to see so many people remember her along with us took my breath away! 

Aside from the cemetery, we spent a portion of the afternoon at our local zoo.  We're members this summer, so it will be fun to go back.  Brad and Gavin go there often, but it's a treat for me to be able to join them.  I had the day off from work, so to the zoo we went.  Gavin loved "leading" me around and showing me all of his favorite exhibits and things to do.  From there, we headed to his last soccer practice/game/lesson with the Grandparents, a quick dinner and then back to the cemetery to release a lantern at dusk (well, a little earlier than dusk - we needed to get Gavin back home and to bed after such a long day.  He was a trooper, though, all day, which made me proud.)  Tonight we'll celebrate her life with a mass dedicated to her at our church.

Some photos of our day...

 We made a butterfly cake again this year (and butterfly cookies, not pictured).  Brad and I lit the "2" candle on it last night.

 Fresh flowers at Grace's Place.  Gavin loves helping.

 We're trying a butterfly bush this year at the cemetery, in addition to one at home in our Grace garden.  We'll see if it attracts some butterflies.

 Just our family, I like how you can see the back of Grace's stone in this photo - Amazing Grace!

 A couple of butterfly decorations from friends and a Minnie Mouse from Mom, Dad and Gavin.

 Said tree with at least 50 cards attached!

 Gavin took this photo while he was playing Peter Parker and it turned out nice, "I have to get some photos for the Daily Bugle" (you Spiderman fans will understand this - he's obsessed, thinks he is the "real Spiderman".)  Check out that beautiful blue sky, a few clouds sprinkled in, after a week of rain and storms!

 Gavin also took this one of Minnie which I thought turned out cute.

Grace, we love you to the moon and back - we hope you enjoyed your day in heaven dancing, picking flowers, hugging Grandpa, and smiling down on us!

 

Spring Projects

With our new house comes an abundance of projects!  I'm so excited about a couple of them - a fun new sand box (mega sand box, really) for Gavin, and a vegetable garden for me!

Gavin LOVES his new sand box.  He spends hours upon hours creating construction sites, cities, etc. in the big box, deep in concentration as he plays away.  In particular, the construction trucks from Santa as well as new concrete mixer impromptu gift have been put to good use.  It's been fun to watch him!

And, after a year off due to our move last summer, I will officially be back to gardening this spring/summer!  SO, SO, SO excited about this!  Brad and Gavin built me a beautiful raised garden bed in our backyard as my Mother's Day gift.  It's fabulous - lots of sweat and hard work (and mosquito bites) to get this thing ready to go.  As of today, it is ready for planting, just in time!  Given we live in critter haven, we had to fence it in. While extra work, I'm excited about the possibilities for veggies I previously was unsuccessful in growing due to rabbits helping themselves.  Sorry critters, you're not welcome in this 12 foot by 14 foot haven!  (Please come visit, just don't jump the fence) 

Extra cool thing is that our underground sprinkling has been set up to water the garden - one of my pitfalls at our old house.  Gosh, you forget to water it one day and it looks terrible.  Now it's self-sustaining - just need to weed and harvest.  Gavin and I even bought gardening boots and we're planning a special section just for him.  He wants to plant radishes, carrots and cucumbers.  And I bought him some fun dinosaur and dragon figurines to place in his section, to keep it safe you know.  I'm interested in peppers, tomatoes and herbs mainly.  I think we'll plant this weekend!

 The garden site, pre-build

(it's hard to see the fence around the garden, but it's there!)

In other spring-related news, the red bud tree that we planted in our Grace garden last summer is in blossom right now.  And it looks spectacular.  I've come to love red bud trees - there was one at the hospital we would pass daily on our wheelchair route from my room to my hour of freedom roaming the hospital, Gavin on my lap, Grace growing in my belly.  We watched it two springs ago transition from dormant to beautiful flowers.  Then Grace was born.  Since then, I've payed closer attention to these beautiful trees growing in the wild.  They are hard to miss - the beautiful bright pink buds among the green trees in a forest, almost hugging the other trees.   Standing out so vibrantly.  I suppose there is some symbolism in our choice to place a red bud in our Grace garden.  She is our angel, beautiful and bright, hugging us.  The tree was a gift from my coworkers which makes it extra special.  Some of the people who have provided the most constant support over the past two years.

This photo doesn't do the tree justice.  It was almost too bright out when I took this photo (not complaining about the brightness, though, it's lovely to have so much sun after such a drab April).

And to round out spring, some photos of Gavin playing his first round of outdoor soccer, official with cleats and shin pads.  He likes it.  I think the coach is crazy for trying to wrangle in twenty-ish four year olds!  Yicks!

That's all for now.  Sorry for my lack of blogging - between work, swim lessons, and soccer practice, it's been a busy spring.  I do have some posts prepared that I haven't published yet capturing some additional moments in the Clark family - to be posted soon, I promise :)  I think you'll like them - most of them at least.