Beautiful day

On Tuesday (September 25), I went to my midwife appointment with Peggy - Mom went with me. To start off the appointment, I asked Peggy all my questions from the last month of pregnancy. One of them was about my ear piercing that had grown increasingly infected over the last three weeks. I'd tried an antibiotic while we were at Magone, but nothing changed. I showed Peggy the piercing and she said, "Well, let's get that thing out of there!" Next thing I knew, I was laying on my side with one nurse holding a clamp to the front of my earing, Mom holding onto my legs, and Peggy working to twist the back side of my earring off the bar. Yes, it hurt. I spent the whole time laughing nervously. It was no good! And yet I still chuckle thinking about it...

Next, we whipped out the heart monitor so we could check in with the baby. My uterus has been a problem as we've tried to use the heart monitor before - just too tilted to get a good sound. We couldn't find a heart beat so we all moved into the ultrasound room. The baby came up very clearly on the screen, but we couldn't find the heart beat right away. Finally Peggy spotted some slow movement, but it was only in one of the four chambers of the baby's heart. I began to cry.

Peggy called the hospital and had the x-ray department fit us into their schedule; we had to know for sure if the baby was dead. Before leaving her office, Peggy pulled me into a room and told me that she wasn't holding onto hope for the little one.

On the way across the street, to the hospital, Mom began to try to get Nate on the phone. I called and left a message for Karen (Nate's mom). We just didn't know what to do or who to call. I knew the baby was dying, but I wasn't sure how to go about telling people that. Poor Karen; she ended up with the most blunt message on her machine.

Nate met me in the ultrasound room at the hospital in time to see a few of the pictures and find out for sure that the baby had died. We talked to Peggy on the phone and she gave us the option of checking into Labor & Delivery, or going home and waiting for my body to expel the baby naturally when it was time. There was no way I was going home to sit around waiting, knowing that I was carrying a dead baby in my abdomen. Not a chance.

We were placed in room 2417 at Portland Adventist Hospital. It took forever for me to compel myself to get into that bed, fully knowing how it was going to end. There was no treasure at the end of this path. Nate and I prayed together and wept hard. God gave me some calm, just enough in that moment to get me to change and climb into that bed. That became typical of Him over the next four days. He kept giving me exactly what I needed, just when I needed it. I don't pretend to understand the why behind what happened, but I know that no matter what, He's been with me every step of the way.



As has my husband. Nate is the most amazing man I've ever met. I'm so proud of him, and so proud to be his wife. We had a precious little baby boy together, who we'll meet down the road. The four days in the hospital were so hard, but so good. I don't expect any of you out there to understand that, but our experience was remarkable. God gave us amazing nurses along with Peggy. They were all incredibly supportive and encouraging. We did some laughing, we did a lot of crying.





God moved between Nate and I in such unexpected ways. He's carried us through when we thought there was no bit of strength left in either of us. He's made Himself very real. We know He has a greater plan through this; at this point, I don't expect to find out what that is, but I know that it'll be an incredible blessing.

We named the baby Nathaniel Micheal Banks - Nathaniel after Nate, obviously, Micheal after my middle name, Michelle. He was born on Friday, September 28, 2007, 1:56am. He doesn't get a record of life, just a record of death. We were given only limited opportunities to be his parents in action: so we held onto him and cried, we handed him over and cried, we left the hospital and cried, we buried him and cried. But we'll always be his parents. It's amazing how much love can grow in such a short amount of time! Three months ago I wasn't even sure I wanted to be a mom, but now I can hardly wait for the next little baby to come along!

Nathaniel was a precious gift, one that God used to unite Nate and I like nothing else ever has. I found in my husband a strong man, filled with passion and emotion and love. He stood by my side through every miserable pelvic exam, a thousand IV pokes, and two epidurals. I'm so proud of him, and so thankful!

So I say Friday was a beautiful day because I met my little boy that day; because I really truly recognized the love of my life in Nate; and because God met me exactly where I was.

Magone 2007

This was the third year Nate and I tagged along to Magone. And once more it was highly enjoyable!

A few pictures...

Rameus took up his usual camping position: In a chair by the fire wrapped up in a blanket.



Mom shot a bird (the only killing we did; Nate was too kind to the fish so he let go what he caught), so this picture is of Dad taking a picture of Mom and the bird. I laugh every time I look at this one!



Nate and I at the top of Lake Butte. Magone lake is far to our left, not at all in the picture, but, if you had been there with us, you could have seen the lake :) The weather warmed up during the day, so we were able to pare down to long-sleeved clothing items, but at night, it was oh-so-cold! The tent flap zipper broke on our tent, so we slept with just the mesh closed. Good times :)



Susanville is one of our favorite stops while at Magone. Two years ago we went through the little leftover buildings, Mom, Dad, & Nate climbed through a deserted mine while I sat in the car keeping guard, and then we drove down toward the creek to have lunch and do some shooting. This year, when we turned on the road toward Susanville, we began to see signs for no trespassing. But the road belonged to the National Forest, so we kept going. We got to the mine and the whole thing was barred off; and I had even been willing to venture inside this time! (Lucky break for me the mine was closed.) As we drove along further, we actually passed between two no trespassing signs posted right on the either side of the road. This was just after passing a "You're now leaving Malheur National Forest" sign...We figured it was for real. So we went back to the flat spot by the creek, ate lunch, and then packed out. We had to find another deserted road to do some shooting. So this picture is taken of the truck's hitch with our reflection in Susanville. That was probably the last time we'll ever get to see the abandoned buildings and the effects of hydro mining! So sad...



I just thought that this was a pretty picture of Dakota. She never sits still long enough for me to get good shots, so this was a pleasant surprise.



This is what I usually get from her:



Dad and Mom brought some super burning wood from home, but we powered through it very quickly, so Dad and Nate found some rounds to chop up at the campsite. They picked them up at other, empty sites and brought them over to ours. Then they rolled them up a small hill to a flat spot to take the wedge and axe to them.



Dad chopping...



Nate chopping...



I have the best picture of Nate from when he was done chopping. He's all sprawled out in one of the camp chairs, looking completely spent. I couldn't put it here because it's sideways and I'm lazy :) I'm working on what feels like a thousands posts right now, so bear with me as I trudge my way through the past few weeks. Lots and lots of posts to catch up on...

Our love to you all!

Baby room...

So, I don't have a picture of our bed nook to post so you guys get an idea of the room, but I'll do that soon. Meanwhile, here are a few links of designs that have given me some inspiration...

This is the cake lady who started it all (check out all her links on this page, aren't they great???) and this is another Whimsical cake that I like.

This is a Striped Whimsey Polly's Cakes original...isn't it pretty??? So, I'm sure this design works primarily for little girls--not sure what to do with a boy's room, but I'll figure it out if that's the case :)

Baby Banks Update

So things are going well! I'm praying very hard that my morning sickness is good and over by this Saturday. Week 13 officially begins on Thursday, and I really need to be done with throwing up in the morning by Saturday because, well, that's the date of my first BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) leader's meeting. I have to get up by 4:45am in order to eat and get ready to make it to the 6am meeting. Feel free to pray along with me that week 13 marks a marvelous change in this pregnancy! Baby and I both appreciate your prayers :)

Nate and I have chosen a Nurse midwife as our pregnancy/labor caregiver. Her name is Peggy and she's fantastic! She's a believer, which has been such a comfort. She's been so encouraging as we've talked through all the changes and flat out weirdness that comes along with pregnancy. The first time I met with her, about five weeks ago, we couldn't get the heart beat to come through on the sound monitor, so we had to do an ultrasound. The baby moved! It was crazy...

Crazier still is the fact that Nate and I will be going into her office in five weeks to find out the sex of the baby...It's nuts that we're already to that point. We still have no idea what we're doing, really. I think we've made a nursery decision, though! Our bedroom is enormous, with a bed nook, sitting room, and extra large bathroom that just keeps on going. Nate had the fabulous idea that we should put our bed in the sitting room area and turn the bed nook into the nursery. That will probably work really well for quite awhile, but when we need to change things around, my office will suffice as a nursery once we move all the books into the bed nook and make it a reading room. My husband's the smartest of them all :)

Before I sign off, any guesses on the sex of the baby???? Feel free to comment :)

We'll keep you updated as we learn more! Blessings on you all!

The much needed vacation.

SO! July 22nd was our two year anniversary and we took a grand lil' trip to California, where we escaped from it all!!! Not really:) I kept checking the internet to communicate with various clients and friends...I'm not the most dedicated vacationer, what can I say.

We had such a great time, though! I think Nate could've stayed south for just about forever. We're very opposite types in that respect: he wants to extend the vacation as much as possible; all I can think about toward the end is getting home.

The most unpleasant thing, though, was that my morning sickness set in on the trip down to San Louis Obisbo (sp???). Ack. AND the OBs office called me the day we were driving down to tell me that my pregnancy was labeled a "threatened pregnancy." Apparently the doctor wasn't satisfied with the strength of the little one's heart beat at our first ultrasound. (I've since had my second ultrasound and everything is just fine! S/HE has a strong heartbeat and looks good for being a lima bean.)

Pismo Beach, where we ended our honeymoon! It was oh-so-nice to be back!




Nate...just standing in the kitchen, hollering about dinner, if I remember right.




Oso Flaco...Mom and Dad told us to take this little nature walk. It was about 75 degrees outside when we started, but by the time we made it across the lake and toward the ocean, it was much warmer...and WAY windier!




These are cormorants. These are crazy, weird birds! They aren't water proof, or even water resistant, but still they swim. They become weighed down by the water and then have to climb out to dry off (which they do by spreading out their wings - seriously, they'll sit like this for 10 minutes or more, whatever it takes until they're dry) before they drown.




This is the part of the ocean that we walked to after crossing the lake. Getting there was an unwelcome reminder of just how out of shape we are...




Olde Port Restraunt and Inn, where we sat at a glass topped table that had a view through the floor/pier underneath us to the water below. We saw starfish and sea weed, but not much else. We found the sea lions later.




Our anniversary self-portrait. These are always winner angles!




Nate was laughing at the drunk fishermen near us on the dock. After dinner we walked to the end of the dock and watched all the fishing boats and herons and listened to the sea lions howling out on their rock.




Sea lions galore! When we started to head back to the car we found a crazy amount of loud sea lions right under the pier we were walking on. They were incredibly noisy, but we had such fun watching them! (Yeah, sorry, the photo is sideways...)



I have quite a few pictures from when we stopped in and visited with the Powells at their new house, but I think those are on the camera still, which Nate has taken off to work with him...again. :)

One last picture, though. Enjoy :]

It's fuzzy, but...

We're having a kid! March 13...

Only the best dog ever...

this is from before we left town, when i was still house-watching mom and dad's.

Mom and Dad, this is your yard. Don't forget!

Mom and Dad have been away for awhile (what, not even a week?) and it feels like forever. So I'm posting these pictures so that they remember that they like it here and come home eventually.





I harvested this, don't worry.



And this.

See you guys soon! Enjoy CA, although you're missing gorgeous weather here :)

Yard work

Yesterday was the 4th of July, and it was an excellent day! Nate joined me over at Mom and Dad's to do some work in the garden. We got rid of the weeds and fertilized everything and then Nate picked berries while I took care of the lettuce. He took off after awhile and left me to finish up. He ran to Home Depot and rented a thrasher for the yard.

Okay, so we didn't know what to expect. When he was done running the thrasher across the yard it looked like we had dumped a bunch of dead grass on our newly mowed lawn.




I began to help Nate without really understanding the process or purpose of what we were doing, so it was interesting to learn along with Nate. We raked up all the dead yard debris scattered across the lawn (filling the yard debris bin) and then we spread top soil in the holes left over once the dead grass was removed. We had huge patches of just dirt...Years of neglect had combined to turn our front and back yards into a gross mess! So we laid the top soil and then spread grass seed and fertilizer. Nate ran this other piece of equipment over the yard when we were done, some big round plastic thing that he had me fill up with water to make it heavy.

So we finished with the yard, sprinted inside to clean up, and then rushed over the Seth and Trina Mac's for a family get-together. We weren't there for long, though; we had to go back to Mom and Dad's to put the dogs in before the fireworks started. Poor little Rameus is just old enough (and now dumb enough) to try to break through his invisible fence if he was scared by the banging.

After we locked the dogs up, we joined Dave and Tiffani Martin over at Dave's parents house (1 minute up 172nd from Mom and Dad's house) and watched crazy fireworks. Their neighbor had a spectacular show and then Dave and Nate lit a few mortars that flew straight over where Tiffani and I were sitting. It was such a marvelous night for fireworks! We didn't make it to bed, though, until almost after 1am. And Nate got up at around 6am, or just before. His commitment to his business is amazing, but sometimes I have to shake my head in bewilderment :] Nate and I talked and made a decision for all humankind--we think it's a much better idea for people to work the first half of the day on July 4th and then take the 5th of July off totally. Sounds good, eh?

Oh, this is Tosha hiding from the noise of the thrashing machine.



Enjoy your day!

Jacob Jeremiah Weigel

Linsea went into labor on Monday, June 25th, and popped out Jake on Tuesday, June 26th, at 1:58pm. She was at Portland Adventist still when she called me and I was able to go meet the 7lb. 4oz., 19" long baby around 8:30pm that night. Mom and baby are happy and healthy, a little more than can be said about new-dad, Ken. He told me yesterday that the stress from long labor and the not sleeping caught up to him on Thursday when they were supposed to be heading home. He said he spent quite a bit of time throwing up in the bathroom, poor guy. I wouldn't wish that on anyone! So, I took a few pictures the night I met Jacob, so here are a few:



Linsea was sooo tired, but she looked great! She said her labor was tough for the first ten hours, and then they gave her medication. Labor lasted nearly 26 hours.



Linsea's dad is holding Jacob in this picture, and Linsea's brother Seth is sitting with his girlfriend Emily. When I got to the hospital, Linsea's brothers were there (along with Emily), and then her parents showed up. They all left after a little while and I sat holding Jacob for about five minutes, until Ken's family showed up.



Just from my observations, Jake has a very Lindquist face, but Ken's chin :]

Catching up.

Okay, this will be a quick review of the past months.

First off, Linsea's shower (I DID have some pics!):







Next, we got away in June to Rockaway Beach again (Twin Rocks Friends' Camp). Here are a couple pics of not too much :) It was stormy while we were there...bummer at first because we'd been sooo looking forward to several sunny days at the coast, but we resided ourselves to the yucky weather by day two. The last day we were there, though, the weather turned gorgeous! Ivy's birthday party was called off so we had no time restrictions...it was heaven! We took all the time in the world to wander around on Rockaway beach and Cannon Beach. I have some great editing work going on right now, so we drove through Cannon Beach and south to Tolovana (sp?) to find a cheap place to stay for a long weekend as a writing getaway. We found the Grey Whale Inn, which I would LOVE to stay at just for its eccentricity...We spent most of our time at Twin Rocks reading to our hearts content. Below you'll find Nate's tome of the year:





And now, Mom's 50th birthday party (I totally just typed "59th"--she'd kill me for that! I've had too much coffee today...)! We had probably 18 people in Mom and Dad's hangar for the party, so it was well-attended and totally enjoyable! Now I have a meeting with a client, so this quick blogging at the coffee shop has come to an end. Enjoy your day!




[ps. Papa Haydn messed up with Mom's cake...again. Refer to last August for the first bad experience with Pap Haydn. I really enjoy their food, but seriously, they need to get their orders straight. This cake was their last-ditch efforts to please me.]







[ps. New co-pilots! Uncle Seth took a quick trip through the pattern with Mom and Erin took a longer flight with Dad.]

Random

I found these pictures from May! I know, I'm taking a step back, but I think they're funny pictures...The one of Nate and I is from Willamette Park (I think that's the name). We were wasting time between church and going over to his parents' house for lunch. The park is in West Linn, and the last time we were there was at his Junior League baseball team's end-of-season party, and that was almost three years ago. We walked out on the dock and sat for an hour or so watching the boats drift by. It was nice!

After lunch with Rick and Karen, and Karen's Uncle Ben and his wife Linda, the ladies practiced some yoga while Rick had his back worked on by chiropractor Ben. Yes, so that's why these pictures include some funny poses.

Nate took the camera again, but soon I'll have some more pictures up from more recent events! Thanks for your patience! Love to you all...

Mac Track-ers

Ryan and Erin McLaughlin (my cousins on Mom's side) are both in high school (kinda -- Ryan just graduated) and run for the Milwaukie varsity track team. I can't list their achievements here, except that I know they're endless, and both of them made it to State this last season. Below are a few pictures from one of their end-of-the-season meets (this one was against Oregon City). I wasn't able to make it to State to watch them run, but hopefully I'll get to watch Erin a bit more next year!!