A Lot of Randomness, but it's Necessary

Where do I begin???

How about we had a good Thanksgiving. We had a very difficult time being completely happy, after all a piece of our family is gone. But we spoke of the good times and smiled a lot, but shed many many tears. Gracie even had a hard time, which broke our hearts, but it is a fact we are all sad! We decided though that we will hang Gabi's stocking, which I planned on anyways, and we are going to start a new family tradition. Every Christmas we are going to pick out one special gift for all of us to enjoy, that reminds us of our little angel.

As you can see we helped MiMi and Popi put up their tree. Gracie had fun, she is such a good helper. And she did it in style with the santa hat and all, of course we had to get daddy in on the action...hehehe!!!

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Update on the Santa's Little Helpers...

The donations just keep coming, thank you to everyone who has been helping. These kids are going to get some wonderful gifts and it's all because of the love and support we continue to get from each of you. I can't wait for the 8th, it will be a very special day!

I do have one question though and this is for anyone who can help, Jason wants to dress as Santa...imagine that:) Anyways does anyone know of a place we can rent a costume or does anyone have one we could borrow, that would fit him??? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Baby Update...

And now for those of you who keep asking to share the belly pics...well here you go! So the first one was about 3 or 4 weeks ago, but the bigger or the 2 which is very obvious is from Saturday. Last week we renamed Bean, Lemon Drop, the baby was then the size of a lemon, so hence the name. Well looks like we should just call it baby Acker, cause now this week is it the size of an apple. I know Gweneth Palthrow can call her baby Apple, but I just can't...so baby Acker it is!!! Next week is my 16 week regular check up, then the 10th is the big one...level 2 ultra sound and we find out what we are having, I CANNOT WAIT for that appt. I haven't felt much as far as kicks and movement, but I feel flutters all the time. I have been getting sick more often. Gracie and I say it is a boy, Gabi never gave me this much trouble, so it's gotta be a boy:) As for Jason he thinks it is a girl, because he thinks he will never have a boy, but I know he'd love a little boy. Either way neither one of us really care, and as Jason would say we just want a healthy ticker! The rest we can handle!

Santa's Little Helpers...Delivery Date

This is a sneak peak at the ornament I am making for the kids. Stay posted for more pics to come, you won't want to miss delivery pics!

Megan and I have been doing a lot of planning for our big event! We are stuffing 24 stocking, there are 23 rooms in the PICU and we have 1 very close friend, Chelsea at CMH. She is the little darling at the top of my blog who is fighting leukemia. Our delivery date will be Dec. 8th. Megan and I have been doing a lot of shopping. When you are buying for that many stockings though the funds go fast. One thing we are doing is trying to make the stockings as personal to each child as we can. We can't get to much info. from the PICU, but we have some inside scoop to help us plan properly. Needless to say we will be doing last minute shopping in order to give it that personal touch.

I have decided to make a few items for the kids. I am making jinglebell snowmen, penguin finger puppets, small foam picture frames, and a very special ornament with our foundation name on it, including the year. Like I said this will be an annual event, but in order to make it successful we need your help. I have a list of items if anyone wants to donate toys. If you do not want to do the purchasing I would be more than happy to do the purchasing if you can provide a little money. I cannot tell you how much this means to us! I hate asking for money, but funds are going quickly and I want to give so much to these kids. Not only the kids but we are planning on providing a few items for the parents as well. Being at the hospital day in and day out is exhausting and expensive, so any help is better than no help.

Be sure to check out Miss Bella blog too, will are so proud of partnering with her mommy and daddy on this very special project! http://isabellagudde.blogspot.com/

Love to all!

Have a safe and filling Thanksgiving weekend! Gobble Gobble:)

Be sure to give thanks to those special in your lives. You just never know what may or may not be there tomorrow! I give thanks everyday for the opportunity to have such an amazing angel in my life. She gave us so much in such a little amount of time. She has no idea how much she impacted our lives. I love her more and more everyday! I miss you punky!!!

The Game...

I finally made it to my first ever NFL game. Jason's company gets Colts season tickets and we scored them this last weekend. We were 4 rows from the field on the 25 yard line, on the visitors side. Wow...did I mention they were incredible seats:) Anyways it just so happened the Colts played the Chiefs. We wore Colts gear, but I was cheerin for the Chiefs in my heart. Not much of a game, but at least it wasn't a complete blow out.

By the way I did chop off my hair and every time I get bored it gets shorter. This is a terrible pic of me, but Jason looks good...as always!

1st Annual Santa's Little Helpers

As many of you know through my little angels passing we have started a foundation in her memory, Gifts of Gabi's Grace. If any of you have read our blog you know of our little miracle friend, Bella. She too had a congenital heart defect at birth. To learn more about her story go to http://isabellagudde.blogspot.com/ She has been fighting for her life this entire past year. She is doing really well these days. After spending over 100 days in the hospital her parents decided to start a foundation as well, Miracles Happen.
Well, we have teamed up and decided to do 2 annual events for the children at Childrens Mercy Hospital. The first is coming up, Santa's Little Helpers. We have had a really hard time deciding which children to provide for, we made our decision yesterday, all the rooms in PICU. That is about 20 rooms. We want to give all the children stockings filled with goodies. This is where we need your help. If anyone would like to help us, whether it be donating time or money we would greatly appreciate it! I hate asking for money, but it is very important to us to give these children a little bit of normalcy while spending time in the hospital.
Please send me an email, micah@giftsofgabisgrace.org if you are interested! Remember we are trying to create good memories through some of the hardest times a child may be experiencing. Have a little Christmas spirit and help us out!
Thanks!
Love to ALL!!!
Happy Holidays!

Micah, Jason, Gracie, Angel Gabi, and all of us at Gifts of Gabi's Grace

Happy 10 months Angel!!!

I cannot believe that 10 months ago today I gave birth to the most amazing little angel. She definitely made our world a better place. We will forever be thankful for her beauty and grace. She blessed all of us by introducing us to a wonderful community. She still continues to bring so much joy to daddy and I. We have embraced life and we are so thankful for all that we have be given.

Gabi: mommy, daddy, and sissy miss you so much but I have a feeling you will give us the biggest welcoming party when we see you again!

Laurie, I bet today Gabi is showing her debut video with the leg warmers and all:)

Have a beautiful day angel...we love you sooooooooooo much!

Our Special Story

Jason had the honor of writting about story about our angel in the KC Down Syndrome Guild Newsletter. He was actually asked to write the story before Gabi passed, but then as they followed our journey, and she left us they really wanted our story . It was very difficult for Jason, but like he said at her funeral he always found strength in her and that is what inspired the story. It was just recently published, it's the November/December issue of Connections.

This is the direct link to the newsletter, all you need to do is go to page 2...and ENJOY!!!

http://kcdsg.org/files/content/November%20December%202007%20Connections.pdf

He did such a beautiful job explaining what Gabi meant to us and how she changed our lives, forever. Of course I would expect nothing less coming from him, he is so inspired by his girls. I am so proud of him and how wonderful he is to our family. I am a lucky woman! Thank you baby for being our rock, I love you sug!

Baby Bean Acker

Today was my 12 week check-up. Everything sounded great. The baby's heart beat was so strong and loud. We really liked our new doctor. She was recommended to us from a friend and I would recommend her as well, atleast so far. We talked a lot about Gabi and what we will do to be prepared. We ruled out all test that have any risks of losing the baby. Like I have said before, it is just not that important to us to know, we'd rather have a baby than an answer, which sometimes you don't even get. We are leaving the unknown in God's hands, I'd like to think that Gabi is helping her baby brother or sister as well! She is the perfect little angel, and I know how hard she will fight for him/her. I gotta tell ya we are getting the feeling it is a boy. Things are just different this time around. The way I feel, the food I crave, and of course because we have all pink girlie stuff it will be a boy:) Oh well, just means more shopping, as if I wouldn't do that anyways!

Our next appointment with Dr. Meltzer is Dec. 4th. On Dec. 10th we have scheduled a level 2 ultrasound. At that point they will look very closely at the baby's measurements. The level 2 is where we saw everything with Gabi for the first time. If there are any concerns with the baby's heart then we will schedule a fetal echocardiogram, and they may just do that due to our history. We will still do the AFP blood tests, but that is typical in any pregnancy. Other than that we will just leave the rest up to the good Lord above. On the 10th we should be able to see the sex of the baby. Jason still wants it to be a surprise, but I just don't think I can wait. I am no good at surprises and he cannot tell me no, so if I was a bettin woman, I'd say I will get my way:)

Jason got to go to the appointment and that was so great! I heard at the first appointment, but for him and I to hear it together...it is exactly what we needed. Hopefully he will be able to go to the appointment on the 10th, I will definitely need him that day. And he will drive himself crazy if he's not...so it will be best for both of us!

Thank you all for your continuous love and prayers!
Hugs to all!!!