Joshua and Asher's services

We committed Joshua's ashes to the ground last weekend in a small ceremony with family and friends. This picture is at his little spot in the yard with a tree that we see everytime we pull in and go out, reminding us of him. It was a good thing for us to put dirt down--something a bit final, I guess. My cousin's children each painted a rock for him and put it by his gravesite as well, which was so sweet. I like that it's a place where we can put things and go that will always be around the family.
We also had Asher's baptism, which was a great ending to the day. We sand "For all the saints" as a transition, and, for those of you who are familiar with the hymn, you can imagine there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Such a blessing to think of heaven as our final home, though, and to remember all who have gone before.
You can see lots of pictures of the baptism by clicking on the "view/download photos" link to the right. There's some other recent albums in there as well.

New Stuff

I've changed some things on our links bar to the right. I've added a few other family links (like my cousin's, Kyle and his wife Melissa, blogs about the year they are spending down under) as well as some media links that you should check out. You can view more photos and download whole albums on our photo site (although I don't have a whole lot there yet - more coming soon!).

I also haven't had a chance to get any video up yet, but I hope to post Joshua's committal service as well as Asher's baptism soon. They are both pretty short and I'll try to get the file size down on those. Check back for those soon.

a year ago today...

some of you may remember reading about our son joshua last year. well, it was exactly one year ago today that we watched him be born. you can read about that starting here (then here, next here, and then jump ahead in the story to here - these should at least fill you in).

i wanted to take a moment today to honor the son i'll never know. i'll never have the chance to help him bait a hook or wait patiently for that first deer to emerge from the trees. i'll never get to read stories, pray and tuck him in at night. i'll never see him do a lot of things - but i will see him again. in fact, i'll get to see him without a lot of things. without the baggage of this difficult life. without the roughness and toughness that the pain of life brings.

i'm sad today as i reflect on a full year since joshua's birth. i can't believe we have been blessed with another son, just 3 weeks ago. Asher will never know his brother joshua. tomorrow we'll be placing joshua's ashes in the earth under a beautiful tree on our south dakota paradise. we'll also be baptizing Asher and thus is the irony of this life and this upside-down kingdom that we are a part of - death is actually a gateway to life.

please pray for us today and tomorrow as we remember the little boy, joshua, who never took a breath, but changed our lives forever. god rest his soul.

Firsts

It's a joy to go through all the "firsts" again with Asher--first bath, first bottle--even as we quickly approach Joshua's birthday and mourn our loss of these baby days with him. The Lord was gracious to give us Asher before the year anniversary. It is much more peaceful in my heart to have him out of the womb and healthy.

Family has started to arrive this week to see Asher and in preparation for Joshua's burial and Asher's baptism. It's going to get hectic, but so wonderful that our family is always here to support us.

So here's a few more Asher pictures (I'm shameless, really). I enjoy taking black and white film pictures and was trying to get a few shots for Asher's birth announcements. I got some great shots, but unfortunately the film was heat damaged and they came back too grainy for prints. They don't look too bad on a computer, though.

Mommy's little helper

Bridger is such a great big brother. He's constantly wanting to hold Asher, kiss him, hug him and give him his binky. My favorite is he'll be playing and say "I'm just going to check on Asher" and he'll go over to the swing or bouncy seat and give him a kiss. Sometimes the affection is a little rough, but it really is a blessing to have him be excited and not jealous--yet, that is.

A few more Asher shots

Here's a few more pictures of Asher. He looks a lot like Bridger as a baby, but he has less hair and it's definitely lighter as you can see in the pictures. He has blue eyes, though they're dark so they may go to brown. Bridger was born with chocolate brown eyes, though, so that's another difference. Asher's eating well and letting mom get a little bit of sleep.

It's a Boy!

Our third son, Asher Knox, was born Thursday, June 29th at 8:34pm. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 6 ounces, was 19 3/4 inches long and apparently had a head circumference in the 90th percentile. I could have probably guessed this as he presented the most challenge for me at the end, especially with "only the bullet for anesthesia" as the doctor put it. I can't really complain, though, because labor was a short 6 hours this time compared to 18 and 24 before. Asher has dark blue eyes and light brownish blonde hair. Both mom and baby are in good health and home today.
Bridger was able to come to see him just a few minutes after he was born and he is such a sweet big brother already. He literally giggles with joy when Asher does anything.

Thank you all for your prayers. It was a bittersweet time as we remember Joshua as well, but we are truly "blessed" as Asher's name means with this new little bundle.