And We're Off

Genuine smiles as we sit in the Wichita airport awaiting the beginning of our Argentinian adventure.

In just a few short weeks, God has slowly taken me out of that state of ridiculous bouts of sobbing in my vehicle while my children wait, too nervous to say anything because Mommy is acting a little, well, crazy. He's replaced that silly ball of nerves with the peace that only He can provide, because I am finding rest in Him alone. So when those other thoughts creep in, I am refreshing with His word, where I should have been resting all along.

Because truly, O Lord, "your love is better than life, [so] my lips will glorify you." Psalm 63:3

Here's to a great journey with my God, my beloved husband, and the people of Argentina! (Meanwhile, our kiddos are making sweet memories all their own). I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Picture Pages: Utah Edition

There's no need to point out how late I am with these pictures. Nevertheless, here are a few pics from our trip to Utah at the beginning of July.

Will and Grandpa Tyson:


Our family at 11,000 feet elevation (near Salt Lake City):

On a hike in Arches National Park in Moab, Utah (1.5 miles one way and I made it!):

The final destination on that particular hike - it's called Landscape Arch:

Sophie thought it sounded quite nice to catch a ride for the hike back:

Just a close-up of my sweet boy:

My parents at Dead Horse Point State Park, near Moab:

The whole fam at Dead Horse Point - that's the Colorado River approx 2,000 ft. below us:

Sophie had so much fun with her cousin, Elyssa. Elyssa is the daughter of Ben's sister, Jen, and is only 4 months younger than Sophie. Those two girls were fast friends and it was sad to leave Elyssa behind.

Kansas City and Genetics Doctor

It's true, I'm a little ashamed of this post. I typically try to find some humor or something interesting to post about. This has neither of those two things, unless you consider our visit with the Genetics doctor of mild curiosity. We played in KC for the weekend, leading up to the appointment on Monday. Pictures first, info later.

Sophie slept on a roll-away in the hotel. We put chairs next to it to keep her from rolling out. Both mornings, we found her with her legs on the bed and her upper body on one of the chairs. Silly girl.


On Sunday, we took the kids to Wonderscope, a hands-on children's museum. I must admit that when we first went in, I thought it appeared... errr.... sketchy. However, Sophie had a fabulous time and we were overall pleased with it!

In the water-play room:




There was a room for 2-years and under. Will ADORED this place, especially the little mirrored-in area that he's in below. He got quite upset with me when it was time to leave. It was perfect for our little crawling monster.

In the market room, Sophie got to go shopping and do her own checking out - I think this may have been her favorite room.

Will tried to get his own bite of the produce:

In the market car... not really sure why this car was in the market room.

Below is in the room called Raceways, which had many different tracks to put balls on. Will surprised me here - he really loved watching the balls! You can't tell in the first picture below, but he would watch a ball on the track and then just break into a fit of giggles! So cute!

Here he was cracking up at the balls:

This was not a posed picture... those two are 2 peas in a pod:

Swimming in the hotel:

So, on to the Genetics appointment. In the past, Will has been tested for the "hearing loss gene," called Connexin-26, and he was negative, so his ENT thought we should look at what other possible causes there could've been for their loss. He wanted to make sure their hearing loss was an isolated issue and not part of a bigger problem - some other disease.

At one stage in the game there was a heart disease mentioned as an extremely slight possibility. At this Genetics visit they completely ruled out that disease, praise God! They also looked at all the physical components of the kids (they were trained at noticing any physical abnormalities) and at family history. After a quite lengthy evaluation the Genetics doctor decided she did not see fit to test for any other diseases at this point.

She did mention that Will's testing for the Connexin-26 was not quite complete enough, so they're going to retest him for that. Other than the hearing loss, she felt the kids were completely healthy and had nothing to worry about! Yay!!!

They also mentioned that because the hearing loss is obviously a genetic factor, it is most likely that Ben and I are both carriers of something recessive. So, they gave the new baby a 25% chance of having hearing loss. Not much of a chance, but Will and Sophie managed to make it happen!

We continue to be completely humbled when we see how God takes care of our family the way He does. Oh, how blessed we are to be His children, and to have been entrusted by Him with our precious babies!!

Where the Wind Comes Sweepin' Down the Plain

Saturday we got the kids up bright and early and headed south to Oklahoma City. We had a packed weekend of visiting lots of old friends.

This is my dear friend, Ashley, who is a speechie that I used to work with. She is still Sophie's "Auntie Ashley," even though it looks like Sophie is scared of her in this picture. It was also great to see my other speechie friend, Jennifer, and her growing, handsome boys!


We had some wonderful friends in Edmond who were our "adoptive parents" while we were college students. Their names are Bill and Amy Arbuckle. We grew very close to them and their kids - Will, Justin and Jemma. Our Will is of course named after both grandpas (William Robert), but we call him Will after Will Arbuckle.

Here are Will and Will:


All 3 Arbuckle kiddos with Will:


I had to throw this one in for my brother - sportin' his Marines' gear:


Saturday night we stayed with my fabulous friend, Heather, who I grew close to in grad school. Her little girl, Emelyn (Emme), is 2 weeks older than Sophie. It was so fun to have the girls together again.

Here are Soph and Emme at 1.5 months:


Emme now:


Kisses for an "old" friend:


Emme was kindly checking Sophie's heart for her:

And yet again, Emme was helping out Sophie - fixing the velcro on her shoe:

We also spent Sunday morning/afternoon with our old church friends, the Carters and the Hagers... might I add how above-and-beyond Kellee Hager went for us in helping clean up Will & Ben's clothes after a massive blowout (Ben's a little old to still be having those).

The last thing on the agenda was a Sunday evening trip to Capitol Hill to visit the kiddos that we used to work with. It was great to see everyone so grown up, and especially beautiful to see two of our kids who are now in college and leading God-honoring lives.