Good News Mama!

Every pregnant woman has dreams of what her baby's arrival will be like: What needs to be packed? Will it be painful? What will the little boy/girl look like? I used to ask myself those questions too. But things happened differently than what I expected. You see, my baby's due date was October 28. Her actual arrival date? July 23. Yep, she was early... very, very early. I said goodbye to my dreams of my water breaking and waddling to the car with a huge belly. At 26 weeks pregnant, I woke up bleeding and cramping, and later found myself being wheeled away in the hospital to quickly deliver my baby because she was in danger of coming out early and possibly suffocating. Needless to say, I was a mess. A crying, hot mess. Nobody warned me extensively about the dangers of premature delivery. It never even crossed my mind. Miscarriage was a lot more of a looming possibility and I actually knew friends and family who miscarried. But preemies? The earliest my friends ever deli...

As newlyweds, Kevin and I were informed by a few doctors that it would be nearly impossible for me to have a baby naturally. All of them told me I'd need to use medication in order to conceive. I took the news harder than Kevin, and I would often obsess over my "failure" to provide children. And like many other women who have struggled with infertility, I found myself wandering into a pet store one day...and the moment I saw those perky little orange ears, I was a goner. Kevin is usually the voice of reason (and that isn't only because he loves apologetics or logic!) so when I called him and said I fell in love with a puppy and HAD to take him home, he was hesitant. But because he knew I struggled with sadness over not having a baby, he said he would come after work and meet the little guy. That little guy was a chubby, shy and beautiful shiba inu, whom we would later name Dipper. Kevin couldn't resist once he met Dipper. This was the MOST emot...

It was only just a little over a year ago, that my friends and I were sitting at Yardhouse and toasting to a new year. We were dressed up, excited, and happy to be out celebrating. We got free "Happy New Year" headbands & hats and the energy was rising in the crowd. “2014 is our year!” I yelled, and as the fireworks shot into the sky, it felt like confirmation that something promising would happen the next upcoming months. And I was right! It wasn’t only a special year for Kevin & me, but a special year for my friends celebrating along with us. My best friend Jamielyne started dating our mutual friend Darrel, and 8 months later, they got engaged! Jason, our college friend, got offered a stable position at a popular fashion company and had his first baby-a FUR baby, a yellow lab named Jedi! And our friend Zach got into Talbot Divinity School! As for Kevin and me? Well, let’s just say that this year was the year of our baby Evangeline! Here we are celebrating ...

Evangeline has been home with us for almost a month now (already?!) and we've finally created a routine...it's a "new normal" for all three of us! Currently life consists of drawing up medications, breastpumping, cleaning bottles/breaspumping accessories/syringes, feeding our baby and changing diapers. When Evangeline was born at 6 months gestation, our routine consisted of us going to the NICU for 88 days. It was exhausting and difficult, but it was the only way to see our baby (we can't stress how thankful we are that she's home!) And well, just as we got used to this "new normal," I'm going to have to get used to another "new normal" in about 2 weeks! Why? Because Kevin will be going back to work, since his paid-time off will end soon! Honestly, having a baby is already life-changing as is. But to have a baby with special needs is a lot of work! It's like an overtime job! I always ask Kevin, "What am I going to do when you...

Bye Bye NICU!  Having Evangeline home can be described as two polar opposites. On one end, we as parents are elated with joy and happiness! We waited so long for the NICU Journey to end and we were just so relieved we didn’t have to go back to the hospital! It was such a long process to have to find a parking spot, show our visitor/parent pass downstairs, go upstairs, sign in, scrub up to our elbows for at least a minute, then put everything we are carrying into a pillow case. Every.Single.Day. When you’re in the NICU, you don’t have much privacy either. So once we took Evangeline home, it was such a shock to have peace and quiet. To go to bed and to see her there next to us was such a surreal and pleasant adjustment. And for the first time ever, we heard her snore and grunt and sigh (it’s practically impossible to hear any of the preemies do this in the NICU bc there’s always something going on, whether it be beeping alarms, nurses chatting, or doctors doing their roun...

In the NICU, a surprising majority of the nurses who care over our baby ask us, "How did you choose the name Evangeline? I love it!" We smile because that's a sweet compliment for us as newbie parents. Kevin actually had never heard of the name before, but I first heard it when I was at Pastor Greg Laurie's Harvest Church in Riverside with my best friend Zerah when we were 19. We were surprised at the beginning of Sunday service when they said that they were dedicating a baby to God! I had never witnessed a baby dedication before, and the hope was that the baby would come to saving faith when she became older and eventually get baptized. There were these two happy parents who went up holding the cutest little baby! She was wearing a cute little pink headband with a giant flower and a white dress. I remember the man introduced the family, and said, "This baby's name is Evangeline, which means 'good news' or 'gospel'..how wonderful!" I was ...