Please pray for sick Seth

He's got a bad cold with cough. His oxygen saturations are doing fine, thank God, and we pray it stays that way! The other babies have runny noses and are REALLY cranky (all but Grace, as usual - she just goes with the flow, happily jabbering and dancing her way through life on her little tippy-toes). The kids' crankiness makes it hard on us parents in our busyness. However, I am done with my part of the shipment preparation (at least I think I am), so that gives me more time just to cuddle. Aunt Sam left today - sniff! - so we miss her already. Gavin is pretty intensely busy, so please pray for rest and stamina for him. Marcie was up until 12:30 last night, crying, and David was up screaming before 7 this morning. :} He screamed quite a while tonight, too. I can tell they know something is up. I'm SO thankful for helpers and naps!!! I need to have calm and good cheer to help the babies along, poor little tykes.

Love and gratitude!
Carrie

On a walk with his therapist yesterday. His foot and gait are getting better and better, even without the brace on him yet!

He was crying for some reason, so she's encouraging him along. It's so cute I had to include it. :)

Naughty escapee David

He quietly got out of his pack 'n' play, which was in Isaac's room yesterday, and filled it with items from the almost full packing bin beside him. He also  took off his pants for some reason. He got stuck behind the bin and the pack 'n' play, though, so ended up screaming for help after about a half-hour of playtime. :)

Where's David?

We are so encouraged!

Our church (in particular some lovely ladies from our church, headed by Ginny and Donna) hosted an Encouragement Luncheon yesterday. We were beyond encouraged: We were humbled and honored and so touched and grateful as we saw the large turnout, including some people we'd never met but who have been praying for us for months/years. Many, many of those who have cared for babies, cleaned, done laundry, ironed, and brought meals and gifts these past 1.5+ years were at the luncheon. It felt odd that they were giving to us; it should be the other way around! We can never repay all the kindness and generosity we've received, but we know grace is all about receiving what we didn't and couldn't earn. We do pray we are faithful in extending the same grace and generosity we've received as we see the various needs of others now and in the years to come.

We are focusing on finishing up the sea freight shipment as it leaves a week from today. There's still a lot to do, but we've gotten a lot done (my portion with the help of others; thanks, ladies!!).

I'm going to figure out how to put the slideshow of the most recent photos of the quints juxtaposed with their birth photos (my, they've gotten better looking!) and pictures of our former and new houses on the blog ASAP, but until then here's the most recent group shot (Isaac was at his buddy's house; sorry!):

Will, David, Marcie, Seth, Gracie

Love and more gratitude than we can possibly ever express!
Carrie for us all

There's a whole lotta lovin' going on

Gracie loving her new bear harness backpack and her book

David and Will loving "cousin" Parker and the soccer ball, respectively

Seth loving Uncle Kenneth, as always

Gracie loving Parker and being sooooo gentle! Good girl, Grace!

Wrestling Will

Will NOT loving his haircut (but thanks, anyway, Thera!)

Seth after his haircut

Will loving Aunt Sam. Within a half-hour of her arrival, Will did not want her to put him down!

And whenever she did put him down, he did this. :) 

Grandma loving shopping with David and Grace

The mess that is our house

I don't have any pictures to prove it, but most of the rooms in our house are significantly altered and overflowing with half-packed boxes. And I don't have the pictures on this computer to prove that Nanny Sam is here, but she is!! It's SO good to have her here again! Most of the kids didn't seem to remember her at first, but Seth sure knew something was familiar. He was riveted by her from the moment she walked in the room, and we could see the little gears turning in his brain as he tried to figure out who this lady was again. It makes sense as he spent the most time with her, especially at the hospital. All the kids warmed up very quickly, and within minutes Will had attached himself to her legs like a limpet! I think he might be convinced he's an only child and she's his real mom (after all, he looks a whole lot more like her than me!). :)

Thank God Sam is here; it's a huge help in sorting and packing! She has an organized mind; I do NOT.

Cute Gracie story: She calls herself "baby" and she calls Marcie "baby" (the boys are never "baby"). The other day I was reassembling one of the bottle drying carousels after the kids had played with it. She saw me and was immediately fascinated. She toddled over to me, earnestly looked up, and asked, "Baby . . . more? Baby . . . more?" to request a turn to play with it. First sentence! (Unless you count "Hi, Daddy!")

The kids have started saying "car" (without the r), although I think they've been saying it for a while and I just didn't realize what they were saying. And Seth knows how to make car sounds when he plays - adorable "vvvvvvvvvvvvvv" sound!

Seth is still too skinny, all ribs and scrawny legs, but he's eating really well. Please keep praying he'll gain weight and grow even more beautifully healthy lung tissue. He did great during his therapy session today; the physical therapist says he continues to get better with that left foot turning out, although she wants to try to brace just to see if it helps or not. She doesn't want him wearing it full time or long term, though.

The kids can sense something is up with all the packing going on, so please pray for God's peace to guard their little minds and emotions. They are definitely showing some more anxiety than normal and therefore increased crying and clingy-ness. Yet we have packing that needs to get done, so we can't just hold them all the time. So please pray for wisdom, patience and love for us, too. Thank God Gavin's parents are here, Sam is here (as I've said), and we still have wonderful helpers each day! What a HUGE blessing!

My dad is sure ready to be allowed to get in a car a week from today (next Wednesday). It's hard to be cooped up all this time. I'm sure ready to have him around our house again, even if he can't carry or hold babies for a few more weeks.

Marcie wants to contribute to this post, so I'd better get the computer out of her grasp (I'm at my folks' house).

Love and gratitude,
Carrie

Dad and David

Busy, busy, busy

The fact that I am working on this blog at 1:15 a.m. pretty much sums it up. With all the gathering and packing up of our sea freight shipment and other preparations for Papua New Guinea (Gavin is doing by far the majority!), my dad's recovery and wanting to spend as much time with him and bring babies to see him, and just everyday life, I have been very lax about blogging. I LOVE doing it, though, and I need to do it so I don't forget the things the babies do!

Recent notable cute or developmental things:

1) David noticed the shape of a book under our large, thick, woolen area rug in the living room and managed to pick up the rug enough to dig out the hidden Little Golden Book. It was quite a task as the rug is heavy and the book wasn't right at the edge, but he persevered!

2) The kids have started learning to take turns. It's so cute watching them try to contain their impatience as they watch their sibling and wait for their turn to play with a toy or be bounced on the exercise ball.

3) Tonight Marcie had a toy that David wanted, so he just grabbed it. I told him he had to wait his turn, and Isaac gave the toy back to Marcie. David stood right there watching her suck on it, waiting as patiently as a 16-month-old can be expected to. After a few seconds I asked Marcie if he could have a turn, so she kind of shoved it at him with a sort of resigned, disgusted, "Fine!"-sounding sigh. She's so dramatic. (Don't know where she gets it from.)

4) The kids are ALL obsessed with balls. They all talk about and notice balls everywhere, even the decorative balls on the tops of the mailboxes in my parents' community.

5) David has started pointing at everything and saying, "What's that?!" except it sounds like, "Was-at?!"

6) Marcie comes running, saying "Pit-ee!" ("pretty") when she sees that I am wearing large earrings.

7) Rather than just charging ahead, getting whatever he wants as soon as he possibly can without hesitation, Will has started to obey and look at me as though he's seeking my permission - or perhaps check to see if I'm paying attention! I realize that we haven't hit the tantrum stage yet and that the obedience is going to be an ongoing and no doubt increasing challenge, but it's still pretty exciting to watch my kids actually exert some self-control!

8) Seth and Grace are so sweet and non-confrontational they stay in the background when a war is going on between the other three. They find the war very interesting to watch, though.

9) Will got stuck in the garden bench and was silently trying to figure out how to extricate himself, but David couldn't wait for Will to problem-solve; he had to yell and cry for us to come help his brother immediately!

10) When we ask the kids if they want to read it a book, it's so cute to see them run to the book box, pick one out and plunk themselves down on our laps.

Okay, I gotta hit the sack or I'm going to regret it tomorrow. Thankfully most nights the kids have been sleeping all night until nearly 8 a.m.!

Grateful for your love and prayers,
Carrie

Will in the book box

David with Will on the hearth

Gracie wore this "ammo" belt from one of Isaac's birthday Nerf-type guns around her shoulders for half the afternoon!! It's so funny to see the types of things the kids think they want to wear, and to watch them trying to put them on. Like one of Isaac's socks around their necks: hmmm, don't think that's gonna work for long. Marcie is the most dedicated "dresser" of the group but refused to wear a frilly dress we tried to put on her a few days ago! Strange.

David on our walk tonight with Grandpadad. He had been looking at the sheep's face, way down towards the ground, but by the time I could get my phone out he was intent on the acorns. He took one for each hand as we walked on.

Seth fans, brace yourselves!

There are a lot of pictures of Seth tonight, looking eerily like my brother and me as babies; he looks like me as he thins out because I was a skinny baby. Kenneth was NOT. Plus there is this adorable video highlighting Seth's famous giggle. His darling sisters feature heavily in it as well, and David has a brief cameo. Will can be heard in the background. (At one point he was screaming dramatically out of joy, but that part didn't make the cut. You should thank me; his scream is piercing!)

Taken tonight just before bed. He is just so HAPPY all the time! 

Loving playing with his blocks, and sitting just like my brother always did.

Joy! Discovering both hands fit through the blocks!!!

(He really needs a haircut. Are you reading this, Aunt Thera? I keep forgetting to call you!)

Taken with my phone. He looks so concerned! He wasn't, though, just fascinated with the phone!

Thank you for praying Seth through his near-deadly struggle with premature lung disease, through his first few challenging months at home, through his three hospitalizations, and through his various therapies (including food therapy, from which he graduated this week! He is also walking like a champ, so Lord willing he won't need those little inside-shoe foot braces.) I know God provided Samantha/Nanny Sam as our helpmeet during those LONG nights and longer hospital stays, and we're thrilled to have her back over Spring Break! Be looking for pictures of Auntie Sam with her babies who have turned into toddlers in her absence. :)