Cousins

Our time in Michigan meant one thing to Micah.... time with cousins. He couldn't get enough and wanted to spend every day with them. My sister in law, Vera asked if Micah could spend the night, I was a little aprehensive (ok alot) but I knew that he really wanted to go. So Matt and I talked it over and he went. He had an absolute BLAST! ..until about 10:30 when he wanted to talk to me. I was walking around Walmart with my other sister in law, Dajana and had to stop what I was doing and sing him his night time songs and pray with him on a cell phone. (Is that what they were invented for?) Then he seemed to be fine. He said I love you mommy and hung up the phone to which I promptly started bawling, yes in the middle of Walmart.

It's so hard to let him grow up...

Going on a walk.

The morning after the big sleep over on the floor...

not alot of sleeping went on.

Popcorn snack and standing in between his two "favorites"!


Swimming in the little pool and then taking a break .


Vera and I took the kids to the children's museum in Grand Rapids

They played in a boat pretending to fish and then Micah and Christian

preformed a concert for us.

one of my last days in gr my sister in law katie came in from pennsylvania with her daughter Elise who is 11 days older than micah and her new little sister celia. so ALL of the cousins were together. great photo op!

Picnic together on micah and I's last day in Grand Rapids. Elise and Micah

They all pretended to be fast asleep on the bed in the basement.
What fun he had with them. It was pretty awesome to watch him interact with his family. Surprisingly there were many similarities even though they all live so far apart. Micah still prays for his cousins every night by name and requests to wear the shirt "my cousins gave me", it is a Detroit Redwings t-shirt. He is sentimental just like his daddy so he comes by it honestly.

A Week of Rememberance....

today would be finn's 4th birthday... this day brings about so many feelings and images. i can remember exactly what it was like being in labor with him and i can remember vividly what it felt like to finally after so many hours birth him. i remember the look on matt's face as he told me that it was a boy, we have a son, he said. what joy he had on his face for exactly two seconds and then it all went south from there. i guess it didn't cause as much heart ache at that instant as it does looking back because at that moment when he wasn't breathing i was telling myself that he would be fine and that this happens sometimes to babies. i was really trying to keep it together for me, for matt and for my mom and matt's parents. it is only knowing the out come that i look back and see finn's birth as the ushering in of his death. i remember a few months later telling myself if he had never been born then he never would have died.... unfortunatly he was and so he did. but today on his birthday i try to just think about him being alive. the days and moments that we did get to spend with him. the night that i woke up early and wrote in his baby book his birth story believing that he would some day hear it read to him. if i would have waited no less then 24 hours later i never would have been able to do that. the Lord knew and i really believe He woke me up and put a sense of urgency in me to write it to him. finn was born at 4:14, july 7th, 2004. he weighed 8lbs 2oz. he had beautiful hair and a chubby face, perfect fingers and toes and a dimple in his chin. he never made a sound. i guess i wish i could hold him one more time, i wish i would have given him a bath, i wish that my voice could have soothed him and that i could have sung to him. i wish that i could even throw it back in his face that i labored 36 hours with him and pushed for 3 1/2 hours when he was a teenager acting out as they should and will do. that is what i have found most discouraging about loss. even if you believe in your heart that you will see your loved one again there are too many things about death that are a seperation, a reversal of the natural order of things. there is a certain routine a schedule that life generally seems to keep. when it goes out of order it just doesn't feel right. there is something deep inside of us that screams out "hey wait a minute that's not the way it is supposed to be!" plain and simple your life becomes emblazoned with the term, i miss. it shouts at you, it is a constant companion, even through good times there is something disturbed and different...the missing is always present. so today and these 7 days that follow leading up to the 14th, finn's funeral, i bring my missing to the forefront of my mind. it has never left me, because it never can, but it seems closer, highlighted in my mind for this week of rememberance of our first born, our son, our little baby finnigan scott. who we simply miss.

a visit with "old" grandma

we planned our visit to iowa to allow us to be there for my great grandma's 88th birthday celebration. but since we knew that her birthday party was going to be packed out we went a couple of days earlier to visit and say hello. it was great to see her doing so well. matt's family called their great grandparents old grandma or old grandpa so matt got micah calling her that and my mom thought it was pretty funny.

micah and old grandma eating crackers and messing with pickles his little frog.

micah ate so many of old grandma's crackers that he needed a break with daddy.

such great smiles out of both of them!

4 generations...

old grandma requested this for her birthday. she wanted to fit in with the cool ladies at the home. there were so many people at her party and she went around the whole room to say something nice about each person. it was pretty funny and very touching! then later she gave great grandchildren rides on her birthday present.

my whole family with old grandma. it was a very special day and we were so glad that we got to be there for it.

32 and still going strong...

my birthday this year was a special treat since i got to be with my parents and my siblings for the day. i haven't done that for 10 years! it started off rainy, but we went to one of my favorite little diners for lunch and it was as good as i remembered! then after that micah and matt made my strawberry birthday cake, an annual tradition.

micah mixing it up! and after micah's nap we went to the des moines zoo with my parents and my two sister in laws and their little ones. it was a BLAST!

micah and daddy feeding the giraffs...

their black tounges and long necks made micah nervous...

i thought it was pretty cool. and of course there had to be a cow at an iowa zoo.

stephanie and maranda with brenna and easton.

the whole lot of us!

below is micah with grandma and grandpa. i love that they are all wearing red

matt putting the finishing touches on my cake...beautiful babe!

they all thought it would be funny to give me an easy time of blowing out the candles so they only put one on it. yes it was very very easy! so now i am 32 and it was a really great day~

fun times in iowa

our trip back to des moines iowa was a fun one, despite the fact that we all woke up with colds the morning we were supposed to fly out. bummer! it was wonderful to visit with family and get to meet our new neice brenna and nephew easton. micah had so much fun with his new baby cousins! proving what a great big brother he is going to make...

just after a bath with the cousins...

enthralled with grandpa...

all three ready for bed...

watermelon bonding and ...

sugary kisses!

fishing in the birdbath with grandma...

father's day dinner with the whole fam and a half way decent picture of the three of us.

what a fun time we had and thanks family for making it wonderful! we love you all and though we live far away you are always so close to our hearts. we will talk about the memories for a long time to come.

Watermelon Perfection

so micah just got up from his nap and i asked him if he would like a sandwhich.

(he is sitting on the kitchen cupboard)

me- "hey, pooh would you like a sandwhich"

micah- "yes please"

me- "ok, would you like meat and cheese?"

micah- "no, just meat"

me-"are you sure buddy? i have white cheese or yellow cheese."

micah- "no cheese is yucky. just bread and meat."

me- "ok. meat and bread sandwhich coming up. how about some watermelon?"

micah- grin grin, smiles, claps hands together, "oh, that would be perfect!"

i thought i was going to fall over i laughed so hard. what 2 1/2 year old says,

that would be perfect? what a nut i have!

SO PROUD!

i am so proud of matt.... he has accomplished something that not many people with families ever get around to doing. my love finished his master's on monday night. he got a call from his professor who wanted him to know that he had offically completed all of the necessary steps for his Master's of Worldview Studies! isn't that amazing? if we were in canada he would be walking on Saturday. though we will not be there, since we are on the opposite end of the world, they are still going to call his name. would be cool if someone could call on their cell phone so we could hear it being called... hmmmm.... i'll have to look into that one. anyway just wanted to share this piece of news with the blogging world. my husband has completed this leg of his marathon called education! thank you for your prayers and encouragement for our family.

pottys and other dances

last night matt and i were chaperones at the prom. we did it last year, but this year was the first year that the principal (in the history of the school) wasn't going to be there. so matt and i were asked last week to be it...be the chaperones to watch all of these kids. oh yeah, did i mention that they had a high school prom with high schoolers at a HOTEL!? people are crazy.

anyway, while we were gone dancing the night away and breaking up make out sessions, micah was home with our babysitter amanda. when we got home we were telling amanda about our night and then we asked how micah did. "well", she says "he watched cars and we played with cars while we watched the movie. we had mac and cheese and strawberries, he really ate alot. then he took a bath and when he was almost done he asked for diego. so i put him on the diego potty and he went potty. then we read books..." "wait, wait, wait a minute", matt interupts, "what do you mean he went on the potty?" amanda says, "he sat on the potty, pushed his pee pee down and everything and went tinkle in the potty. doesn't he do that?" (matt and i are looking at each other speechless.) i swallow and say, "he's never gone in the potty... our son just trained himself while we were out at prom." matt looks at me and says, "whose diego?" i laughed and told him. matt says, "good thing you were here amanda i would have had no clue what micah was talking about." yeah, i thought to myself good thing amanda was here to witness a milestone, cause his parents were at a dance thankful that our little baby was a long way from here. come home to find out not that far, after all sitting on the potty is the first step.

april fool's 9 years ago today...

9 years ago today matt asked me to marry him.... can't believe it. what a crazy day as i remember it.

we had driven home to iowa to visit my family. april fool's day 1999 matt asked me to go with him to the mall close to our home. i agreed, found it strange as he had never asked me to go shopping before, but i agreed. we went and walked around and then we were in a shop i was looking around and he said, "i'll be back in a second." things started to get wierd after that. he finally came back obviously upset and said come on let's get out of here. so we started to walk to the car and i thought to myself he's going to ask me to marry him, i know it. so we get outside and he says to me, "i was going to ask you to marry me ok? but blah blah blah blah." i say blah blah blah because right there i tuned him out and started to invision my wedding and our life together. he, however, interpreted my reaction as anger or that i was very upset. so he looked around the parking lot of this mall for some place to ask me and in desperation said "come on let's go ride on the ferris wheel". looking back i find this so strange that there was a carnival in the mall parking lot in april??? anway we walked over there he paid for two rides and up and around we went, once and then twice and then i noticed him fumbling around in his pocket for something and i knew it was coming. i said, "i know what you are doing". he said, "i know you do". and then he asked me to be his wife.... i wish i could recall the exact words.... i would just have to get out my diary of that time because i know i wrote it down word for word. we got off the ferris wheel and the controler said in a very sad tone, "hope you enjoyed the ride". "oh i did thank you! i just got engaged!" i said, to which he perked up a bit and said "congratulations!" matt was relieved that it was over and at my parents house were 6 purple roses waiting for me.

our engagement started off unplanned, unrehearsed and so anti-normal. this has proven to be a representation of our relationship, but here is to what offically started for me 9 years ago, our life together as husband and wife. who God has brought together let no person seperate. Father, give us 9 x 9 more years together. you have brought us through many valleys and peaks and we know that there will be more. watch over us and continue to help us to love each other.

Micah's New Obsession

Matt set up the tent in our living room.

They look pretty comfy! I was reluctant to go to work myself.

Last week I worked 6 nights and so on Saturday I thought it would be fun for them to get a movie and have a movie night together. Matt set up the tent and filled it will sofa cushions and blankets and he popped popcorn and they watched the movie Cars. Micah is in love with it now and would watch it all day long if we let him. He has 5 Cars race cars and takes them everywhere with him...in the car, eating, and even to bed with him. I found out when I got home from work that night all they had eaten was popcorn and cookies! Boys!!!

Easter Eggs and Our Color Cordinated Son

On Saturday a friend of ours in the neighborhood had a HUGE Easter egg hunt. In fact she and her husband hid over 350 eggs in their back yard. Micah was so excited about this and had been talking about it all week. So when we got to their house he was ready to go. Just so you know there were 12 little kids under 3 years and all of them had their own buckets to collect the eggs.

Micah getting ready to go!

A view of the backyard so you can see just a few of the eggs.

Micah, out of all the other kids, was the only one to run to the back yard. He had his pick of hundreds of eggs.

And what did he do? He picked up ONLY the green eggs! Not an accident, no there was not only green eggs. Our son just choose to pick up only the KELLY green mind you, eggs.

Looking inside of them and realizing that they were empty. Yes, they turned in the empty eggs for prizes. No candy at this hunt! The parents were very happy. They got bubbles, milk, and stickers. When Micah realized that they had to turn the eggs in he WEPT! I mean really cried. It was so sad. We tried to convince him that the prizes were worth it, but he couldn't be bothered. He wanted to keep all of those beautiful kelly green eggs that he had worked so hard to collect. Our son is a goofy goofy kid. Matt said, "Hey, he knows what he likes!" Sounds like someone else I know...

It's Official!

We, the three Harrison's, would officially like to announce that we are due to have another little one! He or she is expected to make their apperance around October 27th. Will you pray with us for this new little one growing inside of me? Though we are nervous we are also very excited to see who this little Gift of God will be and what new dimension they will add to our family. Micah is very excited and already says a prayer every night for the little baby in "mommy's tummy".

Visitors from the Wintery North

In February we were able to have a few guests. Matt's professor and mentor Jim from the ICS in Toronto and his wife Arvilla came down to escape the cold for 4 days. It was so much fun having them here! We were able to get a babysiter one night and go for dinner. That was wonderful. Jim spoke in Matt's phylosophy class too which was the highlight of their visit for Matt. He couldn't stop grinning.

Then the very next week Matt's parents and his brother Peter came for a visit. Matt's mom was able to come to Miami for a work conference and the boys went scuba diving and snorkeling. Matt even took a couple of days off of work to go down to Miami with them and get in on the action. They chartered a boat and went out to several dives. While Matt's dad and Pete were under water Matt floated around on top looking at the fish below him. They were in the Keys by the way. Matt called me Thursday night pretty freaked out because when he had been snorkeling that day he looked up and saw a shadow in the water about 50-70 feet away from him. He said within 2 seconds an 8 foot reef shark went swimming underneath him! He said he hasn't been that terrified since he went skydiving before we got married! I was just glad that he was safe. Anyway they all came back to our house that Friday and stayed with us until Wednesday. We had sooooo much fun and Micah really warmed up to them fast. He kept getting Pete and Matt confused though which was very funny.

Matt, Micah and Grandpa watching TV after a long day at the beach.

Grandpa and Micah sitting the same way, unprompted.

Uncle Peter and Micah messing around.

Mom and Dad Harrison with Micah reading books before bedtime.