November 4, 2001

NICU

First Birthday in Ukraine

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

7 years old


8 years old

We had ALL our belongings packed and ready to leave for Ukraine, back and forth from Matt's parents to the Missionary Learning Center in VA. We have been living out of boxes for almost 6 months at this point and heading back home to CA to give birth to Luke.
We were staying with my in-laws in KY and wanted to drive back to CA for Luke's birth...all our friends were there and my family. So here we are staying with my parents and it's eight days till Luke's due date and Luke decided to come early. It was an easy delivery, but that night revealed that Luke was born with pneumonia. So the next 10 days were a time of testing our faith.
We did not have a home, and my parent's house was 45 minutes away from the hospital, so we stayed with our dear friends Joel and Christal Mearig in their home for a couple days. They live down the street from the hospital so that really helped since I was constantly going back and forth for ten days. Then another set of dear friends Larrey and Becky Noia lent us their motor home(parked in front of the Mearig's house) to stay in during the rest of Luke's time in NICU.

The Lord restored our baby's health and we left for Ukraine four months later.

We are truly blessed with this not so little one! He has the most infectious laugh, sweetest spirit, quick wit, vivid imagination and has so much love. He does try my patience at times, but I am so glad God blessed me with this BOY to take care and to love. I love you Lukey Boy!

Happy 8th Birthday!!!