On her birthday, we had a dinner comprised of all her favorite foods: chicken, peas, string cheese and roast sweet potatoes. After dinner, she got to open her gift from us. We handed it to her and she was delighted in the packaging! We explained to her that she needed to remove the paper and she carefully pulled until it gave way. When the box was revealed she said, “Oooh! Hi Dolly! Hi!” and did her little happy shimmy. It was adorable!  Jonathan (Mr. Misty) and I teared up, looked at each other and both said something like, “We would have given her 20 dolls if we knew she’d be so happy!”

In the words of Bill Yonker, I tell you that to tell you this: my joy in giving gifts to Beatrice is absolutely minuscule compared to the Lord’s joy in giving us gifts. My knowledge of Beatrice is slim compared to His knowledge of her.  God has known her from the very beginning. Before we knew she was a girl, before we knew she was even alive, God’s own hand was at work knitting her together in the most adorable, booty-scooting, bow-loving, clever, tricky, giggling way. In the book of Matthew, Jesus says “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much  more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7: 7-11, NASB)

I want to buy Beatrice everything she asks for or shows an interest in having, but I don’t. We don’t buy everything for her because not everything is good for her. If she got every single toy she was keen to own for 30 seconds, we’d have a house full of junk. We don’t want to give her junk. The Lord doesn’t give us everything we show an interest in either, because quite honestly, sometimes we want junk. God doesn’t give junk. He gives us that fancy imported, perfect-for-our-age-but-great-for-us-to-grow-with doll.  He’s got good gifts in mind. When it seems like He’s holding out on giving, it might just be that we’re asking for crap. Lately I’ve been asking for crap. Seriously. Big time crap. Things that will only clutter my mind and distract me from living a life that honors God. That’s between me and Him, but maybe there’s some junk you want too….something from the dollar store when the Lord wants to give you the hand-made perfect item but you’d rather have the $1 item because you can have it today instead of waiting. Waiting is hard. I hate waiting. But I’m working on it.

Also, this is one of my favorite photos:

She loves her dolly!

Here is a little birthday message from Beatrice:

Happy Birthday, Daddy! Mmmm, birthdays must be tasty!
 

Wait, let me see that again:

Birthdays are also fun!

I want to be 30! Waaaa!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan! Your girls sure love you!

Dr. A. measured me and did a quick check wherein she determined that my cervix was still closed and then asked “So, how long do you think I’ll let you go before I induce labor?” My response was, “Um, April 1st?” She laughed at this. I thought two weeks was the longest I could imagine going past the due date. She informed us that we were now in safe territory for delivery and she was not willing to risk things with the hematoma any longer. She was going to induce labor! My heart was racing! She wanted us to go over to the hospital that night, but we’d just come from a non-stress test and knew that things were crazy at the birth center….so we were allowed to wait until March 14th for our induction.

We called our parents and other family members and friends to advise them of the induction schedule and those who were previously unaware were informed of the high-risk nature of our pregnancy. We asked them to pray for the baby’s birthday and health. We spent the weekend doing what we could to get labor going: long, long walks, sitting on an exercise ball, eating spicy foods, “spending time together”…you name it, we probably tried it. No result. This child was not going to come out until she was forced out.

Sunday, March 14th, we called the Childbirth Center as directed and were advised that they indeed had space for us. At 6pm, they officially began the induction.Our birthplan was to keep things as natural as possible so although I was being induced, we asked that we would not be offered pain medication. I was hooked up to two monitors, the same monitoring that occurred during the non-stress tests. The evening progressed rather uneventfully.  We had a few visitors and “the last supper” and tried to rest.

We had dinner

I received the first dose of induction medication at 6pm and another dose at midnight. We tried to sleep during the night, but the bed was plasticy and I was HOT. I turned the heat way down in the room and thought it was still hot. When we awoke in the morning, I noticed that both Jonathan and Erin had the blankets wrapped all around them. I was clearly the only one who was hot-they were freezing!

At 7am, contractions were between four and five minutes apart and I was 1-2cm dilated. Dr. A. came in and broke my water, which was a weird, weird feeling. I ate my breakfast (yay!) and we were allowed to use a wireless monitor so we started walking the halls, squatting through contractions, praying and waiting excitedly for our little one to arrive!

Freedom!

Yep, I looked huge. I felt huge. I was huge.

Jonathan stayed with me the whole time.

Jonathan was a gem. He walked, squatted, supported, swayed and held me. He massaged me when I needed it. We were so thankful for our doula, Erin, who gave us great ideas on how to keep things moving and work through the pain.

Expert massage!

From what I recall, around 11am, I’d gotten to 3cm dilated. Not fast enough for the comfort of the doctor, they gave me an i.v. drip of pitocin. I was happy that the pitocin, which seemed so scary, wasn’t that bad. The contractions kept coming and I got more and more hopeful that we would be able to hold our baby soon! When I was checked around 2pm, I was 4cm dilated. Still progress! At 7pm, still 4cm. I got into the jacuzzi tub in hopes that it would help to relax things and open everything. After 45 minutes in the tub, I was checked again and had not progressed! While I was in the tub, Dr. A. called and spoke with Jonathan, explaining that she thought we should try an epidural, not for pain management, but to help relax everything. Since it had been so long and we’d not had much progress, we decided to go for it. Oh epidural. This was where things got tough. The epidural was administered at about a quarter to eight. At the same time, the pitocin drip was increased again. The epidural did numb my feet and parts of my legs, but NOT my abdominal area! The pitocin was making the contractions come fast and furious and there didn’t seem to be much space between them. Since I had the epidural, I wasn’t able to move around through the contractions. I was stuck in the bed and just trying to cope with breathing. The anesthesiologist was in a C-section, so he was unable to come adjust the epidural. I was given nubain, which numbed pretty much everything from the shoulders down. I was checked again around this time and at 9cm! Yay! Unfortunately, baby Beatrice had her little hand next to her head and it was keeping her from getting “down the shoot” so they tried moving me into various positions to get her to move down. After awhile, I was checked again and at 8cm….BOO! Further, the contractions were not coming closer together, they were getting more irregular and little Beatrice’s heartrate was getting funky too. Oh boy. At this point, we were advised by our doctor that a cesarean delivery was likely in our future. Since our doctor is not someone who generally offers medication or surgery as a first choice, we knew we were in last chance territory. My parents came in to say good-bye, we were given a few minutes alone to pray together and then we were rolled into the O.R.

Ready to go!

The procedure was very quick! Little Beatrice came out screaming in protest and we were SO HAPPY to hear her cry! After months of waiting, hoping and praying, our daughter arrived into our arms safely! Praise the Lord! We were able to see the placenta and were amazed at how she was able to survive. Our baby’s life is clearly a miracle! At 8lbs, 12oz, she was definitely not without adequate nutrition while she was in the womb. God’s hand is on this baby and we are rejoicing!

We have been home for two weeks now and honestly, recovery from the cesarean has been much easier than I expected. It hurt, but it wasn’t terrible and we came home with a living, beautiful, healthy baby whose little personality is being exposed to us more and more everyday. She’s a sweet, cuddly little one who doesn’t fuss much unless she’d like some more food or is having her diaper changed, but hey, I hate being hungry or cold so she’s not unreasonable.

In short, we are in love. In love with each other and in love with this little girl.

For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. ~ Psalm 63:7-8

• Graduated from college
• Met some of my best friends
• Worked at CAMP!
• Picked out my very own (used) car from a car dealership
• Drove across the country by myself
• Got a job that provided things like medical insurance and retirement
• Learned that I can enjoy a glass of wine without mixing it with apple juice
• Said good-bye to my Grandma Bea for the very last time (this makes me tear up just to write. She’s not sad, don’t you worry, she’s in the very presence of Jesus right now and she’s forgotten all about what it means to be sad)
• Met Jonathan who is my HUSBAND!!!! (What? I know! I never thought I’d be married either!)
• Traveled and gotten to see some amazing stuff: that piece of art that looks like a giant spoon with a cherry in the Twin Cities, garden of the gods in Colorado, the Alamo, the ruins at Tulum, the Prime Meridian, plantation homes in South Carolina, The Huntington in California, the Cotswolds, Graceland, Elvis’ birthplace in Tupelo, MS, replica “little mermaid” sculpture in Elkhorn, IA (oh wait, that was me), the Montana sky at night, elephants in South Africa, visited our nation’s capital, several state capitals and some other random sweet points of interest.
• Learned to like coffee that doesn’t taste like a sundae
• Started to like wearing make-up. Even more, learned to like myself when I’m not wearing it.
• Had the best first kiss EVER (again, Jonathan is amazing)
• Hosted Thanksgiving dinner (my favorite holiday!)
• Grew more in my faith than I would have ever expected-questioned, pondered and struggled to get there, but grew incredibly.

Goodbye twenties! You were nice, but I have a feeling this new decade is going to be just as wonderful!

Yesterday, I was considering cutting out junk food in my thirties, but now I’m thinking that can wait. Who doesn’t like chips and queso every now and again?

Erik, we are oh so happy to celebrate your birthday with you and very proud of the man you are and the friend you’ve been to us at all times!

Here are some of my favorite photos of Erik this past year:

At the Eskesen family reunion in Sequim

At Papa’s birthday party

U23D as a belated celebration of your birthday last year.

Honoring Jonathan with his own crab measure after his first crabbing lesson!

We love you Bro bro! Can’t wait for the go karts and root beer tonight!

~Jon and Kel

And for those of you who haven’t spent much time with my Dad, here are some photos for your enjoyment (and mine):

Pretending to be cacti at Volunteer Park

Chillin’ with the sibs at Pike Place Market on Father’s day

Crazy fun times at the family reunion

Who doesn’t love this one of my parents in autumn?

At the farm, heading to the back 40, which is really an entirely different farm.

Happy Birthday! Love you!

~Kel

For Jonathan’s birthday, he asked me to cook up a new recipe for dinner (we had already gone out to eat the previous two evenings and we like to keep things balanced). I offered up a selection from the various cookbooks and magazines we’ve got around the house and this is what he selected. (From Real Simple, November 2008) I did not really change much on this, but I did use salmon with the skin because I wasn’t paying attention. Not such a big deal. It was delicious!

Salmon and Fennel with Roasted-Lemon Vinaigrette

2 bulbs fennel, thinly sliced
2 lemons, cut in half crosswise
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
4 6-ounce pieces skinless salmon fillet
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
12 ounces mixed greens (about 8 cups)

Heat oven to 400° F. In a large roasting pan, toss the fennel, lemons, garlic, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Roast until the fennel begins to soften, about 8 minutes.Yield: Makes 4 servings NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 372; FAT 17g (sat 2g); CHOLESTEROL 97mg; CARBOHYDRATE 17g; CALORIES FROM FAT 40%; SODIUM 696mg; PROTEIN 40g; FIBER 6g; SUGAR 4g

Season the salmon with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and nestle in the fennel. Roast until the salmon is opaque throughout, 12 to 15 minutes.

Squeeze the garlic out of the skins into a small bowl and mash to a paste. Squeeze the lemon pulp and juice into the bowl. Stir in the honey, rosemary, the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Place the salmon and fennel on the greens. Drizzle with the dressing.

Here are some highlights from this year:

Poppers at my birthday:

Hanging out on the Fourth of July:

In downtown Seattle for the Eskebold family tradition:

Cookin’ up a storm at our house:

Lookin’ all classy out on the town:

Happy Birthday Brenda! May this year be filled with wonderous fun!

Brian is a friend I met oh, about five and a half years ago through another friend. He’s a great guy who has been great support and a good cheerleader when I’ve needed someone to tell me things like, “It’s going to be okay. It really will” and when I didn’t want to date anyone, he encouraged with things like, “I think Jonathan might be different” and for that I am very grateful. Brian is currently livin’ it up in Guatemala for a bit. We’re praying for you and little Kobe, Brian! May this be your best year yet!

Brian and Kobe (as stolen from Brian)

Carrie is also celebrating the day of her birth on the 19th! Carrie and I met in 2002 as well, in the front office off Okoboji Lutheran Bible Camp, when she was the Summer Program Director and I was a terrified first year counselor. Carrie kindly showed me to my cabin, helped me pick the best bed, set up my bedding and then introduced me to other folks so I wouldn’t feel so alone. She’s been a tremendous friend and I am very thankful the Lord brought us together in Iowa. In 2005, Carrie moved out to Seattle and we lived it up in Kirkland for a bit, then beautiful Renton and then in Bellevue until last year when she became a grown up and moved into a condo she bought for her very own. She gets to marry Dan Potter in September and he’s a pretty swell guy. We’re VERY excited for him to be part of our fun and festivities in the coming years!

Thank you for being the friend who loves my family, who is willing to tell me when I’m wrong, to hold my hand and pray with me when I’m hurt, to know the secrets about presents for Jonathan, to laugh at my silliness and be a little silly yourself and always, always be available if I need you. God has really blessed me with a friend like you.
Here are some of my favorite photos of Carrie from the last year:

Carrie dancing with Mark at the Century during her birthday dance last year

Carrie and me and April at Jimmy John’s on my birthday

Me, Carrie and Rachel at the Butchart Gardens in Victoria

Carrie and Frankie on the Fourth of July, boy was that a long walk!

Cheering for the Mariners:

The night Jonathan and I were engaged to be married

Carrie and Dan at the Christmas tree lighting at Westlake Center the day after Thanksgiving

Dan and Carrie at the CN Christmas Party

At my wedding prefunk celebration (aka bridal shower)

Doing the worm on an air mattress the night before my wedding

Carrie and Kleinie setting up before the big wedding

Carrie and Dan at our wedding, post J&K departure

Groundhog’s day celebration at the McPherson’s

Inside a giant guitar at the Pacific Science Center after watching U23D

Carrie and I the night she and Dan were engaged to be married

Dan and Carrie snowshoeing for Andy’s birthday celebration

Carrie and Brenda are Easter bunnies

JUMP!!

Michael, what’s going on here?

Boo for long lines at Tim Horton’s (we really needed to use the bathroom at this point)

Christi and Michael waiting for the fireworks to begin

I’m so thankful that we’re friends and for the wonderful times we had living together! Happy Birthday! May this year be filled with amazing sweet times!