Life of Joe

Life of Joe from Amanda Braisted on Vimeo.

I put together a video of Joe for the funeral yesterday. It was so therapeutic to look through photographs, old and new, and remember what a special man he was.

No Words

Just ask that you lift Mike's family up as we just found out that his dad, Joe, passed away today. Mike will be flying to the US tomorrow and Landon and I on Sunday.

28 Weeks!

I can't believe we are at 28 weeks!!!! It's so crazy. Although these last four weeks have gone much slower since we haven't had teams here and I haven't been constantly busy. Other than moving, of course! But I seriously feel AWESOME. If I knew I would have pregnancies like this, I could probably do this ten more times! (Don't worry, I'm not going to) My belly has appeared out of nowhere. I definitely grew this month. I'm interested to go to the doctor again on the 10th to get weighed. I think I may have gained 10 pounds since our last visit.

I've started to have some pretty serious achy legs. Lots of numbness and tingling. Last night, I went to roll over and change positions and got a MAJOR calf cramp out of nowhere. I screamed out loud immediately and scared Mike half to death. Oh man, that pain was wretched. He was a great husband and rubbed my calf until my muscle chilled out and then I had to do calf stretches for about 10 minutes after. Awful. I hope that doesn't happen very often, if ever again.

Nohemi is a mover. Man, oh, man. She must be having a good time in there. With Landon he had a very predictable schedule. And surprisingly kept it pretty similar for a couple weeks after birth. If Nohemi keeps this up after birth, she will be the most alert baby ever born I think. Landon slept like 20 hours a day...Nohemi, not so much. I have to be careful when I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night because if it is between 3am-5am she wakes up and kicks around and keeps me awake. So I try and keep bathroom visits to a minimum. I'm sure it won't be long before I won't be able to control that.

Our time here is winding down as Landon and I will be flying to Wisconsin September 19th for two weeks. Then off to Virginia until our little girl is born! We are getting so excited...AND...I'm getting so excited to get back to the US and start looking for little girly stuff! Woo hoo!!!!!

New House

I know, I know...you are waiting for some house photos...but in the meantime I wanted just to post this one. Never in this whole process of possibly getting this house did we doubt that we felt God was leading us here. But if there was ever a hint of doubt, this picture describes the blessings you receive when you listen closely to the quiet voice of God. I've never seen this little boy so happy.

Fisherman

I had to post just a quick picture from this morning. My parents sent Landon this shirt and although it just looks like an ordinary shirt it has quite the sentimental meaning.

Fishing is a way of life for the Goodwin gang. All of us girls have grown up loving to fish and the grandkids adopted the same love through the years. Every year (except for one) before Mike and I moved to the mission field I went to Maine with my family to stay at our cabin. Countless and I mean COUNTLESS hours have been spent on that lake fishing for bass, trout and white perch. One year we LITERALLY caught hundreds of fish in a two week trip. Landon had the opportunity to go to Maine when he wasn't quite two months old but unfortunately hasn't been able to go since. He's at the age when my nephew Seth started fishing with my dad (who is by all definitions of the word a professional fisherman). But the funny thing is is that through the years of daughters and grandchildren fishing with my dad (who has spent thousands more hours on that lake than any of us) somehow we always ended up with the bigger fish. So when my parents sent us this T-shirt it just made my heart happy. Continuing the tradition with Landon. I truly hope he has future opportunities to fish in Maine with "Papa."

24 weeks!

Time is ZOOMING!!! Our summer of teams is complete and now we have some time for rest.

Saturday marked 24 weeks of pregnancy. I feel wonderful. Much different than with Landon. I can go a week without getting sick, which is such a God-send. We had a doctor's appointment today which confirmed that our little one is definitely a girl! We are so excited. Bring on the pink, frilly stuff!!! I've gained a total of 2 pounds so far during this pregnancy (only because I dropped some weight that I needed to drop) and the doctor says that both Nohemi and I are healthy. She's measuring a little small on some of her measurements, only by about a week, but her head circumference is right at 24 weeks. My fundal measurement (the measurement from pubic bone to top of the uterus) is measuring 25 weeks...which is weird cause I feel like my belly is barely growing! I should put on at least 1 lb. a week for the next 16 weeks (or if it's like Landon, 7 pounds of water weight the week before she's born!) which would put my weight gain at about 18 pounds. But who knows, going back to the states and eating all my mother-in-law's delicious food and it may be more like 2 lbs. a week!

Thanks for going on this journey with us so far. We couldn't be happier to add a little girl to our family. I'll finally have someone on my side!!!!

Watermelon

Just had to share some cute pics of the boy.

4 Years!!!!

July 15th was Mike and I's 4 year anniversary! We couldn't even believe it. Time has flown by so fast and we've really just fallen more in love with each other every year! We don't generally do gifts (usually because of lack of time given that our anniversary falls in the middle of our busiest time) but I was home not feeling very well and I got a little knock on our door. And who was there but a man holding a ridiculously beautiful bouquet of Lillies. Oh my goodness they were so beautiful and they smelled so wonderful. I was so surprised. What an awesome husband!!!!

I ended up having the worst migraine of my entire life that night and ruined Mike's plans to take me to dinner. He had found a babysitter and covered all of my bases with work! But we did end up getting to go to dinner that Friday and we went to TGIFridays!!!! It is my favorite restaurant in the states and it doesn't disappoint here in the Dominican Republic either! It was so wonderful to have this time together and to celebrate four amazing years of marriage.

We started dating in 2003, we got married in 2005, we had Landon in 2007 and Nohemi will be born in 2009. Six great years of life together!!!!! I love you, Mike! (I'll post a couple pictures from dinner when I have time)

21 weeks

I am officially pregnant! 21 weeks to be exact. If I just looked a little chubby before, I now have a definite baby belly. And man am I uncomfortable. I am carrying so differently with this little one and I can feel the difference in my back. My neck and back are aching quite a bit. But I am just ALL belly. Luckily, I haven't seen much of a difference in my behind or my thighs which actually got pretty large during my pregnancy with Landon. And the funny thing is, I look less pregnant in the mornings. How does that happen?

She's a bit more active and her kicks are stronger but it is nothing like Landon was. She is for sure a lot calmer. I felt like I had a little soccer player in my tummy with Landon.

We have also decided on a name....Nohemi Ruth!!!!! Woo hoo!!!! We love, love, love it. Nohemi is a latina name which we really wanted this time around (and is also the name of one of Mike's Mom's good friends from Peru) and Ruth was my grandma's name who passed away this spring. In case you're not Latino you pronounce it No-em-EE. The accent is on the last syllable. But for all of you Spanish-challenged folks out there, we are going to call her Emi for short.

We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow so I'll probably update more later.

It's a What?

We went to the 3-D Sonogram place today with the sole purpose in mind of finding out what this baby actually is. Quite honestly, I am sick of calling it "it." The baby barely moved the whole time except for a few little adjustments and I was getting worried that we weren't going to be able to see anything. Not another disappointing trip. ugh. So I started eating some chocolate (wives tale here in the Dominican) and sure enough a few minutes later, little baby Braisted started bouncing around. The doctor looked and looked and looked and couldn't find a little boy part. I moved to different sides to get different angles, she moved that little stick all over my belly and no matter what angle, there was no "pee pee" (as Landon likes to call it). So she finally said, "Now I can't be totally sure but I really think its a girl. Where I can see that there should be a penis, there is no penis." I teared up immediately. Seriously, a girl? Could this really be happening? A girl born from a Braisted?????

But it was true, we could see between the legs and what was clearly visible at 14 weeks with Lando was definitely not there. We are going to go back in a couple weeks when I'm somewhere between 22 and 24 weeks to get a 100% confirmation but honestly "the lack there of" was enough confirmation for me. So I'm calling it "her." Even, if the verdict gets changed in a couple weeks....she'll be a she for a couple weeks anyway. But no worries, I'm not rushing out and buying anything pink just yet.