One year ago.....

One year ago tomorrow (Dec. 13th) I was put on bedrest. That was just a horrible day for me because I realized what a high risk pregnancy I had become. At only 20 weeks I was down for the count. I remember just crying all the way home from the doctors office thinking " This is too soon. I am not strong enough to do this." The poor people that may have looked over at me as I was stopped at any red lights :) I knew my role as mother, wife and just as a normal person in society was on serious hiatus for awhile. I learned a lot while on bedrest. Mostly how to trust in my Heavenly Father, to let others help and to realize they like to help and to appreciate the blessing our family has been entrusted with. It was such a spiritual, emotional and physcial journey for me. Here are some of the reasons that still make me go wow!

-So Jim and I had always planned on having four kids. After 5 weeks of bedrest with Lizzie my doctor had told me I will be on bedrest for any future kids (even a single birth) because my body just does not cooperate. Heavenly Father totally knew that by sending twins our family we would only have to go through the stress of bedrest one more time. How grateful I am for that. We always wanted two kids close together, take a break then have two close. I guess you can't get much closer than 3 minutes :)

-The whole time I was on bedrest neither Ethan nor Lizzie got sick. That is from the end of December to the end of March. To any that have been around kids during this time of year- it really is a miracle.

- I managed to stay dialated at a 5 and 90% effaced for over two weeks. And during that time when chance of bacteria getting to the babies is very high-I managed to avoid that. I am so grateful for that.

-Through 15 weeks of bedrest Ethan and Lizzie seemed to have no major issues during that time. Well besides their usual quirks and idiosyncracies. I think that is because of all the people who helped take care of them truly loved them and I know they felt it.

-The night before the babies were born Jim had come home from work and said "Tomorrow would be a good day to have the babies. They haven't scheduled me for any patients tomorrow." That has never happened with his work. It was the weirdest thing.

There are so many other things that happened but I won't bore you all with the details. I have written them down so I can share them with Afton and Lilly later.

Although right now I am dealing with mobile babies, teething and feeling like I never get anything done.... I am so grateful for these two precious souls.

So once again- Thank you to all who helped. One day when I have time I am putting this quote up in the babies room.

"Because of the goodness of others you are here."