Some of you will be receiving this Christmas letter in the mail, but I thought I would post it as well. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
Blessed. Grateful. Humbled.
This year has been quite a year. It could have turned out so many different ways, but we are fortunate enough to come away from 2011 saying that we are blessed, grateful and humbled by all that we were able to overcome.
We began the year on a joyful note, finding out that we were pregnant with our second child. Although a bit nervous to expand the brood, we couldn’t have been more thrilled. The first half of my pregnancy was like clockwork. I was quite a bit more nauseous this time around, but everything seemed to be going well. At 20 weeks, our ultrasound showed a few concerns. At 22 weeks, I had surgery to ensure that our bundle would stay put. And at 23 weeks, we found out that I was in pre-term labor and was admitted to the hospital indefinitely.
For two months, I was restricted to bed rest at the hospital, leaving my husband and son to fend for themselves. By far, it has been the most challenging experience of our lives. But God doesn’t lie when he says that His grace will be sufficient in our time of need. We were SO blown away by all of our friends and family being so supportive. Again, the words blessed, grateful and humbled come to mind.
Our sweet, beautiful baby girl who threatened to come at 23 weeks, managed to hang on until 38 weeks and 4 days. Reese Liana Wegner was born on August 20th. She is perfect in every way and we feel so honored to be given the opportunity to be her family. She is already 3 months old and although she looks a lot like Cole did when he was a baby, she has her very own personality. She is a very content baby, nurses well and is already sleeping through the night. She has the most amazing eyelashes, but has unfortunately lost most of her beautiful dark head of hair. She is cooing, smiling, just barely laughing and we can’t wait to see more of her personality come to life in the next few months.
Our 2 ½ year-old is quite the boy. Cole is super tall and super talkative and often gets mistaken for a 4 year-old. It’s been very entertaining having conversations with him to see where that little mind of his will take him. He is into doing things on his own and loves to help around the house. He loves reading books, doing puzzles and enjoying all things Buzz Lightyear. He is a great big brother and loves to shower Reese with plenty of hugs and kisses and tells her about all the things she’ll be able to do when she gets bigger. Potty training is not fun, but he’s starting to make a bit of progress. And we can’t wait until the meltdown stage is over…it does end right?
Ben began a new position at Ameriprise this year where he helps transition high-level advisors from their old firms. He enjoys it, but has also realized that he misses managing people. And…drum roll please…after 2 ½ years of hard work, he has obtained his MBA from Bethel University! We are SO proud of Ben and this great accomplishment and love to not have to share him with homework and class. We are very excited to see where his MBA will take him in his career. He enjoyed hunting this year, both bow and gun even after encountering a bobcat. He plans to take turkey hunting with a buddy in 2012. He also thoroughly enjoyed skydiving a couple of times this year.
And me? Work is going well and I am still able to work part of my week from home. I am still getting used to having a family of four. With work and two kids, I often feel overwhelmed. The laundry never seems to end! But frankly, I spend most of my time just enjoying my family. It’s so good to be back into our normal routine and it’s so easy to take the simple, mundane things in life for granted. Being away from my home and my family for two months put a new perspective on things and I pray that God will continually remind me to sustain a grateful heart for all that I am blessed with in life.
As I end this little update, we want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for supporting our family this year in. I don’t think we could have done it without you. Many blessings to you and yours! Merry Christmas!
The next time I post, it might be pictures of Reese’s first tooth! Eek! Yes, we think she’s teething already. She’s growing up WAY too fast!
