One moment in time...

So many thoughts running through my head.
Life is an interesting journey.
And at times we stop and take a moment to reflect.
It's humbling at times.
We learn (hopefully!!).
For me there have been many many things lately that have stopped me in my daily tracks.
Many reminders of what matters in life.

I keep learning things about who I am.
When I keep hitting walls due to my lack of language skills...
I realize that the person I like to be is suffering.
It opens my eyes for those that at some point have moved to a new country, and spent their lives there, and never have fully learned the new language.
I can now see how that can happen.
If your daily group of people speak the language you know, and you have very few opportunities to use the new one, well, the progress will be slow!
At times I feel like I'm standing at a busstop... waiting for someone to pick me up.
It feels like I'm getting nowhere, and it gets frustrating at times.

Then life goes on.
And things happen that help keep my own needs at a realistic level.
A young father has an accident at work and narrowly escapes death.
A young family loses a baby.
A middleaged woman loses her father and one of her sons in a matter of a week.
The list could go on with daily reminders of how short and unpredictable life is.

Today we attended our new little Goddaughter's baptism.
A joyful day when we got to celebrate God's greatest gift.
After attending this nice time with good friends, we went to see my Hubby's grandma who's 83 and in a nursing home.
Here she is at the end of the road, such a contrast after just holding the little bud who just started her journey!
She's been in and out of the hospital lately due to some infection.
She was tired.  She didn't really say anything.
But she saw us and there was a tired smile in her eyes.
This precious lady became a young widow and a single mom of 6 kids when she was only about 40 years old.
She has held the family together with her big heart and humorus and loving ways.
It's not often you see kids being so loving to an elderly as her kids are.
What you sow you shall reap.
Well, her love has paid off.
Every day her sons that live locally come and see her.
They make sure she has taken her medication, that she eats, and often she gets a treat from one of her sons that he lovingly feeds her.
She had a stroke last year, so slowly it has become harder and harder for her to help herself.
Her mind is not clear, and I'm sure this journey is hard for her, knowing how dilligently she took care of her kids and now being so depending on them.
When we said goodbye I couldn't let go of her warm and soft hand for a few minutes.
I felt heavy tears roll down my cheeks, as she looked me so lovingly into my eyes.
We've never been able to sit down and chat because of the language barriare, but sometimes words are vain.
Sometimes you just know.  You can feel love and care.
I don't know when the last time I tell her goodbye will be, it might be pretty soon.
I do know what she gave though.
Love.  Lots of love and forgiveness.

These moments sure help to keep things in perspective.
I feel so blessed and fortunate to have these moments in my life to keep me reminded of what matters.
Love and forgiveness.  And you don't need to know the same language in order to share that.

Gold Nuggets

After a busy summer, including house building, moving in to that house, continuing working on it, getting pregnant, having a bunch of visitors...  I feel like I finally have time to catch my breath.  Lately the Dr. appointments have been back to back, and there are many more to attend in the next month.  Several kids need checkups, 6 kids need to see dentist (for regular checkups and for more advanced stuff).  I'm looking forward to having one of my wisedom teeth pulled in the next few weeks.  Not.  But it needs to get done.  I need to have them all pulled, but they'll start with one for now.  Then I have to go to my checkups... well, you get the picture.

Besides all those "not so fun" appointments, life is good.
And I know we could be going to the Dr's for far worse reasons, so I'm thankful that we are only doing the regular "are we doing OK" stuff.
Soon (maybe today!) I need to pull out our boxes with hats and mitts.  Crazy.  Didn't we just put those away??  This morning it was only 5 degrees C (about 40F), but the sky is clear and the sun is shining, so it should warm up fairly fast.  The trees are changing outfits, and for each passing day, their gowns are getting more and more elaborate.  Fall is so pretty!

What else?  I just realized again how much I'm thankful and happy for. 
I dreamed that we had another boy, and he looked just like our 1st one!  It makes me want a "little brother" for the kids even more...  I'm getting more and more excited about the new baby coming, and soon I'll start going through all the old baby clothes, girls and boys, and then I'll really get in the "new baby mood"!
A little girl would be fun too, but for our only son I wish for a boy.  Don't you think he "needs" a brother?

I've been very thankful (again!) for my wonderful Hubby.  He really truly is an amazing man.  Sometimes the kids wish he wasn't so "dadish", but in a household full of women, I'm thankful that he's a "real guy".  Blunt and clueless at times, but also willing to go back and give hugs and say sorry when need be.  (I need to say sorry a lot more than him...)  He's not one to bicker or fight, and every day he's my friend in everything.  There are so many "little" things he does, for me and for many others, that add up, and I don't think he realizes it.  He doesn't complain, ever!!, and that to me is very manly!  Whiny guys is like nails on a chalkboard.  Not that you can't say "Wow, today was rough!".  But guys that whine, and try to sound like "See what I have to deal with?, but of course I can handle everything, I just have to suffer through this", makes me shiver, in a bad way.
So yeah.
Thank you again for being who you are, I couldn't imagine my life without you.

Pretty fall trees.  A new baby coming.  A new house to make our home.  A wonderful Hubby.  Lots of kids to love and laugh and learn with.  Those are all gold nuggets in my life.

Congrats, you just won another 2 weeks of pregnancy!!

Hm.  I went for my 1st ultrasound yesterday.  Based on all the facts, I SHOULD be almost 12 weeks along now.  I have felt that this is the right number of weeks, and my body sure has felt and acted its part.  But what do I know, right??  According to my ultrasound, the nice technician informed me that "Hmmm, this baby is only measuring 9 weeks 5 days", so 2 weeks less than I had figured.

What???  I don't get it.  It does not make sense.  I'm not going to share any details, but the whole thing is rather strange and confusing.  I have had 7 kids, and many ultrasounds, and they have all been within 5 days of my estimated date...  Now this.
You might think, "Who cares? a few weeks more or less?"  Well, I DO care.  Now we are having an April baby instead of a March baby.  It makes it sound like a whole month later!!  (even if the date "just" moved from March 20th to April 4th.)  Now I have to do week 10 to 12 all over again!! 

My oldest daughter is not impressed either.  She has been over the moon about the fact that I'm expecting a baby within 2 days of her birthday, and now that will most likely not happen...  My dear hubby does turn the big 4-0 in April thou, so Happy B-Day Big Guy!  This one is for you :) 

Well.  There.  Now I got to gripe abou that a bit.  Now I'm hoping that the baby will surprise me and come "early", actually meaning, that my own duedate was the right one all along...

A new heartbeat

Today I had my 1st pregnancy check up.  At 11 weeks along me and the very friendly nurse, who spoke really good English btw, (yess!!) went over all the paper work, previous pregnancies, what labwork they need, when I will have my 1st ultrasound etc.
I stepped on the scale, and considering the size of the baby (few inches long), I have gained an unproportional amount of weight.  How can I be so hungry when I'm really not eating for 2 yet??  Ah well.

The nurse asked if I wanted to hear the baby's heartbeat, IF she could hear it!  At only 11 weeks it can be hard to find, but even if you don't find it, there's usually no reason to worry.  I wanted to try anyway.
I was delighted to hear a strong and loud heartbeat!  Our little one in there.  It suddenly made me so excited to have another person coming to share our lives!  I can't wait to meet you!

Announcing the latest family news!!

So folks, we have an announcement to make.  I had planned to wait maybe a few more weeks, but we told the kids yesterday (I haven't seen them that excited for a while!!), so we might as well make it public.
If all goes well we are looking forward to Welcome a new family member around March 20th!
Meaning I'm about 10 weeks pregnant.

This also means that Big Guy and I will be parents of 8 children!!  Wow.  I've gotten used to 7, but 8 sounds like a lot of kids!!  I guess 7 isn't far behind (duh!!), but when you hear the new number of kids, I guess you kind of realize that "Wow, we have a big gang going on here!"

The kids are so, so happy and excited.  Our two oldest have been literally nagging for another baby lately, and it's been hard to keep quiet...  I found out (the 7th test finally dclared it, blue line of white background, what I had suspected for a week or so back at the end of July)  the morning after moving in to our house.  Of course Hubby is over the moon, he gets all proud when I'm pregnant.  "I did it again!!"  I wasn't as excited to be honest...  This last year has been so busy, with so many changes, and after JUST moving in to our house, I really felt that some "down time" was a good idea.  But not.  I guess I'm tougher than I give myself credid for??
I am excited now thou, and despite being tired, I feel really good, gaining weight at a fast pace.  Yohoo!! 

I guess we are all crossing our fingers for a little brother for our only boy, but whoever is inside there will be very very welcome in to this big loud bunch!  A new connection to our new country.  I'm a bit nervous about upcoming check-ups etc, realizing that my Finn is still very limited in many situations...  I always had such great care back in Canada, and with our 3 youngest I had the privilage to have them at the brand new, beautiful maternity floor at the local hospital.  So far I've been happy with the health care here too, but I was a veteran in Canada, having 7 babies there, so well, I guess I'll just wait and see!!  Anyway... I guess this will give me new blog material this fall and winter!!  I'll keep you posted!

Visitors, Birthday and Getting organized

Today our overseas visitors left to head back home.  It's with sad hearts we saw them leave, but with happy memories sharing the space.  We had such a great time together, and got to do many fun things.  Our 2nd oldest and her BFF had a packed schedule, including shopping, swimming in the lake, taking saunas, picking berries, visiting with friends, going through an obstacle course and last but not least, the highlight of the trip, "Horsebackriding!!"  They even got to try galloping a bit!  After a few hours on the horsebacks, they came home with huge smiles on their faces.  I'm so happy everything went so well, and now we wish them a safe trip back home to Michigan!  A special thank you to BFF's aunt who made this trip possible.  It was a pleasure to have you here, and our door will always remain open for you!  Thanks for all the help as well, our Little Guy talked about you this morning!  We will miss you both for a long time!

Our 4th girl turned 8!!!
Happy B-day dear "S"!!  I'm looking back to the day you were born, and I still marvel over the fact that you decided to enter this world 10 days early, and not the same amount of days past due, like your older sisters did!!  This made my pregnancy 3 weeks shorter, and I'm still thankful for that.  My water broke at midnight, after an evening spent with lots of friends over at our house.  I had seen my Dr the same day, and he figured this baby would follow my previous babies patteren, so he was pretty surprised to see me in the hospital hall about 12 hours after my appointment!!  At 6.13 am our 4th little girl was born, weighing 6.13!!  She was born on my older sisters 30th birthday, so we named her after my sister.  This new addition was a quiet and content little soul, and that sure made our lives easier when our 3rd daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, only 3 months after our baby's birth.  Our lives became increadibly busy, it felt like we had twins!!

The 1st year of #4's life is a blur to me, but from all the pictures we have saved, I can see "S" smiling, looking content and happy.  She could sit, or lay, and play with toys for long stretches, this I do remember, since she was our 1st baby to do that!  By 10 months she still didn't show any interest in crawling or walking, so I figured she'd be a bit later than average, but soon I discovered that when this lady puts her mind to something, she gets stuff done!!!  So shortly after her 1st birthday she was walking.
She was the same way when it was time to learn how to talk.  At 21 months she didn't say much, but by 2 years old, she spoke in scentences!!  And that's the way she is.  She's not in a hurry to be 1st, but when she wants to do or learn something, she gets the job done fast!  We love having her as a part of our loud gang, just like all the rest of them, and I wish her a blessed year as an 8 year old!  We all love you so much! xoxo

What else??  Well, this house is getting more and more livable for each day.  My hubby and I have both been busy cleaning and organizing.  Today I'm tackling some windows in the foyer, there are 8 of them, but they are tall and skinny so they go pretty fast.  I WILL get a camera soon.... then I'll post some pictures. Here are a few that our visitor downloaded on our computer....

BFF's in the woods

A beautiful evening spent at our friends cottage.  Swimming, sauna and good food.

Making a birthday cake!

Pink marzipane for the birthday girl!

(Good job big sister who made the cake!)

Obstacle course

This is high up in the air!

Our lovely kitchen (messy as usual...)

Livingroom

Horseback riding!

It's like being pregnant!!

Building a house that is.  I've been pregnant 7 times, and there are some parts of each pregnancy that seem to repeat itself each time.  At least for me.  Remember that I'm really patient... or maybe that was my sister??  Anyway.
When I 1st find out that I'm pregnant, I feel excited, a bit overwhelmed, and I ask myself if I have what it takes to deal with another pregnancy.... When we decided to start building our house here in Finland, we were still finishing up our house that we built in Canada!!, so I had to ask myself if I was ready to do this allover again! There were trim pieces missing and of course, when you own a house, there are things you want to change and improve along the way. 

When I'm pregnant I always try to think of new ways to make the pregnancy go faster, make it more fun, trying to look and feel my best...  And each time I like to follow the baby's growth inside me.  It's always fascinating!  It's a miracle actually.

With our house, I keep making lists, writing things down, I kept changing things on the plans till I couldn't change it anymore...  I talk to people about the progress, and then I get a bit stressed about feeling that people are on my back (even thou they are only curious)   House or Pregnancy = same thing. 
(when are you due?  when are you moving in?  Are you done yet? - Am I done yet???? Oh YES!!! I'm usually "done" waaaay before I'm supposed to be done... doesn't really matter what it is)
I guess one difference is that the baby I want OUT and with our house I want IN!!  he, he...

Well.  I have gone overdue 4 out of 7 times, and I can safely say that I feel "overdue" with our house!  I get to a point when I really start to think that "It will NEVER happen!!!" "This baby will neeever come out!" Then I have a reasonable Hubby at my side, that reminds me that "I never heard of a baby that didn't come out!"  And I sense that he really feels that "I never knew a family that moved over the ocean and built a house and never moved in to it!"  (although that is far more likely to occur than the baby not coming out...)

All in all, I'm excited, stresses, tired... ready!!!  I keep tossing and turning at night (as if I'm waiting for labour to start), and I feel like I can't settle down before we move!!  Nesting instinct alright!!  I'm so excited to start making our house our HOME! 
Our kitchen is ..... NICE!!!  Gotta get some pix and show it off. :)

well.... sooon I will announce "WE MOVED" and rest assured that there will be a happy dance following that announcement!