Sugar and Spice...and Everything Nice!!!

In case you don't know, we have decided on a name. No more Baby D - we have decided to name our sweet angel Stella Grace de Jong.

I had my first baby shower in Longview thrown by my sweet cousin Jessica. I am so grateful for all her hard work in getting it together. It couldn't have been more perfect! I had family from both sides come and share the special day with us.

A very close friend of mine that I have known since middle school did maternity pictures for me at the end of July. Day-Z Photography with Amanda Adams is a natural light photographer specializing in newborns, children, and maternity photography. We did a session on a very warm evening and somehow she still made all of the pictures look beautiful! I am so happy she did them and was able to capture a special moment in our lives.

My second baby shower was thrown by Jane, Jesica and Tara. It was at Jane's house and was so beautiful! I couldn't have dreamed of it being any prettier. Stella is one lucky lady to have so many wonderful people in her life to come and share our special day :)

Mom and I, along with the 2 pups, will be driving up to Calgary over 4 days going through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Montana, and into Canada where we will meet Kaes before he has to go back to Malaysia for the last few weeks. I am very fortunate that Mom will be with me for 2 weeks in Calgary to help unpack, organize the house, and help get Stella's nursery all set up :)

Please pray for us a safe journey up to Calgary! More updates to come once we get all settled in :)

Our Sweet Boy Jaek

As some of you may or may not know, our sweet boy Jaek had been dealing with what we found out was a ruptured disk in his neck/back for about 6 months. It upsets me so much to know how much pain he was in for so long. The steroids, pain meds, and acupuncture were barely enough to keep him well enough until we were able to fly him back to Houston on June 12th to meet with a specialist about how bad his injury was and if we could do surgery.

After a very intense surgery to scrape and clean out all the ruptured debris from his spinal column, blood transfusion, serious seizures, ICU and 2.5 weeks at the vet, I finally got to bring Jaek back to my parents where we watched him closely and were up hours on end to help manage pain and work on rehabilitation to help him walk again.

Now it is July 21st and he is able to get up, walk on his own, and only has a bit of a wobble mainly on his left side from what we think was a minor stroke during one of his seizures. He appears to have lost vision in his left eye, but we hope some of it may come back as the nerves heal. We are so thankful for the huge recovery he has made thanks to the outstanding vets at North Houston Veterinary Specialist. Without their great work, unconditional patience and kindness, and a lot of prayer, we know he wouldn't be where he is today.

In just 9 short days Me, Mom, Jaek, and Chloe will start our journey up to Calgary. 4 days, 6 states, 2 countries, and 2,200 miles later, we should be reunited (for a short time as Kaes still has to go back to Malaysia) as a family after a long exhausting 6 weeks.

Please pray for us that we have a safe trip with no major hurdles or incidences! Posts from Calgary will come soon :)