Hope

This picture represents hope for me. I love to look at it. It humbles me and reminds me to slow down, live in the now, and love on those I love. Our dear friends Josh & Courtney lost their baby boy in April. I think it was a combination of my love for them and my love for my own children that created such an overwhelming, indescribable aching in my heart when I received that news. Any words I try to use to express that feeling simply falls short. For a week Quyen & I grieved with them before we were able to go be with them in Seattle and celebrate Kailen's life. It was a devastating day full of heartbreak as anyone can imagine but also it brought to the surface for me a deep joy that I seem to lose sight of now and then. I have been blessed by this incredible group of friends. They all came into my life with Quyen. Josh in fact was the one who introduced us. For 12 years they have been there for every part of our relationship and life together. We always make it a point to most all of us come together at least few times a year. Although it's not as often as I would like it is always the best company I could ever ask for. To have us all together in one place in support of Josh & Courtney was just really special. As the afternoon came to a close and the reception wrapped up Josh had requested us all to write messages to Kailen on the above pictured blue balloons. We stepped out into the glorious spring sunshine and after a few words from his parents we sent our blessings floating up to Kailen in the brilliant blue of eternity. Hope.

...and baby makes 5!

In early March we were very surprised to discover that I was pregnant! We had not expected that we would have anymore babies. Clearly God had a different plan for us and so here we are, now 12 weeks pregnant with baby #3! We were in fact so sure in our own minds that we had sold our crib last November and I recently boxed up the rest of our baby stuff including all of our girl clothes and sent them to my sister! This just makes me laugh. Now normally given my type A personality these factors would be cause for panic. But for some reason I have not a worry. I guess because I didn't expect to have this opportunity again I consider it a real gift to be going through it and am trying to really soak it in this time. For this same reason I want to experience things a little differently so I decided right away that I did not want to find out the sex... and Quyen is reluctantly submitting to my wish :o) I figure why not? We have a girl and a boy, whatever the sex of this baby they will shack up in the "girls" or "boys" room so we don't really have much preparing to do. Plus in our experience the babies have slept in a bassinette in our room for the first 3 months so there's no hurry. I'm sure we'll have plenty of help rearrange when we need it. So come November 11th-ish The Hoang's will be 5!