How we got her name

Rebekah is 1 month old today! The past month has been a blur and I can't believe it's already been a month. We are still in a babymoon. With that said, I think the story of how our daughter got her name is a really neat story, and one I'd like to share. 

We'd been trying to get pregnant since last April (2012), when we got pregnant, then had a m/c in June. We'd continued to try since then. I know, not a long time, but it felt like a while. 

In Feb. 2013, we went to Prague and prayed before the Infant of Prague. It is said that many people who pray there end up conceiving. A few weeks later, we found out we were pregnant. So I've felt this child was a gift from God since the beginning.

Soon after we got pregnant, we started discussing names. Jon was set on a boy's name, but a girl's name just kept going through my head. I had no feelings about a boy vs girl, but felt strongly about the name Rebekah/Rebecca. I told him that and we decided to give up the name discussion til we knew. After we found out it was a girl, I told him again. He wasn't fond of it, but started thinking about it, and agreed the name sounded good and felt right. 

But he had 2 requests, could we not spell it Rebecca, and could her middle name be Agnes. I cringed. I did not like Agnes at all. But he was agreeing to the first name, and I could at least consider Agnes. And truthfully, I didn't care how we spelled it, and I liked the Biblical Rebekah form, so that was fine. I began to pray about Agnes. We googled "St. Rebecca" to see if there was one. The only one we found discussed was a St. Rebecca (Rafka) who, when she joined the convent, took the name Anissa (Agnes). So that felt like something from God, but I was still skeptical.

Then I remembered, at the beginning of the year, a lot of my Catholic friends locally went to "Saint of the Year" and I had too. I had a few friends who had done it for many years, and swore by it. So, when I got my saint, who was the patron saint of young girls, chastity and rape victims, I was completely freaking out and worried. Would rape affect our family somehow? I finally just ignored it, decided it was a silly site, and never really prayed to the Saint. Until I began praying about the name Agnes, and remembered that "my" Saint had been Saint Agnes of Rome. When I remembered, I knew this was God telling me that yes, her middle name is suppose to be Agnes. 

So, I feel really giddy and excited about her name. I love saying it, as I feel it's so beautiful now. I just feel like this is what God wants as her name, and that He really has a lot in store for her. I'm also enjoying praying to St. Agnes for her. And the fact that she's the Patron Saint of Chastity helps a momma too ;-) So, she is Rebekah Agnes. :) 

In addition to all this, Abby is Abigayle Claire. Jon was looking up Agnes and discovered St. Claire of Assisi is the older sister of St. Agnes of Assisi! And St Agnes of Assisi's feast day is Nov 16, which was my due date. and finally, St Agnes of Bohemia is known as Agnes of Prague (relates to the Infant of Prague) and in the Order of St. Claire!

Rebekah Agnes' Birth Story

Our fourth child arrived on November 5, 2013. Her name is Rebekah Agnes, and she weighed 11 lbs, 1oz (Smaller than our last baby!) and 20.5 inches and was born at 9:24am.

The details- I went in that morning for a planned c-section. After 3 previous attempts at a vaginal birth, and all ending in a c-section, this one was going to have to be a c-section. It was much different this time, knowing when she'd be born, knowing the c/s was going to happen, etc. I pictured it'd be quick and easy. Go in, have c/s, in an hour or two, we'd be in my room, having skin to skin and nursing and resting. When we arrived, we found out they'd had an unplanned c/s, and we had to wait around until they got the OR cleaned.

38 weeks, 1 day

Finally, a little before 9am, they had me walk to the OR. I was very nervous waiting for the anesthesia, but managed it well enough. It was very odd being awake and aware during the c/s (In my previous 3 csections, I'd been put under, I'd had the anesthesia go to high so was more focused on trying to breath, and was so tired from laboring for 28 hrs that I slept through almost the whole c/s) As soon as I laid down, I threw up some medicine they had given me. They said that was very common.

Thankfully I wasn't paying much attention to what they were doing to me. I was just anxious to hear her cry, to know they had gotten to her. Jon told me it took about 10 minutes to get in usually, but I never knew that. That was the longest 10 minutes of my life haha! Finally, I heard her. It was an overwhelming sound, but she sounded like she was gagging while crying, like she had fluid or something. Jon kept telling me she was fine, but I was skeptical. Eventually, they told me her weight, which we were a bit surprised by, as my doc had guessed she'd only be about 10.5 lbs, not 11lb 1oz. Then they said they were going to have to take her to the NICU. I was NOT expecting that. Come to find out, on her way out, she had swallowed amniotic fluid and needed oxygen. They quickly showed her to me, then took her to NICU. I began to cry and of course, wasn't able to hide it. Jon went with her.

They took me back to L&D to recover. Normally it's about 2 hrs there to recover before going to mom/baby. However, mom/baby was crowded and they were discharging people, so they told me to hang out in L&D for a while. That ended up being a good thing because i was throwing up everything they gave me. They gave me zofran twice, which didn't help. At one point, I went to go see her. I saw her for a short bit, and touched her through the incubator- they wouldn't let us hold her or nurse her because she had been so stressed out from the IVs, as they had to stick her 5 times or more. Very soon after arriving, I told Jon we needed to leave. No sooner did we get out of the NICU and I threw up again. Eventually they gave me a shot that worked instantly. After that, I was finally able to go see Beka and spend some time holding her.

The first time we went in, she was doing better on the oxygen and they felt she'd be able to come off soon. They were waiting until the next day to try to give her any food because they didn't want to stress her body out any more. They were having problems with her IV, getting it to stay. At some point, she had one slightly low blood sugar, so was getting dextrose via IV. (I was shocked because I had amazing control in this pregnancy, and none of my other kids ever had sugar issues.) At 10pm, we were heading to NICU when we were told to wait b/c they were having to do another IV and they were giving her formula so the IV wouldnt be an issue. I started crying, as I wanted to nurse her, no one asked me about formula, and they said they were going to wait until the next day to give it to her.

It was advised that I pump over night, and anything I pumped, I could ask my nurse to take to NICU. So I pumped every 2-3 hrs, and did get some colostrum sent down to her. We went back to visit her at 8am. We spent almost the whole day in the NICU, so it's really all a blur, but at some point, they allowed us to basically do SNS with her, put a tube in to her mouth to get the formula, while she also nursed on me, helping my milk to come in and getting her colostrum. At 7pm, after having to force more formula on her (Which she usually threw up), she was finally able to be discharged. I was frustrated during the day because they kept checking her sugars, said they were great, but were forcing her to continue to take formula to keep them up. Everything i'd heard was that if blood sugars are an issue in a baby, they regulate themselves within 24 hrs, but they wouldn't cut out the formula to see if her sugars were stable without it. My motherly instinct told me she likely was stable.

When she finally got discharged from NICU, they told us she may need to supplement with formula still until my milk came in. Yet, they never checked her blood sugar again after discharging her from NICU. We never supplemented. And she never appeared to need formula. About the 2nd time she tried to nurse after being in my room, we heard her swallowing several times and realized "Wow! My milk must be in already!"

After that, the rest was a blur. I nursed, started to be in more pain, and the next morning, Jon went to pick up the kids from our friends. Right after they arrived and met her, we were discharged to go home. Unlike any other hospital i've been to, they allow you to just walk out without a wheelchair. Oh, BAD idea. I didn't realize how long of a 'short' walk it'd be to the car, and was in a lot of pain by the time i got to the car.

Meeting her for the first time.

Sisters!

Daddy watching a movie with all 4 kiddos.

Recovery this time was much more challenging than in the past. I had a lot more pain, and had to take stronger pain meds than ever before. It also lasted longer, a full week. Now, Rebekah is 3 weeks old, and I'm feeling great. We started back to homeschooling this week from "maternity leave" and we're slowly getting back in to a routine. We've been so blessed by friends who have been so supportive, with watching the other three, providing meals, coming to Beka's baptism, and just wishing us well and praying for us. God is so good and we have been so blessed.

Last week, when she was two weeks old, Rebekah was baptized. We were very blessed because Jon's brother, Fr. Nathan, was able to fly in and do her baptism. It made it even more special for us. We were also very blessed because we picked our very close friends here to be her Godparents, so it was wonderful having her Godparents be present as well. We are slowly settling in to this family of six thing, and enjoying every minute of it.

 Zach got to serve mass with Father at all his masses. He felt so grown up and proud.

We've Moved!

And we are so happy! We have been in the house exactly a month now. I feel like we're mostly settled. We still have several boxes sitting here and there, but they're things that Jon needs to unpack when he gets a chance. Should be able to happen uhh... when he's on paternity leave maybe lol? ;-)

We went back and forth on the bedrooms. Zach wanted to share with the girls, but we really had a small bedroom for him available. However, the girls' room is HUGE. So, we found a compromise, and it's been great. We took all their closets (In Germany, closets don't come with your home. You buy your own. So the military actually issues them to us) We took their closets and divided the room in 2/3rds with them. He gets the smaller area, and the girls get the larger. Jon was really concerned, but it's been GREAT. One room to clean up, one area for all the toys to be contained in, they can be as loud as they want upstairs, oh, it's great. Here's a few pictures.

You can see here the closets dividing the room and Zach's bed in the back.

 The main play area/girls' side

 Girl's bed.

 Then our room. There's orange curtains, which we don't care about. They work. The red rug will likely leave that area eventually.

 Then we used our closets to also divide our room. Behind there is currently boxes we need to get in to still. Eventually the red rug will likely go back there. It also might be used as a nursery area for the baby, but we're not sure yet. The closet on the left came with the house for us to use.

Part of the kitchen. 

 The "School room". It isn't really set up at all. I'm having a hard time getting down to that little table at this point, so we did the first week there, the rest as been at the kitchen table. I'm hoping to pick up a different table this weekend.

 Front door. Kitchen on the right, there's a guest bath with shower on the left next to the coat rack.

 The awesome stairs. There is a fireplace on the other side of the wall, and that archway leads to our "library/den" area.

 View in to the dining room, with the den just past it.

 The library area with the balcony.

 Two of our bookcases with our tv shrunk we bought when we rented the house. LOVE that we can hide (AND LOCK) our entertainment center!!! Best part is the kids ask to watch tv much less when it's closed. ;-)

There's also a great backyard, and the kids have really been enjoying playing out there. In fact, since moving in, Zach has learned to ride without training wheels! Really surprised me since he's never really ridden a bike much before now because it was such a pain to get bikes out when in the apartment. 

We are in our 3rd week of school. It's going really well, and while I hadn't planned on doing school with Abby, she INSISTS on sitting at the table with us, and she's blowing me out of the water with some things. Yesterday she colored a picture and did an amazing job staying in the lines. The other two are doing really well, and I think we're mostly getting in the swing of things. We've begun almost every subject, but I think I'm waiting another week or two to begin spelling. We just began our handwriting workbook today, but were definitely working on handwriting previously. It's really nice to have Zach and Hannah doing a lot of the same grade stuff. 

Jon has taken on teaching the adult religious education class for our church. It meets the same time as the children's. I really did not want to enroll the kids, because they use the same exact curriculum as we're using for religion at home, and I hate making my Sunday's feel so busy instead of relaxed. However, God eventually showed me that by allowing them all to go and JOn to go, I get an hour and half of alone time, which I can use to prepare our school lessons for the coming week. They just started this past Sunday and the kids all loved it. I also enjoyed the time of preparing and focusing w/out being interrupted. Win for all. Only problem is it makes for a VERY, VERY Long day. We get up at 6:30, and get to church at 8am so Jon can warm up for choir. Then their class is over at 12:30. Afterwards this week, we also had to go to the commissary, so we didn't get home until 2. I'm sure we'll get in the hang of things quickly.

I'm now 31 weeks pregnant. I will have a repeat c-section at 39 weeks at the latest. However, I've never made it to 39 weeks, so baby could be here in less than 8 weeks. 8 weeks seems like a while still, but 5-7 weeks, like the other kids were, seems like forever. My blood sugars are really becoming more difficult to manage. I'm doing my best, but I just need LOTS of insulin. So there is also discussion of scheduling me earlier than 39 weeks. It's a fine balance of how long to keep baby in there. I finally ordered the car seat, so hopefully that will be here before baby arrives! ;-) Otherwise, I'm not really ready for it. I need to sort through baby clothes, see what I have, wash it, organize it, etc. I started at one point, like a week ago... ;-) It's just very daunting. 

Well, that's our current life in a nut shell. All in all, we are so much happier in our new house. I think it's evident in all of our attitudes. God is so good and has greatly blessed us here!

A bit better

So, sometime between my last post, and today, things have gotten better in our house.

• VBS ended-wahoo! It was great, but I was exhausted!
• Master bedroom complete packed up
• All 10 or so loads of laundry folded and put away
• den picked up, even vacuumed and swept
• dishes have been done daily
• master bathroom was even cleaned!
• kids' books boxed in to 2 boxes, with just a small handful left
• all toys are now in their room instead of the house
• A few other boxes were packed

So, I feel better about my overall house, may be a little less embarrassed now. Tomorrow my big goals are clean the kids' bathroom and sweep the kitchen/dining room and do a half-hearted job of mopping. Hopefully I'm up for it, since I spent the day with BH contractions. I know it's because I'm dehydrated. We went to a park yesterday afternoon with friends. It was soooo much fun. The men and teens played a lot of kick ball and football. Jon broke his toe (And has a PT test this week!!!), we ate a picnic potluck dinner and just really enjoyed the company. Unfortunately, it was a farewell to one of our friends. We're really sad to see them go. In good news though, we are buying their car, so we will have a 2nd car for the first time in 3 yrs! May seem a bit weird. 

Which reminds me, I'm feeling the need to buy a car seat, and grr! Baby is due in less than 3mo, which is a while still, but when you consider i have to have it shipped from the states, I need to get on it. It's frustrating. I had decided since I never really took the infant seat out of the car with Abby, I just wore her all the time, and my kids were usually only in them about 6mo, that I was going to skip the infant seat this time and just buy a convertible. Then Jon randomly said that we should buy an infant seat, for a few reasons, and I can't decide if the reasons are good enough or not. The only thing convincing me is that I'd keep baby warmer walking into/out of places in a seat with blanket or cover, than trying to get it in the wrap before going in. Not sure if that's enough of a reason or not though... 

Anyway, this is the big week. I'm nervous, excited, scared, excited, all kinds of things! It's going to be a busy week, but hopefully I can take it easy on Monday and Tues. And get rehydrated before the move ;-) 

Keepin' It Real

So, I try to be honest. I have a very open home, people can come over whenever usually, and I don't care about the state of my house. You get what you get. Except this week. It's gotten bad here. Like REAL bad. Seriously, I'm the person who usually has unswept floors because i can't convince the 4yo to do her chore today and instead ended up putting her in bed. Or the dishes aren't done because as hard as I've fought the 5yo to unload them, they still haven't been done. (I know of ideas/consequences, etc. That's besides the point today.) Or just because we haven't been home. And you can come over and just accept that. And usually, one day during the week, it WILL get done, and look well enough...

But not this week. Every morning this week is VBS. WAHOO! We love it. It's great and exciting. And tiring. This momma thought that preK would be easier than the other grades so therefore easier on my pregnancy and my SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction- fun stuff!) It gets worse the more I walk. HA! Joke was on me. Actually, Pre K is much easier, as I only have 18 kids and not 40. But man, it's exhausting. And every night I need to review the Bible story and prepare for it, etc.

So yesterday I had plans to take a nap. I got 5 minutes in to the nap and a friend called in an emergency asking if I can watch her kids. Of course I said yes. But no nap. So today, at 3 pm, a storm was coming in. It was beautiful. Got all dark and super windy. Goodbye 90+ weather we had with no A/C. It was cooling off, and rain is great napping weather! I got in bed with Abby, and put Hannah and Zach in their beds. I woke up about 4:15. I don't think anyone else napped. I put a movie on for them, and crawled back in bed... To be awoken by a "Hey Babe" at 5:45!!! YIKES! So I got up and we jointly prepared a delicious enough dinner, that of course the kids didn't eat. Baths and bed and then I looked at my house.

And then I walked in to the office to uuhhh... yeah, prepare the Bible story. (And post on FB and send my mom a text or 5. and read this HILARIOUS article. ) I promise, I'm going to go do the dishes soon. Because my husband was so kind and thoughtful! He went for a run, and said that I should do the dishes while he ran, and then he'd help me fold laundry when he got back. Except, it's 9:15 now and I'm not ready to fold laundry at 9:15. Maybe it'll go faster together? Or we'll probably start talking, get distracted, and give up after one load. Here's the laundry currently. Just deal with it sideways bc I"m too tired to rotate. Yeah, the towels on the floor there- not sure if they're clean or dirty at this point.

 So my husband is home. I should probably get to this.... Yeah, pretty bad huh? At least I know i'll get that part done tonight. I HAVE to. We need dishes for tomorrow... and cereal just doesn't work on paper plates.

 I also REALLY need to mop. Like, I'm wearing flops all the time it's so gross... but really, we're moving next week, and it'll get really nasty then. Is it worth mopping for one week? When I have 0 energy, and I'm in pain, and I can barely get ^ those dishes done.

 And then there's the den... oh the den... I think I may just throw all that in a box when I feel ok enough to walk and bend down at the same time. But there may be food hiding in there that I'm unaware of...

Like I said, it's BAD. But, let's keep it real, and keep me humble. I know, I need to get to working. Or put my husband to work. But oh yeah, he has a PT test next week, so his evenings are busy making sure he's athletic enough to pass, even though he's old now and his requirements got much easier. I just need strength to get through this week and ignore my house, yet also pack, or have energy to get some of it cleaned up.  Lord hear my prayer!

Great Family Day

Today was one of the greatest family day's we've had in a long time. We started to day out heading to Homburg to visit the flea market. I was VERY underprepared for what we were going to find. It was like one, huge, massive yard sale, table/car after table after table. We quickly learned that we had to be picky and not get something unless we REALLY wanted it. For one, we'd have to carry it and for two, there was so much to see. We walked away buying very little thankfully. We had a plastic Ikea table in yellow, but a whole bunch of random kids' chairs to go with it. Today, I found 3 yellow and orange Ikea chairs that match and fit perfectly with it, for €10! They were kind of a pain to carry back, but well worth it. I also bought a over -the-door shoe bag, in cute blue and nautical patterns. I'll either use it for the kids' room or for the homeschool room for school/craft supplies. Then we also bought some Pommes (German french fries, yum!) for the kids because they were starving. This whole part of the morning was making me happy.

Then we got back to the car, and ate our picnic lunch while driving to Hela. Hela is a huge hardware store, like Lowes or Home Depot. We'd never been, because there was another hardware store closer, but that one is closing down. Since we were just minutes from this one, we checked it out. FYI local friends- they have 3 isles of crafting stuff too! This part of the day was making husband happy.

Finally, I had heard about this great pirate ship park also in Homburg. I got the directions, but unfortunately, they weren't great because we were coming from a different direction. The directions said it was right next to the brewery and follow the castle ruins signs. So we did, and ended up at the castle. No pirate ship park, but a small playground. Since we'd promised the kids the park, we decided to hang out there for a bit. After a while, they wanted to climb the stairs. Next thing we knew, we were totally exploring the castle ruins and having a GREAT time.

At some point during the day, while driving, Hannah asked Jon to turn on the music. Right after he did, Hannah said "Mom, do you feel the baby moving now?" We've told the kids that the baby goes crazy every time music comes on (At Church, in the car, on tv, etc). We were cracking up. I told her no, not yet. But sure enough, about 1-2 minutes later, I did. We left, came home and changed real quick, stopping by the church for a minute. I took the girls to the bathroom where Hannah informed me that princesses don't poop or pee because she's never seen one poop or pee lol!

Then we met friends for dinner at a great restaurant Jon and I had been to once before. It has a rather large outside eating area, so we enjoyed the great evening outside. They have a small little playarea- sandbox, swing, play house, so after dinner, we let the kids go play while we talked as adults. It was DELICIOUS. We topped it off with dessert, ice cream for the kids and knodle for me! YUM! There was a wedding reception going on at the restaurant, and the kids had fun looking at how pretty the bride looked. We've also discovered today that when there's a wedding, everyone puts a white ribbon somewhere on their car, the antenna, rear windshield wiper, etc. I'd seen cars with them before, but tonight made the connection. As we walked in, I felt like everyone was staring at us. At first, it felt like it was because we weren't suppose to be there because of the wedding reception. But we asked and it was fine. As we left, they were all STARING again. I just didn't get it. We finally decided it was because we had 3 kids and a growing belly. That's just not common to Germans. Then we giggled that they were staring at us.

On our way home, even though it was already 8pm and we have to get up at 6:30, I managed to convince Jon to stop at the Blumen field and pick some flowers. Jon hadn't done it before, and the kids were beyond excited. They each got to pick one. I picked an orange, and Jon picked one more purple. As we were leaving, Hannah exclaimed "We need to get one for the baby!!!" So Jon declared the purple one was for the baby, as we were out of change. That made her happy. They really wanted Sunflowers as well, but we convinced them we'd come back and get flowers for the new house after we move.

All in all, it was an absolutely beautiful day spent with our family. We need more like it. I'm ready to go pass out. Tomorrow I have to go decorate for VBS, then it starts Monday. Please pray for VBS, and for me, as I"m already starting to have the 'wiped-out' feeling every afternoon. Then the following week we get our keys, wahoo! And somewhere in there, I do need to finish packing, eek!

Abby fell asleep on the way back to the house, before dinner. She took a good 30 min nap on the couch, laying like this. And she was a star today. Big white classes, denim skirt, and striped socks pulled all the way up with her sandals. She totally rocked the outfit!

Our new flowers.

No excuses

Oh wow, umm.. someone told me I needed to update my blog. June 11 and only to day 4 of our trip. Oops! I guess so! Well, Day 5-7 will have to happen another day, because there's too much else going on.

In short. I'm 24 weeks pregnant with a... we're not sharing online! ;-) But we have an awesome name that you can all find out about in approximately 15 weeks lol. I know, I'm mean, but we have our reasons. But the name is truly and completely God inspired. I'll share all about it after baby is born. However, I learned the term Rainbow Baby yesterday and I LOVE it. This is such a rainbow baby and fits our child perfectly. It's the term for a baby you have after a loss.

In OTHER news, the majority of our friends have PCSed this summer. That's kept us busy, saying wayyyyy too many goodbyes. That's one of the HUGE negatives about the military. Well, we don't say goodbyes. We say "Until next time" through tears.

In other news that's similar, WE'RE MOVING!!! Ok, we're not leaving Germany, but we're moving off base, PRAISE GOD! Hearing the trashy folks outside talk about every type of sex imaginable at the top of their lungs at 11pm, climbing 2 full flights of stairs with a growing belly, and oh yeah, bringing ANOTHER person in to this tiny little concrete slab of a stairwell apartment and knowing we had to homeschool in it while surviving the dreary winter, just wasn't cutting it any more. So we finally took the step we've been talking about for a year. We found a great house with... A NICE BACKYARD!!! We couldn't be more excited. Plus it's got 4 rooms and an "office" room, so we'll have a spot for homeschooling! And 3 bathrooms. And.. yeah, I could go on and on, but I'll wait. We have less than 3 weeks til we move, but I'm mostly packed as much as I can be. Because...

Next week is VBS. Somehow, before knowing we were going to move, I said yes, I'd teach the Bible stories to the preK kids. HA! So, I've been preparing for that when not packing, and trying ot get as much packing done beforehand so I don't have to pack after VBS each day.

It's finally gotten warm here. Or hot. Some days are pure hot. Like 96 this past Sat. And it's suppose to be 94 this Fri. Do you know we don't have A/C Here?!?! Yeah, ask the pregnant woman how that was!

OH! And speaking of the moving, we applied for an extension. We're now suppose to be in Germany until Sept 2016! Yeah, we're not excited or anything. We haven't done any traveling lately because my PSD (pain in my pubic bones) gets REALLY bad this pregnancy when I walk a lot, so that pretty much cuts out traveling in Europe. But we're making plans for next spring/summer. And instead moving, which doesn't require lots of walking.

Our kids are amazing us each day, in good and bad. Zach is cutting his first adult tooth. :*( Hannah's blowing us out of the water with her amount of reading, and Zach is not far behind her. Her reading has encouraged him to try more, which is awesome. Last night at dinner, I decided to tell them the story of Moses to prepare them for VBS, and he kept telling me parts of it himself. I asked him how they knew and he said "BEcause we have the book over there!" And there is one reason we have 1,000+ books! Hannah is amazing me with her kindness and things of that nature. Today she told my friend her son could go first "Because my mommy says the first shall be last and the last shall be first." I LOVE when I hear them tell someone else the lessons I've taught them! Abby is very much our comedian. Everything is hilarious to her, and she's gotten a bit sassy lately. Definitely a point in our parenting where we're having to work on guiding her to appropriate behavior, which is such a challenge! But she's still so sweet and cuddly, so that makes up for it.

We were suppose to start school up already, in order to give us time around the baby being born, but with a move thrown in unexpectantly, school hasn't started. My new goal is the last week in Aug or first week in Sept., but I'm excited about the coming school year and what we have planned to learn. And I feel like it's going to be slightly easier with 2 readers this year! Well folks, there you have it. A late-night, tired-mama of an update! ;) Tschuss!

Normandy Day 4- Mont Saint Michel & German Cemetery

Previous Normandy posts: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

I had never heard of Mont Saint Michel, until a friend told me I had to visit it while in Normandy. In 708, Saint Micheal the Archangel appeared to the Bishop of Avranches and told him to build it. He ignored him several times, until the Angel left a hole in his forehead one night. In the link above, there are 4 pictures of the development of the Mont. We saw those while inside, and they were very neat to picture how it's grown over the years.

As we were getting close to the Mont, preparing to park (Which, by the way, says like €9 on their website, it was actually €12), I went to take a picture, and realized I left my camera card in my computer. I was so upset, ready to cry. Jon said they may sell them in a tourist shop inside. I was nervous, wondering if there'd be a difference between American cards and European cards. First store we walked in sold them, and it worked perfectly! I was praising the Lord and St. Therese and Saint Michael!

We followed Rick Steves guidebook, and he said if you want to avoid the crowds, walk up the steps on your right as soon as you come into the area. So we did. We climbed some stairs there, and up closer to the abbey itself, and it wasn't as bad as I had imagined. When we came down, through the crowds and small street lined with restaurants and stores, it was very steep and I knew we'd made the right decision.

taking a lunch break on the walk up

There is a fee to get in, but somehow, we did not pay it. I think there was a place we were suppose to, as one arrow pointed to "ticket booth" and the other pointed to "Abbey". There were two women passing out flyers, one going in the ticket booth area, and the other going in the Abbey area. The first was chatting with the people in front of us, and the second lady asked us what language. So we got a paper from her, and went in. She never told us to go back and buy a ticket or anything. We kept going in, thinking we must buy a ticket further in, and never had a place to buy one.

I was expecting a great big, beautiful church, but really, it was very simple. Very open, but simple. I think Benedictine monks use to run it, but a few years ago, the last few left and monks from Paris took over, if I remember correctly.

They are doing tons of construction right now, that is suppose to be done in 2015. Because there was a bridge built that blocked the water flow, the beach and areas surrouding the Mont have become pretty eroded and not getting enough water. They're building a new bridge that will allow the water to flow underneath. They've already built a damn to help the water reach it's fullest potential. There use to be parking on the island, but not anymore. Now, everyone parks at the visitor center, and then takes a shuttle bus that runs from the center to the base of the Mont. It was very easy and convenient, and the center had lovely, clean toilets. (Do you notice a pattern here??) It sounds like it will be even more wonderful and magnificent once this huge construction project is completed.

 View on our way up

Another view going up, almost there.

Almost inside 

The Abbey with Abby in front. They were all pretty confused lol 

Inside of the Abbey

St. Micheal on the Bishop's head. 

At one point, it became a prison, like Alcatraz, and many of the priests were prisoners. They'd be forced to get on this wheel and push it like hamsters, to get stuff up a railroad on the side of the mont. 

After this, we were tired, but again, I convinced Jon to stop at the German WWII cemetery that was 5 minutes away. We've been to the German WWII cemetery in Luxemburg, and was expecting the same thing. I thought i had blogged about it, but it appears I didn't. That one was very sad, 1 headstone to every 4 soldiers, many of which were unknown. One huge mass grave with thousands buried in it, because the Germans couldn't afford anything else. So we arrived, and were quite surprised. Instead, it was one huge, two story circular building... With an open courtyard in the middle, all with above ground crypts for the soldiers. It was actually a beautiful memorial to the German people who died during this horrible war. Afterwards, we headed back to the farmhouse for showers and dinner and bed, exhausted yet again.

Walking in to the cemetery.  

The rows of buried. 

Looking down in to the courtyard of the cemetery. 

One full row, with many, many flowers and wreaths. 

Normandy Day 3-Bayeux and Arromanches

Previous Normandy posts: Day 1, Day 2

Today was a super busy day. We didn't get out of the house until 10:30, yikes! Not how I wanted to begin, but oh well. We arrived in Bayeux to see the famous Bayeux Tapestry that is almost 70 meters long, and depicts the story of William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings, 1066. The kids loved that they got their own speaker set to listen to, as we walked through. The length of it was amazing, and it was pretty cool. I never would have known what was being depicted had it not been for the audio. I don't know how the people of the time did. Other than that, I was "Ehh" about it. Everyone swore we had to see it because it was amazing. It was ok, and not really worth what we paid in my opinion. But again, that's me. The kids were excited to buy a small princess for each girl and a dragon for Zach as we left. No pictures from there, as they weren't allowed.

Then my plan was to leave, but Jon said let's walk and see the Cathedral. I should say that we were so cold, because I had plans to visit the beach, and assumed we'd all want to walk in the water a bit, so we all wore shorts or capris. Thankfully I'd thrown sweaters in for everyone! The wind was bad all day. So we get to the Cathedral. It's as big as Paris' Notre Dame. It's massive, Gothic style, and just absolutely fabulous. We spent a while walking around, and lit candles in one chapel that had several flags, including the American, and encouraged us to pray for peace and freedom for all, so we did. The chapel really had me moved to tears, as there were poppy wreathes and an American flag inside, along with memorials from 1944.

Jon and kids in front of Cathedral. Sorry, problems turning it.

 Candle of the remembrance chapel

 The chapel inside

 The kids and I in front of the altar.

Afterwards, we went back to the car, grabbed our lunch to eat while driving, and drove to Arromanches. (Another great link.) This is where they built an artificial harbor to get all the supplies in for the war. There were actually two, code named Mulberry A and Mulberry B, but A was wiped out to sea almost immediately during a storm. This one survived until Nov. 1944, and really helped win the war. It was fascinating to see this beach, surrounded by the Atlantic Wall that Hitler built, between two villages. There are still some pieces there, including part of the Harbor wall way out in the water. They are 2 km away, and you could fit 1,000 football fields in the space of this harbor. They had dioramas demonstrating how it all worked. It was seriously fascinating.

The kids touching the English Channel.

 The Harbor wall, 2km away.

 Our family in front of a piece of the bridge still on the beach.

A funny piece of this part of our trip was we were out walking on the beach. We wanted to go one way, but we looked to be surrounded by shallow (like 1-2in) of water. I thought "Oh, we'll be fine." and started to walk in it. Thankfully I went first, because I sank! My feet were immediately covered in mud, and this was much different than beaches I normally go to. I walked to another area, and tried to rinse off, and it just stuck so bad. Even when I got home, I had mud cakes under my feet and in my flops. Jon and the kids could not stop laughing-and snapping photos. Thankfully I kept my humor and laughed as well.

Me in the mud... Can't turn it, sorry!

After this, the kids were done, but it was only 4pm. I bribed them with gummy bears and we set out for one more place, the Batterie de Longues Sur Mer. This place had 4 Batteries that belonged to the Germans, that were still there today. The first one was pretty destroyed, so you couldn't go in. The other three however all still had guns and you could walk in to them. I read that they took 7 men to load and shoot them. They could shoot up to 12 miles away with almost perfect accuracy. The last one you were able to climb on top of and you could see the hooks where they would hook camouflage tarps to hide them from the planes. They survived for a while (less than a day, few battles) but eventually the ships were able to take them out.

Afterwards, Jon wanted to walk down this road to get closer to the water. Down there, we saw another bunker that looked just like one we'd seen in Saving Private Ryan, where there's a thin area for the soldiers to shoot out of. It was pretty amazing, as we got to walk in the top and the bottom, and all around it. Next to us were these huge fields of yellow rapeseed flowers, with several red poppies along the edge of the field.

  Jon and kids with one of the 3 remaining guns

 This is like the one I mentioned from Saving Private Ryan.

Us in front of it

The side facing the beach. Along the bottom is the small gap they'd shoot out of

 Abby on top of the Batterie

 me and Zach in front of one of the 3 remaining guns

Rapeseed with one poppy

While coming back, Abby got scared. The kids were able to make a reflection on the ceiling with the sun, and decided to say it was a spider. Abby believed them, and got scared. She put her hand on her head to protect herself, and for 30 min kept asking and begging us to get rid of it. We tried to convince her it was gone, and she wouldnt believe us, until Zachary finally distracted her some other way. To end the day, we came back to the farmhouse, where the kids played in the yard while Jon grilled. Zach declared at dinner that the thing we saw the most was trees haha!