December 21, 2010

Dear Family,

What a mixture of feelings it has been this past week with everyone starting to come home to be together to celebrate Christmas and also the passing of baby Jack. We are looking forward to flying to Utah for the graveside service this Thursday at 1:00 at the Provo Cemetery. Thanks to Katie’s benefits and Morty and Katie’s sleuthing for some flights that might have a couple of extra seats right before Christmas, Dad and I are so happy to be able to be with Heidi and Bill for this special time; scared time.

On Friday, Heidi went into her regular doctor check up but because the doctor could not hear a heartbeat, she was sent to the hospital for further tests. She learned there that her baby was no longer living. He had just been moving the very night before when Blake and Adrianne were visiting. She of course was devastated; we all are. Being a month from his delivery date, she needed to be prepared to deliver him. The hospital told her that she and Bill could go home to explain to the girls what was going on and then come back to the hospital for the delivery in the afternoon, warning her that the delivery could take a long time since her body was not ready yet. Before leaving the hospital, they gave her a drug to start the process.

On their way to pick up Rebekah at school Heidi started hemorrhaging so they rushed her back to the hospital where she received a blessing and the hemorrhaging miraculously stopped so that she did not need an emergency Caesarean. They kept her there and started another drug to start contractions so she would deliver Jack. He was finally delivered at 2:25 am Saturday morning. The hospital allowed them to keep him for many hours so they could say goodbye to him. Heidi told us that he has a perfect body and just looks like he is ready to wake up. He was 18 inches long and 5 pounds 2 ounces (not much smaller than Rebekah).

There is a service in the Salt Lake Area, “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep”, that comes to the hospital to take pictures of families with still born children and make plaster casts of his feet and hands. The family that was babysitting the girls woke the girls up at 3:00am so that they could go to the hospital to see Jack. The girls were quiet and loving; the nurses were amazed at their behavior. Heidi said it was a very sacred and spiritual experience. After the girls went back to the friend’s home, Bill said that they could feel Jack’s spirit and knew he was a mature spirit. Bill held his little boy until the mortician came in the early afternoon to take him.

As we look back, there were many miracles associated with this tragedy. They found out that Baby Jack bled to death when his umbilical cord ruptured from the membrane. Actually, the connection was very weak since his cord was uniquely attached to the membrane and not the placenta. In most cases like this, after the baby bleeds out, the mother starts bleeding unknowingly. We feel very lucky that Heidi’s regular appointment was right when this was happening, although it was not diagnosed before she left the hospital. But it sounds like the drug they gave her before leaving the hospital caused enough pressure that it forced that internal hemorrhaging out of her body so they knew to go back to save Heidi. We feel very blessed.

Sacred is the word that I keep associating with all these feelings. When the Primary children sang the words from the song, Picture A Christmas, “Picture a stable in Judea. Picture a sacred, silent night.” my mind was picturing the sacred, silent night that Heidi and Bill had just experienced in the hours after John Robert’s delivery. I know the veil was thin and his spirit was close as he wanted to comfort his dear mother and gentle father in their pain. What a meaning this gives to our Christmas as we realize if not for the Savior’s birth and subsequent mission fulfilled in the Atonement, our little baby Jack would be gone forever instead of ours forever. How grateful I am to know without a doubt that these things are true and I have a loving Heavenly Father who with His Son, created a wonderful Plan of Happiness so my family can be together forever. What comfort this gives to me.

Another tender mercy of this past weekend was the fact that Shawn, Aubrey and the boys were driving from California at just the right moment that they could stop and send Shawn in to visit with Scott for a few minutes so he could be told of the news in person. Family news such as this is so hard for him to bear all alone.

On a light note, on their trip up here, Shawn’s family stopped overnight in Medford and went to the Harry and David store there before leaving town. They noticed a Santa and real reindeer there and went over only to be filmed on camera and broadcast that night on Medford’s local news as the one child interviewed about the Santa. When Greg was asked what he wanted Santa to bring him he replied matter of factly, “bubble gum and candy”. Here is the link if you would like to watch it (click on Pictures with Santa; it was a broadcast about the local softball team fundraiser):

http://www.ktvl.com/

Morty has gone to three Trailblazer games while here already taking various family members with him. One night he invited Grandma Maldonado and was able to sit in seats down much lower than his ticketed seats!

On Saturday, Dad, Grandma, Blake, Adrianne and I went to Vancouver for the Portland Mormon Choir and Orchestra concert. It was beautiful again. As I sat in listened to the beautiful music I couldn’t help but feel sadness that I was there enjoying beautiful music as our daughter was sitting to talk with a mortician at the same time but then, gladness that the music tells the story of the power of the event and joy for that message that is so personal to us all. After the concert we looked for a bite to eat before heading to the waterfront to watch the Christmas ships. Adrianne came up with the idea to go home and make a batch of cioppino so we crazily stopped at the store to buy what was needed and did just that; a late night cioppino dinner.

We had a wonderful Christmas program at church; it was nice to have so many family members with us. Shawn and Aubrey asked to have a night away as a Christmas present this year so they left shortly after church. I was a little worried as to how Bryson would do since they haven’t left him before but luckily, Morty was a huge help. Morty has traveled up to the Bay Area enough that he and the boys are close buddies. At 5:30 in the morning when none one else could console Bryson, Morty could do the trick. He is so kind to those boys.

We tried something crazy after our Sunday turkey dinner. Katie had invited us all to come out to the airport and have our picture taken with Santa. Besides a free picture at the Southwest gate, Southwest gives you, in the picture packet, a $20.00 coupon for a future flight. She arranged to meet us at security with passes for all of us and take us through quickly. Even running through the airport didn’t get us to Santa in time; just missed him by minutes! But, it was kind of a fun adventure even so.

Yesterday morning Bryson and Gregory helped me make wonderful loaves of bread while Blake and Adrianne made our chili (Bill’s chili). The boys love helping and they made our visits to all the widows and widowers in the ward a lot more fun especially when Gregory was so cute to hand them their bread and say Merry Christmas.

We leave this morning to go to the coast to try our hand at crabbing. A couple of years ago when Dad and I were in Newport, we noticed all the crabbing going on off the pier there. That Christmas Grandma Maldonado gave dad a crabbing basket and we have never had the chance to break it in. We will do that this time since December is a great month for catching crabs.

I love you all and am so glad that we will be seeing most of you by the week’s end. Love, Mom

December 14, 2010

Dear Family,

It feels very quiet. We had Sunhee and Meeja for the long weekend (They had no school Thursday and Friday) and on the way back to Sweet Home, we stopped at Kyre’s home to have an early Christmas dinner and celebration. We brought the dinner and fruit ice cream that their family loves and Alina made a special treat that she learned at a Young Women’s activity. They were vey cute; a pretzel covered with a melted Hershey Kiss and M&M. I didn’t know that Hershey Kisses came in candy cane flavor! The children really love to play and laugh together. They had such a great time.

Kyre had stockings for the girls and between Alina’s, Adam’s, Kyre’s and Kyre’s gifts to Sunhee and Meeja; the girls traveled home with a huge bag each of toys and treats. It was heart warming to watch Adam and Alina so excited to have Sunhee and Meeja open their gifts; they had earned their own money to buy the gifts. Alina was so pleased as she was in charge of all the wrapping and had wrapped even every candy item in the stockings! We thought we would have time to play games in the three hours but eating and opening gifts took almost the entire time.

Sunhee and Meeja’s visit to our home was so much fun. Plus, they were such a big help with our weekend projects. Dad ground flour and the girls helped me make 20 loaves of our wheat bread with seed and nuts. We put them in cute Christmas baskets with some of our jam and delivered them to our neighbors and friends. I don’t know which they were more excited to see, the treat we were bringing them or Sunhee and Meeja. Everyone is always so delighted to see the grandchildren.

The girls helped me make two batches of sugar cookie dough, and eat a little also, for the holidays which needed to be made that first day they were here since I had an appointment with one of the boys in Primary about to be baptized (and baking cookies during my visits is part of my tradition).

We spent all Saturday morning making several bathes of Aubrey’s famous caramel corn and packaged that up in bags for all 30 of our Primary. We attached the “Parable of the Popcorn” with a note thanking each one of the teachers and leaders. The girls were so excited to help with gathering supplies and all the many times we had to stir the caramel. I had to make an extra batch after they went to bed and it was so much more work without them.

I would have to say that this was Sunhee and Meeja’s “spaghetti” weekend. I made a big batch of spaghetti on the second night (the first night we went to Zoolights) and the girls tried to eat it every chance they got. They even convinced Halboji to have it for breakfast; which they did! But one morning Meeja had oatmeal with Dad. He was so thrilled to tell me how much Meeja loved his oatmeal filled with raisins and Chia. He said, “A grandchild of my own blood!”

When Adrianne was in her senior year of high school I questioned what I would do without any children at home during the holidays to help with all our traditions and she said to invite Scott and Kyre’s children to come over which sounded like a great solution. But then, that summer is when they moved so our plans were foiled.

The girls also sat in on Dad’s Webelos meeting and helped the Cub Scouts stuff Christmas Tree Recycle flyer hangers. Plus, Dad was teaching Citizenship while they were working on the flyers and I think Sunhee knew more of the answers than most of the boys.

But we didn’t work all the time. We played SO many games!!! We played each morning and each night and any chance in the middle of the day that we could. Given the choice between watching a Christmas movie or playing games, the games won out every time. We taught them Sequence and Meeja won the first time through. When I went to Grandma Maldonado’s to clean her place, they played games with her the entire time. Plus there was even a short break in the weather and they were able to play a little outside; Meeja even rode her bike. Plus, they had a great time on the piano. Dad taught Sunhee a couple of songs and Meeja watched intently. Then, when it was her time on the bench, she plucked out those same songs with not much help. They both have incredible memories and a great ear for the piano!

The weekend before Morty and Adrianne were here. Morty’s visit was a last minute surprise as he was able to obtain Civil War tickets at the last minute. When he called to tell me about it, he said his heart was just pounding since he was so excited. I suggested that he feel that for a girl instead of a football game! He also took Katie to a Duck basketball game on the Thursday night that he arrived. They play Missouri so Katie procured Missouri Nike wear from Brock so they could show their true colors! Adrianne was here to do some wedding planning and go to a beach overnighter with her horse friends. We squeezed in all we could. Two of the nights we closed down Macy’s as she worked on her wedding registry. That was so much fun to see what and why she chose some of her dreams and requests. Grandma Maldonado went with us the first night.

Our ward Christmas dinner was the Saturday that Morty and Adrianne were in town. I had asked Katie if she would make some cupcakes for my dessert that I was supposed to take. She had friends over that morning helping her and they, with Morty’s encouragement made the most darling green and gold Oregon cupcakes since it was the day of the Civil War game. They made the batter swirl and that created some “O” designs on the top! After Morty left we called and said that he had done some figuring and he has been in Portland 33 days this past fall!

Katie has a double round of good news. She is going full time this week with the airlines and she has found a studio apartment to lease downtown by PGE Park. It is right by a MAX line so that will be a real help during the winter months of commuting to the airport. She now needs a couch and kitchen table.

Alan Ludlow came home from his mission in the past couple of weeks so he spoke on Sunday. He has changed a lot. Encore also sang for the ward that day; they sounded wonderful. It was great to have the girls at church with us. I was conducting in Primary and they blend so well in with the children that they already know that I forgot to introduce them as guests!

We had a great visit with Scott this past week. He has moved to the new level of the A Block to a new level of honor housing. We are thrilled for him. Dad will be emailing you a copy of his 3 year running log where, in his mind, he ran the miles to “visit” each of you! He planned it so he would be in your cities on many of your birthdays or special events! He keeps his mind thinking!!!

Dad and I went downtown Monday night specially to see the gingerbread display at the Benson Hotel. It was only one village; well, it was incredible but we are used to seeing all the variety in past years at Pioneer Square. So, we decided to go walk and look at the Macy’s windows. We even did a little shopping and bought something for Jack for Heidi’s shower in January. Heidi is having a bridal shower for Adrianne the first week of January and I will have a “blue shower” for Heidi while I am there. Thank you Southwest airlines (and Katie of course)!

I hope that you are enjoying some fun holiday traditions this week. I love you! Love, Mom