Tough as FLINT.....

            Recently, on our trip to Nauvoo, I thought a lot about flint.  Yes, that’s right – FLINT.  I have a pioneer ancestor named William Flint.  He joined the church in New York in 1847, presided over a branch of the church there, and then started for the Rocky Mountains in May 1848.  He helped drive Mary Fielding Smith’s cattle, then turned back and helped other saints emigrating before he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September 1848.  William Flint is my Great-Great-Great Grandpa. 
                Even though William Flint never lived in Nauvoo, I thought of him a lot when we were there.  He was a pioneer just like the others who sacrificed much so that I could live the gospel and have so many of the blessings I enjoy today.  While going on a wagon ride in Nauvoo, the missionary giving the tour pointed out a certain tree and said “That tree is as tough as flint!  You can hardly drive a nail through that bark, it is so tough!”  I love the comparison that flint is tough and sturdy.
                As I shared this thought with Brock, he also immediately reminded me of another important attribute of flint.  When hit with steel, flint creates a spark that can then lead to fire.  I think that’s a pretty vital and necessary thing that one little bar of flint can do!  That little spark provides warmth and light that can grow into a fire of immeasureable size!
                When I was talking to my mom about these attributes of flint, she said “Isn’t there a scripture about flint, too?”  Indeed, there is!  It’s found in Isaiah 50:7:
                “For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore
                       have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.”
Of course, we still don’t know the details of this baby’s life, or what exactly his mission and purpose is  here on earth.  But finally, we do know his name – Flint William Blaser. Since my maiden name is Williams, we knew we wanted to use William as a middle name.  It just so happened to be a funny coincidence that William is also my Great-Great-Great Grandpa Flint’s first name!
                We feel that Flint is the perfect name for this baby!  He is going to have to be tough as flint to make it through the rough start that he is sure to have.  We have been promised through sacred priesthood blessings that the Lord knows how to save EACH of our children and that this baby is part of the way He is going to do that.  We feel that he will be a spark of light and fire to keep our children strong in the gospel and that somehow, he will help them remember the importance of the Savior and their family when it gets harder for them to live the gospel.  And the scripture in Isaiah that mentions flint is a perfect scripture for this time in our lives!  I know that the Lord IS helping us and we will not be confounded, no matter what craziness happens when this baby is born.  I will set my face like a flint – firmly focused on the Savior, not looking anywhere else for the support that I need, and I will not be ashamed of the Lord or the path He has asked me to walk. 

                Flint William Blaser – it feels nice to say that!

Don't Cry

           Just a quick update on the MRI: it was approved, and I was scheduled to get it done this last Wednesday here in Amarillo.  At the last minute though, my doctor called and advised me to wait until we’re in Dallas next week to get it done there.  She advises this for two reasons: first of all, there’s a HIGH chance I will need to deliver there anyway, so we may as well have the doctors there see me and the baby and start getting things figured out.  The second reason is that the radiologist in Dallas will actually sit down with us after the MRI and go over all the findings and help us sort out what needs to be done for our baby.  In short, we SHOULD have a lot more answers by the time our appointment is done in Dallas.  I am NOT holding my breath that we’ll have all the answers, but I think we’ll have a more complete picture of what we’re looking at and then we can come up with a better plan.  Sooo….we wait until August 7^th for more information!
                So, you may or may not have noticed that I really LOVE music.  Music conveys my feelings in ways that I often cannot, and I feel closer to my Heavenly Father by listening to music than by doing just about anything else.  This can be a blessing and a curse all at the same time.  For instance, if you ever happen to see me in sacrament meeting, it’s all I can do these days to get through ANY hymn without tears rolling down my cheeks.  The music is just so full of the spirit and the words are often exactly what I need to be reminded of in that moment.  This is good for obvious reasons, but also bad because sometimes I’m just not in the mood to turn into a blubbering idiot in public!  During those times, I just sit there, trying not to think about what I’m singing.  Then I feel like a shaken soda bottle, hoping I can hold it all inside and not explode all over everyone around me.  Good times! 
                 Many of my blog posts relate to a song that I heard somewhere or that means a lot to me and has helped me through things.  This blog post is no different!  I heard a song last Sunday that continues to stay with me and I just wanted to share it here.
                Every year, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir puts on a Pioneer Day Concert to celebrate when church pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.  The concert isn’t ABOUT pioneers, it’s really just an excuse to have a wonderful concert, and they always bring in guest performers who are also Mormon to sing with the choir.  This year’s guest performers were Lindsey Sterling, a youtube hip-hop violinist and Nathan Pacheco, a singer.  I was especially excited to hear about Nathan because he was in my church congregation the year Brock and I met and we both got to know him.  I even played the piano for him when he sang in sacrament meeting, which my kids thought was the COOLEST thing ever.  We have followed his career as it has grown and have been so excited to see him progressing.  He is the NICEST guy and has the most AMAZING voice!  Anyway, we found out awhile ago that he was going to be in this concert, so we’ve been so excited to watch.  He did not disappoint!  I was seriously so excited for him!
                One of the first songs he sang is a song he wrote called “Don’t Cry.”  This song absolutely took my breath away!  I don’t know if you remember one of my first blog posts about reading the story of Nephi and realizing that the Lord would lead us to our own promised land?  I feel like Nathan could have written these words EXACTLY for me in this moment, with those thoughts.  I feel like he has written words that the Savior speaks to all of us whenever we are struggling through difficult times:

Don't cry, don't cry though hope seems gone.

Don't cry, This battle still can be won
And all these tears, that blind and cloud your day..
Will fall to the ground, your heavy fears will fade away.
Hold on, until the journey's end.
Hold on, this broken heart too will mend
Reach out, I'll come and take your hand
One day, Your darkest seas will lead to promised land.
Hold on, let it pass you by;
Hold on don't quit, you've got the angels by your side
Your heart is strong enough to see this battle won
Your faith will make the morning come.
Don't cry, I'll see this journey through
Don't cry, I'll cross through storms to find you
And carry you home, to never go away...
To rest from the storm, and find a joy that passes healing to the pain.
Hold on, let it pass you by ;
Hold on don't quit, you've got the angels by your side
Your heart is strong enough to see this battle won
Your faith will make the morning come.
Your faith will bring the rising sun.
 

 

           Even when times are hard, I BELIEVE THESE WORDS WITH ALL MY HEART!

 

Almost 28 Weeks Ultrasound

                The last few days have been pretty emotional!  It started on Wednesday when my sister Katie FINALLY went to the hospital to deliver her baby boy.  We were waiting all day to hear the big news, and at 6:38 pm, Griffin Duke Petersen was born, perfect and healthy.  YAY!  She has had 4 pregnancies, but two of them ended badly.  She lost her first baby at 32 weeks, then a year later delivered her healthy baby boy Beckett.  After that she lost another baby at 17 weeks, so getting this little one here was HUGE for our whole family.  When she lost her first baby, Trayson was just 5 days old, so that poor girl has had four babies since I had my last one!  I was absolutely thrilled and ecstatic for her, her husband Tagg, and their little family. 
                While we waited throughout the day, texts came through periodically, giving us updates on her progress.  “They’re breaking her water.”  “Dilated to 7 and 80% effaced.”  “They’re calling in the doctor.  It shouldn’t be much longer.”  And finally “HE’S HERE AND HE’S PERFECT!!!!”  As each of these texts came in, our whole family was so excited to hear the progress.  As the day progressed though, I couldn’t help but wonder what kinds of texts would be sent when it’s our little one’s turn to make his debut.  Regardless of the outcome, the emotions are going to be SO different when that time comes.  I have been blessed with so much peace about this whole situation, but anytime I think about THAT DAY, I am filled with fear.  My imagination runs away with me and I realize how scary that day is going to be for us.  Even if it all turns out well, there will be some real moments of total fear.  When we got the picture text of that sweet little boy, it brought both Brock and I to tears to see this healthy, perfect baby without any physical problems.  Again, what pictures will be taken of our little boy?  How will he look?  Will he be stable on his own?  Will he be hooked up to machines?  Will I even be able to hold him?  I usually stay away from those thoughts mentally, but going through a labor and delivery with my sister made it impossible to avoid.  It is SO easy to be happy for my sister, but it is also SO easy to be terrified for me. 
                It was with these thoughts on my mind that I went for another ultrasound this morning with the high risk doctor.  I hadn’t seen her since we were first told about the baby’s fluid in his brain, even though I had seen my regular OB doctor.  The lab tech did her usual routine, measuring his head and body, and we did our usual routine of asking questions.  You know you’ve been to the high risk doctor too many times when you can predict what they're looking for and start knowing what to look at yourself!             
                When the tech was done Dr. Holmes came in and we started to discuss what they found.  The baby now weighs about 1 lb. 11 oz. but some of that is because of our little MegaMind’s extra brain fluid.  Because of his head’s measurement being up to date, it now puts him at the 17^th percentile for his growth.  TECHNICALLY this means he is no longer considered “growth restricted,” since he would have to be in the 10^th percentile or lower to still be labeled this way.  HOWEVER, she explained that this is false data, because the head measurement throws everything else off.  It’s all in the wording, but the point is, he’s growing but is still very small for his gestational age.  My placenta is looking great, though it’s thicker than they like to see and the umbilical cord is not as coiled as they like to see either.  None of this is new, it’s just more details we find out as we ask more questions and get more familiar with the situation.  As for the fluid in the brain, it has increased a bit.  It’s hard to tell from the angles they were able to get of the brain, but some shots made it look like there COULD be damage to his cerebellum and others made it look like everything was fine, just a little swollen.  She has recommended that we get an MRI to get more details.  You can only see so much with an ultrasound.  It’s 2 dimensional and you’ve got to get through mother and baby tissue, plus hope the baby gets in just the right spot to see things.  An MRI will be able to tell us in more detail what we’re dealing with. 
                She feels like somewhere along the line “an event” occurred, such as a stroke, that has caused all these other problems.  We’ve gotten back the final results on the amniocentesis and everything says that this baby should be perfectly “normal”.  However, they can now see enough in the baby himself to know that that is simply not true.  The other reason she thinks there may have been a stroke is how early the baby manifested the growth restriction.  She said that USUALLY that comes up much later in pregnancy, but the fact that his was as severe as it was so early in the process also makes her think of something along the lines of a stroke. 
                The point with all of this is that she wants us to get an MRI and then, based on results, decide where to deliver him.  If the baby’s brain is so badly damaged that he won’t be able to survive anyway, we could stay here to deliver him and just provide comfort care for him until he dies.  If the baby’s brain is damaged a little and just needs to be shunted, we will probably have to go to Dallas or San Antonio to deliver him.  The neurosurgeons here only do these shunts on babies in emergency situations when there’s no other option, but if they know ahead of time it needs to be done, they prefer to have the baby delivered somewhere else where pediatric neurosurgeons can handle it. 
                So while we wait to hear about whether or not insurance will cover the MRI, Brock and I are back to wondering what we will do IF ____________________ happens.  If the baby needs to be delivered somewhere else, how in the WORLD are we going to make that work with his job, the kids in school (assuming we make it that far), and the possibility that this baby could be in the NICU for a very long time?  If the baby isn’t going to make it anyway, would we want our kids to meet their little brother during the short time he is alive, or is that going to be too much for them to handle?  Brock and I feel that regardless of what happens in this life to this little boy, he will play an important role in the lives of his sister and brothers, so how do we want to help them handle this?  If he dies, what do we do about funeral arrangements?  Where would we bury him?  If we stayed here forever, I would definitely want him buried here.  But if Brock ever decides to take a job somewhere else, I couldn’t bear the thought of my son being buried here where there’s no family or “reason” to ever come back and visit.  It just all gets to be overwhelming. 
                I know that at this point, there’s still so much that we don’t know, so there’s no reason to even try to figure out the answers to those questions.  But it’s still hard to not “go there.”  We hope to hear back soon about whether or not we can get the MRI.  Once we have those results, then we’ll start to make some decisions.   In the meantime, we just wait and try to enjoy summer with the kids. 
                In spite of the uncertainty life really is good!  We know we are in the Lord’s hands and feel his comfort and peace almost constantly.  We are blessed beyond measure and know that whatever happens, it will be an eternal blessing to us.  It may be hard to get through in the here-and-now, but eventually, it will be a beautiful heartbreak for us and all our family!

Vacation to Iowa (and Illinois and Missouri)

              So, since this is the Blaser FAMILY blog, I figured it was time to take a break from all things baby and just write about our family vacation.  We’ve been back from our trip for a few days now, and we had a wonderful time!  Not only was it a great escape from stress that we really needed, but it was just so enjoyable to be together as a family and visit old friends and places that are near and dear to us. 
                We left early Wednesday morning (the 3^rd of July), and since it’s only a 12 hour drive to Ames, we arrived there that night.  The kids did really well on the drive, even Trayson, who finally handled a long trip without Dramamine OR tears!  WIN! 
                The 4^th of July was always our favorite holiday to spend in Ames.  It’s the PERFECT all-American 4^th of July and we always knew when we returned for a visit, it would be then.  We got to see most of our friends right off in the morning because the two wards there both meet together for a breakfast to start off the holiday.  The ward was split a few years after we moved to Ames, so we have great friends in both congregations and it was a perfect place to meet up.  After that we went to the parade.  Can I just say that SOMETHING horrible has happened to that parade in the few years since we left?  The parade used to be so awesome!  There were tons of fun floats and groups that marched, the kids always got WAY too much yummy candy, and I always got at least 3 new workout t-shirts as different groups threw them to the crowds.  This year, each kid ended up with about 5 pieces of candy, no one threw shirts or coupons, and it had nothing to do with America.  I apologize to all my Ames friends, but the parade was the ONLY thing disappointing about our trip and I’m wondering what happened to it!?  Bring back the awesome parade!  OK, end of rant.
                We spent the rest of the day at different barbecues with several friends and just enjoyed a great time visiting and enjoying the holiday. 
                We stayed in Ames until Monday morning and had the perfect visit!  One of our friends from there asked us if everything was totally different and if being back made us feel like strangers.  Honestly, we felt completely at home and as if we’d never left!  Our friends there are still a wonderful part of our life and we’re grateful for modern technology such as facebook that helps keep those friendships strong.
                Other than visiting with friends, here are a few of my favorite things about our visit back:  first of all, I was treated to several piano recitals by former piano students of mine.  It was so fun to listen to these kids and see how far they have come in developing their musical talents.  Many are still taking private lessons and many just play on their own for the love of it.  Either way, it was totally fulfilling to me to see how they’ve grown and expanded their abilities in this area. 
                It was also WONDERFUL to be able to see so many of the fabulous young women I was privileged to work with when I lived in Ames.  These girls ranged in ages from 12 to 18 when we left, so seeing them now, 4 ½ years later was really fun.  Many are heading off to college and two are leaving on missions before the year is up.  It was a privilege to serve and work with them during their youth years, and it is especially exciting to see the women they have become!  I LOVE THOSE GIRLS SO MUCH!
                I think the greatest thing about our trip back though, was the chance it brought us to reflect on our marriage, the experiences that have shaped us, and the way the Lord has been with us always.  Brock and I decided to move to Iowa when we were engaged.  I remember clearly the weekend of our undergraduate graduations when he and I knew we REALLY needed to make a final decision about where we would go for graduate school.  We had a couple of options, but as we prayed about it, we felt strongly that Iowa was the place for us.  Neither one of us had ever been to Iowa before, and we didn’t know a soul there.  But we knew it was where Heavenly Father wanted us to be, so we looked at each other and said “Let’s go have an adventure!”  And now, Brock and I look back on that decision as one of the best ones we ever made.  We adore our parents and extended family, but moving away from them and living on our own was a WONDERFUL way to start our family.  We learned to trust each other and solve problems, without running home to mom and dad.  We established patterns in our marriage and family that have helped us stay happy, strong, and faithful.  I’m sure it’s not the answer for everyone, but it definitely was for us.
                Being back in Iowa brought all the memories back from the 6 years we lived there.  Everywhere we went, it was like we saw little shadows of ourselves:  driving into our trailer park the day we moved there with me in the car and Brock in the moving truck; the path I wheeled strollers down when I took first Davis, then Duke, and then Gage on walks;  the grocery store where a box of raisins was one of the first things picked up because my BIG little boy loved them and they’d keep him quiet while I shopped; a little blond girl running to the swings in her jean dress and white tennis shoes  when Daddy joined us at the park for lunch; the apartment we moved into 6 days before Gage was born; the hospital where I gave birth to my first 3 babies without any worries about whether or not they would live or die or lead a normal life; the research plots that Brock practically lived in and that I sometimes visited to help him record data; the church where we worshipped, served, learned, taught, and witnessed together how a ward should function.  It was just a beautiful experience to be reminded of the sacred experience it was for us to live there!
                And being reminded of the Lord’s influence in our lives then, made it easier to remember the Lord’s influence in our lives now.  Being married with 3 kids in graduate school is HARD and there were times that were overwhelmingly difficult for both Brock and I.  During those times though, we relied on the Lord, prayed for help, held each other up, and watched miracles unfold before our eyes.  Heavenly Father helped us through that experience in beautiful ways, and we now look back at it as a sacred schooling in life.  I know that we learned things there that are helping us now, at this point in life.  Here we are at another difficult time, and we’re getting through this the same way we did with challenges back then: we are relying on the Lord, praying for help, holding each other up, and as we do that, I know we will see miracles unfold before our eyes. 
                You know how when you were little and you hurt yourself, you found your mom so she could kiss the owie better?  It didn’t REALLY change the reality of the owie, but it made it hurt a little less?  That’s what being back in Iowa was for us. 
                After we left Ames, we spent the next few days enjoying the Amana Colonies, Nauvoo, Kansas City, and Independence.  It was a wonderful trip filled with MOSTLY enjoyable times as a family (and only a couple of breakdowns – the biggest being by yours truly).  The spirit in Nauvoo and other church history sites is palpable and we were all grateful to be reminded of the sacrifices made by our pioneer ancestors.  Talk about having it hard!  SHEESH!  Our life is a walk in the park compared to theirs!
                One other great thing about our trip was the funny one-liners that kept coming from the mouths of our kids, particularly Gage and Trayson.  Here’s a sampling of some of Gage’s best:
·         As we entered Oklahoma on the drive: “How do Oklahoma people sound like?”
·         As we got into greener and hillier areas, we heard these comments that show how a 5-year old perceives the climate where we live: “This is really, really pretty!  All the trees and hills are so pretty!” and “Mom, do YOU make the water fall on the windshield?”
·         When Gage saw a woman without legs in a wheelchair, Gage immediately said “Maybe a shark bit her legs off….or an alligator.”
                Our favorite from Trayson was when he had just tried a dried mango.  His immediate response was “This is DISGUSTING!  Gage, do you want a taste?”
                Thank goodness for kids!  And thank goodness for the fun vacation that gave us a little break from everyday life.  And now, it’s back to the grind!

A FEW Answers....Sort Of???

                Right now we are in the van, driving on our vacation to Iowa.  I am SO excited to go, I can hardly even stand it!  There has been so much stress with all of this lately that I am thrilled to get away and visit with old friends and places, and enjoy some time away from all of this.

                Thankfully, I was able to meet with my OB yesterday and she took a lot of time to answer my questions and discuss everything we knew, as well as a lot that we didn’t.  She apologized profusely for my experience at the high risk doctor last week and the fact that the ultrasound lab tech shared information from the ultrasound without any follow up information.  She agreed that it never should have happened and felt bad at the fact that I had spent 5 days freaking out, wondering what these new developments meant.    It’s amazing how far a little empathy can go in helping you feel better about a bad situation! 

The good news is that the fluid in his brain is really not a big deal.  People have this condition and live very normal lives.  There is a surgery involved after he’s born where they put a shunt in his brain and it drains to his abdomen and is truly no big deal.  She said they do need to monitor it in utero and they will continue to measure the tissue around the area to make sure the fluid isn’t building up so much that it damages his brain.  This extra fluid is often associated with open neural tube defects, but they’ve been able to see so much of our baby’s spine that IF the extra fluid is because of that, the defect is so small it should have very little impact on him. Another good thing is that my placenta is still functioning and my blood pressure is just fine.  She said that USUALLY, if that is really the problem, it would have already given out by now.  Based on what they can see, there’s a good chance that we’ll make it at least far enough into the pregnancy that he will be sturdy enough to have a good shot.  The other good news is that we finally got back the results on my Cystic Fibrosis screening and I am NOT a carrier.  This means that the baby definitely does not have this problem.  Another problem eliminated, only about a million more to weed out!  We are STILL waiting on the final results of the amniocentesis.  I was supposed to get those last week, but apparently my DNA grows slowly so when they went to analyze my sample there wasn’t enough there so they had to wait for more to grow.  I SHOULD have those results by Friday and then at that point, we will have tested for everything that is possible to be tested.  My doctor really feels that nothing is going to show up on these final tests and that again, this is just a lightning bolt that is not explained.  

This leads to the tough part of all this.  I asked the doctor if she thinks all of these weird issues are a result of a bad placenta (as has been the main concern) or if she thinks there is something else going on.  She said she really feels there is something not right with the baby.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s something horrible, nor does it mean that she is right.  It just means that her gut feeling based on what she sees and has experienced is that the baby has something wrong that is just not showing up in these tests.  In all honesty, we really won’t know what is going on until he is actually here.  He’s doing just fine right now, but is that because he himself is fine, or is it because I am supporting him?  The big question is how will he respond when he is no longer attached to me as a life source.  She said that regardless of when I deliver or the results of these final tests, this little boy is going to have a team of NICU doctors and nurses in the delivery room with us, waiting for his birth and ready to whisk him away to make sure he’s stable.  She also said that these babies usually make it pretty clear within a couple of hours if they’re going to make it or not.  For now, they will just continue to check the placenta every two weeks to make sure it is doing its job, as well as watching my blood pressure.  If something does go wrong with one of those things, I will still have to be induced, regardless of how far along I am in the pregnancy.

While this news is definitely distressing, it actually hasn’t worried me.  As I’ve said before, I’ve already worked through every possible scenario in my head, and at this point I’m very aware of what the possible outcomes of this are and I have come to terms with all of them.  That doesn’t mean that when it actually happens it won’t absolutely break my heart, but for now, I am at peace and have been blessed to be able to not spend too much time worrying about all the “ifs” associated with it.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about this little guy and the kind of spirit he must have.  I’m pretty sure that most of you reading this blog know that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons).  The most important thing we believe is that Jesus Christ is our personal Savior and that he died so each one of us can be saved and return to our Heavenly Father.  Part of this belief includes the knowledge that our spirits are eternal.  I believe that not only will each of us live after this mortal life, but I also believe that each one of us lived before we came here to earth.  We all lived with each other and our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.  We progressed as much as we could there, but the only way we could truly become like our Heavenly Father was to come here to earth, get a body, and be tested. We knew the challenges we would face in this life, but trusted our Heavenly Father enough to be willing to accept those challenges.  I realize that this little boy, while a baby to this earth, is actually a mature, wise, noble spirit who wanted SO badly to come to earth and progress, that he was willing to do whatever it took to get here – even possibly taking a lousy body to do it.  Brock and I have had several conversations with different people about this, and mostly I just keep feeling honored to get to be this baby’s mother!  I don’t know yet the details of how I will get to mother him, but I am so happy that he is mine and I am his, forever!

I am grateful for the peace Brock and I have been given about this whole situation, and I’m grateful for those who have helped us to have peace.  Our family has been wonderful supports to us, sending us emails, texts, and calling on a frequent basis, just to see how we’re doing.  My sweet sister came up last week just to be here, help with the kids, and provide a little distraction for me.  I have received so many notes of encouragement from friends far and near, with many offers of service and support to help lighten the load.  If there’s one thing I have already learned in ABUNDANCE through this, it’s how important it is to take the opportunity to provide even the smallest word of support when people are suffering through the challenges of life.  The tiniest acknowledgement from someone that they are thinking of us, a simple “How are you guys doing with all of this?”, or someone sharing their own experience with grief has meant the WORLD to me at this time!  Pretending that something isn’t happening does nothing to help or comfort me, so I’ve wondered how many times I’ve seen someone suffering and just acted like I didn’t know anything about it.  I’ve learned the importance of mourning with those who mourn, as well as the power of letting someone know that I care.  This has taught me that too often, I have been way too self- absorbed and worried about my own insecurities to take the time to help someone mourn.   I hope I remember this lesson when I’m on the other side of this trial.

That’s all for now!  As I said at the beginning of this post, I am SO excited for this vacation.  Iowa is where we lived for 6 years while my husband got his Master’s and PhD and it’s kind of the place where our family really started, so it will always hold a special place in our hearts.  After some time in Ames, we will drive to Nauvoo, IL for a few days, then to Kansas City to site-see, and then we’ll slowly make our way home.  So far the kids have been great little travelers and I am really looking forward to some down-time to enjoy my sweet family and the wonderful life I’ve been blessed with!