Our precious Gabriel

The Lord has taken our precious baby back up to heaven. After seeing the babies heartbeat three weeks ago we were shocked to have an ultrasound yesterday that confirmed our baby no longer had a heartbeat. We are still in a state of disbelief. We are at a total loss right now trying to decipher the will of the Lord. We know that His plan is unfathomable and good, and we shall praise him all the days of our lives. Its still hard to understand why. We decided to name this baby Gabriel Thomas, it was the only name we had decided upon. Gabriel after the angel that proclaimed to Mary that she would bear the Christ child. And Thomas after St. Thomas Aquinas the great theologian that documented just about everything we know about celestial beings and the doctor of the Catholic Church. Please pray for our precious Gabriel. We know that he is at the foot of the Lord with our dear Catherine interceding for our beautiful family. Also, please pray that through the work of our doctors we can figure out why this is happening and that the passing of Gabriel is quick and safe.

Mr. Personality

God has definitely given our son an extra dose of personality. He is just full of fun and opinions these days. Today he refused to sleep without his beloved football in his arms. He somehow managed to continue holding it even after he had fallen asleep. At one point he dropped it and screamed until it was back in his reach. His Pop Pop is so proud! Today he was very into shooting baskets and ended each slam dunk by clapping for himself and then raising the roof. Also today he found an extra fun toy while Mommy was getting the car packed up for the zoo...petroleum jelly. Let me tell you, that stuff doesn't come off easily! He had rubbed it all over his entire body and then waxed some of the furniture with it. Once cleaned off we headed to the car to leave for the zoo, he ran around the back of the car and stuck his arm all the way up the exhaust pipe! He is a curious little guy! The zoo was a blast and was amazingly not scorchingly hot! He knows all the animals and has a blast seeing them in person. When we left the zoo I handed him a PB & J sandwich and found out he is just like his daddy! He opened it up and licked the jelly out! He is just the absolute joy of our lives! We are so blessed that Christ choose us to have such an amazing little boy. It is hard to believe we will have another little blessing running around in just a few months. Can't wait to see how their personalities compare!

We did it...again!

Can you believe it? Two more Counts's babies and this time they are supposed to come even closer than Curtis and Clare...just four days apart! We invited Jessica and Barrett over for dinner a few weeks ago to tell them our news and instead Clare ran in with their ultrasound picture saying "baby!" What an awesome blessing! What ridiculous timing! And no, we did not plan it. But we are completely overjoyed! The joy we have to be pregnant is magnified by two knowing that we will have a precious new niece or nephew to hold as well. Clare is such a beautiful and awesome presence in our life and we can not wait to see what amazing blessing this new little one will bring as well! Two beautiful new babies on the way. The pictures are from the night we told the grandparents. Gran Jan and Papa can hardly contain themselves! The signs didn't last too long but it was great fun!

From Great Sorrow Comes Great Joy

As you all know Jacob and I recently lost our beautiful Catherine. It has been an extremely difficult journey to recovery. Our hope lies in the Lord and we know that we will one day get to embrace our beautiful little girl. This past Wednesday we attended a beautiful mass at St. Laurence in honor of all the families that have been through this difficult experience. The women that coordinated everything had all been through miscarriages themselves and really made it a night to remember. The mass was truly spectacular. Each and every mass is heaven on earth and to share that with so many other families who were grieving alongside of us was really special. The readings were hand chosen to relay hope and challenging us to see our loss as a gain for the kingdom of God. We were all part of God's special plan to create a new soul which in his infinite wisdom he believed was more needed in Heaven than on earth. All of our precious babies are serving full time on Christ's army. What consolation it is to know that our beautiful Catherine is interceding for us at the foot of Christ. After the homily all the parents who have lost a child to miscarriage were called to the front for a special blessing. I can barely explain what it feels like to be a part of this sorrowful yet faithful group. Everyone embraced as we returned to our seats, its a special feeling to know that the person you are hugging really does understand your heartache. It was a beautiful and emotional evening and was a nice way to give ourselves some much needed closure.

Through much prayer and discernment Jacob and I decided we were ready to try again in early July and God has blessed us again. We saw our precious baby a few weeks ago and there is definitely a strong heartbeat! As you can imagine we are thrilled beyond belief and are ready to welcome our little one come March. So far this pregnancy God has been sending me daily updates that we have a healthy baby, in the form of all day sickness! I am too overjoyed to be pregnant to complain! Oh and it has definitely helped with loosing a few extra pounds before I begin to show! Thank you to all of you who have kept us in your prayers. God is good all the time!

Mr. & Mrs. King

Saturday night we were invited to a wedding of one of my very best friends from High School, Ashley. We had the pleasure of teaching them NFP so we were able to get to know her Fiance Jeff a little bit before the wedding. It was an absolutely gorgeous wedding and Ashley was positively stunning. The priest that presided had a long history with Ashley's family and had baptised her 25 years ago this August.

Curtis was a total hit at the reception and literally had three girls fighting to dance with him. He was the life of the

party as he ran around the dance floor cutting a rug. At one point the lead singer after seeing Curtis stare at his guitar through an entire song bent down and let Curtis take the lead. I really think we will have a little musician on our hands. He was FASCINATED with the band and their instruments! It was a great evening that ended around 11 when Curtis literally fell asleep in my lap. He was knocked out from all that dancing! Here are a few pictures of him with his entourage.

Growing Pains

How is it possible that my little man is 19 months old??? Someone asked me how old he was today and I nearly choked when I said 18, no wait, 19 months! He has been the single greatest and most defining part of our lives up to this point. Seeing his little smile every morning makes us realize just how awesome God has showered us with blessings! I just can't get over how big he has gotten recently and how independent he seams most days. He likes to serenade us as we drive anywhere lately we just love to hear his little voice from the back seat. I really should head to bed, who knows what time he will be up in the morning! Here is a picture of my big boy from last weekend...