The Friesen SIX: Welcoming Macy Jo (part 1)

"Sometimes the soul gets sifted and shaped in places you could never imagine and ways you could never expect." 
-John Ortberg

…I read that quote while sitting in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) with my premature daughter 10 weeks ago.  For me, the most mysterious soul sifting & shaping of my life (thus far) took place on the 2nd floor of Surrey Memorial Hospital.

On a beautiful Saturday night in February, we welcomed our 4th child, the lone girl amongst 3 big brothers, into our little tribe.  Macy Jo was 6 weeks early and came as the result of my uterus getting too thin.

9:24pm: Macy right after she was born; being intubated so she can breathe.

The critical care guys getting her prepped for ambulance transport to a different hospital.

  Actually, we found out later that night that my uterus was "barely holding together," as the specialist said.  She said that it was lucky we made it in that night or else me, Macy, or possibly both of us could have died if my uterus had ruptured.

Well…we know that luck has nothing to do with it.  The Lord was hovering over us and protecting us.  There were SO many "God-moments" that it would take a whole other blog-post to describe them all.  To say that I feel loved by the Father is so inadequate.  He preserved me, my daughter, and our family unit.

Approximately 2 AM:  The team of nurses and doctors working on Macy after she arrived at her room in the NICU.

We went into the hospital that night thinking they'd check me and let me go home.  We were obviously a little surprised when they said that baby needed to come "now."  We decided on the spot that wherever Macy went, Ryan would go.  I needed him to be with her.  And so he was snapping all of these pictures on his phone while I was being worked on and transported in a different ambulance to the same hospital as Macy.  I wouldn't get the chance to meet our daughter, this tiny 4 pound human whom I've literally been dreaming of since I was a little girl, until the next day.

Macy was less than 24 hours old when our church life group showed up.  They came with food, flowers, care packages, preemie clothes, but best of all…prayers.  6 couples whom we deeply, deeply love came and prayed over us and over her.  They went through the sanitizing, hand washing, mask-wearing process to get in the NICU to see Macy.  And through her incubator, we laid hands on her.  I just don't have words for these people.  It meant so much to us to have them there.  They are family and all I could think was how blessed we are to be doing life with these people. 

We ended up staying in the NICU for 2 weeks.  Things got worse before they got better.

We were finally able to hold her at 2 days old. 

Slowly but surely, tubes started coming out, and we were able to get a better look at our little girl.

While Macy was in the hospital, I was SO BLESSED to be able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House.  It was (another) prayer request that was answered.  

The families that stay there vary--some have babies in the NICU, yet others have kids who are going through chemo.  I saw little ones, close to my boys ages, with bald heads and chemo machines attached to them.  I saw parents sitting at a table with all of their bills literally laid out before them trying to decide which ones to pay.  Heart-breaking situations.  I often felt like my heart was bouncing around outside of my body and any little thing could bruise it.  Or break it. 

Yet…it was this time of being so raw and sifted before the Lord that opened my eyes to things I'd otherwise never see.  It's a dangerous thing to ask the Lord to "break my heart for what breaks yours" because, quite honestly, I'm not sure our hearts could ever handle it.   Seeing my much longed-for and prayed-for daughter in an incubator, hooked up to monitors, and IV's was hard.  But, surprisingly, it was almost harder to be so close to the desperate situations of others.  It made my raw heart grieve and cry over people I only knew from a distance.  I'd just barely been exposed to their lives, to their burdens, and my heart ached for them.  Yet, it was good in so many ways. To know that the Holy Spirit was fine-tuning my senses and allowing me to feel (a portion) of what he feels.  

After having 3 full-term babies, the NICU was the last place I expected to find myself.  Yet I'm grateful.  To be sifted.  Changed from the inside out.  To be lovingly re-shaped by my Creator.  To, once again, not be left the same.  It's humbling.  And an amazing reminder that he does ALL things well…

31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation: Day 20

Update (August 2018) -- Hi y'all!  I have created a new + easier to navigate website: www.elitafriesen.com  Come visit me over there to see our most recent renovation!

Who's ready for more "after" pictures?!?

Yesterday I shared our updates to the entrance of the house and the main living area.  Today I'll focus on the rest of the upstairs except the kitchen.  No worries...tomorrow I will dedicate my whole post to the kitchen.  

Here goes!

This was the hallway before:

And here she is now:

The hallway looks shorter because it is shorter.  We changed the floor plan of the upstairs to give us a large master bedroom.  Behind that closed door at the end of the hallway is the master.  But first let's look at the guest bathroom.  Here's what it looked like before:

At this point keep in mind that we completely changed the floor plan.   We opted to create a small guest bathroom so that we could incorporate a larger master bathroom.  Here's the {smaller} guest bath that we now have:

I am definitely no photographer so taking pictures of that guest bath was really tricky!  Not only is that space is small, it also has a crazy light in it that I love but is hard to photograph.  Well, it's hard for me anyway, and I guess that's not saying much. 

On to the master bedroom!  Before:

And now after.  By the way, I have A LOT I still want to do in this room, including painting.  But here it is as it sits today:

When we found out we were pregnant with baby #4, we needed to free up a bedroom.  So we moved the office into our master, which wasn't my first choice, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  It's a perfect use for that space:

Behind that door is our walk-in closet.  And as much as I'd love to show you, it ain't happening. Some messes should stay sacred.

And now the master bathroom.  Before:

And now:

You may notice that we have a shower curtain hanging up.  That's because we ran out of money at the end of the renovation for a glass shower door.  Just keepin' it real, people.  However! Even after we'd saved the money after a couple of months, I decided that I really liked our funky little white Target shower curtain.  That cost $30. The glass door would ((obviously)) have cost more, but we also found out upon living here that the water is really hard.  "Hard water" means that it leaves calcium deposits/water spots, almost regardless of how much you clean.  I think it would've been awful to get a beautiful, clean, expensive new glass door only to have it be full of limescale and water deposits.  I'd never let anyone in my bathroom. So the white shower curtain stays.  And in 2 years, the next homeowner can install their own glass door. 

Well, this is a little anti-climatic, but in keeping it real, I have to show you the other upstairs bedroom.  It was the office, but now it's turning into the nursery.  Note the word "turning."  Nothing has happened yet, which means that it has become my worst nightmare: a purposeless, catch-all room.  

Here's the room before:

And, sadly, it doesn't look much better today:

Ok, maybe the white walls over the old red ones are an improvement.   Maybe.  Stay tuned on that one: it'll turn into a cute little nursery by March 2015!

Well, that's it for today.  Tomorrow: the kitchen!!!

xo,

E

31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation: Day 19

Update (August 2018): I have created a new + easier to navigate website: www.elitafriesen.com  Come visit me over there, y'all!  

After 28 days of renovating, working into all hours of the night (including quite a few 5 am mornings and installing the floors the night before we moved in), we did it.  Or actually, Ryan did it.  He had tons of help along the way from friends and family.  But I am massively proud of him and I love living in something we dreamt of together and he created.

On to the pictures! {Today we'll focus on the main living area.}  

Remember the lovely entrance to the dump? 

Here she is now.  Come on in y'all!

Let's have a look back at that lovely entry-way:

And now:

This was the layout of the kitchen, dining room, and living room before:

Standing in the same spot, here's the new view of our open-concept living/dining/kitchen area:

The living room before:

And then mid-way through construction:

And the living room after:

And finally, the living room looking into the dining "room" … but really it's more like a dining area.

We bought this map from Ikea after looking at it for a little over 2 years.  This giant wall seemed like a perfect fit for the map and we absolutely love it.  It's completely changed our dinner conversations with the kids. Each week we take turns picking out a country and then we study it for the week.  It's been so fun learning new things about countries like Iraq (liquorice is one of their main plants!), Turkey (it's larger than the state of Texas!),  and the Kerguelen Islands ("the Ker-what" you ask?  Oh, it's a real place. It takes 6 days on a fishing boat to get there from Madagascar. We can thank my 4 year old for picking that one out).  We do powerpoint presentations and then by the end of the week we learn how to pray for that specific country.  Oh!  I love it, I tell ya.  And so do the boys. Apparently I miss homeschooling.  

Well, I hope you're just as thrilled with how it's looking as I am.  There are things we still have on our list to do.  But for now, we are settled and oh so happy!  Come back tomorrow for more after pictures of our kitchen and the rest of the upstairs! 

Happy Wednesday Y'all!

E