Sunday, March 27, 2011

Recently...

I can't believe it is already March!! This year is flying by. It seems like I say override I'm going to keep my blog updated and I don't. Anyway, I have had a few ask me to update, so here it is.

Everything is pretty good. Just working, staying busy, baseball, trying to exercise....busy!!! I recently started the Couch to 5k program. I am doing pretty good (I think), just need to work harder on the diet!! There are just to many temptations!! I'm going to do better though. I'm excited about the future for sure!! I recently found a park here that I can walk and the boys can play on a playground, so that will help for sure!!

Speaking of busy, my hubby is in college, working full time, so he is very busy too. We are very proud of him. I know our life can be challenging, but we are very proud of everything he is doing to better himself and better our family!! We love you Jamie!!!

Yesterday, I participated in a 3 mile walk for the SIDS Foundation of MS. 2 friends from work walked with me (thank you Angie and Heather). We got there and signed up and they thanked everyone for being there and they started reading the list of names of all of the sweet babies that had passed away due to SIDS. Everyone had a balloon and when they called your child's name, you would release your balloon or you waited until the end. It was so sweet. I did good until that moment. Seeing all of the balloons made me remember Baby Jonah Myles's first Birthday when we released our balloons. Oh my goodness, the tears just started flowing. The walk went very well. We got to the 2 mile mark and there was a shortcut to the end, but we kept going (GO US!!!) Even though it was only 3 miles, it was an accomplishment!! Especially knowing that we did it to help someone in the long run. I pray for everyone, every family, who has lost their baby due to SIDS. I pray that God heals their hearts and comforts them!! It has really made me think a lot of Jonah Myles. I just miss him soooo much. I just wonder what he would be doing right now. In less than 2 months, he would be 2 years old!!! Is it wrong to wish I was planning a 2nd Birthday for him instead of trying to decide what color flowers to put on his grave? But at the end of the day, I know God has a plan, and he had a reason for doing what he did. So....what do I do? I will go to my favorite florist in the world (Chapman's Florist) and tell Mrs. Lisa that our baby needs new flowers and trust in God that he gets me thru like he always has. How could I do this without him? How could I make it day by day and think of Jonah and talk about Jonah and not cry? It's only by his love and mercy that I have made it and I'm so thankful for his love!!! God is AMAZING!!!!!

I think of the song, "How Can I Keep From Singing". How can we keep from singing his praise? How can we not find time daily thank him for what he does for us? I will be the first to admit, I fail a lot of times, and that is something I will be working on. I never want to be so busy that I don't have time for God, because he always has time for me. It's truly amazing!!!!

Closing this, I pray for all of my family and friends!! Thank you for being a part of my life!!

~Jenn~

Monday, January 3, 2011

2011!!!

Well, here it is... a new year!!! I'm very blessed for everything that has happened in my life in 2010, so I can't complain much. I am excited to what 2011 holds for me and my family. I am really going to work hard to lose this weight. It has been a burden on me for a long time now. So time to get the walking shoes on and get going.....



The last couple of months have been better than expected. I had my bad days, but the Holidays are usually worse when it comes to missing Jonah Myles. I just wish he was here to do everything with us and for us to watch him grow, etc. It's so hard knowing that all I can do for him is make sure his grave is clean and keep pretty flowers on it. But, it's okay..He is in the best hands of all. He will always be in my heart and I will always be able to feel his little body in my arms. I thank God for everything he has gotten me thru and I pray daily that I can be an inspiration to someone, or just to help someone that is struggling.

My Mawmaw is not doing too well. This time last year, she was cheering with my little cousin and myself at Christmas and this year she is in a nursing home and really doesn't know where she is. I have not been to see her as much as I should have and that will change this year!!! I love my Mawmaw with all of my heart and was able to see her this past weekend when we went to have Christmas with my parents. She was so pretty and so funny!! The first day we went, it was just my Mom and me, and she grabbed me and hugged me like a bear!! She cried and cried...and it broke my heart. My parents have been taking such good care of her, even though it is hard for them as well, they have managed to do it. I thank God for them everyday. I love you Mawmaw!!!!!



Our boys are getting so big. Cameron seems to be just flying to the double digit age!!! I thought I was changing his diaper yesterday lol. Where does the time go? And now, we have Hayden who is ready to be in underwear all the time...WHAT? When did he get this big? I'm so proud of my boys. I know they have their moments, but I think all kids do!! I love them so very much!!!!



I'm so thankful that God (and Christie) led us to Pearson Baptist. We love, LOVE our church!! I have made some of the best friends a girl could ask for!!! I teach the 3 & 4 year old Sunday School class and am really enjoying it!!! I pray that God continues to use us in the church and leads us to where he wants us to be.



Well I guess that's about it for tonight - gonna do better with the blogging this year :-)

Jenn

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Lately....

Well, here it is almost the end of July and I haven't written anything this year. I always have the best intentions, but never stop long enough to do it even though it makes me feel better to get my thoughts down.



I looked hard for 4 months for a job, had 3 staffing companies looking for me as well, and could not find anything that matched my background. I am happy to say that in April, I started working for Sunshine Daycare (the one Hayden goes to). I am the 1 year old teacher from 7-2. I love it. For those of you who know me well, knows I have a strong passion for children, so this is perfect for me. There has been days that has been harder than others. I sometimes think that Jonah would be the age of these babies, and I wonder what he would be doing now - walking, starting to talk, etc. But even though I have a bad day every now and then, it has really helped me I think. Thank you Christie for having faith in me and getting me out of unemployment lol.



May 23rd of this year was Jonah's 1st Birthday. I decided to have a Birthday Memorial at his gravesite. We had balloons, and several of our friends and family came out. We said a prayer and released the balloons at one time. It was a very special day and I'm so happy that we had several people that means so much to us to be there for us!!! It was a hard day, but we got thru it, and it will continue to get better.



My Mawmaw in Alabama (my last Grandparent living) is not doing well. She had a stroke several months ago and has really went downhill from there. After a lot of attempts, my parents had to go ahead and put her in a Nursing Facility. It was a very hard decision for my Mom to make, but she and my Dad just couldn't do it anymore. Mawmaw was like a child in so many ways. She has great care and is very close to my parents. They go to see her several times a week, so she is not alone and forgotten. I love her with all of my heart. She is the one I have always been the closest to. A part of me does not want to admit that she is older now, and things are going to happen, but I have to face reality.



We joined Pearson Baptist Church in May of this year. We were going to Pinelake and liked it and everyone was nice, but we felt like we couldn't make friends or get plugged in. It was also too big for us. A big reason we chose to start looking around is because Cameron didn't know anyone, and felt if we were going to a Church in Pearl that he may get connected better. I talked to a friend of mine that goes there and she convinced me to come try it. We went one Sunday and I don't think we continued to look for a Church. We felt like we were at home. We have made several friends there, they have great ministries for all ages!! If you are looking for a Church, please visit us at Pearson Baptist!!!!



Jamie just finished Summer School and did very well. He is going to be taking 4 classes at night starting next month, as well as working a his current job, so please be in prayer for him. I am so proud of him for doing this for hisself and our family!!!



Cameron did really good in school for the 09/10 year. He will be in the 4th grade next month. WOW - my baby is growing up!!! He will be 9 next month also - UGH, I'm getting old!!! He also accepted Christ as his Saviour this Summer at VBS at our church. He got baptized last Sunday and my parents were able to come for the weekend so they could be there. Along with my parents, Jamie's parents, Brother and Sister in Law, and nieces were there!! I'm so blessed to have so many people care about us!!!



Hayden is just a MESS!!! He does the funniest things, you just never know what he is going to do next. He keeps us on our toes for sure!!! He is still sleeping with me, and I have got to get him in his bed and will begin that process when we get back from Bama next weekend. I think it's going to be harder for me than for him. But I have to do it, I know!!!



Well, just wanted to do a quick update on us. I'm going to get back in the swing of things. I get on here to read other blogs, but never take the time to do my own lol.



:-) Jennifer

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Bye Bye 2009

I decided to write one last entry before the New Year. 2009 is about to be gone and 2010 will be here in just a couple of days. 2009 has been quite the roller coaster for our family. On February 18th, I laid on the sonogram table to find out why I had a negative sonogram the previous day. We were given the news that there was zero chance that the baby that I was already so very attached to was not going to live. We held on to faith, but the Lord had a different plan for Jonah Myles. He went to Heaven after only 10 minutes of being in our arms on May 23, 2009. Heaven received another beautiful Angel!! I also lost both of my Grandpa’s this year, my Brother-In-Law left for Iraq and as of today I no longer have a job (our office is shutting down here). I have been told many times – “I don’t know how you have made it thru everything”. Well honestly, it’s been the hardest year of my life, but with the good man above, I have made it and will continue on with a smile on my face. Don’t get me wrong, I still cry, and cry often, but tears never hurt anyone. I think I smile more than I cry, so that is a good sign I think. I’m very thankful for everything that I have been thru and I can say that with all honestly because I know God has a plan for me and my family. It’s times like these when you realize how much you really appreciate your family and friends. I have the best family a girl could ask for and of course friends!! I could not have made it without you!!!

Today is my last day at work and it is so sad. Not just because I won’t have a job, but the people I work with, I’m going to miss so much. My “roommate”, Amanda, has been there thru everything this year and I could not have asked for a better friend. She has listened to me cry, laugh, cry again and is always there no matter what. It’s been nice to share an office with such a wonderful Christian woman. I’m going to miss you Amanda!! I am also going to miss everyone at Reznick, it has been such a pleasure to work with you all!! I hope I find a job soon because as of now, we (Jamie and I) both have to work. It’s hard to find a job, and then learn new people, etc. But I’m excited for the future.

We recently went thru the holidays. Thanksgiving was good; we were able to see my Brother-in-Law, Wesley. He came home for his 2 week “vacation” from Iraq. It was so special being there to see my little nieces faces when he got off the plane and down the hall area. My Sister-in-Law and nieces, and of course Wesley have been thru so much being apart from each other. Luckily he will soon be home and I think we are never going to let him go again. :-) I have much respect for the men who have been in uniform and the ones currently in uniform. Thank you for what you do for this country!! Christmas was wonderful, with the exception of missing my baby so very much!! We had some good times with our families, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, got some good gifts, and just remembered the true meaning of the season.



Me and my Hubby @ the Pumpkin Patch












The boys waiting on the Pearl Christmas Parade
(The one on the right is Cameron's friend lol)













My boys and my beautiful nieces












Hayden & Cameron decorating the tree :-)














Cameron excited on Christmas Day!!













My Mawmaw with her Grandkids and Great-Grandkids (that live in MS)











Hayden VERY excited on Christmas Day!!















Hayden and Mommy :-)









Here at the end of this blog note and the year 2009 – I want to thank everyone again for being so great to me and my family thru the bad times this year. It has meant so much to us. I’m so very thankful for my life and everyone in it. Good luck to everyone in the upcoming year and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Love and Peace :-)

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Finding Peace

I haven't written in a while and thought it was time. I have had so many emotions recently and just thought I would get them down on "paper". It has been 9 1/2 weeks since our Jonah went to be with Jesus. I miss him SOOO bad. Everyone says it will get better with time. But apparently 9 1/2 weeks is not enough time. It is getting somewhat better, but it feels like it was just yesterday I was holding him in my arms. I would do anything to be able to hold him again. I look at his pictures and his little face was so perfect and I just wish the rest of his little body was perfect too. I know now it is, and I know he is in a much better place and Jesus is taking good care of him. It's still very very hard to see people with babies - it breaks my heart because I still want Jonah so very bad. It's still extremely hard to hear about people abusing kids and killing children, etc. I just wish I was the person who had to decide what their punishment is, but I have to remember that they will have to answer to the good Lord above for what they have done. I heard one story on TV last night that was about a woman who killed her infant and then dismembering his body. HORRIBLE!! TERRIBLE!! STUPID!!! I just wish I had 5 minutes with this person, if you can even call her a person. It broke my heart and brought back so many emotions. I would do ANYTHING to have Jonah back in my arms and here this stupid woman is killing and dismembering her child. She does not deserve the air she breathes. Okay I have said my peace about that. I feel much better.

Anyway. We have not been able to get Jonah's marker yet, but I hope we can before Christmas. The cemetery has gotten the columns up for the Military Ranks and it looks so nice. His spot will be beautiful before long. I have been thinking of ways I could use what I have gone thru in a positive way for others. I was thinking I may could go to hospitals after a woman has lost their baby and talk and comfort them. Not sure if this makes sense. But I think sometimes it helps to hear other peoples stories and how they got thru things. I'm not even sure if the hospitals do things like this or would let me do this, but I may check into it. Not sure yet.

I'm so thankful for the prayers that we received going thru this horrible experience and I'm very thankful for the prayers we are still getting. Thank you so much!! I know Jesus has another beautiful angel in his arms. Jonah is now perfect and just waiting on us to get there with him!

I wanted to post some pictures that we got from the day our baby went to heaven. He was so beautiful (words from a proud Mama).






Me, Jamie, Baby Jonah












Looking at the Angel that came and left so quickly















Proud Mama and Beautiful Jonah













Sweet Baby Jonah













Kisses from Mommy!!













Kisses from Daddy!!













Daddy and Mommy looking at their precious Angel!!







Jenn

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The day we have dreaded has come...

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 - Jamie, Hayden, and I were headed to the mall to get Jamie some new glasses. Jamie needed to use the restroom, so we just stopped at Wendy's to let him go to the restroom. He got back in the car and it hit me...I thought I had urinated on myself. So we are headed home for me to shower and change clothes and the more we went, the more I was going. I knew then it wasn't what I thought. It was what I was not ready for. My water had broken. We went straight to the ER and they rushed me to the room where they checked for amniotic fluid and that is what it was. I was dilated one centimeter and rather we were ready or not, this baby was coming. I had a good friend of mine that showed up to help with Hayden (thank you so much Vicki) and we had already called our parents to get them on the way. My parents were in Mobile, so they were 2 1/2 hours closer than they would have been at home. The nurses found the baby's heartbeat and it was good. At this point, I still had some faith left. We were told it would be a while before we went to have the baby. Then all of a sudden the nurses came in and said my doctor who was not on call was on her way to deliver our angel. She told me she would not miss it and she didn't. I just love her!! Anyway, the time came for us to have our baby. It was a very long ride down the hall to the surgical room. After much time, as the doctors were being very careful not to stress the baby out.....Jonah Myles McInnis was born at 2:38 p.m. He was precious, so beautiful, and was alive. Jamie and I got to hold him for a brief minute and off he went to the neonatal doctors. At that time, Dr. Moses (my doctor) leaned over the curtain and told me the worst news of my life...that our sweet baby boy could not live. She said he was just not compatible with life. How can this be? I just saw him, his little face, and he was perfect!! But I know there is more to just a sweet, perfect face. They finished with me and sent me to my room where I was able to hold our sweet Jonah. At this time, he was not alive. He only lived around 10 minutes. But I didn't care. I held him and loved him and kissed him and didn't want to let him go. Still confused as to why in the world this is happening, I had to hold on to my faith in God because he is the only one who knows why this horrible thing happened. Even though I knew it was coming and it was going to be hard, I never thought it would be this hard. My sweet baby was here and gone in a matter of minutes. I am so thankful they were able to tell what he was. I was so scared it would take 2 weeks to find out, and that would have been very hard. I had to sign a paper to release Jonah to the funeral home, and I believe that as well was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. I was released from the hospital on Monday. I left empty inside, but knew my wonderful husband and sweet boys and my parents were there to help. I still feel empty, I know that feeling will not be soon to go away, and that is okay. I just have to grieve and deal with this the best I can.

We went to the funeral home and the cemetery today. We made all of the arrangements to bury our baby. There were about 3 times that I really thought I was going to pass out. Picking out the casket just BROKE my heart. I'm so thankful that Jamie was and has been by my side. For those of you that are wanting to know the arrangements, here they are:

Everyone will meet at Ott & Lee on Hwy 80 in Brandon, MS at 9:30. We are just lining up there because I decided to have a funeral procession for Jonah Myles. We thought he deserved that respect. We will leave at 9:45 to go to the cemetery, Floral Hills on Hwy 80 in Pearl. The funeral will begin at 10:00. We will have a graveside service for our sweet angel.

Thank you again for all of the calls, messages, texts, and most of all the prayers. Without prayers I know I would not have made it thru this. Please continue to pray.

Here are some pictures of our Jonah Myles McInnis.



































































Thank you again and God Bless you all!!!

Jennifer

Friday, May 22, 2009

Emotions Running Wild

I have so many emotions going on right now; I thought I would write…I had a dr. appt. Wednesday. Jamie went with me and we didn’t see much on the sonogram. The baby was not very active that morning or Tuesday night. Matter of a fact, wasn’t moving at all. It finally started moving AFTER the sonogram (isn’t that how it goes usually)? We saw the very strong heartbeat and the baby’s legs and arms moving everywhere. It is weird to see the baby moving, but not able to feel it. I can feel movements, just not all of them. After the sonogram, we met with my dr. and she said this baby has done things they didn’t think it would. Jamie asked about the legs moving as we were told originally that the legs would never move because of the short spine. She said she didn’t know. He had some other questions as far as what will happen after the baby is born. Again, she didn’t know. This is not because she is not an experienced doctor, it’s simply because having a baby with this condition, you just never know what to expect. She did tell us that she would immediately get us to the room (in the event that the baby is living at the time of birth) so we can spend as much time as we can with him/her. She also said something that was strange to me – she said that they would do everything they could to keep the baby if it was at all possible. This confused me because we were told that there was zero chance of survival. We asked and she told us that IF the baby has all of its organs, there may be a chance of survival, but it was VERY slim. Most babies are born without all of the organs. I would LOVE for our baby to live, but I’m not going to get my hopes up that it is going to. I’m just going thru this knowing that God has a plan. I have done research for Limb, Body, Wall to see if I could find a baby that survived this horrible condition and I did find a medical study in Tokyo that the doctors were able to save the baby. It had all of its organs and they used Karaya Gum sheets where the stomach wall was missing. I don’t know a lot about the details, but did find one case which was interesting. Right now, I look at the situation like – I will take whatever the good Lord above gives us. I am grateful for being able to stay healthy thru this and the longer I am pregnant and the longer the baby has a strong heartbeat, the more of a chance that we can spend some time with it. I am grateful that since God had already made plans for this baby, he let us know early on, so that we didn’t go buy things for the baby, etc. So if the baby doesn’t make it, I feel like we have been blessed either way. I have had a few mothers contact me that have gone thru and going thru the same situation as us and it has helped so much. There are so many unanswered questions. I usually try not to think about it as much, but now that time is drawing to an end, it’s hard not to think about it so much. I love this baby and I know everything will be okay because it’s in good hands with the Lord above. I am having more emotional breakdowns than I was, but I think again it’s because I know I am over 32 weeks and it’s getting close to the end of the pregnancy. I’m holding on to my faith and praying everyday for God’s will to be done.

Jenn