Jolly Ol' Time!

'ELLO MATE... FANCY A CRUMPET?!

The last post of did was of the "Love quilt" i made for my bestie in England, and this last week i had the pleasure of giving it to her, and standing beside her as her maid of honour.

It really was one of the best days of my life. I am so glad that even though seven and half months preggo i could travel the long distance between Canada and England. I don't have a DIY post to give yet, but i will in the next couple of days for some of the Bachelorette Day items that i made for the bride and guests. In england we call it the "Hen day".

Here are a few photos, from my iphone, so not great quality, but i wanted to share a little of my trip!

The hubby and I waiting in Calgary to board the plane! Slighty excited to get summer vacay on the road! or air i guess...

Night one in Essex, England, at bff's parents house, the best rib and chips in the world. I ravished them!

Day two: LONDON!!! thankfully the riots had calmed down, although the shop next to this craft lounge that we went to for the Hen day had been smashed up and broken into!

Great hen day making fancy pants for the bride! I will tell you more later, it was a great place! i wanna start one!

Day four: THE WEDDING!!! a gorgeous english country wedding! it truly was beautiful and as you can see i was pretty excited to get to watch my friend about to get married!

Oh yeah... the childhood dream of us being each others maid of honour had never orignally included me being seven months preggo at the time! But i love that baby boy was at Hellies wedding!

And yes, this was the moment i had feared and anticipated... Maid of honour speech. I desperately wanted to publicly honour helen, as she is one of the most precious people in my life, but it was hard and emotional!

Bride and baby bump

Such a beautiful day... if you know england you can always expect rain, but it was spectacular wedding all day, although it did drizzle a little rain around 9pm, but we were too busy dancing

Had chance to travel to the North of England to see the sister and her fiance, along with grandma (soon to be great grandma for the first time). Lots of pics to be taken for the baby book!

The stunning yorkshire scenery, that i have so often unappreciated when i lived there.

Me and my grandma. Oh i love my grandma. I still claim she will live forever!

The husband had to try the cornish soft scoop ice cream! Best in the country in my humble opinion

and lastly, but by no means least, was lunch with my auntie Lynne, (soon to be great auntie to baby bump boy) - always a pleasure, and then we headed back to canada.

AHHHHH, i love to live in Canada, but its nice for my toes to brush across english soil every once and a while, and this vacation was an unforgettable one!

My Uncle Steve

REMEMBERING UNCLE STEVE

photo of my auntie lynnes

Two years ago today came the devastating news that my Uncle Steve (my dads younger brother) had died suddenly. There really arent enough words to put together how our family felt.

My uncle steve was the epitome of "laid back". He was a no fuss, (although definitely fussy about his wine and food being good) easy going, laid back sweater loving guy. He loved my auntie lynne, loved his mum and dad and had a good relationship with both my dad, his older brother, and his youngest brother Kevin (who passed in 2001)

I have pictures right from birth with my uncle steve. Ones of me as a baby, sitting on the floor reading with him, standing in a field of cows, as a teenager constantly bugging him.

One of the things we all remember and joke about with steve, is that he always wore a woolly jumper (canada  translation; sweater). It was the one thing i knew i wanted when i was back in england for the funeral two years ago.

Losing uncle stephen, left me with a feeling of needing to do something with that loss, it really was the hardest loss i had ever known up till that point, and it prompted me and my newly wed to husband to rethink our lives. Am opportunity only a month later arose for us to go to LifeFORCE, a mission based organisation. We would spend four months in Calgary training youth up ready to go and live in the philippines for four months.

It was an experience that changed our lives, yet steve was always in the midst of it as the biggest reason that drove us to make such a quick life changing decision. I decided to take my woolly jumper with me.

The last week before we left the philippines i knew was the time to share the story of losing my uncle, and it happened at a squatter village called Bagong Silang.  I told the story with my translator, as tears rolled down my face. I told of the heart ache but how to move forward was to find hope and joy again in the midst of it. I knew there was a woman in the seats that had just lost her newborn baby, and ironically enough her name was JOY.

I looked right in her face and tears streamed from both out eyes, and i told her, joy will come again. It doesnt come in the forgetting that person, or even putting that person aside, but healing and joy and hope will come again, thats what my woolly jumper is there to rememeber.

this picture was one of my favourites of the whole trip:

all the women from the squatter, im the white woman in the middle and joy is directly to my left.

What i saw that day was proof that my uncles life still meant something. This woolly jumper changed someones life. This story helped someone else find joy.

I could write for pages about my uncle. But instead i just wanted to share a few pictures to honour him today as i remember him not just for the sadness of him not being in my life anymore physically, but to rememebr how awesome he was. He really was an amazing uncle, who loved us kids like we were his own. so many memories to hold onto, and so many stories to tell our children in the future! They will always know that there great uncle steve was definitely GREAT!

my auntie lynne and uncle steve when they visiting canada which included being at our wedding

my christening as a baby - my uncle stephen was my godfather

a picture from the past in the my uncles beloved garden with my auntie lynne

THANK FOR READING TODAY AND SHARING WITH ME SOMEONE MOST OF YOU PROBABLY DONT KNOW

IT'S A BOY!!!

Oh boy, oh boy, what a sound of joy that rings through our house this day! We found out yesterday that our little baby chicken legs in utero is a BOY!!! We cannot be more thrilled or delighted!

A mere seven months ago we sat in an ultrasound clinic to be told our first baby, Joshua Matthew, had gone, and we officially enter the "couple that miscarried" zone. There are no words to describe the grief, the sense of losing part of yourself, that reality had come and crumbled around you.

I think the hardest part of that time was folded up the two little onsies i had so excitedly bought only that month. The only way i knew i could get through this time, and for my husband, was that we remembered. We would remember that baby alot. We would talk about him, we would honour him, and we would make sure he was always part of our family.

We remember our heaven baby Joshua with a frame of where he used to lived (my womby)

always in our hearts

the excitement of telling the world we were preggo for the first time.

Now a mere seven months on, we are expecting our second baby, and how overjoyed we are to know its  healthy boy! It felt like this would never come even in the short time we took to get pregnant again.

Today i celebrate that my second baby is alive and well inside of me, and that we would never take back the thrill of having the baby, but we still shed a tear that we could not share these milestones with out first, Joshua.

I am grieved knwoing that women around the world have to suffer what seems so unfair and unjust, but i know God has a plan. He has the whole world in his hand. Never did i think that cheesey sunday school song, with ever hold so much meaning for me. But i know, that even in the midst of my life feeling choastic, grief striken, and like no one cares, God really does have it in his hand. Not only that, he has my beautiful little Joshua in his hands too.

I thank God today that i have my second chance to be an earthly mother. Thats i get to hold this little one in four months. I also pray, that God would remind me every day how  blessed i am to have been given this chance to be a mother. I ask that even though its hard, that he put people in my life that i can walk with through similar tragedies. That the loss of our first has purpose and a way to reach out to others! I pray that all those that walk through miscarriage and loss, especially of their firsts, will receive the joy one day of holding a baby they can call their own!

Thank you God for my miracle baby!