We are trying to get back to some degree of normalcy around here. Gus is experiencing some sort of anxiety (as far as we can figure out), so we're just trying to be patient with him and give him some time. He's really clingy to me and is having a hard time sleeping. We've pretty much got naps back in order, so it's just the nights we need to work on now. A couple of nights ago he would only sleep if we were holding him - now he just wants to sleep in our bed. I'm told these are all normal things. He has been through so much, I just need to give him some time.
My sister left this morning. It was so wonderful to have her here!!! We had a great time, and I'm not sure I would have done to well without the help. She helped me get the house all clean so I wouldn't have to worry about it for a few days. Anyway, it's so wonderful to be on our way back to normal life. God has been incredibly good to us.

thankful

I am overwhelmed with thankfulness. We have recieved so much from our friends and church family. We got a huge basket of stuff at church on Sunday, and then a recieved a package from my MOPS group. We got so many things to keep Ella occupied, snacks to keep us going, blankets and sleepers for Gus, magazines and books, gift cards for restaurants, toys and groceries - not to mention enough Starbuck's to keep us awake the entire two weeks! At church on Sunday they prayed for us and wept with us and surrounded us with love. God is so good!!! After a somewhat hard week it was exactly what I needed. Anyway, I am trying to keep everyone updated on a carepage, so you can see what's going on. Thank you again for your prayers.

Life

Well, we've had a busy few weeks. Grandma and Papa came to visit for a couple of days and then Nana and Papa were here for a week. We had a great time with both of them. Ella learned how to ride her trike - and she loves it. I'm pretty excited about that because she isn't a huge lover of the outdoors and that helps her want to get out. Gus got a tooth this weekend so he's been a little crabby - plus that means that he has to go to the dentist before the surgery. Just add it to the list. It's kind of funny that the last two saturday nights before mother's day have been some of the worst sleeping night ever for our kids. I mean really - how do they know???!!! But I got the most thoughtful mother's day present - I'm going to pottery classes. Something I've wanted to do for a really time. I'm super excited. I had a wonderful mother's day in spite of a bad nights sleep.
Hmmm, what else? I'm still running, we're up to 7K with about a month left until the race. Josh is getting a new espresso maker that he's really excited about.
About Gus: He's doing really well. He's happy and learning new things and growing a little bit. He can wave hi and is learning he can get places by rolling. Today I found out that they have a tentative date for surgery - either the 22nd or 23rd!!! That is such a relief. The unknown is the worst part. We'll find out for sure on Thursday. Please pray that he can just stay virus free until then so it doesn't get cancelled.
We'll keep you posted.

Running

So, I'm trying to get into running. I've posted before about how every spring I think I want to train for a marathon, and it lasts for about a week. Well this year I took a different aproach. I decided I would try to train for a 5 K and work up from there. So I ran 2 races last week. Today someone told me that running is addictive. Boy will I be excited when that day comes!! I'm definitely not addicted, I could probably never run again and be totally ok with that. But I will keep going - I am on the 8 week plan for the 10K - we'll see. Anyway, here are some pictures.
This was last Sunday's race with my friend Abbie. She's my running buddy. It was -12C, and really windy. Not exactly a good way to start, but I guess it can only get better.

Attractive
And get better it did. This was my race yesterday with Deb and Joyce. It was beautiful out! Pretty much perfect, and look at that view!
And I did have a lot of time to look at the mountains since they left me in their dust. Speed really isn't my objective yet. This is me crossing the finish line.
Ella and Meadow were playing and eating raisins together. Until we had to take them away because they found a pile of elk poop. Raisins and elk poop look a lot alike.

Photos

So, I have added some pictures here , and two movies, here and here . We're having a busy week - Ella's been sick and that always seems to drain me. I hope I think twice the next time I think it's a good idea to take a two year old with diarrhea to the grocery store. I've done a lot of laundry this week, but at least now everything is clean. Tonight we are doing an Indian theme for small group and I made butter chicken for the first time. It's pretty amazing- not thanks to my cooking skills, but just because that's the nature of butter chicken. Well, hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Josh is off work tomorrow and I'm going to get my teeth cleaned. No end to excitement here.

Prayer

Well, I just want to let everyone know that we are all doing well. We don't have a date for the surgery yet, but they think it will be the first or second week in March. At first I just wanted it over with, but I think it's probably best that I have a little time to prepare myself for all that will happen. He is gaining a little weight each week and his oxygen levels are good, so they aren't too worried about him at this point. However, I would like to have the surgery over with before they start really worrying. We had to go to the hospital last Thursday and again on Monday. They have a little daycare there for siblings and patients, and let me tell you, what a lifesaver. On Monday it took 2 1/2 hours and it was during Ella's naptime - so she would have been a bear for me, but she's always an angel for strangers.
I can't begin to tell you how many people have been praying for us!!! God has sent so many encouragers our way and I am completely overwhelmed. I have to tell you that I have been very convicted to learn that complete strangers are praying more for my son than I am! I am trying to pray more for my family.
I've always told myself that my kids belong to God, but I don't think I really felt that way. Now, I have no choice. There is absolutely nothing I can do to help Gus, and God is totally in control of His life. The day after the diagnoses I was singing Jesus Loves Me to him and when I came to the line "little ones to Him belong" I just started to bawl, and then I began to trust. God is giving me peace.
I'm so thankful God hasn't given up on teaching me things, even though it seems like I have to learn them over and over.
Thanks for your prayers!

Gooey

That happens to be one of Ella's many nicknames for our sweet little boy. It also happens to be Josh's favourite out of all the options, and what he is often called. Poor kid. Anyway, this post is not about his nicknames, but about his heart. He was born with a heart murmur, something quite a few kids are born with, but they are often closed up by the time they are 6 months. Well, at a checkup at around 5 1/2 months his doctor decided to send him to a cardiologist. They made an appointment for May 12. Since then he has not been gaining weight, and even dropped down at one point. So, she requested that his appointment be moved up. So, today we headed down to the Children's Hospital for a echocardiogram. They took pictures of his heart for about three hours due to the fact that I think he had a crush on the ultrasound technician. He just smiled and charmed her, and wouldn't hold still, so they had a hard time getting a good picture. He is such a sweet little boy. He hardly cried at all with all this poking and prodding. Just kept smiling. In the end, they told us that he has something called Tetralogy of Fallot. This is a congenital heart defect that means (in my very medically uneducated terms) that he has a large hole between two of the chambers in his heart, and that his pulmonary valve (which brings blood to his lungs) is too narrow. I think there are 2 other symptoms, but they didn't seem as serious to me. Anyway, the bottom line is that he will need to have open heart surgery probably within the next month to repair the hole and expand the valve. I'm sure you can imagine that this is extremely hard for a mother to hear. I am having a rough time, but I keep reminding myself that God is in control. So we will be heading up to Edmonton for about two weeks while all of this happens. It all seems so overwhelming right now. One good thing about having your appointment at the Children's Hospital is that you get to see that this is really quite a minor thing compared to what some kids go through, but it doesn't feel very minor.. So, please continue to pray for all of us - we really need it! I'll let you all know when we hear more.

Talking to God

So, I need to get back into blogging - and I figure a cute little story is a good way to start.
Josh was putting Ella to bed the other day and they were having a conversation. It went something like this.
Ella: God made the stars. Josh: Yes he did. Who made daddy? E: God. J: Who made Ella? E: God. J: That's right. God made everything. E: Where is God? J: Well, he's everywhere. E: I wanna see God. J: Well, you can't see God, but you can talk to Him. E: I'm gonna talk to God, and He's gonna talk to me. So she sat there, looking out the window up at the stars. J: So what did God say to you? E: I love you.

I can't help but thinking "You have no idea Ella, how much that is true," but maybe she thinks the same about me. The faith of a child is an incredible thing.

Error

Well, for some reason I haven't been able to put pictures on my blog. I'll keep trying to figure it out, you know with all the spare time I have these days. Until then, click here to see some recent pictures.

Ella and Gus

I had to switch to small pictures because we got a new camera and I think the bigger pictures are too big to load or something - antway I'll try to figure it out.

Well, I guess it's time for a little update on the Genns. Gus is doing well - it feels like he's been with us forever. I think he's a good baby. It's hard for me to say because Ella was a basically perfect baby and I think he's just pretty normal. He's so sweet though, I can't get enough of him. I was worried that I wouldn't feel the same "awe" that I felt when we had Ella and let me tell you that I feel just as in love with Gus. His sleeping wasn't going so well, but last night he only got up once - so hopefully that will last. Some of the novelty of Gus has worn off with Ella, but she still gets pretty excited when she sees him. She's adjusting really well to life with him around - I guess we all are. I helps that Nana and Papa are here to entertain her. It's been so nice to have them around. Our church has been bringing us meals for two weeks, which has been amazing!!!! I feel so spoiled, but tonight is the last one, so back to cooking - sigh.
Anyway, I know some of you have been waiting for the birth story - so here we go. I started having labour pains around 4:30 Thursday morning. Around 9 we went for breakfast with my parents and they were getting fairly strong and were like 5 minutes apart. Since the hospital is like an hour away I thought we should head in. Now, after 2 deliveries - I've learnt a few things - I do not progress very quickly. One thing I didn't want to do was go in and be sent home - but that's exactly what happened. You think I'd learn, but no. Like, I'm supposed to know what I'm doing by now. Anyway, I got there around 11, and the doctor said not much was happening yet, so It would pass the time a little more quickly if we went into town and walked around and stuff. While we were out they got to every three minutes and were a lot stronger. So, at 5 we headed back - once again - nothing going on. Are you kidding me? But she told me to stay and get some rest and hopefully things would pick up soon. So, I took a nap and my contractions almost stopped all together. When I got up, they started again - but they were back to about 10 minutes apart. So at about 9 I went out to talk to the nurses. They called the doctor and she said I should go home. The last thing the nurses said to me was "It's probably just Braxton Hicks." Thanks a lot! So, my parents had already checked into a hotel in town and offered to put us in a hotel room for the night. So we did, and the contractions just kept getting stronger - but they were pretty irregular. So, I wasn't sure what was happening. So I let Josh sleep and I dealt with contractions all night. If I was walking around they were like every 3 minutes, if I was trying to sleep they would wait like 12 minutes. Finally from about 7-8 in the morning they were consistently every 3 minutes and absolutely unbearable. Finally I woke up Josh and told him "OK, I don't know what's happening, but I need drugs" So, he showered and took all the time in the world. In the middle of a brutal contraction he came out of the bathroom to tell me something was wrong with his contacts. Uh sorry, don't really care - can we please move a little more quickly? So we got to the hospital around 8:45 and they put me in a room. The nurse was filling out charts and I was trying to be patient - but finally I was like "I would really like some drugs" So much for all natural. So she told me she would just check me out and see how far along I was. So she did and told me that I was fully dialated - awesome. She said no time for drugs, the doctor would come and break my water and the baby would come. Sure enough the doctor was there 5 minutes later, she broke my water (so I didn't go totally natural), I pushed for 15 minutes and we had a little boy. The cord was around his neck, so they were a little concerned about him - but he was fine. They said it was the best thing for him that my water didn't break - so God was taking care of Gus (as I already knew). For all of you pregnant with your second baby - from my experience, the second delivery is much easier than the first - but labour is labour.

My pictures aren't loading... hopefully soon.

Gus David Genn

So, little Gus made his way into this world at 9:41 AM on Sept 7. He was 7 lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long - not bad for 2 1/2 weeks early. We are both doing really well. Ella is a little too excited - all she wants to do is hold and touch him. Well, enough talking - here are the pictures.




Poor little blue baby. The cord was wrapped around his neck, but it didn't take too long for him to get his colour back.

The last picture of the family of three.









Such a nice picture.

So do you think these 2 could maybe be siblings? Yeah, Ella is the one in the pink.

Such a beautiful girl!
How did she grow up so fast?
This is from our youth canoe trip a couple of weeks ago. Ella loves the water, only up to her butt though because it was super cold.
I don't think I've ever seen her do one thing for so long. She sat for hours making "stone soup"
These two pictures are my favourite - maybe ever. Josh doing his two "most favourite" things - hanging out by the water and playing with his little girl.
This was taken at 4:30 in the morning! Josh had to go to Winnipeg for the day for work, so I sent Ella along to hang out with Grandma. We told her the night before - and she woke up so excited to go see "Mama and Papa" with just daddy. This is her waving bye-bye to me.
We had a little weekend family camp with our church. Ella loves hangin out with "Shon"

The van and the belly.




I wanted to write more, but I'm out of time for now. Hopefully soon...