Photos from Weekend with the Ruhls

We finally had opportunity to visit the Ruhls in Minnesota - it was SO fun to spend time with their 4 beautiful children, introduce Gracie, meet more of their church family, and of course, spend time with Gregg and Dianne. Gracie and Ruhls' kids got along famously - she's just half a year younger than little Abby who was so sweet to her. Katie is an excellent big sister and loves taking care of children with special needs - she was so attentive and competent with Gracie. Jacob and David enjoyed Gracie's love for rough housing and making her giggle. She got lots of love and attention and also made some milestone leaps in the company of such amazing kids. She kicked around BY HERSELF (with a head supporting life jacket) in the pool purposefully, she lifted one leg at a time to get her shoes on, and she played with the kids beautifully!

She especially enjoyed the yard complete with playground equipment and giggled hysterically at the boys catching her at the bottom of the slide!

Finally, a photo of me pregnant at 25+ weeks - Dianne spoiled me with lots of new cute

maternity clothes. Most likely thanks to Dianne's healthy cooking, the baby grew dramatically over the weekend causing me much stretching pain as we trooped around on hikes. It felt great to get exercise finally, out of the hospital and clinic and out in nature (even if baby was stretching my uterus out of shape)!

Comments

Anonymous said…

Looks like fun! I got her a new swim jacket that supports all the way aound insted of just front and back. It Doesnt have head support though. We will see if it works.

12:43 PM

Anonymous said…

That was me =)

12:44 PM

Check out this progress!

A year ago, my friend Rachel http://josiecomehome.blogspot.com/ emailed a photo of her beautiful son standing on his own... I've since dreamed of having a photo to post of Gracie doing the same thing. It was always one of those wild-don't-think-it'll-ever-happen kind of dreams, a romantic, fairy tale type of dream. But this week, Gracie made another leap in development and muscle tone. It started when I leaned her up against the wall and planted her feet a shoulder-width apart. For the first time, she didn't lunge for the safety of my arms or hands, but rather, she allowed herself to stand steadily on her own two feet and she kept her center of gravity centered over her feet instead of wildly in front of her or to one side or the other. She even quickly figured out that she couldn't lurch around in excitement while standing on her own two feet with no support but a wall behind her back, but rather had to express her excitement over this new development with a gentl...

Family of Three!

We are in Liberia - the electricity goes in and out because the generator is having trouble keeping up these days! So hopefully it will stay on long enough to post and the internet connection will allow me this luxury! We were united with precious Gracie on Thanksgiving day - I will write more about this later. But, oh! is Gracie a joy! She is so beautiful, so joyfilled, and a bit mischievious. Her physical limitations do not permit her to accomplish much mischief, but we can tell that she is trying to push some limits already. If we were not in love with her already, she is irresitable and such a treasure and blessing from God. In our two days together, she has not cried once. She spends most of her days smiling, she loves to snuggle (good match for us!), and has the most contagious laugh! Life takes more effort for her - her cerebral palsy is moderate and every activity is a challenge and is clearly tiring for her. Meal times (which she loves) take a long time and much patience and d...

Ana Gail Rattin

Ana Gail Rattin (pronounced Ah-nah) Born December 5th, 2007 at 5:35pm at 42 weeks weighing 7lb 8oz, 21 3/4 inches long Some adventures at birth, but everyone's doing great now! Read Luke 2:36-38!

Rattins living Coram Deo

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