2+1=3

We've been asked a couple of times now what the girls think of Hannah Kate. Well, maybe more than a couple of times at this point. The problem here is that the very people who have been asking this question are likely the very readers this blog retains. At this point in time they have all been given a blow for blow answer making this blog entry entirely superfluous...and yet I am going to write it anyway, and hopefully you will follow along, if for no other reason than...the pictures.

For weeks now we have been working on prepping the girls about the immanent arrival of their "baby sissy." They know what babies are. They knew Hannah Kate was going to be their baby sissy, and they knew that baby sissy was in mommy's tummy. They also knew that mommy was going to the doctor and he was going to be taking Hannah Kate out of mommy's tummy so we could bring her home and let her sleep in her crib and play with her toys and...well, you get the idea. For a while I spent some time totally mesmerized by how well they took all of this. They didn't seem phased at all by the idea that there was a baby in mommy's tummy and soon she would be coming home to live with us. My mom's a lamaze teacher, I grew up with this notion, talking and learning about it, and I have to admit that whenever I would watch Hannah Kate rub her arm across the inside of her womb I would think...yep...totally weird. It seemed like the very idea should blow their little 2 and a half year old minds. And yet...never phased.

Of course, the more I thought about it the more I realized, there's really no good reason why they should be amazed. Their world is full of crazy impossibilities that we tell them are reality every day. Hey look at that metal box, it's different then other metal boxes in that if you get in it it will take you some place else. This metal box over here flies in the sky, and this one shows magic pictures. So sure, why not, babies live in mommy's tummies and then get taken out.

Wednesday was too hectic to try and add the little beautifuls into the mix, so we waited until Thursday to have Nana bring them up. Evidently they were good and ready to see us by Thursday. Thursday morning at 4 in the morning Emma Jane woke up screaming for mommy. She whined and begged to see us (along with Parker) all morning until they arrived. When they got here we could hear them squealing with delight the whole way down the hall. Parker came bounding in. So excited I am pretty sure she actually did pee her pants. She just started giggling madly, running around the room, unsure of whether to stop and stay with mommy, daddy, or baby sissy. I think she spent the entirety of that trip and every subsequent trip to the hospital, giggling.

Parker couldn't be happier with the situation. As I am writing this blog I am now sitting at home, and the sheer joy has yet to dissipate. Parker has always been a little high on life, and right now it couldn't be better. Mommy and daddy are home and they have brought a baby with them. What could be better? Oh, Nana is still here? Oh yeah, life is a amazing.

Emma Jane's attitude on the other hand has proven to be...a little different

As I mentioned, Emma Jane was the one who woke up at 4 in the morning screaming for mommy, you could hear her in the hall calling out for mommy, you would think she would come running in and bounce right into Mary Jane's lap. You would be wrong. Instead Emma Jane refused to acknowledge Mary Jane at all. She gave her the cold...cold..."arcticly" cold shoulder. She wouldn't give her a hug, or a kiss, she barely acknowledged me, and any time we asked her anything she would scream and cry and say "No, Nana do it." You wouldn't think someone so small could rip your heart out, and cut it into little pieces so easily, but she can. When it comes to Hannah Kate, Emma Jane was a extremely excited to see her and to hold her. (Not as excited as Parker, but frankly, I don't think anyone could ever be as excited as she was/is). When things started to get a little crowded in the room and I took Parker and Emma Jane out for a walk the first thing Emma Jane did when the door closed was to start crying for mommy, so I know she cares, but Emma Jane was determined to punish us, especially Mary Jane. And she did.

Friday's visit was better and worse. Parker was the same screw ball high energy this is wonderful bundle of joy. Emma Jane was warmer to Mary Jane, but significantly meaner to me. I guess she decided to pick on the guy who hadn't been sliced into, and I guess that's fair. Although....I miss my Emma Jane. Daddy's little girl decided not to be daddy's little girl on Friday or Saturday (as mentioned above we are home today--more about that later--and she is being a bit better today).

All that said, we're pretty happy with how well they seem to be handling the change thus far. It is clear they are both excited about Hannah Kate.

Hannah Kate, on the other hand, seems pretty bored with the girls. She just slept through all of it.

Happy Birthday Nana and Pop

Nana got into town Thursday and is here for the next two weeks just to help out. To say we are thrilled is the biggest understatement of the week. We need the help. She's doing all sorts of little things during the day, but the biggest help is probably in the form of help at night. She gets up a couple of times during the night allowing one of us to sleep through that feed. This finally gives Mary Jane and I the chance to trade off a little and get a little of sleep. Of course this means that even as we are gaining a little sleep Nana is loosing a bunch, so now there are three semi zombies roaming the halls of the brogehousehold instead of two complete zombies. Today is Nana's birthday....it also happens to be Pop's. Alas, Pop has to work so he is still back in Charlotte. So the married couple is separated on their joint birthdays, all so the twins can be better taken care of. Thanks guys. We love you and really appreciate your help and sacrifice.

Happy Thanksgiving

“Give thanks to the LORD, He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 136)

These words leap to mind this Thanksgiving. Daily in life we have much to be thankful for. I am often annoyed with for how much I take God’s daily blessings for granted. I am surrounded by His blessings and mercies, and yet, often I only notice them when they go missing. And then it is all too easy to make the attitude one of, “how dare you let that be taken from me God” rather than a thankful attitude.
However, this Thanksgiving it is significantly easier to adopt a thankful attitude without having to work at it. In fact the thankfulness just seems to flow out. What I find particularly interesting is that the joy and thankfulness over the girls being home spreads out. It reminds me to be thankful for the “little” things as well.
Wouldn’t it be nice if these sorts of experiences lasted forever? If one didn’t become desensitized to the blessing, in this case of having his daughters at home, and have to continuously remind oneself to be thankful? But that’s not the way it works. Well, I’m still living on the high so who knows, maybe I’m wrong this time, but life has taught me that humans, by nature (myself included) easily forget to be thankful for the blessings their Creator/Savior/Sustainer has showered down upon them.

We need benchmarks. We need things in our life to remind us of those blessings.
A friend of mine talks about never realizing how great it is to be full until right after being very hungry. He actually likes being ridiculously, extremely hungry because “the food tastes better.” And let’s face it, he’s more appreciative.
I am sure that it is easier to be thankful in the midst of Parker’s long scream/cry/fuss periods because the girls didn’t come home with us, and because we worried we would never get to this point. That said, I really wouldn’t recommend having your children be born 14 weeks early just to teach yourself to be a more thankful person ;)
But as I was saying, we need benchmarks in life. Things we come back to that remind us to be thankful. Things that remind us to “Give thanks to the LORD, He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.” I think we need to go out of our way to set up these benchmarks. They can be big things or little. I know for me, my wedding ring is a big one. It has always been a conscious reminder to me to remember to be thankful for my wife, to not take her for granted, nor the incredible blessing she is to me. However this experience has added meaning to my ring. Ever since I put it on Emma Jane’s arm it has become a reminder of where we started, and consequently, how far we have come. How merciful God has been to us during this whole experience.

I could go on and on but I fear I may be getting rambly quick. It has been a looong time since I last slept. This isn’t just because of the girls. We had an impromptu stop at the Emergency room last night. Not for the twins…for Mary Jane! She had a kidney stone. She has gotten them a few times over the years but this one was by far the biggest one she’s ever had, and of course with that fact comes the truth that this was by far the most painful one, and interestingly enough I think it was the quickest as well. Thankfully, she is doing well. Actually, Mary Jane and I were talking about it and we have a lot to be thankful about concerning the kidney stone. The last one she got was right before Mary Jane got pregnant. When they did their tests the doctors discovered she had a bunch just sitting in her kidney hanging out, one day to emerge and create their own particular brand of trouble. We were very concerned this might happen during the pregnancy which could have been very bad, but it didn’t. And while neither of us wanted the ER to be a part of our Thanksgiving we must admit it would be hard to find a better time for this to have happened. Nana and Pop are in town for Thanksgiving (Mary Jane’s mom and stepdad). Nana was able to take Mary Jane to the ER enabling me to be with the girls and make sure they were properly fed and everything that is currently going on with that. Then there was the concern about Church this morning (I was supposed to preach and once again my supervising pastor was out of town so there really wasn’t anyone around to take my place—if you know nothing about my vicarage other than this blog than you probably get the impression my supervising pastor is always out of town. Let me tell you, nothing could be further from the truth. The guy never leaves town. He has tried to leave twice in any type of recent history. Both times things looked fine and secure and both times the Broge family decided to have a medical emergency. Go figure.) but then Mary Jane passed the kidney stone pretty quickly and got home in cheerful spirits just in time for me to get changed and over to the Church.
“Give thanks to the LORD, He is good; for his steadfast love endures forever”

We pray all of you have had a relaxing holiday. Know that all of you are on are list of things we are thankful for. Very high on the list in fact. Your prayers, comments on the blog, e-mails have meant the world to us. We are sorry that we haven’t been able to write back as much as we would like, but know that just jotting that quick e-mail, or writing that quick blog post, or stopping and saying that quick prayer, means the world to us.

Hmm…this got really long.
Well, maybe that makes up for missing a couple of days?

Blessings
The Broges

grandparents

Over their short post-womb life our beautiful girls have had a number of visits from their grandparents. Here are a couple of quick multi-generational photos.Above: Grandma Broge was here back when the girls were still a bit too small to be passing around (sorry grandma). Three generations of Broge women. Only one born that way;)
Above: Nanna came a couple of weeks later and got to hold one (don't worry grandma...next visit for sure!)
Grandad came a couple weeks after that and got a chance to hold to!o Now we just need grandma and grandpa broge to have a chance!

“hole” lotta love part IV: A New Beginning

Well…here we go again. Some of you may remember from way back when (about a week ago) when we were going through the PDA campaign, that Parker needed surgery because she was not responding to the ibuprofen, but Emma Jane handled the ibuprofen well and it was closing her PDA, but had not closed it. Well, guess what…the PDA has gotten larger.




"You've got to be kidding me!"











What does this mean? Good question. For a more precise explanation we turn to the graduated nurse practitioner in the family: Mary Jane
“Clinically Emma Jane appearance is unchanged. They have been able to wean the flow on her oxygen, she is tolerating her feeds, she shows no signs of distress, however she does have a murmur again, the PDA is larger and if she does begin to show signs that the PDA is affecting her adversely then she will have to undergo a PDA ligation as her sister did.”
For the medically ignorant explanation we turn to Jason:
“Emma Jane looks the same, but looks can be deceiving, lurking underneath is the same danger which was plaguing her sister. Currently this is not putting her in any immediate danger, however, as we saw with Parker, things can change fast, and we may end up having to have the same surgery. They want to wait as long as possible because the older she is the easier it is on her.”
For the overly simplistic explanation we turn to Jojo the idiot boy:
“Emma Jane eat. Emma Jane poop. Emma Jane breathe. Emma Jane heart go..um swishy swishy (sound of a murmur).”

On a lighter note: Grandma left. Nana is coming back tomorrow, and she is bringing the cord with her. So a big thank you to all who offered to pick it up for us, or even ship it to us (wow Weav…that was cool), but it is coming by way of Nana.

Blessings,
The Broges

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY (sorry we haven't called...life is...well...you know...but we love you and wish you the happiest of birthdays)