Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family.  During the past 2 months of bed rest Kathryn and I have fully realized just how much God has blessed our lives with wonderful friends and family.  We hope that you have had a wonderful day, and continue to have a wonderful Christmas season.  2009 is right around the corner, and we anxiously await the little present that is currently wrapped up inside Kathryn.

33 Weeks and Counting

We are so thrilled to have made it to 33 weeks. I'm sorry that it's been awhile since I've updated the blog. We've had a few more trips to the hospital and several visits from home health, but these have been fairly uneventful and we are happy to say that we are now 33 weeks pregnant and counting. I had a doctor's appointment today and it went so well that she doesn't want to see me back in the office until New Year's Eve! We have over 7 weeks of bedrest under our belts with only 4 more to go. With Christmas with Kathryn's family and then New Year's with Gary's parents coming into town, we have several exciting events to get us through the final stretch.

A few weeks ago, our little girl weighed in at 3 lbs, 14 ozs. This was great news. We won't be able to get a new weight until our next appointment, but we feel confident that this baby is gaining at a great rate and we pray that she will be healthy and able to come home when we do deliver. Thank you all for your prayers, meals, cards, calls, and emails. They really have meant so much to us.

Here's to seeing week 34...

"All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be" Psalm 139:16

How comforting to know that all of our daughter's days have already been written. God has a plan for this little life and knows the day that she will be born. We have officially made it to week 29! When we were first checked into the hospital at 26 weeks, the doctor on call told us that she had her son at 29 weeks and he is healthy. I remember thinking that I would be so happy to make it to 29 weeks and we are here! My contractions were a little higher than they wanted them to be last weekend, so we did spend a few days back in the hospital. We are so thankful to be back home and in our own bed. Gary has been such a trooper - the accommodations for spouses at the hospital are far from comfortable. We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and got a good report. There has been no change which is great news. Thank you all so much for your calls, notes, visits, dinners, comments on the blog, and mostly for your prayers. We pray that this time of bed rest will not be wasted and that God will be glorified through it all!

28 Weeks!

We are so grateful to have made it another week. We had a great doctor's appointment on Monday. I haven't progressed at all (which is a very good thing) and the baby looked very healthy. They told us that she is 2 lbs, 8 ozs. We will go back for another checkup on Monday, and I am looking forward to another outing.

I cannot say enough good things about the home health care that I have received. The medicine that I am now on has been doing a fabulous job of stopping the contractions and they are so concerned and helpful. When they first hooked me up to my monitor, I had 15 contractions in an hour (the threshold that they do not want to see me go over is 3 in an hour). They started my medication and within a couple of hours, I was down to only 1 contraction! And "they" are in New Orleans and Philadelphia. They are able to monitor me and adjust my meds via the computer and phone. Modern technology is so amazing!

Thank you all for your continued prayers. Please pray that the contractions would stay at a minimum and for another good appointment on Monday.

27 Weeks

We are rejoicing with each additional week that we can get in the pregnancy, and today marks week #27. We only have one week to go until we make it to the third trimester. While we are definitely praying that we can have a full term pregnancy, Gary and I know that God has a plan for this child's life and it is much better than any of the plans that we can ever make on our own. So, we are being faithful to take the right medications and stay and bedrest and follow the doctor's orders, but in the end know that God has already planned out our daughter's birthday.

I go back for a doctor's appointment on Monday, so I will let everyone know what our status is at that point. Thank you for your continued support right now - we can't tell you how much it has meant to us.

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

11 weeks (I felt like I was showing so much at this point - ha!)

21 weeks

25 weeks

27 weeks

Deacon isn't sure what to think of all of this new baby stuff

Baby Update

Thank you all so much for your texts, emails, notes, calls, and mostly for your prayers!! We are at home now and doing much better. After a very long weekend in the hospital with terbutaline shots and 16 hours on a magnesium sulfate drip, we went into the doctor's office for our regular checkup on Monday morning. Unfortunately, I was still having contractions, so they got me set up with home health to monitor and medicate. I am on strict bedrest, but have the contractions under control!! I will be 27 weeks on Friday and am thankful for everyday that this little girls stays put. I have heard so many encouraging stories from people who have started having problems at this point in their pregnancy and gone on to have healthy, full-term babies. Some even went past their due date and had to be induced! I am so thankful to my mom and Gary who have been here pretty much around the clock to make sure that I stay put and get everything that I need.

Please continue to pray for "Baby Veritas", that she will grow to term and that we will do everything that we can to make sure that that happens. We know that God has a plan for this baby girl and we have faith that this is all a part of it. Also pray for Gary as he has a full load taking care of me right now. He is so patient and such a great caregiver - I'm so thankful for him!

We will keep you posted on our progress. I also have some pictures that I will post soon.

Baby Veritas is a bit Anxious

For those of you who haven't heard, Kathryn and I have been spending the last couple of days in the River Oaks Hospital in Jackson, MS.  Our little girl (who at this point is being called Baby Veritas, coined by our Sunday School Class) is a bit anxious to meet the real world and is sending Kathryn into contractions.  Considering we are only 26 weeks along in the pregnancy, it is not quite time to have a baby.

We want to express our thanks for all of the prayers, calls, txts, and emails showing your love and concern for us.  Please keep Kathryn in your thoughts and prayers.  The doctors have attempted to stop the contractions using tributylene, and that wasn't stopping the contractions, so we have moved on to a Magnesium Sulfate drip through her IV.   We will try to update the blog as information changes.  Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers.

~Gary, Kathryn, and Baby Veritas

I'm It...

I have been putting this off because I have a hard time with self-reflection, but here goes. 6 quirky things about me:

1. It bothers me when the closet door is left open at night. This is all thanks to Laura. I never thought twice about it until we became friends and she had to close the closet door. It stuck. Now that I'm married and Gary's closet door is the one that we can see from our bed, I fight the urge to get up and close it when he leaves it open.

2. I don't like for my hands to be dirty. I realize that most people probably prefer to have clean hands, but if I've been working in the dirt or petting a dog (which is often because I love dogs), I think about the fact hat my hands are in fact dirty until I can get to a sink to scrub them. This makes playing in the sand at the beach tricky because I hate to have sand on them and then, if I wash them off in the ocean, I'm thinking about how gross that ocean water actually is and all of the things in that dirty water that have now been transferred to my hands.

3. I usually have a pile of about 5-10 books that I am in the process of reading at any given moment. Whenever anyone suggests a book, I will put down the one that I am working on and start the new one, going back to the last one occasionally. As of right now, I am reading Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God, What to Expect When You're Expecting (although this really doesn't count because you're supposed to read this one a little at a time), Unshaken by Francine Rivers, The Screwtape Letters, Do Hard Things (a book that we were going to go through with the youth at our church, but decided to go another route), and The Reason for God by Tim Keller. There are about 5 others that I am waiting to start until I finish a few of these).

4. I love organization. Everything in my house may not be in it's place, but I certainly have a place for everything. I used to love the night before school when I could get all of my notebooks labeled and full of paper - I know, I am such a nerd!!!

5. This may go along with #4 - whenever we move to a new house or buy new furniture or something to this effect, I have to get everything put away immediately. For example, I just bought some nursery furniture that Gary was going to put together for me once he was finished with the harvest season. I let it sit in the nursery for one day before I decided to go in there and do it myself. If I had another set of hands, I would have taken a picture of me balancing two sides of the crib against the wall and my leg as my protruding stomach kept me from contorting into the position that I needed to be in in order to screw the two together. However, I did get it finished. I also really wanted to finish before Gary got home. You would think that I would be excited to see him and have the extra set of hands, but I was disappointed that I didn't have a finished product to show him when he walked in the door. So I made him wait outside the room until I finished my project. I also have to unpack my suitcase before I do anything else whenever we go on vacation.

6. I talk in my sleep. I will have entire conversations with Gary - but most of them don't make much sense. Gary loves it when I do this and eggs me on my continuing to ask me questions and will keep me going for as long as he can.

Well, this is a little glimpse into how strange I am. Gary thinks that this list makes me sound very OCD. I think that I probably am a little bit. I won't tag anyone in particular, but would love for others to share. Please let me know if you post your quirky things!

Catching Up

I realize that, other than the baby news, we haven't posted about any of our summer activities. So, I here's what we've been up to over the past few months. Gary and I have both been working with the youth at our church since May. In June, Kathryn took a group of 7 Jr. High students to Florida for RYM, a great youth beach retreat. We had great speakers, great teachers, and great weather. It was a spirit-filled time and it was so great to see these young teens get excited about the gospel. It was also a great opportunity for me to get to know some in our group before I began leading a study with them back home.

The following week, Kathryn taught the 1st graders at Vacation Bible School. While VERY exhausting as I was in my second month of pregnancy, it was such a sweet opportunity to share God's word with young children. Our theme this year was the Olympics, so I was "Coach Kathryn" for the week. One of the students from my class still calls me Coach Kathryn today.

Over the 4th of July weekend, our dearest friends, the Galbreaths, came for a visit. We enjoyed a laid back weekend and getting to show them around our town. Gary and I also loved the time that we had with our godchildren, Carter and Kelsey. Carter is at such a fun age, and we hadn't seen Kelsey since she was a newborn, so it was fun to see her smiling and interacting even more. Before we had moved to Greenwood, we had lived in the same town as the Phillip and Shannon for 6 years. We have missed them greatly, but are so glad that we still get together every few months.

The following weekend, we went to Philadelphia for a wedding. Gary is planning to post about this trip, so I will just say that we had a great time seeing the city and catching up with college friends.

At the end of July, we were able to get away for a few days for a beach vacation with Kathryn's extended family. It was so nice to get away. We had great weather, so we were able to enjoy alot of tennis, golf, and beach time. It is always so much fun to catch up with my cousins that I get to see less and less these days. We were so grateful that Gary was able to get away from the farm for a few days of R&R.

A few weeks later, Kathryn went with her sister and parents to visit her brother in Boston. We had a fun-filled weekend of touring Harvard, Cambridge, and Boston and visiting Fenway Park for our first Red Sox game. Walker seems to be loving life in the big city. Although it was a very quick trip (we got in on Friday afternoon and left early Sunday morning), we are all ready for our next trip. The next weekend, we got Susanne moved into her dorm at Birmingham-Southern College. It is hard to believe that she is in college now. She has already gone through rush and pledged KD and is also on the rifle team. They will be traveling to our neck of the woods next weekend to compete against the University of Memphis and Ole Miss.

At the end of August, Kathryn went to Knoxville to help with our nieces while Gary's sister, Catherine, was on bedrest. I always look forward to these extended visits with our young nieces/nephew. I get to see so much more of their little personalities come out when I get them all to myself for a few days. A few days before I was planning to leave, Catherine went into labor and our niece, Gabrielle Marie Foca ("Gabby") was born. Happy Belated Birthday, Gabby! Pictures of this visit are below:

Precious in Pink Ballerinas

"Asleep" on the floor

Enjoying the geese at the park
On a serious business call
Gabriella Marie Foca

During all of these travels and events, Gary has been busy at work on the farm. They managed to survive two hurricanes and have had alot of great, sunny weather lately, so harvest is coming along well. I am so proud of Gary for all of the long and hard hours that he has been putting in and am thankful for his dedication to work and providing for our growing family. "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve." Colossians 3:23

Our Precious Daughter

I thought that I should go ahead and get a couple of the sonogram pictures up while the background is still pink in celebration. (The picture to the right is a little foot :-)) For those of you who know Gary, you know that he is not a big fan of the color pink. It was so sweet of him to pay this tribute to our little girl. We are so thankful that she appears to be very healthy. In fact, Gary got to feel a little kick for the first time last night. Please pray with us for a healthy and growing baby girl.

ITS A GIRL!!!!!

Kathryn and I have just returned from our doctor in Jackson, MS and have found out that our little one due in February is a girl.  In honor of my wife and baby to be I have changed the background of our blog to the most girly image that I could find on the internet.  Don't expect this to be a lasting change, but I figured it was only appropriate considering I am about to be outnumbered in the household.

Our nephew Jacob is going to be extremely disappointed with his Uncle Gary as he was counting on us adding his first boy cousing to the family, but he will have to take care of another girl, and continue to hold the mantle as the only boy in his generation.  We have pictures on the sonogram that we will post later...our little girl is as healthy as can be determined at this point.  Please continue to pray for HER development inside of Kathryn's womb.

A Few Pics of Deacon

Alright, I know I rarely blog on here, but I figured I should add to the fun. We are currently rained out of the fields (which while it seems good because I get free time, is actually bad because we have corn and beans in the field, IE: $$$$, that needs to be harvested), and so I have been filling my team with fantasy sports, golf, and of course spending time with my lovely wife and dog. I got home today after a round of golf and for some reason decided to put my hat on our dog, Deacon. Surprisingly, while he wasn't really happy about, he didn't mind all that much, and so I took a few pictures. The first picture is his pimpin' pose, as he clearly has his hat flipped to the side, and he is covering his eyes to show that he is 'hood'. The second is probably the funniest picture I have of Deacon. Apparently he got tired of not being able to see with the hat on forwards, so when I turned it backwards he was making sure that he could see through the back loop of the hat. Anyway - the pictures are priceless...enjoy!

Where Does the Time Go?

At the end of May, we attended Kathryn's 10 year high school reunion. (I know, we're sorry that we're so behind on our posts!) It is hard to believe that it's already been 10 years. Kathryn attended the same school for 11 years, so she grew up with most of these people. It was great catching up with old friends, looking through old (and very embarrassing) photos and yearbooks, and reminiscing about old memories. Some people had changed alot and some hadn't changed at all. It was great to meet everyone's spouses and children. We had a great turnout. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord" Psalm 127:3

Baby Dyksterhouse is on the way!! I am due on February 6, 2009. Gary and I couldn't be more excited and are so grateful for this precious gift that God has given us. I am now 14 weeks pregnant and am enjoying some of the comforts of the 2nd trimester. So far, I have been feeling

pretty good and my appetite (and waistline) have definitely grown over the past couple of weeks. Please pray with us for this baby as s/he continues to grow and develop.

I See London, I See France

I'm sorry that it has been so long since I've updated the blog. There has been alot going on in the Dyksterhouse lately, but more to come on all of that later. I still haven't finished posting about what went on with us in May.

Kathryn went as a chaperone on Susanne's Senior trip to Europe. I am going to talk about this in one post because the trip was such a whirlwind, it seems like it all could have happened in just one long day. However, be warned that it is a very length post. If you just want to scroll through and look at the pictures, I completely understand. A few days after Susanne's graduation, we left for London. I actually really loved London - it was probably my favorite city that we visited. Of course, it didn't hurt that it was sunny and gorgeous the entire time that we were there. Our tour guide, Kat, was with us for the entire 10-day trip. She is a Londoner, so she had alot of insight into this city. Some highlights from London were the Thames River, Trafalgar's Square, Covent Garden, Westminster Abby, Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London, and the play Wicked. Most of this was seen in a blur from a bus, but we saw it nonetheless.

With all of these famous sites and glimpses of great history, my favorite adventure in London (and probably of the entire vacation) was actually a side-trip that was unplanned. Susanne was suffering from jet-lag and so Mom and I took her back to the hotel to get some much needed rest. While she was sleeping, we decided to go out and grab a bite to eat. While trying to find a good restaurant, we found out that St. Helen's Bishopsgate, a reformed church in the heart of London, was offering one of their mid-week lunchtime talks. It was such a great experience to sit in on a lecture by a great preacher (William Taylor) and to worship God with people from a different country. They were so friendly and the talk was very inspiring and gospel-centered. It was actually very relevant at this particular point. William talked about the spirit of God living in us and not only in the church. With all of the beautiful churches and architecture throughout Europe, people tend to worship the church and not the Creator. He said that his beautiful 13th century church is no more than a shelter from the rain. There is a sign in St. Helen's that reads "You are now entering the House of God". Sometimes it can be read as you are entering the church, but just as often they move it so that it is read as you are exiting the church. It was a great perspective as there were many beautiful "rain shelters" that we would be visiting over the next 8 days. Oh, and I can't forget to mention that we ate lunch at the restaurant next door before the talk began. It was great! Mom had fish and chips, and I had Shepherd's Pie. Perhaps the best meal of the entire vacation as well (our other meals, planned by the tour group, were very spicy Indian Food and soy burgers - yuck!)

On Wednesday morning, we boarded the Eurostar train for a 2.5 hour train ride to Paris. This train was very smooth and the trip went by very quickly. We arrived in Paris very rested and ready to begin our explorations. We began with an explanation of how the Parisian metro system operates, and then a train ride to Notre Dame. Again, we only had a few minutes, and we were starving at this point, so we went quickly through the cathedral, and then found a cafe where we had sandwiches and crepes. Very expensive (as was everything on the trip), but well worth it. After this, we left to go to the restaurant for dinner. They served us something (I don't remember the name of it) that was a pizza/pancake. Very interesting. After dinner, we went to Montmartre, a hill in north Paris where artists gather to entertain and tourists visit the "Basillica of the Sacred Heart".

The following morning, we went on a bus tour. This was, again, a whirlwind and it is very difficult to remember everything that we saw. It was a basic overview of Paris. After the bus tour, we drove about an hour to Versailles. The palace was amazing, the I definitely enjoyed the gardens more than anything else. After an afternoon in Versailles, it was back to Paris for dinner and then the Eiffel Tower, a boat ride down the Seine, and a night bus tour of Paris to see why they call it the "City of Lights".

On our last day in Paris, we went on a walking tour to see some of the fashion district. Then we went to the Louvre. We only had a couple of hours to spend in the Louvre and to eat lunch, so again, the time flew by and we didn't get to see very much. I did get to see the Mona Lisa, which was so much smaller than I had pictured. I never took art history in college, so I have yet to see the big deal about that one. There was a little excitement when we lost a couple of our group members. Since we were catching an overnight train to Florence in just a few short hours, we did panic a little. Thankfully, the two missing women were chaperones and were able to make it to the hotel to meet us before we left. We were very relieved to find them there.

After such a pleasant train ride from London to Paris, I was actually looking forward to the overnight train. I had visions of being lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the car. Little did I know what lay ahead of me. Six of us slept in one "room", but it could more accurately be called a closet. The two rows of chairs folded into 6 bunk beds - two sets stacked three high. OK, not ideal, but it could be cozy. Wrong! I took a middle bunk (the empty one in the picture is mine). The two on the top and the two on the bottom actually slept very peacefully. Stephanie and I (in the middle), however, did not!! There were two main problems. First, in order to feel the air in the small, congested car, we had to leave the window shade up. This didn't really affect any of the others, but anytime that we made one of our many stops, Stephanie and I would wake up to people staring right in at us. Didn't exactly give me warm, fuzzy feelings. Secondly, there was a large, hard bar running right across the spot in the bed that hit my back. I tried moving up and moving down, but couldn't seem to escape from that bar. Everytime the train "gently rocked", I was sent into the bar. On top of this awful trip, we couldn't check into our hotel in Florence until the following evening, so I walked the streets of Florence tired and with a terrible headache. I was so happy to crawl into bed that night! (OK, the ranting will now end, I promise.)

Florence and Rome were perhaps the most rushed cities that we visited. In Florence, we went on a tour of a leather factory, and then went on a walking tour of the city. That afternoon, we went by bus to Pisa. It was very fun to get to see the leaning tower in person. We all admired from a distance, though, too afraid that it would come tumbling down if we walked any nearer than we did. And, DK, you would be so proud - no one got lost here! (Although I can imagine how it could happen).

That night we had a delicious dinner - I'm convinced that there is no bad food in Italy. Then we took the graduates to the disco for a night of dancing. They had a great time, and it was fun to see them enjoying themselves so much.

The final leg of the trip was a side-venture to Assisi, and then onto Rome. While in Rome, we saw the Forum, the Colosseum, St. Peter's and the Vatican museums. After a full day, we went to bed early in anticipation of a long day traveling home.

It was a great trip, but I definitely prefer visiting fewer places and staying in those places for longer amounts of time. We took in alot of sites in a short amount of time and were very tired when we made it home. But, I now have a good idea of places that I would like to go if I ever make it back to Europe.

Class of 2008

It is hard to believe that Susanne has graduated from high school, but it happened. Almost 10 years to the day after Kathryn's graduation, we sat in the Greenwood Civic Center and watched Susanne walk down the aisle to Pomp and Circumstance and receive her diploma. It's hard to beleive that this day has already come.

Aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends came from Nebraska and North and South Carolina, as well as from across Mississippi for the celebration. We had a pre-graduation party at the Sturdivants' house and a post-graduation shin-dig at the Carroll County Market where King Billy played. Susanne couldn't join us for the shin-dig because all of the graduates were taken to Jackson on an all night mystery trip.

My cousin and the lead singer of the band really hit it off, so several of us met up with the band the next night - and Susanne was able to join us. We really loved their music. They will be featured on a Great American Country (GAC) special later this year (several of our group may have even made the video).

On Saturday afternoon, Kathryn went to Thomastown, MS with the girls of the family to see her great-aunt and great-uncle. It is always such a treat to see
them, and even more of a treat when they cook for us -which they did. Good old southern cooking at it's finest!

As always, it was so much fun spending time with the whole family and celebrating such a special occasion with Susanne. Congratulations and good luck at Birmingham-Southern! We love you!