So I can’t believe this is the 9th year for the Greenwood CHRISTmas letter…have we REALLY been married nine years!?!
Well,
where do we begin? This year the Greenwoods have done lots of
traveling. In March, we loaded up the kids and headed to Tennessee to
see Chris’ grandparents. We then headed south to Northern Georgia to
see Chris’ mom and step-dad. In April, we headed to Orlando, FL with
Sara’s family as part of our Christmas present. We had LOTS of fun
going to Animal Kingdom and Sea World and spending time with our
family. In May, we headed to NC to spend some time with Chris’ dad and
step-mom. We were able to spend a couple of days at the beach with them
and had LOTS of fun riding go-carts and playing putt-putt. In June,
Sara and the kids headed to GA to spend time with her family and some of
Chris’ family. While we were there, we celebrated Josiah’s birthday
early with a Thomas the Tank Engine party. The kids had LOTS of fun
swimming and running around. In July, Chris and Sara headed to Daytona
Beach, FL with the youth group from our church to be taught under Louie
Giglio and Chris Tomlin. We had a wonderful time hanging out and
building relationships with the youth. At the end of July, we headed to
VT to see Sara’s extended family. We were able to stay at her aunt’s
camp for a week and enjoy the peace and quiet of the country. The kids
had LOTS of fun fishing, tubing, kayaking, riding in the motor boat and
having LOTS of space to run around. As you can see, we had a very busy
year of travel, but we made LOTS of wonderful memories with our
children.
Speaking of our children…maybe it is a good time to
fill you in on what they are up to. Josiah is now 3 ½…yes, 3 ½! We
can’t believe that our first born is already that old. He continues to
be a great source of joy and laughter. His sense of humor has really
developed and actually makes jokes and picks up on things that are
funny. We are still debating where he gets this from…Chris often says
he lives with a bunch of crazy people, but really we are all normal and
Chris is the odd one out! He had a really great school year last year
and continues to be excited about “going” to school, so we have
continued with home schooling this year. A few things he is able to do
is read some simple books, begun to memorize scripture, is able to
tell me beginning sounds of words and is starting to make rhyming words.
He continues to amaze us with this memory…a quick story to share about
how amazing his memory is. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was buying
some ingredients to make hibernation cupcakes. We were at the store,
and I was explaining why we were buying all these ingredients. He said
that he had made hibernation cupcakes before—which we had. I asked him
if he remembered who he made the cupcakes with. He then told me with
his cousins Harper and Auden—which was correct. When I was telling
Chris about our conversation, I told him that I couldn’t believe he
remembered making cupcakes from last year, but then when we got to
thinking about it, we actually made the cupcakes 2 years ago! Did you
just hear that? That was the sound of us shuddering…I think we need to
be afraid…very afraid!
Sophie will be turning
2 in January. She continues to be the free-spirit of the family. She
is so full of life and energy…nothing slows her down. Sophie is one
smart little cookie—she believes if Josiah can do it, so can she. With
that, we went ahead and started school with her. Last spring, she
started picking up things as I was teaching Josiah…I wasn’t really
teaching her, but she just learned 12 shapes (she has a clock with 12
different shapes), all the colors, numbers 1-10 and the letters. So she
“goes” to school twice a week and gets a more focused time to work
with Mommy on lessons. She continues to do really well with the “Your
Baby Can Read” videos and
has begun to read quite a few words and sentences in books (many words
aren’t even part of the reading videos)! This reading
video series has truly amazed us and is well worth the money.
The most exciting news of the year is the arrival of Kyrie Eleison
(pronounced “K-long i R-long E”
“Ella-s-short o-n”). Let’s just say this little one made quite an
entrance into the world. We
found out around 36 weeks that Kyrie was breech, but we had a few more
weeks with the possibility of her turning. When I was about 37 weeks, I was driving
to meet Chris for lunch. I started feeling a little sick and then there was a brief moment where I
don’t remember anything. After I came
to, I remember seeing a green light with no traffic around and saying
to myself that I needed to go
because I didn’t want to hold up traffic. Later on, I realized that I
had blacked out. What I didn’t realize is that I
had rear-ended the car in front of me (the reason there were no
cars around me when I came to
was because they had pulled over into a parking lot). I was pretty close to home, so I called
Chris and told him I wasn’t feeling well and was just going home. He came home with lunch to check on me.
Shortly after he got home, a cop shows up at the door. The cop wanted
to know who the driver of the van was—that was the first time Chris saw
that there had been an accident. Chris explained that I had been
driving, but I was on the couch 37 weeks pregnant and not feeling very
well. The cop then explained that if I didn’t go back to the scene of
the accident, then he would have to charge me with a felony of hit and
run---OK, cue the COPS theme music right now. Once the cop saw me lying
on the couch looking miserable, he changed his tone quite a bit. Chris
drove me back to the scene of the accident, and we got everything
situated. When I got home, I decided to go ahead and call my OB to see
if I should go in for a visit. She told me that passing out is not a
normal side-effect of pregnancy and that I needed to go to Labor and
Deliver so the baby could be monitored. After spending a few hours in
L&D, they sent me to the ER so I could be monitored and have some
tests run to try to figure out why I had passed out. Eight hours later
no explanation of why I passed out came to light. We went back to the
doctor at 38 weeks to find out that she was still breech. Our doctors
are wonderful and wanted to try turning her before jumping to a
C-section…I was really thankful for that. At that appointment, we
decided that we would go in for the turning and an induction on Nov. 3rd. We arrived at the hospital on the 3rd
to find out that Kyrie was still breech. The doctor was going to go
ahead and turn her. Now, most women…so we are told …usually get an
epidural for the turning of the baby, but I absolutely DID NOT want an
epidural, so she went ahead and turned her without one (by the way, it
wasn’t painful). The doctor got Kyrie turned most of the way down, but
if my stomach was a clock face, her head stopped at 7. The doctor did
an ultrasound to find out why she couldn’t turn her anymore and
discovered that there was a foot covering my cervix. Since I had eaten
some toast, they weren’t able to do a C-section right away. So the next
four hours, the nurses were giving me different exercises to do to try
to get Kyrie to move her foot. The doctor came back to our room just
before noon to find that Kyrie’s foot hadn’t moved (Chris said that she
gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “digging your heels in”) and that
I had been having some contractions, so we decided it was best to go
ahead with the C-section. Now remember, I was adamant about not having
an epidural—this is how much I was—I asked the doctor if they could just
go ahead and knock me out and I would see everyone later that day.
After talking with the anesthesiologist, we decided that there were too
many risks with the whole knocking out option. This is when God really
started working on me. At this point, I had a choice to be anxious and
fearful, or I could trust Him and the doctors He created. With His
strength, I was able to trust Him which also allowed me to trust our
doctors. So at 12:05pm, I was walking into the OR in full-confidence
that God had His hands on me and the doctors. At 12:22pm, the doctor
was starting the incision and by 12:24pm, Kyrie Eleison was born
weighting 6 lbs. 8oz. and measuring 19 ¾ inches long. By 12:40pm, I was
being rolled into the recovery room. We are so thankful to God for
blessing us with a healthy little girl. Even though she made quite an
entrance into the world, she is very much a laid back and peaceful
baby. We are thankful that we have a God who cares about every detail
of our life and walks with us during those trying times.
As
for Chris and I, we are doing well. Chris continues to stay busy with
all his church responsibilities—we can’t believe we have been here for 3
years! I am so thankful that I am able to stay home with the kids and
to support Chris in his calling, which on some days feels like 2 full
time jobs, but I wouldn’t change it for anything because I am doing
exactly what God wants me to do. We look forward to seeing what God is
going to do in the Greenwood family in 2012!
Blessed because of Him,
Chris, Sara, Josiah, Sophie and Kyrie
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