It’s hard to believe that 35 weeks ago our little girl was only 2lbs and living in an incubator surrounded by tubes and wire. We’re delighted that God has blessed us with a beautiful, healthy baby girl. She brings us so much joy. Both Josh and I are enjoying our play-times with Becca each day. Becca loves bouncing around and flying high in the air. Being a preemie must have made her tough, because Becca seems to love roughhousing. I guess she’ll be prepared for any brothers the Lord may send her.

I don’t often think about the stress surrounding Becca’s birth, but this past week I saw what the “high stress” did to my eyes. Since my work medical insurance runs out in August, we’re taking full advantage of any health-related paid appointments. I had an eye check-up last Thursday and after looking into my eyes, the doctor told me I have “retina vascular changes due to high stress.”  Knowing I had recently had a baby, he asked if I had experienced stress related to her early birth. For those who are interested, the picture on the left shows the veins in my retina. Normal veins are typically strong and straight. The doctor told me that “high stress” causes these veins to become weakened, making them squiggly. The changes my retina has experienced are not a major concern right now; the doctor just wanted to take a picture for future reference. On another note – my insurance also allowed for me to get new glass…you’ll have to wait until next week to see what we chose.

Last Thursday we went to an outdoor showing of “How to Train Your Dragon.” UTA shows free outdoor movies every Thursday night about a block from our apartment. The weather was great – it cooled off and there was a lovely breeze during the movie. Josh enjoyed the free popcorn UTA provided and I enjoyed the butter-free popcorn Josh made for me to eat! Friday night we visited two parks in the area. Arlington has tons of parks, and I found out that three of their parks have equipment for water play. I was excited about going and playing in the water….and then it rained. We still went to two of the parks to check out their equipment and enjoyed walking in the rain. (Doesn’t Becca do a great job taking pictures of us?)

Sunday night we have John and Shawn Lutz over for dinner, and Tuesday night we had dinner with the Bentons (Matt Benton was a classmate of Josh). the Bentons are lending us a play gym for Becca. So far she seems to like her new toy! My dairy-free, soy-free diet is going well. We haven’t seen any significant changes with Becca yet, but we’re hoping to see improvement in the next few weeks. I’d appreciate any suggestions for dairy-free/soy-free recipes.

Eight months ago today, our little precious Becca-Bear was born. We’re so thrilled with the treasure God has given us. We love you, Becca-Bear!

If Becca had been born on her due date, today would be her 5-month birthday. This week Becca got an early 1st year birthday present: Grammy Sutter made Becca her very first dolly and named her Eva. My mom’s first doll was made by her grandmother, my mom made me my first doll, and now my mom has made Becca her first doll. Grammy spent hours sewing Eva and did a lot of work hand-stitching her face. Becca seems to like Eva, and I think they are going to have many fun adventure in the years to come.

We’ve had a good week. Friday night our date was a trip to Rita’s Italian Ice. My brother, Dan, gave me a Rita’s giftcard last year for my birthday. We were waiting until this summer to use it and enjoyed our weekend treat. It was really nice for me, since I can’t have dairy, to eat something that was cold and sweet, without having to worry about milk ingredients.

Monday evening we had one of my former BJU roommates over for dinner. Kimberly and I were roommate during the first semester of my senior year, Fall 2003. Kimberly was a freshman in the academy. We’ve stayed in touch since then and have been planning to get together since I moved with Josh out to Texas. It was great to see Kimberly again, and I look forward to seeing her more this summer.

Josh gave me a wonderful birthday. He made me birthday oatmeal for breakfast, birthday eggs for lunch, and birthday tacos for dinner. He also made my birthday watermelon fruit basket (something my mom made for me on my first birthday and many years after). In the evening, we went on a birthday walk, played a birthday game of Othello, ate some birthday popcorn, read my birthday card, and did some birthday reading in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It was a lovely day and I enjoyed the extra activities we did together. I am REALLY excited about my birthday gift from Josh. . . . It won’t be done for a while, so you’ll have to wait to find out what it is!

Now, to wrap up the photos from the Becca Tour. While in PA, we visited with Mr. and Mrs. Burd. It was Becca’s first time in a pool, and both Josh and I enjoyed swimming. While in NJ, we spent the night at America’s Keswick and took a quick trip to see Harvey Cedars Bible Conference. It was fun to show Josh some places where I’d spent time when I was younger.

One other important person Becca met on this trip was her Great Uncle Johnny. Uncle Johnny called me every day from the time he found out I was in the hospital until the day Becca came home from the hospital. Becca spit up on Uncle John’s shirt. . . . I figured that was her way of letting him know that she likes him. Becca also got to meet Owen Bucholtz. Owen was born at 28 weeks on September 28, 2009, and went home from the NICU a few weeks before Becca was born. It was encouraging to see his pictures and hear of his progress while Becca was in the NICU.

This concludes the pictures from the Becca Tour. Becca seemed to enjoy meeting everyone and we enjoyed showing our little girl off to our friends and family.

Twenty-eight years ago today was one of the most important days of my life: my (then future) wife was born at home in Piscataway, NJ, delivered by the EMT. (She’s quite a bit happier today than she was then.)

Happy Birthday, RuthAmy Sutter Jensen! I love you.

Amy entered this photo of Becca in the Cow Appreciation Day contest at Chick-Fil-A’s website. If you think she’s cute, you can vote for her. (You have to enter your email address and confirm your vote after they send you a confirmation email. But it looks like you don’t get entered onto a marketing list or anything. Only one vote per person, please.)

Today is Becca’s 33-week birthday! As for last Thursday, her weight was 14lbs and 2oz and she was almost 24 in. Our week’s excitement was celebrating Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A. For those of you who don’t know, Chick-Fil-A gave away free meals to anyone who dressed up like a cow on July 9th. We had fun dressing up and eating our meals. Becca was a star at the restaurant! When we walked into Chick-Fil-A, the staff cheered and clapped for us.

Speaking of cows, this week Becca was diagnosed with milk and soy protein allergy. Her body has trouble breaking down the protein in milk and soy (which is similar to milk). This means Mommy has to stay away from eating all dairy products and soy products (except soybean oil and lecithin). The nurse practitioner gave me a list of ingredients to stay away from and told me the diet basically consists on meat, veggies, and fruit . . . it’s amazing how many things contain soy.

Josh and I continue to work on projects relating to our degrees. We’re making good use of UTA’s library, inter-library loan system, and online databases. Becca is doing a great job keeping herself (and us) entertained while we study. She usually eats around 6AM and then goes back to sleep until 10ish. This usually give me a solid two hours to work on my research. Josh entertains Becca in the late mornings . .  . as you can see in the pictures, they have exciting times together. Becca has been enjoying helping me in the kitchen. I made her Kitchen Queen for a day.

Now for more pictures from the Becca Tour. Becca got to meet all of Josh’s immediate family. The Erkens were visiting from China — it was great for the whole family to be together! Becca also met all four of my brothers and my three sisters-in-law. And she got to meet Grandfather David Emil Sutter (my dad) for the first time. I enjoyed watching my dad playing with Becca. Grandpa enjoyed giving Becca watermelon, and she seemed to enjoy it too!

Today is Becca’s 32-week birthday! We’ve had an exciting week with many new experiences for Becca. Saturday morning, Becca attended her first parade. The Arlington 4th of July parade was just a few blocks from our apartment. We enjoyed seeing the floats and marching bands participating in the parade. Later that evening we went downtown (about 1 mile away from our apartment) and saw an excellent fireworks show. Becca wasn’t too interested in the fireworks, and the noise — we were pretty close to them — didn’t seem to bother her at all.

Becca tried her johnny jump-up this week. She’s still a little too small for it, but enjoys bouncing and swinging in it. She’ll enjoy it more once she’ s a little taller. Becca also started rolling over this week. Becca uses to roll over a lot, but that was because her head was too big for her neck strength. As soon as Becca could keep her balance, she stopped rolling over. We’ve been practicing with her, and this past weekend she “got it”!

As promised last week, I have some more pictures from the Becca Tour to post. We spent three days in Charleston, SC, for the wedding of Steffanie Horak to Chris Arnold. Steff and I grew up together in NJ and have lots of memories and stories to share. It was a beautiful wedding held at the Magnolia Gardens and we’re delighted that the Lord has brought Chris and Steff together.

While in Charleston, we stayed with James and Deb (Kwan) Flower. Deb and I met at BJU and she spent a few Christmases with our family. Due to the early arrival of Becca, I missed Deb’s wedding in December. I was so happy we got a chance see her and meet her husband, James, on our trip. Deb is expecting a little girl in September and we’re looking forward to Becca’s new “cousin.”

While on our trip, Becca got to meet all her grandparents, one great grandfather, all four great-grandmothers, and (most special of all) Becca got to meet her 101 year-old great-great-grandmother. Great-great-grandma Hanyen is my father’s mother’s mother. We were able to get a five-generation picture, while up in NJ. We’re very thankful for the godly heritage God has given our little Becca. Next week, I’ll post picture of the PA/NJ part of our trip.

Today is Becca’s 31-week birthday! It’s hard to believe that it’s been 31 weeks since Becca’s unexpected arrival on Thanksgiving day. This week I took a picture of Becca in one of my baby dresses to match a picture taken of me when I was about 5 months. Josh and I are enjoying our play times with Becca. During the day, we have different times each of us takes turns playing with Becca . . . it’s much more fun than working on our research.

We’re had an exciting weekend and enjoyed spending time with some of our friends. On Friday, we had lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Olson (photo to left). They met Becca for the first time and she enjoyed being with them as well. Friday evening, we had René and Yani Rodriguez and their daughter Amaris over for dinner (photo right). Amaris is about 5 months old and it was neat to see our two babies interact. When we put them on the floor together, Becca took Amaris’ toy away from her. I don’t think either girl had any idea what was going on, but we all enjoyed watching them. (Photo of the two at the bottom of the post.)

Sunday night, we attended a Concert in the Garden by the Fort Worth Symphony. We were able to bring chairs and sit on the lawn of Fort Worth’s Botanical Garden and enjoy a night of music by Russian composers. They ended the evening with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, using fireworks instead of cannon fire. I wondered how the fireworks would affect Becca, but I didn’t have to worry . . . she slept peacefully through the entire fireworks show.

This past Monday, Josh and I celebrated our 2nd year wedding anniversary. Josh made me a beautiful poster with photos surrounding our wedding program. I am so thankful for my husband and the 2 years of marriage the Lord has given us. I am blessed to be married to my best friend and look forward to many exciting years ahead.

As promised, I’m including more pictures from our trip. We visited some of our friends at Bob Jones University while in Greenville (on the left you can see Becca with Mrs. Eby, Mrs. Johnson, Dr. Guthrie, and Dr. Eby). It was good to see them for a few minutes. We saw both Dr. Jaeggli and Dr. Bell (photo right). We’re hoping Becca can take Hebrew from them someday. We also spent some time with Rebekah Pringle — both Becca and I enjoyed the delicious lunch she made us! (See photo at bottom.) Next week, we’ll post pictures from our time in Charleston.

Today is also my parents’ wedding anniversary! Happy anniversary, Dad & Mom! Thanks for being a wonderful example of marriage and parenting to us.