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.

Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary, RuthAmy! Thanks for two wonderful years of love, friendship, help, encouragement, and faithfulness. Thanks for being a great wife and a great mom. And, especially, thanks for continuing to be a great wife after becoming a mom!

I love you, and I’m still committed to the promises that I made 2 years ago (and I think I understand them a little better now):

Declaration of Intent

Joshua, wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness, and in health? And forsaking all other, keep thee only to her, so long as you both shall live?

Covenant of Marriage

I Joshua take thee RuthAmy to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love and to cherish as Christ doth the Church, till death us depart, according to God’s holy ordinance; I will live with thee according to knowledge, I will esteem thee better than myself, I will sanctify thee for the Great Day of Judgment: And to this end I pledge thee my faithfulness.

Exchange of Rings

With this ring I thee wed: with my being I thee honor: and with all my worldly goods I thee endow. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Today is Becca’s 30-week birthday, on Tuesday her adjusted age reaches 4 months, and this Saturday Becca will celebrate her 7-month birthday! But our biggest celebration this week was Father’s Day! For Father’s Day, Becca made her daddy a card, soft tacos, and a three-layer strawberry cake. She wanted her daddy to know in just a small way how much she loves him and appreciates all that he does for her.

Becca had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. She now weighs 12lbs & 15oz. and is 23 1/4 in. long. Dr. Raine is pleased with her progress. Becca is making lots of sounds and has mastered the “geeeee” sound. On our recent trip (more below) she did a wonderful job traveling and was pretty happy on the plane flights. After sleeping in 6 different beds, she was very happy to come home and sleep in her own bed.

This past Saturday night, we flew home from our two-week trip to the east coast. We’re calling our trip “The Becca Tour”, since most of our trip was spent introducing Becca to family and friends. We spent the first few days in Greenville, SC, then we headed to Charleston, SC, for a wedding; from there we went to Atlanta, GA, and then flew to PA and drove to NJ. I’ve decided to spread out the pictures and stories from our tour over the next several blog posts.

The first part of our trip consisted of flying from Dallas, TX, to Greenville, SC, and spending Sunday through Thursday morning with Josh’s family. After we arrived at the Greenville airport, we drove to Spartanburg to say hello to our friends from Cleveland Park Bible Church. We were able to have dinner with Mrs. Burch and her family, and then stop by to visit Mr. Leo West. It was a busy afternoon. That evening we had dinner at Dad and Mom Jensen’s with the family and Grandpa and Grandma Hess. Becca enjoyed meeting everyone.

Becca met her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Jensen and other family members. She also spent time with her cousin, Baby Girl Floyd. We hope Baby Girl Floyd didn’t mind that Becca fell asleep on her “home.” Next week, we’ll continue pictures from the “Becca Tour.” Right now we’re recovering from our trip and enjoying being home. Next week , both Josh and I will start our “summer schedule” of dissertation research.

I recently caught a photo of Becca standing “on her own” next to the couch (with Daddy’s hand behind her, just in case). She can’t do it long — her head is still a bit too heavy relative to her neck strength, and she starts tipping.

And she can also “feed herself” from the bottle now. Not that the skill will come in handy much now that Mommy is home all day.

(Next week we’ll start back with the photo-filled posts.)

Becca’s been quite pleased to have Mommy with her all day!

And one more photo, for good measure. This one from the church nursery. (Sorry no collages this week.)

Today Becca is 27 weeks old! Saturday night we spent the evening with the family of one of Josh’s classmates from Russia. We had some delicious cold soup and got a walking tour of the GIAL campus. Sunday evening we had dinner at Micah and Anna’s new house. We also played Phase 10. (Sorry, Micah and Anna . .  . maybe you can beat us next time.) We enjoyed my extra day off (Memorial Day) and went to Chick-Fil-A to get our free sample of their new SPICY chicken sandwich — beware, it is spicy! Becca also helped Josh and me make lots of chocolate chip cookies to give to my students for their music party in class.  Even though Becca has had a very busy week, she still helped me out with the laundry Saturday morning.

This week, Becca was taken off her last medication (it was for reflux). We’re hoping she does fine without it! Today is my last day of teaching at Cochran Elementary. I’ll miss my students . . . but I’m ready to stay at home full-time with my little Becca.

Last post I mentioned the music program that Amy put on with her K-5 through 4th-grade students. Each grade level had their own song, and then at the end, everyone came on stage to sing “There is a state that we all know and Texas is it’s name-o . . . ”

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The kids and their parents seemed to enjoy the evening, as I did. I’m proud of my wife: she’s a great teacher. And I’m also proud of her commitment to give up something she loves to stay home full-time for our child(ren). (The “ren” part is our ultimate plan, but not an announcement.)

Today Becca celebrates her 6-month birthday, and tomorrow marks 26 weeks “on the outside.” It’s hard to believe Becca is already half a year old. We’re enjoying our little girl so much and are thankful for the ways the Lord protected her during her first months in the NICU. (This week we stopped by the NICU during the day shift — we made a visit a month ago during the night shift — and Becca brought smiles to everyone’s faces!)

Becca celebrated this morning by going with me to a meeting with my dissertation advisor and getting captured. An admin from an office across the hall — a grandmother, I think — came into my advisor’s office and held her hands out for Becca. So I handed her over. Without a word, she took Becca away! I went to check on Becca and found her hanging out with the ladies at the English Language Institute.

Last weekend we celebrated the end of my semester with a fabulous strawberry cake made by Amy and a meal at Kincaid’s Hamburgers, where we went last year for my birthday.

Also this weekend, Amy made 240 chocolate chip cookies for end-of-the-year parties for her 6 Monday classes (she won’t see them next week because of Memorial Day). This weekend she’ll be making cookies for the other 25 classes! Thankfully, a local grocer had a great Betty Crocker cookie mix on sale a couple weeks ago, so mixing the dough wasn’t quite as time consuming as last year. Like last year, Amy is again making popcorn at her parties, too.

Last night, Becca attended Amy’s music program at Cochran Elementary School. Amy’s kids were happy to finally meet  baby Becca. If you didn’t see them, earlier this week we posted some videos of Becca talking and playing.

Becca pets and talks to her sock monkey (both videos):

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Amy talks with Becca about her afternoon with Debbie, who was babysitting for a couple hours. (From April.)

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Today is Becca’s (adjusted) 3-month birthday! (That is, if she’d been born on her due date, she’d be 3 months old today.)

Today is Becca-bear’s 25-week birthday! Becca is enjoying being with her daddy while I’m at school – they’re having lots of fun together. Josh even got Becca to help him with some grading! I don’t have much time to post right now…so, I’ll simply leave you with some pictures from the past week.

Today we are celebrating Becca’s 24 week birthday! This weekend we plan to celebrate the end of Josh’s semester and school year. Josh has one more paper to turn in today and then must finish entering grades for the class he’s been teaching; then the semester will be officially over. We were delighted with Josh’s successful proposal defense on Tuesday, and are thankful for the many ways we have seen the Lord work on our behalf this school year.

I had a wonderful first Mother’s Day. It is truly a joy to be a mommy – I love it! There is nothing like seeing my little girl smile and hearing her squeal with delight. I was surprised by how many cards I received from family and friends – thank you! Josh bought me some gerbera daisies and made omelets for lunch. Becca’s present to me was sleeping from 10:20 Sunday night to 6 o’clock Monday morning.

I’ve been enjoying my music teaching at Cochran Elementary. There are only 13 (working) days left in the school year – time is flying by so fast, and I’m having fun with my kids. Several people have asked me if it’s hard to leave Becca each school morning. As much as I don’t like leaving Josh or Becca, I always feel bad telling people that it’s not that hard to leave home each day. I was pondering why I feel this way and then realized that leaving Becca for 8 hours each day is nothing compared to the day I went home from the hospital and had to leave her behind or to the many nights I had to leave her in the NICU. Now that Becca is home, I get to come back from school each afternoon and be with my little girl all night long.

Becca is doing great. I’m teaching her how to jump on the bed and she loves it! We also had our first tea-party Monday night. Becca had a little trouble holding her tea cup, but we’ll have lots of practice sessions so she gets the hang of it. We’re starting to see Becca reach out for things – she’s so cute to watch and fills our home with buckets full of joy.

Today, Josh successfully defended his dissertation proposal! We’ve been praying about his defense since August and are delighted that Josh was able to defend before the end of the school year.  I’m extremely proud of my husband. Josh has had many “interruptions” during this school year (my hospitalization, Becca’s time in the NICU, etc.) and has continued to be a good husband, father, teacher, and student throughout them all. Darling, I’m so proud of you – I adore you!

(Below is the abstract for Josh’s proposal.)

The public is invited to a dissertation proposal defense by Joshua Jensen.

Date: Next week, Tuesday May 11, 2010

Time: 2.30 PM

Location: Trimble Hall, Room 200

Title of Proposal: “Jarai Clause Structure & Serial Verb Constructions”

This dissertation will investigate the structure of clauses in Jarai (Austronesian; Vietnam and Cambodia), with a special focus on grammatical functions and multi-verb clauses. The research will establish language-internal criteria for (1) determining the syntax of clauses, (2) identifying grammatical functions such as subject and object, and (3) identifying and categorizing serial verb constructions, clauses which have two verbs without any indication of subordination or coordination. The investigation of serial verb constructions will address both their typological characteristics (Durie 1997, Aikhenvald and Dixon 2006) and their syntactic structure (Baker 1989, Collins 1997, Baker and Stewart 1999).