Isn't this new facelift great? Blane helped me. He picked the khaki colored background because it is "like the color of the sand on the beach." And, the header is like "the ocean." Cool idea. Thanks, Blane! Ally Beth picked the fonts and helped with colors. They are pretty good at this thing!
Sorry for the absence in posting. Life has been flying at the speed of light! In May, we had Tony's birthday, then 3 days later Caleb's birthday, then Caleb's dedication and first birthday party, then 2 weeks later Ally Beth's birthday. Sandwiched inbetween was the news that we lost a baby. And, there were medical complications associated with that. The posts below will catch you all up to speed on the highs and lows of the last month of our lives.
Love you all! Hope you are having a GREAT summer!
The Busti Bunch
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Eight is GREAT!
Ally Beth is 8 YEARS OLD! I can hardly believe it! We had a grand time celebrating with Grammy last week! We had an ice cream theme celebration. She got the James Avery Ice Cream Cone charm to add to her charm bracelet. We went to see UP! and afterwards went for ice cream, just like in the movie!
Then, on Sunday, we went out to Drew & Jessica Alexander's new place outside of Gatesville (LOVE IT!) and the kids kayaked (thank you, Drew!), hiked around, shot guns and went on a "safari" in the back of Drew's truck. They now live on a ranch that has zebras, elk, axis, black deer and lots of other fun animals you don't see everyday. Don't worry, they didn't shoot any of the animals. We just looked at them. She had an AWESOME birthday and is still hung over with a big case of chigger bites all over! That was one of the Alexander's presents to her for her birthday...hee, hee!
Here's a few pics I took of Ally Beth for her 8 year portraits...
Happy Birthday to the wildest and craziest girl we know! WE LOVE YOU!!! You make our home so vibrant and alive!
Then, on Sunday, we went out to Drew & Jessica Alexander's new place outside of Gatesville (LOVE IT!) and the kids kayaked (thank you, Drew!), hiked around, shot guns and went on a "safari" in the back of Drew's truck. They now live on a ranch that has zebras, elk, axis, black deer and lots of other fun animals you don't see everyday. Don't worry, they didn't shoot any of the animals. We just looked at them. She had an AWESOME birthday and is still hung over with a big case of chigger bites all over! That was one of the Alexander's presents to her for her birthday...hee, hee!
Here's a few pics I took of Ally Beth for her 8 year portraits...
Happy Birthday to the wildest and craziest girl we know! WE LOVE YOU!!! You make our home so vibrant and alive!
Caleb Cam: ONE YEAR OLD!
Caleb turned one at the end of May! He was dedicated to the Lord at our church the last Sunday of May. All of our family and a few close friends came to the service to participate in his dedication.
After the service, we stayed at the community center (where our church currently meets) and partied with our family and friends. We celebrated both Caleb's birthday and dedication with a pizza party and yummy cake. Here are some pics:
Praying over Caleb as we dedicated him to our Lord:
Opening gifts at his party afterwards: 
We had a dog themed birthday party. Caleb LOVES dogs. When he hears one bark, his eyes light up, he signs "dog, dog, dog" over and over and he has even started trying to bark back at the dogs! Too funny! Since the name Caleb means "dogged determination," we figured a dog party would be fitting!
Grammy and I had fun making the cakes! THANK YOU, Grammy!
Here's Caleb's own little cake:
The big cake:
Here's Caleb chowing down! Forget the fingers, let's go face first!
Also, in my continued attempts "to be like Hannah" (our fab photographer friend), here are Caleb's one year portraits, as feebly taken by mommy...I still have a long way to go, Hannah!
Here's the birthday boy in his new pool from Grammy & Big Daddy! 
Here's Caleb in his car that he got from Grandma and Doh-Doh. He loves it!
"Hi, Baby!"
He loves to look in the mirror at the baby looking back at him. He waves to the baby and even gives the baby kisses.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Baby Haven
On May 26, almost 10 years to the day we found out we were expecting Blane, we found out that God had graced my body yet again with another miracle baby. This was the 5th time I had had the privilege to hold one of our children in my womb and I was thrilled...and scared. After losing Taylor, I don't know that I will ever have a pregnancy where the first trimester doesn't leave me sweating. I had estimated I was 6 weeks along.
On May 31, at the end of Caleb's first birthday party, we broke the news to our family and friends in attendance. Everyone was surprised. We told them early on in order to have their prayer support. God knew we would need it.
Early morning on June 2, I began to suspect a miscarriage. Jessica came to take care of the kids while I went up to Scott & White to establish care with a new ob/gyn. As a new patient, there is a lot of protocol and red tape to just get an appointment with a doctor. Instead of going through all of the motions, I asked to speak to a nurse because I felt I was miscarrying. Instead of going through all the lab work, meeting with a financial adviser, etc, the receptionist amazingly sent me to see a nurse. The nurse relayed the message to the Dr. that I was wanting to see. Tony had done a rotation with Dr. Sulak during his residency and he had great respect for her. She is a Christian and a strong pro-life physician. She is the author of the public school geared abstinence curriculum called "Worth the Wait." Tony had done some volunteer work with her organization, so we had a tie to her. We doubted, however that she would remember us.
The nurse relayed the info to Dr. Sulak and I was called back immediately. When she walked into the exam room, she said, "I know you. Are you Anthony's wife?" After 8 years, she remembered Tony! She said she remembered Tony well and was excited I had come to be her patient. Then, she jumped right into the exam.
Right away, we knew something was wrong. She had pulled in another couple doctors because she couldn't determine the placement of the baby. They suspected that the baby had implanted in my cervix, but weren't for absolute certain.
They wanted to do more scans in an hour. In that hour, I called Tony and a few friends and had them praying. I also picked up the book I had brought with me, hoping for some direction.
Our church had just given each mom the book, "Loving God with All Your Mind" by Elizabeth George. (Susan, did you know you picked this book JUST FOR ME? The Holy Spirit has really used it! Thank you!!!) I had brought it with me and opened it up in that hour wait to see if it had any emergency wisdom from the Lord for me. When I opened the book to where my bookmark was, the title of the chapter was "Trusting the Lord." Coincedence? I think not. To quote Aunt Denise, "It was a GODcident." Here are some tidbits from that chapter:
**We should always filter every pain through the lens of deity. When God is in sharp focus, then life is also undistorted.
**When we acknowledge God's supreme role in our lives and set our minds on Him, He enables us to be filled with hope (depsite our circumstances).
**God was and is with us always...HE DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES...HE IS ALWAYS IN CONTROL.
**(No mattter what we face), we must know that God is in control...His end will be good...He will work all things together for good
Armed with encouragement, I headed back upstairs only to get the diagnosis I was dreading. The baby had indeed implanted in my cervix and the placenta had already imbedded itself in the cervical wall, very near a major artery. And, it appeared that a miscarriage was beginning.
Did I mention at the beginning of this story that Tony was out of town? Oh, yes. That's a minor detail. May I advise that you not go to your first ob appointment without your husband, or at least a dear friend?
Tony was in Dallas leading a NAPLEX review course for graduating pharm students from 5 different universities. He was flying solo on the review this year, so he couldn't leave. He felt terrible not being able to be with me.
So, since that dark, hard day, we waited and prayed that the 50/50 chance of hemorrhage and emergency hysterectomy would not occur. I was not allowed to go beyond a half hour from Scott & White, just in case I began to hemorrhage. Things were not looking good for 2 weeks. However, I've rounded a corner and we now see the light at the end of this sad, scary tunnel and we are thankful for God's ever presence during this dark night of our souls.
The day we found out we were losing our baby, I began to think of a name for him/her. Names are so important to me. They are to God, too! As I prayed for God to lead me to a name, the name Haven came to mind. I have always liked the name Haven after hearing a lady in BSF years ago tell about her child named Haven. I think the Lord stirred me to like this name because it would come to mean so much to me in the future.
Our baby could not find a safe Haven in me to implant and grow, so the Lord took our baby to the safest Haven of all...His arms. One day, we will see this baby. But for now, our sweet Haven is safe and healthy. That is all we need to know. How neat to think that these little siblings, Taylor and Haven, are sharing eternity together and we will join them some day. Taylor and Haven have some cousins there, too! They are getting an edge on the family reunion that we are not yet a part of. Some day. What blessed hope.
As I mentioned before, God has really used the Elizabeth George book ("Loving God with All Your Mind") to bring us to Him and give us His perspective in this situation. Elizabeth shared that she had endured a violent earthquake and knew in the midst of it all that she was safe in His care. We felt that we had endured an earthquake of sorts, yet we know that both we and our baby are all safe...in His sovereign care, a sweet Haven of refuge.
No matter what you may be facing, the Lord wants you to know that you are not out of His grasp. I would like to encourage you with a few lines from "Loving God with All Your Mind." Some of these quotes are Elizabeth's and some are from her favorite authors/pastors:
**Nothing will ever happen to you that God does not already know about (Ps. 139:1-4)
**Nothing will ever happen to you that is a mistake (Ps. 139:4,16)
**Nothing will ever happen that you cannot handle by God's power and grace (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
**Nothing will ever happen to you that will not eventually be used by God for some good purpose in your life (Rom 8:28)
**Nothing will every happen to you without God's presence (Mt. 28:20)
**Instead of asking, "What does this mean to me?" ask instead, "What does this mean to God?"
**(when facing painful circumstances), be faith oriented, not feeling oriented, about your pain.
**Everything- every person, every event- that touches us is for the purpose of making us like Christ...God will use whatever He permits to happen to us to fulfill His purposes and to make us more like Jesus.
**It is in limiting that God reveals the limitlessness of His power and grace and purposes.
**God Himself is at the helm, ordering all things after the counsel of His own will. He has a plan and He is carrying it out; He has a throne and that throne rules over all.
**Simply take all of the un-understandable events in your life- the wonderings, the why's, and the bewilderment over the things that happen to you and to others- and file them between God's wisdom and God's knowledge. You don't understand these occurrences...and you never will, because you can't! But God does. And so we rest in Him. Peace and order- and greater love for God- is yours when you place the impossible-to-understand issues and incidents in your life between His infinite wisdom and His all-encompassing knowledge. Oh, the depths of the riches of both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
**As hard as it is and in whatever the situation...when we don't understand, like, or agree with the way life has gone, WE ARE TO BOW BEFORE GOD and once again confess that we cannot understand His wisdom and knowledge. IN FAITH, WE ARE TO ACCEPT HIS WISDOM, HIS WORD, AND HIS WORKINGS, AND TRUST IN HIM, EVEN IN THE DARK.
**God in His infinte wisdom is always working toward predestined goals with His flawless precision.
**Trustfulness is based on confidence in God whose ways I do not understand; if I did, there would be no need for trust.
**I don't have to understand everything...I can't understand everything...I don't need to understand everything...the man Job in the OT never asked why when he was suffering. He worshipped instead...Let go of your right to know why.
(Interjection: Here's something Brett Adams encouraged us to do...STOP, DROP and WORSHIP.)
**What greater way is there to show our love for God than to fully accept His will and His ways in our lives and to trust Him fully and completely...even in the dark...even in accepting the unacceptable?
Thank you for your love, prayers, cards, calls, and meals. You have blessed us.
God is good...all the time...He gives and takes away...Blessed be His name!
Love, Amy
On May 31, at the end of Caleb's first birthday party, we broke the news to our family and friends in attendance. Everyone was surprised. We told them early on in order to have their prayer support. God knew we would need it.
Early morning on June 2, I began to suspect a miscarriage. Jessica came to take care of the kids while I went up to Scott & White to establish care with a new ob/gyn. As a new patient, there is a lot of protocol and red tape to just get an appointment with a doctor. Instead of going through all of the motions, I asked to speak to a nurse because I felt I was miscarrying. Instead of going through all the lab work, meeting with a financial adviser, etc, the receptionist amazingly sent me to see a nurse. The nurse relayed the message to the Dr. that I was wanting to see. Tony had done a rotation with Dr. Sulak during his residency and he had great respect for her. She is a Christian and a strong pro-life physician. She is the author of the public school geared abstinence curriculum called "Worth the Wait." Tony had done some volunteer work with her organization, so we had a tie to her. We doubted, however that she would remember us.
The nurse relayed the info to Dr. Sulak and I was called back immediately. When she walked into the exam room, she said, "I know you. Are you Anthony's wife?" After 8 years, she remembered Tony! She said she remembered Tony well and was excited I had come to be her patient. Then, she jumped right into the exam.
Right away, we knew something was wrong. She had pulled in another couple doctors because she couldn't determine the placement of the baby. They suspected that the baby had implanted in my cervix, but weren't for absolute certain.
They wanted to do more scans in an hour. In that hour, I called Tony and a few friends and had them praying. I also picked up the book I had brought with me, hoping for some direction.
Our church had just given each mom the book, "Loving God with All Your Mind" by Elizabeth George. (Susan, did you know you picked this book JUST FOR ME? The Holy Spirit has really used it! Thank you!!!) I had brought it with me and opened it up in that hour wait to see if it had any emergency wisdom from the Lord for me. When I opened the book to where my bookmark was, the title of the chapter was "Trusting the Lord." Coincedence? I think not. To quote Aunt Denise, "It was a GODcident." Here are some tidbits from that chapter:
**We should always filter every pain through the lens of deity. When God is in sharp focus, then life is also undistorted.
**When we acknowledge God's supreme role in our lives and set our minds on Him, He enables us to be filled with hope (depsite our circumstances).
**God was and is with us always...HE DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES...HE IS ALWAYS IN CONTROL.
**(No mattter what we face), we must know that God is in control...His end will be good...He will work all things together for good
Armed with encouragement, I headed back upstairs only to get the diagnosis I was dreading. The baby had indeed implanted in my cervix and the placenta had already imbedded itself in the cervical wall, very near a major artery. And, it appeared that a miscarriage was beginning.
Did I mention at the beginning of this story that Tony was out of town? Oh, yes. That's a minor detail. May I advise that you not go to your first ob appointment without your husband, or at least a dear friend?
Tony was in Dallas leading a NAPLEX review course for graduating pharm students from 5 different universities. He was flying solo on the review this year, so he couldn't leave. He felt terrible not being able to be with me.
So, since that dark, hard day, we waited and prayed that the 50/50 chance of hemorrhage and emergency hysterectomy would not occur. I was not allowed to go beyond a half hour from Scott & White, just in case I began to hemorrhage. Things were not looking good for 2 weeks. However, I've rounded a corner and we now see the light at the end of this sad, scary tunnel and we are thankful for God's ever presence during this dark night of our souls.
The day we found out we were losing our baby, I began to think of a name for him/her. Names are so important to me. They are to God, too! As I prayed for God to lead me to a name, the name Haven came to mind. I have always liked the name Haven after hearing a lady in BSF years ago tell about her child named Haven. I think the Lord stirred me to like this name because it would come to mean so much to me in the future.
Our baby could not find a safe Haven in me to implant and grow, so the Lord took our baby to the safest Haven of all...His arms. One day, we will see this baby. But for now, our sweet Haven is safe and healthy. That is all we need to know. How neat to think that these little siblings, Taylor and Haven, are sharing eternity together and we will join them some day. Taylor and Haven have some cousins there, too! They are getting an edge on the family reunion that we are not yet a part of. Some day. What blessed hope.
As I mentioned before, God has really used the Elizabeth George book ("Loving God with All Your Mind") to bring us to Him and give us His perspective in this situation. Elizabeth shared that she had endured a violent earthquake and knew in the midst of it all that she was safe in His care. We felt that we had endured an earthquake of sorts, yet we know that both we and our baby are all safe...in His sovereign care, a sweet Haven of refuge.
No matter what you may be facing, the Lord wants you to know that you are not out of His grasp. I would like to encourage you with a few lines from "Loving God with All Your Mind." Some of these quotes are Elizabeth's and some are from her favorite authors/pastors:
**Nothing will ever happen to you that God does not already know about (Ps. 139:1-4)
**Nothing will ever happen to you that is a mistake (Ps. 139:4,16)
**Nothing will ever happen that you cannot handle by God's power and grace (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
**Nothing will ever happen to you that will not eventually be used by God for some good purpose in your life (Rom 8:28)
**Nothing will every happen to you without God's presence (Mt. 28:20)
**Instead of asking, "What does this mean to me?" ask instead, "What does this mean to God?"
**(when facing painful circumstances), be faith oriented, not feeling oriented, about your pain.
**Everything- every person, every event- that touches us is for the purpose of making us like Christ...God will use whatever He permits to happen to us to fulfill His purposes and to make us more like Jesus.
**It is in limiting that God reveals the limitlessness of His power and grace and purposes.
**God Himself is at the helm, ordering all things after the counsel of His own will. He has a plan and He is carrying it out; He has a throne and that throne rules over all.
**Simply take all of the un-understandable events in your life- the wonderings, the why's, and the bewilderment over the things that happen to you and to others- and file them between God's wisdom and God's knowledge. You don't understand these occurrences...and you never will, because you can't! But God does. And so we rest in Him. Peace and order- and greater love for God- is yours when you place the impossible-to-understand issues and incidents in your life between His infinite wisdom and His all-encompassing knowledge. Oh, the depths of the riches of both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
**As hard as it is and in whatever the situation...when we don't understand, like, or agree with the way life has gone, WE ARE TO BOW BEFORE GOD and once again confess that we cannot understand His wisdom and knowledge. IN FAITH, WE ARE TO ACCEPT HIS WISDOM, HIS WORD, AND HIS WORKINGS, AND TRUST IN HIM, EVEN IN THE DARK.
**God in His infinte wisdom is always working toward predestined goals with His flawless precision.
**Trustfulness is based on confidence in God whose ways I do not understand; if I did, there would be no need for trust.
**I don't have to understand everything...I can't understand everything...I don't need to understand everything...the man Job in the OT never asked why when he was suffering. He worshipped instead...Let go of your right to know why.
(Interjection: Here's something Brett Adams encouraged us to do...STOP, DROP and WORSHIP.)
**What greater way is there to show our love for God than to fully accept His will and His ways in our lives and to trust Him fully and completely...even in the dark...even in accepting the unacceptable?
Thank you for your love, prayers, cards, calls, and meals. You have blessed us.
God is good...all the time...He gives and takes away...Blessed be His name!
Love, Amy
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