Wesley Adam Mills, Jr.

We are proud to announce that we have a little boy, Wesley Adam Mills, Jr. His little body is growing and he has a very strong heartbeat and for that we are so very thankful. Please remember this and rejoice with us as you continue reading.

We headed to our 18 week check-up, on Thursday, with high excitement as we were hoping to find out the gender and get to see pictures of our sweet baby. We left with much different feelings...

During our routine sonogram (our first one for this pregnancy) we found out that our little boy has a birth defect, Anencephaly. Basically, this means that the portion of the neural tube that forms the brain does not close. Consequently, infants with this condition lack parts of their brain, skull, and scalp. They are often born without a forebrain and a cerebrum. Life outside the womb is suspected to be minutes.

Our hearts are broken.

And yet, we are fighting for joy.
Joy that the Lord most graciously gives.
"I will be filled with joy because of You. I will sing praises to Your name, O Most High."
Psalm 9:2

While medical practitioners have diagnosed Wesley Adam with a defect, diagnoses are sometimes wrong. Even if it is accurate, we serve the Creator, Sustainer, and Healer of life. He can change these circumstances if it is His will.

We don't know how long the Lord will give our Wesley Adam life, but we will carry our child as long as He gives. We know that the weeks ahead of us will be full of times of sorrow but full of times of joy as well.

Let us pray for the Lord’s will to be done and make the request for healing an urgent one. We pray in faith that God will accomplish His purposes even if the outcome is different than we would script it to be. It is our hearts deepest desire and we pray that the Lord will use Wesley Adam and his story to turn other people's affections toward our Almighty God.

Please join us in these prayers.

Back by popular demand.

I have had a few people tell me that they enjoyed using my recipe blog that I started over a year ago. I had removed it from this page since I had not been frequently updating it. It is now accessible on the right sidebar of this page. I hope to begin updating it again shortly. Enjoy!

Dr. appt, new niece, and a wedding.

Last Thursday, Bri had an appointment with her pediatric urologist to check for scarring on her kidneys. It has been a year since her last UTI and so we were hopeful for a positive report. We got it!! The dr. said her kidneys were clear! We are very thankful!

Last Wednesday, we got a phone call that said that Wes's sister, Erica, had gone into labor. Praise the Giver of Life! Erica welcomed Blake Addison into the world at 12:30 pm! We couldn't hardly wait to get to Arkansas to hold this precious baby! Erica and Blake are both home and doing well.

Blake, just minutes old.

First feeding.

Momma and Blake

All dolled up!

While we were home visiting the new baby, we also had a wedding to attend! My cousin, Jay, was getting married to a wonderful girl, Christa. Christa is from Greenwood, just a few minutes from Fort Smith, so all the family joined up at my parents house for the big celebration. Lots of laughs, lots of tears, and lots of fun was had.

While in FS we also had the opportunity to show off Bri's walking skills to her grandparents. They were so proud! I didn't get many pictures but here are a few...

Check out her new 'BIG SISTER' shirt!

Our pond.

Living on the seminary campus has been such a blessing for many reasons; one of which is our pond. Aubri and I have been walking (and strolling) around the campus everyday trying to stay in shape during this new pregnancy. After we walk, we head over to the pond to see the fish and play in the gazebo. Aubri LOVES this! She loves talking about the "shish" (that's fish) and the "wa-a" (that's water).










Our ECI case worker, Stacey, has given us the goal to start learning to go up and down stairs. So this is the perfect place for us to practice.

Our Summer break: The update.

-Bri and I went home to visit my mom and dad for a few days in May. My sister and her girls met us there and we ended up having a great few days of girl time! My parents are renting a 2 bedroom house while they are in process of building their new house, so all 5 girls (me, Bri, Ash, Esther, and Millie) all "slept" in one room! It was cozy and fun! Bri was teething so we ended up on the couch most nights...(at least I am blaming it on Bri, ha!)

-We spent a long weekend in NYC with Wes's sister Ashley and her husband, Jonnie. We had such a great time exploring the city, eating at every bakery we crossed, and just hanging out with the Mackes. They were so kind to give up there bedroom, love on Bri, and let her play with all of Ashley's "pretties" (jewelry) and coasters. We had a wonderful time!

-My cousin, Anna, had her baby, Silas Daniel Abeyta. I can't wait to meet this little fella!

-After having it scheduled for 2 years, the Carroll family all headed to Orange Beach for a family vacation. No oil could stop us! And I am glad it didn't, because the water looked clear and we never even saw 1 tar ball. It was as beautiful as ever! Thanks for a wonderful vacation and all the funny memories! (In typical Mills fashion, we didn't take pictures but you can see some here.)

-On my parents way home from the beach, they stopped by to say hello. The stayed for a few days and we relived the beach vacation as well as made a few more memories! We headed to the Ranger's stadium to catch a ball game, went to the zoo, went downtown for some PF Chang, and did a little golf and shopping. It was great having you guys here!

-Wes turned.....dare I say it???? The Big 3-0! He is an oldie but a goodie!! I love you, Wesley!

-We are anxiously awaiting the call from Wes's sister, Erica. She is expecting a little girl, Blake, August 1. We are so ready to meet this little blessing! I will post pics as soon as she arrives! Please be praying for Erica and Blake in the next few days!

18 months check-up (one month late...)

Aubri is now almost 19 months old! Here is what she has been up to...

She is 32 3/4 inches tall (80%) and weighs 22.5 lb (20%)
She is in size 4 diapers and 18-24 month clothes.
She has too many teeth to count!

She loves to play with her 2 cabbage patch babies. Most mornings, "baby" is the first word out of her mouth. She will continue to call for her babies until she has them in her arms and has given them multiple kisses.

She now says momma, da-da, baby, ball, shoe ("ssue"), eat ("eee"), banana, Nana, hi, bye-bye and (unfortunately) no consistently.

She loves to point to her nose, eyes, ears, tummy, and tongue and has started to find them on me and daddy.

She can now follow simple commands like "go get a book", "pick up your baby", "give me your shoe", etc. It is fun to see her learning and understanding.

She is quite the dancer. She has learned how to walk to the stereo, turn on Taylor Swift, and let it loose! It's really cute when she holds her baby by the arms and dances around with her!

She has recently started singing to her babies. It is such a sweet sound.

(...and she has found some attitude.)

It is hard to believe how quickly she is growing! She is becoming such a big girl! We LOVE YOU, BRI!

This one is for you, Aunt Barbara.

(My Aunt Barbara has been giving me a hard time about keeping up with this o'blog. So you can thank her for the update...:) love you, see you soon)

To catch up...

First off, I ran my first 5k. It has been a goal of mine ever since I had Aubri. My good friend, Nicole, came up from south Texas to run in the Zoo Run with me. After running in the rain, a big fall, and few good laughs we finished the race. We were so proud and sore.

Good thing I raced when I did because 3 weeks later on Mother's day we found out that we are expecting our 2nd baby.

We are thrilled! Our new baby's due date is January 15. At our next prenatal visit we will, hopefully, find out the gender!

Now let me fill you in on our sweet bri...because of Aubri's delay in walking, we were advised by our pediatrician to contact Early Childhood Intervention and see if they could diagnose the cause (if there was one) for the delay. So, we did. A PT came out to the house did a evaluation and told us that she may need inserts for her shoes to give her ankles more stability. So, we ordered them. 4-5 days after they arrived, we officially have a FULL TIME walker! Praise the Lord! We have been praying for this for some time now and it is so exciting to see God growing our little girl.

Bri with her inserts.

Now that she is able to walk she is so busy. Before she started walking she was pretty content to sit and play with her toys. Now, she is ALWAYS on the go! She is loving her new legs!

I will do a summer recap soon. Stay tuned.