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  I apologize for my long absence from my very own blog.  I guess the best, or at least most honest explanation would be to say that there are just too many things going on with us and in our hearts and it seems difficult and even ridiculous for me to try to update and be "real" without feeling like a crustaceous dust mite.

The biggest bestest thing that has happened to us is that we are kept busy being parents to our little baby.  Erin is two months old now and she is doing VERY well.  She is growing at a rapid rate.  She goes to Meadville for Phyiscal therapy each week for some tense muscles in her neck which make her constantly keep her head to one side.  ("Congenital Torticollis" for those of you who are docs/nurses...and or people who study greek and latin roots)   Other than that she is growing and getting fat...a healthy little girl with a very sweet disposition...she smiles all of the time.  Oh yes...she does have one other minor flaw in the "undercarriage."  She has major issues of acid reflux.  Well....so what do you say about that...uhm.....WHOA  "Honey bring a burp cloth...Old Faithful is gonna blow in two minutes!"  We love her. 

I believe that I have come to discover that my "girls" are the most important thing to me.  We still feel the ache of Jahna's abscence EVERY day and a day never goes by without us praying for her and talking about her to some extent.  The coolest thing happened over JoElla's birthday.  I think that I mentioned in the last post that we were hoping to go see Jahna.  Well, we did just that.  We drove down to Harrisburg and picked her up and took her to the zoo in Hershey.  We had her with us all day!  I am 100% certain that this was the best day of my life so far...not to diminish our wedding day, erin's birthday, or my first communion ...but this one was the best because it was so improbable.  It just felt like there was "nothing to hold on too" after she left our house.  The day with her just flew by and it was also a very difficult and painful day because we realized the Jahna is not OURS anymore.  It was painful to see how much she has gone through and see that she is still so happy and sweet but she just doesn't quite have that sparkle in her eyes that she always had before.  I wonder what all has happened to her.  I know that a child cannot go through what she has gone through without some negative effects, but that is what I diligently pray against everyday hoping and wanting to believe that it makes some difference. She seems to be attaching to her mom really well...she just waved and said "bye bye" when we left.  I will never forget that day.  She called me "daddy" almost right away and she had tons of fun...and I did too.  It was her birthday too, so we stopped at a park on the way back to her place and gave her gifts and just played with her....it was like a dream...one that I didn't want to wake up from...hopefully I'll get to do something very much like that with her in heaven someday.  So really that is how I would update my life....Erin has come...Jahna has gone...and now we are trying to deal with some deep struggles and doubts and at the same time we are being strengthened by love of friends and family and finding God to be faithful to us even in times of near complete doubt and uncertainty.  It really has affected how I look at everything...I just don't know what really runs all of the stuff that happens around me and in my life.

Here is a picture of Jahna from that day.  She is such a little lady now.  She is TWO years old!

  I will always be grateful to God for this day. 

I honestly think that she is PERFECT!

The meadow where we "romped and played"

JoElla's sister LaVertta and her husband Norm came from Indianna to see us this past weekend...well they came to see Erin and to spend time with us.  We had a delightful time with them.  It is always a lot for fun for me when they come because there need be few pretenses with them and it just makes it easy to have many fun good times together.  Saturday we went up to Lake Erie and just swam and swam and then swam...oh grab the burp cloth!!!!  NO!!! That's my beach towel.!!!  Now look Erin is spitting out sand!!!!!!!!!  AHHHHHHH  The girls were proud of the "sun" that they got...I was more proud of the burger I got at OUTBACK.

Now this weekend we are going to Canada to see our friend Jim Ramsay.  He used to be our neighbor...THAT is a long story but we are good friends and we are really looking forward to seeing him.

Work???  All of my jobs this summer have been less than 10 mi from home.  That's good timing to have a little baby!:)  One exception was that I helped the rest of the crew two days on a house that we built out on the shore of Conneaut Lake.  Now I am working at Faith Buiders trimming out the new student center.  Last week we laid 1700 sq ft of ceramic tile!  kolano mi boli (Polish for my knee hurts)  I'll try to post some new pics of Erin and from work on my photo blog:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sklmail124

Take care you all.  Thanks for being my friend or at least acting like it if you aren't.  I think I can say that if I had been alone without friends through the last 3 months I would have either not made it or else I would have joined a very strict order of Monks in the mountains of Nepal.

Blessings,

Shannon