Christmas 2023

 2023: A Full Year of Blessings

In the Rusek household, 2023 was a very full year. We found ourselves counting our blessings and our miracles. The year has flown by but I enjoy our Christmas letters as a way to remember all the things that have happened.

Visiting the Northwest Railway Museum

Blessing #1: Family

Last Christmas my parents, sister (Joni) and her husband (Greg) came to visit us. I was hoping for a white Christmas but instead we had a very wet Christmas. Still, I was grateful my southern-dwelling family made the trek up north to us instead of us going down to them. For one thing, I was so enormously pregnant and uncomfortable that traveling had become quite difficult. For another thing, there were a number of house projects that remained unfinished just waiting for me to get enough energy to complete them (spoiler: that energy never came). My sister, Joni, like an ambitious elf, tackled these projects even through the late hours of the night and somehow convinced my parents and her husband to join her. Because of this Abigail was able to move out of the nursery and into her new, big girl room! She was ready to be out of her crib and in a real bed. The nursery sat empty waiting for our new arrival due in March.

Our other upstairs room across from Abbie’s big girl room housed a girl from Korea for a few weeks. We hosted her in January and showed her some winter sights the Puget Sound has to offer. After that visit my energy levels plummeted even lower than before. I couldn’t sit for longer than 20 minutes, I wasn’t able to drive, and lying down was the most comfortable position for me to be in and even then it was quite uncomfortable. If Joni and my family hadn’t come up and finished the little house projects when they did, our house wouldn’t have been ready for the new baby.

The lights at the Woodland Zoo with our Korean guest

Blessing #2: New Baby (and Blessing #3: Not Being Pregnant Anymore!)

This pregnancy felt like a soap opera. We had gone from “Your baby might not make it,” to “Your baby has something very significant missing from his brain,” to “I think everything might be okay with your baby, but you probably have way too much amniotic fluid!” When my tests came back negative for gestational diabetes the doctors scratched their heads. They couldn’t figure out what the problem was, but what I could gather is that too much amniotic fluid is a bad thing in pregnancy. It also led to people asking me numerous times if I was expecting twins and even if I said no, certain people (my mom) would ask hopefully, "Are the doctors sure?" They kept telling me that the fluid would start to go down in my last trimester but it kept going up and up. I was beginning to feel like a blimp, but perhaps specifically the Hindenburg. Finally a specialist told me we needed to get the baby out when I was 37 weeks along. “I’m 37 weeks along right now!” I told her. Well, they couldn’t squeeze me into their schedule that quickly so we scheduled our baby to exit via C-section at 38 weeks.

Ready to not be pregnant!

At the hospital they prepped me for my C-section. It is an odd thing to know you are about to have major surgery and be awake for it. The table is in the shape of a cross and I had to lay down on it as if I was about to be crucified. A small drape kept me from seeing anything too gory. Korben sat right beside me, the drape also blocking his vision so he wouldn’t faint I suppose. As we waited for my torso to go numb the doctor started poking me with sharp objects. “Does this feel sharp?” she would ask. “Yes, on the right side,” I replied. They tilted the table with me lying on it to the side, I suppose to help the numbing stuff to get where it needed to be. The doctor asked me again if it felt sharp. “Uh, yes,” I replied again, thinking about the story I had heard a million times when my sister was born via C-section and my mom nearly jumped off the table because the anesthesia didn’t work on her at all! I heard the doctor say to the anesthesiologist that it was probably just nerves and they should just begin! It was an odd sensation of only being able to feel a painful cut on one side of my body. Then it felt like they were ripping my skin right open! I began waving my arms around and saying, “OWW! OWW!” I have no recollection of this but the anesthesiologist told Korben to hold my arm down and I was knocked completely out.

While I was in dreamland Korben was quietly panicking. He was holding the hand of his unconscious wife who was being operated on and listening to the nurses commenting, “It’s like Old Faithful back here! I’ve never seen so much fluid!” (I had at least 4 liters of amniotic fluid and a typical amount is about half a liter.) A red, swollen baby was suddenly displayed to Korben, but the baby needed to go to the NICU because he had swallowed some of that amniotic fluid. This all happened within the space of about 15 minutes. One of the nurses said to Korben, “It looks like he might have red hair! Does anyone in your family have red hair?”

Korben should have immediately said, “Yes, I have redheads in my family!” But instead he said nothing. He was still processing everything that had just happened and just stared at the nurse who was now beginning to think she had uncovered some deep, dark secret! She gave a look to another nurse when finally Korben said, "Uh, yes!"

“Did I fall asleep?” I asked Korben, finally coming to. The baby was already gone to the NICU which was disappointing, but I was glad our little baby was getting the help he needed.

Finally getting to meet Baby Rodney

Rodney Kent Rusek came into the world on March 13, 2023. He was born the day after the anniversary of the passing of Rodney Bryant, his namesake. Rodney Bryant was Korben’s stepdad through Korben’s childhood years until he passed away when Korben was a senior in high school. Korben wanted to pass along Rodney’s name to our son since his stepdad was so important and special to him. Our baby’s middle name, Kent, is my dad’s middle name so he has two grandfather’s names in his own. He was born at 1:03pm, 8 pounds, 11 ounces, and 20 inches long. For the record, Rodney’s hair seems to be coming in brown and his baby blue eyes have also turned brown. Those big, brown eyes are definitely something he inherited from me! He also has a very large head and it measured waaaay up there in the 99th percentile when he was born so let’s just say I’m grateful he wasn’t born the traditional way!

Little cutie in no rush to leave

If Rodney’s birth seemed dramatic, it was nothing compared to the NICU stay. Rodney loved the oxygen he was on and refused to get off of it. Every day we were told, “Just a few more days.” They moved us up to the pediatric ward which at first I thought was nice because it meant that we could all sleep and stay in the same room (the NICU doesn’t really have beds for the parents), but the hospital policy didn’t allow Abigail in the pediatric ward so I had to pick and choose which child to spend time with. That was awful! Rodney was there for 2 weeks before he was cleared to go home. And we were READY to go home!

Finally HOME!

Rodney, by the way, has been the sweetest little baby. If you are lucky, he will give you the smallest flash of his one dimple, usually because he's beaming with pride for his ability to sit up all on his own or if you help him get into a standing position. He loves to stare at everything with his big, brown eyes. At first I thought he was a much harder baby than Abigail had been because he didn't come close to sleeping through the night until he was nearly 6 months old (Abbie slept through the night at 2 months!). But Rodney has naturally done things that have made me go, "Hmm, maybe Abigail wasn't an easy baby after all!" He has been a champion napper and has no problem napping in his crib, very helpful when I need to chase a toddler around! He also does this thing where I can set him down for a second to get something done and he's just completely fine with it! Abigail needed to be held 24/7. He also doesn't mind riding in the car. We are completely in love with little Rodney and amazed at how different he is from Abigail already. But one thing they have in common for sure: they are both adorable!

Blessing #4: Family

Oh wait, that was Blessing #1? Well, it’s worth mentioning again. Korben’s mom, Gam Gam, came to visit to help us out with Abigail when Rodney was born. Thank goodness she was here! I don't know what we would have done without her help. We had no idea that we’d be in the hospital for two weeks and would need childcare for so long. Gam Gam luckily had planned to be with us for about a month anyway. Every day Korben would drive down to the house to pick Gam Gam and Abigail up, bring them to the hospital to see Rodney and me. We would eat hospital food and Abbie would play with me for a little while and then they would go home. Abigail was a really good sport in the first week of doing this, but by week 2 she was really getting fussy and missing us. The nurses encouraged us to go home and sleep so we did that twice and I’m glad we did. Abigail really needed that extra time with us.

Gam Gam was a lifesaver for us this year!

Rodney came home for good on a beautiful, sunny, flowering spring day! Abigail has been over the moon about Rodney since the day she laid eyes on him. I’m not sure that anyone is supposed to shower more praises over the baby than the parents, but Abigail has us beat. “Look at those widdle legs! Look at those widdle, giant eyes!” She often starts singing a sweet little love song to him out of nowhere. In the early days she would get so excited if he wasn't sleeping. "Are his eyes open?" she would ask. Her one concern has been that he was born without eyebrows which I assured her he does indeed have eyebrows even if they are hard to see. She used to wake up, run downstairs, look in the bassinet and say, “Oh, he’s still a baby? When he will be a big boy?”

Rusek, family of 4!

Blessing #5: Abigail

This was a huge year for Abigail. First she moved to her big girl room with a big girl bed. She made the transition seamlessly. Then she started to want to go potty on the potty. I was a little afraid of potty training before Rodney arrived because I didn’t want her to regress, however, if your 2 year old says, “I want to poop on the potty,” you don’t say, “Nah, I’d rather change that dirty diaper!” By the time Rodney was born she was doing a great job of using the potty, however she did regress majorly for a couple months. But now I can say we have successfully potty trained her! And by “we” I really mean “she” because she practically did it all on her own! She loves to be a big girl and basically doesn’t remember that she ever wore diapers or slept in a crib. She is Rodney’s biggest cheerleader and he gives the biggest smiles for his sister. Abigail also loves talking on behalf of her brother (I could also just say, “Abigail also loves talking.”). Abbie already has a pretty high-pitched voice but when she speaks on behalf of Rodney she raises her voice an extra octave to squeak out whatever she thinks he says, which is also funny because when Rodney does make noises he makes pretty low little grunts! Abigail will tell you that Rodney’s favorite color is red and that Rodney really likes trains and that Rodney likes to eat peas and on and on and on she goes. One day Rodney really will have something to say (if he can get a word in edgewise) and we’ll see if Abbie can appreciate him having his own opinions! But for now we are so glad she adores her baby brother. My day is mostly spent making sure she doesn’t smother him with her hugs.

"Holding" baby brother

Blessing #6: The Trips

I had really, really, REALLY wanted to go on a family trip before the baby came. Just one last little family outing of 3 before we became a family of 4. I thought we’d pop up to Canada for a weekend getaway. However, I was in so much pain and discomfort that even sitting in the car for 20 minutes was too much for me. We had to scrap that entire idea.

However, Korben and I had won an auction item at the end of last year that had us staying at Lake Chelan (a beautiful and extremely long lake on the sunny side of the Cascades) over Korben’s birthday at the end of May. Korben’s mom flew out and by then Rodney was 2 months old. The lake was beautiful and we got to visit a place I’ve always wanted to see, Stehekin. It is a very small town at the northernmost part of the lake and is basically only accessible by boat.

Riding the ferry to Stehekin with Gam Gam

My parents had been eagerly waiting to see their grandson and we flew down to see them in June. Abigail was overjoyed to see her Baba and Mumu (my parents) and Baba and Mumu were overjoyed to see Abigail and “her baby,” as Abigail describes Rodney. Rodney also got a chance to meet some extended family that lives in the area.

Baba insisted on fattening up Rodney whenever possible

At the end of July we flew to West Virginia where GamGam (Korben’s mom) is from so that we could meet some of her extended family at a family reunion. I had no idea West Virginia was so incredibly lush, hilly, and beautiful! From there we flew down to Florida so that Rodney could meet MaRu (Korben’s stepmom) and MaRu was pretty anxious to meet him as well! Korben’s brother and sister-in-law were expecting their third child and they live fairly close to MaRu. We had a lovely baby shower for them and looked forward to Rodney having a baby cousin close to his age!

Rodney meeting MaRu

From Florida we flew over to Phoenix where the Adventist Teachers Convention was. Although I am no longer working in the Adventist school system, I’ve always attended the teachers convention since it first began! I also thought it would be a good excuse to see my parents and friends and coworkers that I hadn’t seen in a while. My sister was also going to come out to help me wrangle the kids since Korben had to work during the trip. That would be her first time to meet Baby Rodney! It was wonderful to see everyone but Phoenix in August is pretty awful. We stayed indoors as much as possible. The Children’s Museum was by far the coolest one I’ve ever seen!

Enjoying being indoors while in Phoenix

In September, Auntie Joni came up for a short visit to see us. The fall was beautiful and I don’t remember her complaining much about it being too cold for her SoCal blood. Then GamGam came up and we drove down to Salem, Oregon. Korben’s cousin recently moved to Salem so it was nice to take a road trip down and see her and her family. It had been a while since I had visited Salem, a town my family lived in from my 8th grade year and through my college years. My old house has deteriorated however my old school got completely redone and looks very nice!

Visiting Silver Falls

In October we flew back to Texas to stay with my parents. We celebrated Abbie’s 3rd birthday while we were there and had invited friends we knew from Houston who drove the 4 hours up to see us! It was a lot of fun. Abigail has fallen in love with trains since she was given a train table over the summer by a friend who moved away. She became a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan. She loves the show and we listen to the music from the soundtrack ALL THE TIME. It only seemed natural to do a train party for little Abigail. She was very excited to have a train track birthday cake and play with friends at the playground. A week later we went to an event called A Day Out with Thomas where we actually got to ride Thomas. Abigail absolutely loved it! When we got ready to leave we asked her if she wanted to say thank you to Thomas, which she did. “Thank you for a fun day,” she said to the happy-faced, blue engine. But before we walked completely away she had to run back to him and say, “Thank you for the music!”

Abigail enjoying her birthday!

We also went to the Texas State Fair. Abigail had, just a month before, enjoyed the Washington State Fair but we hadn’t taken her on any of the little kid rides because we didn’t think she was ready for them. But at the Texas State Fair we walked by the little kid section and Abigail immediately talked about how much she wanted to ride a roller coaster! I rode the kiddie roller coaster with her and she LOVED it! She wanted to try some other rides too, and she loved all of them! My favorite part was that she really wanted Joni, her 6 foot tall auntie, to ride with her on the little kid rides, and so I got to see my sister and her long limbs somehow squished into a toddler sized kiddie ride!

Joni could fit into this ride pretty easily!

Our most recent trip was to Georgia and South Carolina for Thanksgiving. We flew into Atlanta (an airport I would happily never go to again!) and we stayed with my aunt Mary and uncle John who I hadn’t seen in forever and then drove across the border to South Carolina to see Korben’s brother and sister-in-law who had just moved and recently had a baby. It was great to see everyone and Abigail had a fun time playing with her cousins! Rodney was happy to meet even more family on that trip!

For Christmas we will take our last trip of 2023 to California and stay with my sister. Her husband and his family will get to meet Rodney for the first time and my parents will come out as well. 2023 was a year full of travel once Rodney was born and as hectic and busy as it can be, I’m grateful for all the trips to see friends and family.

Rodney getting some attention from a cousin

Blessing #7: Health

Rodney’s pregnancy was an awful experience where thankfully every red flag was nothing but a red herring. I hoped for less stress after his birth but there were a few things that popped up. The first was his eyesight. He had some strange eye movements but they’ve mostly gone away and we will continue to keep an eye (no pun intended) on it. The second was his head size. He has a large head for his little baby body which raised some questions. An MRI scan of his head revealed an arachnoid cyst, I guess because he wanted to match his Mumu who has one of her own. The doctors said there was really nothing to be very concerned about, but we will have to get another MRI done next year which will involve sedating him. This is to just check the cyst and another spot they found that they also think is probably nothing. I’ve gotten a bit tired of doctors telling me to not worry about something that is “probably nothing, but could be something.” However, so far our little baby boy has been a miracle through and through and so many things have landed on “probably nothing.” We take each day one day at a time and thank God for our son who has brought our family so much happiness, as well as a few gray hairs. 

Blessing #8: Time

2023 went by way too fast! I thought it would crawl by like it did when Abigail was a baby, but it didn’t do that at all, perhaps because I have a toddler in the house. I am so grateful that I can take the time to be a stay-at-home parent during these busy years and just be with my kids. We are also grateful that Korben’s work (Google) continues to let Korben work most of the time here at home. He goes into the office two days a week which is enough for him to enjoy seeing his coworkers and probably work with a little less distraction. He also has a very generous paternity leave which really helps a lot and it also allowed us to take travel time to see family members with less flexibility in their work.

Watching kids grow is literally watching the passing of time. Abigail is already 3 and Rodney, brand new to the world this year, is already past the newborn stage and has his eyes set on doing everything his big sister does. He wants to crawl and walk and with any luck he will be doing that soon. Abigail is a wonderful big sister who cheers Rodney on whenever he does the tiniest thing. She loves to help us out and claims she is the one who takes care of him (can’t say I ever saw her at any 3 am feedings, but okay). She can’t wait until he is mobile and can do all the things she can!

Our family got to be part of an interactive nativity experience at Auburn Adventist Academy Church called Journey to Bethlehem. I was Mary, Korben was Joseph, Rodney was Baby Jesus (you thought he already had a big head?), and Abigail was Baby Jesus’ Big Sister! According to the Bible, Jesus did have siblings so who’s to say he didn’t have a big sister named Abigail anyway?

We feel rather blessed this year with our second rainbow baby. The blessings and miracles don’t always come when we want them to, but we celebrate them when they happen! We hope to cross paths with you soon!

With love,

The Ruseks (Korben, Lori, Abigail, and our new member, Rodney! The dogs, Kepler and Anyong, and the cat, Grapefruit, send their seasons greetings as well.)