Sesame seeds

Today our identical twins were due. It's been a roller coaster of emotions since we found out that we were expecting to finding out we were having twins, then realizing we only had one heartbeat left, to the day the Dr turned off the ultrasound machine before we saw any heartbeats. It was so exciting to hear identical twins, and surreal to hear the word miscarriage. We had an incredibly short amount of time with them and yet they impacted our lives in such a big way. My fear has been that they would be forgotten. We are their parents and we want them to be remembered and loved. This is why its been so hard to make another blog post. We know, however, that God knew them before time began. He loves them more than a parent could ever dream of loving their child. They are two very tiny gifts that we will someday know when we too go home to meet our Maker. We are so thankful for having gotten to have them in our lives at all. We are thankful for the love and support that our friends and family have shown us while we were walking through it as well as while we look back. We are so thankful for your stories that you shared with us. Andy and I were in love with those babies before we had that positive test, long before we had a chance see their tiny bodies on the ultrasound machine. We will always have a strong love for them and a desire to know them, but we are comforted in knowing that our personal relationships with Jesus Christ mean that someday we will know them. It is our prayer that our whole family will be reunited someday, that each one of our children (and extended family and friends) will all see their need for a Savior, choose to repent of their sins and lay down their lives to follow Jesus. Today was our due date, an estimated day of when we would finally be holding those little warm, soft sweet babies in our arms. Today we grieve what could have been, but we are also grateful because we also realize that God uses trials in our lives to break us, mold us and to shape us into looking more like Him. We know what we are a long way off and so we say. "Lord, use us as you will!" We love you John Ithai Pituch and Willert Noadiah Pituch. We are forever grateful for the gift that you both are!

The Pituch's are offically a Family of 7!

We are so very grateful to have the honor to announce to newest members of the Pituch family. Andy and I are the proud parents of identical twins. If you have ever talked with Andy and I about children, you'd know that we have both always had a strong desire to have twins. This is a very exciting addition to our family.  We are to thankful to our Heavenly Father for the opportunity to have them.  We also understand that God's plans are not always the same as ours.  We experienced the heartbreaking loss of our babies at 11 weeks into the pregnancy. 

We believe whole heartedly that God is always in control and loves us more than we can understand.  We also believe and know that God works ALL THINGS together for His glory. We know that Satan intends to hurt us, and try's to draw us away from our Savior.  We refuse to allow our painful loss to cause us to be angry at God.  We refuse to forget that these babies are our precious miracles.  It's clear to us that Satan is working hard all around us to try to pull us down.  He works so hard, but all the while we draw nearer to our God. 

We've spent a few weeks in the book of Philippians at church.  In Philippians 3:10&11 Paul talks about his 5 goals for his relationship with Christ.

1. To Know Him
2. To Know the Power of His Resurrection
3. To Know the Know the Fellowship of His Sufferings
4. To Be Like Him in His Death
5. To Attain The Resurrection From the Dead

These are lofty goals for sure, but they are a 5 goals that Andy and I want to carry out in our lives and in our home.  Why so I share this with you? It's because of number 3.  While we could look at our sufferings in our lives and think nobody could understand, or perhaps you are thinking well, God can relate to my sufferings I was reminded during this particular sermon that I have just a glimpse as to what is was like to be Jesus.  I can relate with Him for just a moment. I can almost taste what is was like to be like Jesus.  When I remember to think like that, somehow suffering becomes an honor.  Perhaps you think this is silly, that this "kind of suffering" is not for God's cause.  Please let me gently remind you that God uses ALL THINGS for His glory.  We are able to take great comfort in knowing that our babies short lives play a part of Gods amazing plan.  Such an honor.
(**If you are interested in listening to the sermons, go to http://www.gracebiblecw.com they are titled "That I May Know Him" part 1&2  They are worth listening to!  Well, the entire series is, I know I'll be spending more time going back and listening to them again.)

Why are we sharing this news with the world?  Well, we are guessing that if you have never been through something like this yourself, you know someone who has.  Each family goes through a loss in their our way.  While we kept this private while we were going through it, we want to share this with you because we are so thankful for our time with our little ones, even if it was a very short time. We will praise our Lord through our painful times as well as our joyful times.

While we do not know the gender of our babies (although we both picture 2 little Emmett's-in looks, hair color and dare I say in personalities) we have named them.  We are thankful for so many family members and friends that God has given us in our lives.  Andy and I both were given Grandfathers who had a great impact in our lives.  Who taught us so many things, who loved us in unique ways...relationships that while they have both passed away live on in our hearts just like our babies will. 

So with heavy hearts we are proud to share our wonderful gifts with all of you...

John Ithai Pituch and Willert Noadiah Pituch.  John after Andy's paternal Grandfather and Ithai (pronounced it-tah'ee) which means With the Lord. Willert after my Maternal Grandfather and Noadiah which means Meeting with the Lord.  You will be forever in our hearts, and greatly missed until we are together again!  We love you both so very much!!

Big Pituch News!

Yes, you read it right...there is big Pituch news. Our family is growing!

We are super excited to share with everyone that we have a new church home. We have been getting involved in Bible studies, classes, fellowship group, life group, praise team, and kids for truth. We started attending Grace Bible Church in October 2011. www.gracebiblecw.com It is just a few minutes from our home and even closer to Kaleigh's school. which makes it much easier to serve our Lord with our family growing family. While it is very difficult to leave our "old church" we have feel that we are right where God wants us. We say our family is growing, because we continue to fellowship with and pray for our family at RBC. We have not "replaced" our brothers and sisters. It has been a wonderful blessing to meet more brothers and sisters in Christ. To walk together in Christ, and to be taught and challenged by our "new church family".

Kaleigh and Emmett have loved GBC from the very first week. We are confident that we are attending a God fearing, Bible believing church. We have seen God working in the church body. There is very strong leadership and discipleship.

We have grown a lot in our walks with God in the past year especially, including our children. We have faced many challenges as a family and, through them all, God has shown us His grace, and has drawn us closer to Him. We have been taught so much in the process.

We've been in the book of Philippians for several weeks now, and so it seems so fitting that we share this with you (our friends and family) because we, through the grace and mercy of God, have been saved from hell and an eternity away from Him. We pray that if you have not already trusted Christ as your Savior and Lord, that you will choose to repent and turn away from your sins and accept Him to be lord over your life. So in closing, I'd like to leave you with these verses from Philippians as they are our prayers for you...

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

**If you have any questions or comments about what you just read, know that we are open and would love to talk to you!

He's sweet, he's crazy, he's funny, he's wild...

He's 3!! He's our little baby boy! Emmett Joseph is 3 years old now! Wow, where has the time gone?? Emmett is so full of life! He makes us smile, he challanges us, he teaches us. This year we had a "toy story" party. Emmett, just like the Andy in the story loves woody and buzz. So we thought it would be perfect to celebrate this time in his life with something that he enjoyes in his life. We could really go on, and on about our little guy. If you know Emmett at all, you know he is full of energy. He loves to climb, run, jump, swim...you name it, he loves it! Emmett is a man's man. He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES his Daddy, Papaw, Grandpa, and Uncles. He very much loved his Great Grandpa, and really seems to miss him a lot!

With Emmett's birthday being on Feb 16th, most of the time it's too cold outside for him to go run and play. So this year we decided to celebrate his birthday (and Valentines day) with a "mini-cation". Andy took off a couple days of work, and Emmett's birthday began with a breakfast with heart shaped pancakes (remember, Valentines day too) and turkey bacon (kids don't really care for regular bacon believe it or not). Then we loaded up the van and headed to Quaker Steak and Lube for lunch. Emmett is a HUGE car fan, so of course he was in heaven and couldn't hardly touch his food. Lunch was an extra special treat because Papaw met us there to eat lunch. After lunch we headed to the mall and did a lot of playing! Following the mall we headed to our final destination...Fort Rapids Water Resort. We headed to what Kaleigh and Emmett thought would be a pool, to the most amazing water park they have even seen. We stayed until it was about to close and headed back to our room for pj's and present time. Emmett got two books and a toy story "bath kit" (soap, a sponge and a squirter). Then Kaleigh and Emmett settled into their bunk beds. Then next day we headed back to water world until lunch, then we loaded up in the van, got some lunch and headed home for naptime. After naps we headed back for another hour and a half, at which point Kaleigh and Emmett reported that they were ready to "go home now". So we headed back home and got settled in for the night. We all had a wonderful time (even little Lucas who mostly just took all of this in...and slept EVERY time we got in the lazy river). Andy, Kaleigh, Lucas and this Mommy are to wonderfully blessed to have out big E in our lives! Happy Birthday big boy, WE LOVE YOU!!!

Note: There are pictures on Facebook of Fort Rapids

**Extra special THANK YOU to my Mom for the hard work on his beautiful and VERY tasty cake!

I love you Maama! Love Emmett <3

Welcome to our beautiful niece Nora

Congrats Will and Rachel, and big sister Sadie!

http://pituchfamily.blogspot.com/2012/01/welcome-nora.html

Such a smart baby!

Well, I just HAD to take a minute and brag a little bit. Lucas who JUST turned 13 months is (and has been) signing several words such as "more", "please" and "thank you". He gives high-fives and gives kisses (Lukey smooches) on demand. He knows his name(s) and who each family member is. He now says "Dad", "hello", "bye, bye", "Mama", "whats that", "there" and so on. Maybe I just forget how much they know by this age, but wow, this boy is SO SMART!

December 19th 2010

Every child is a gift. A wonderful priceless gift that we get to be a part of for as long as God chooses. Lucas is no exception. He is such a sweet boy! He laughs and smiles over nothing. He loves hugs, gives "Lukey smooches" freely. Lucas is such a blessing in our lives. It's hard to believe 1 year ago today he was born. It feels like just yesterday that he was born, and at the same time it feels like he's been a part of our family forever. I cannot begin to say how thankful we are for Lucas! Lucas started walking a few weeks ago, and is a "true walker" now. He loves to eat shoes, open drawers and cabinets. Lucas is always trying to sneak off to Kaleigh or Emmett's room. He just started sleeping through the night 4 weeks ago, but decided to take a week off. (We are hoping it is just a week!) Lukey B loves to read books and play with cars. He travels well...mostly sleeps. Lucas loved his first cake! He's had around 8 haircuts, and already needs another one! He wears 18-24 months and is wearing a size 5 shoe. It won't be too long before he and Emmett are sharing the same size clothes! Lucas has never been a fan of baby food, even before he had is 5 (almost 6-give it a few more days) teeth he has always preferred his food "chunky". Wow, I could just to on and on and on about our sweet baby boy, but to sum is all up WE LOVE YOU LUCAS BRADLEY PITUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! Our lives are better because you are in it!