the best thanksgiving ever...

wow ... do we have a lot to be thankful for! this time last year i was thankful to have an amazing fiance, and we were planning our december wedding. little did we know that in less than a year our family would be expanding and all of our dreams would come true! billy and i got married on december 29th (what an AMAZING day) and found out on february 21st that little brady was on the way! we were 4 weeks along and were filled with joy. God has been so good to us! brady is doing great ... he is eating like crazy and has started sleeping almost 5 hours at a time. i am in my 8th week of maternity leave and am already dreading the fact that i will have to leave him in january. BUT, we are thankful for an amazing lady that is going to be taking care of him during the day. God really answered that prayer in a mighty way! more things that make us thankful: old friends and new friends, family that is close to home and family that is far away, our health, a roof over our heads, jobs, benefits, freedom, our dogs, the simplicity of a lazy saturday morning, a cozy warm bed, prayers, marriage, love and a hopeful future. when i look back over the past several years, i realize that things, however crazy and hard they may seem, always work out for the good. that is not just a cliche' to me ... it is so true. i think we've all been through tough times where we could not imagine WHY we were going through those things. but to be able to look back and make sense of it all REALLY makes me thankful!

time flies!

i cannot believe that brady will be SEVEN WEEKS old tomorrow. it has flown by so quickly. so many of my girlfriends have told me to enjoy this "baby time" because it will go by so fast. i am beginning to see what they mean! brady is growing like crazy and is long and lean like his daddy. he doesn't feel as fragile as he did when we first brought him home (thank God for that!). our pediatrician recommended, since he was so small at birth and we are now into flu season, that we keep him close to home for 8 weeks. that sounded like an eternity to me at the time, but it has been the sweetest time of my life. he is such an amazing blessing and i am reminded every time i look at him how sweet God's love is. having a child has given me a whole new faith and appreciation for the miracle of life. even at 4:00 in the morning when i get up to feed our hungry little boy and then rock him while he is lying on my chest, i am joyful. i constantly look at him and smile. even when he's crying (oh and by the way, he ONLY cries when he's hungry). he is a happy little dude, eats like a champ and sleeps until he's ready to eat again. thankfully my husband is a trooper and a team player (again, i am so thankful), so he typically gets up for the first feeding around midnight and i get up around 4:00 a.m. it's a great life! since his name is brady william, billy likes to call him "bee dubs" ... you know, like a stage name ... just to be funny. when he says that to brady now, he smiles. he is starting to focus in on our eyes and will occasionally flash that big, gummy smile that will melt your heart. he is so yummy!!! when we went to the pediatrician last tuesday for his one month check-up (which was actually at 5 1/2 weeks) he weighed SEVEN pounds EIGHT ounces. our little man is growing! we are so proud of him. i am grateful to have seven more weeks at home with him and to spend the holidays with my new family. december will be a big month for us ... billy and i will be celebrating our one year anniversary and brady will have his first christmas. God is soooooo good!!

brady william burke

brady came into the world on october 3, 2008 at 7:48 p.m. we knew he was breech and because of that, had scheduled a c-section for october 21st (one week prior to my due date). well brady decided to break my water 3 1/2 weeks early, so needless to say, we were not prepared! God loves to sneak up on us, doesn't he? i had just had lunch with my boss and was headed to an office when my water broke. i calmly called my doctor, my husband, my mom, my sister-in-law ... and NO ONE answered the phone. i finally got in touch with a nurse who told me to head straight to the hospital since brady was breech ... they didn't want to chance me going into labor. i also finally got in touch with billy (whose cell phone wasn't working) and we agreed to meet at the hospital. we had not packed a bag, so billy was running around the house (with the dogs following his every move ... they knew something was going on) trying to gather what he thought i might need to have a baby! since i had just eaten lunch, we had to wait 5 hours to get the epidural. i was not contracting, so i was not in any pain at all, which was a huge blessing. once billy arrived at the hospital, we just waited in a room, talked, laughed and were almost giddy with excitement about meeting our little man. after the epidural at 7:30 p.m. and a few pre-op technicalities, brady was born! he was such a trooper ... only weighed 5 pounds 3 ounces, but passed ALL tests with flying colors. his lungs were fully developed and he was a champ with the suck, swallow and breathe reflex. he was totally 100% healthy and the doctors had NO concerns whatsoever. we were all shocked at how small he was. turns out i had a HUGE fibroid on my uterus that may have prevented much more growth and probably caused my water to break. dr. scott was able to remove the fibroid during the procedure (thank God!). hearing our baby cry and seeing his little face was the most amazing moment of our lives. he was (and is) perfect ... and looks just like his daddy. what a handsome devil he is!! the love that fills our hearts for him is overwhelming. everyone tells you how incredible it is, but you truly can't understand it until you experience your own child. unbelievable. we are so very blessed and thank God for little brady william burke!

here we go!

so billy and i have finally given into the "blogging rage" that surrounds us! i was in denial for a long time and refused to be a "blogger", because after all, who really cares about what we're doing? but after viewing ... and enjoying ... many friend's blogs i realzed how interesting and enjoyable it is to read and learn about people through their blogs, discover other people through their blogs, etc. etc. it's an amazing way to stay connected! i finally came to the conclusion that since it is such an easy, fun way to keep in touch, we should try it! the idea of this blog started so that billy's HUGE family in pennsylvania could be updated on stories about brady, pictures of brady and the happenings of the atlanta burke family. our visits are (sadly) few and far between with family, so this will hopefully help shorten the miles between us and somehow bridge the distance to make us all feel closer. be patient with us, as we are learning to become more comfortable with this blogging thing. it's going to be fun!