Joy - with a Touch of Sadness

As most know, we discovered last June that we were expecting our fourth child!  And to think...we went from fertility problems and in-vitro in the beginning to now having four kids! 

At our 18 week check up, we discovered we were having another girl!  Unfortunately we also discovered that she had Trisomy-18 and a related severe heart defect.  Of course we were devastated to learn this news, but soon decided we would carry her as long as God would allow.  We were lucky enough to carry Marissa Ella to 36 weeks. 

Although Marissa left us just before birth, she was absolutely perfect!  She weighed just under 4 lbs with lots of dark hair!  We cherished the short time we had with her and thank the wonderful organization called "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" for the wonderful memories they left us with these photos. 



We love the photos of Madison and JJ holding Marissa.  Morgan was eager to see her little sister too! 

Happy 2012!

New Year's Resolution for 2012:  Do a better job of keeping family and friends updated and since we're not a fan of Facebook (no offense), we thought we'd try a blog.

Truth be told, this blog is as much for our family than anything else.  We thought it would be fun to record our lives together with photos and journaling and what better time to begin than January 1st?

First Things First:  Why "The Nordicans"?

For a few years, our cousins, "The Oreos" (think Ebony and Ivory) and "The Blondies" (A family with VERY blonde hair) have been bugging us to come up with a family nickname, and finally after some thought, we came up with "The Nordicans" - with James' Nordic/Germanic heritage and Lori's Mexican/Spanish & Heinz 57 background,  ("Nordic..and Mexican" became Nordican).  Hence, "The Nordicans" was born!

So....please read and enjoy!