The Wait is Over

After 20 long weeks, we have been given some great news. We are going to have a girl! A sonogram today showed a healthy, beautiful, baby girl! We feel like we have been given a gift. We asked God for a girl, we tried for a girl, and God answered, "YES!" We are grateful to get to take care of a daughter. I see pink and purple in our future, and bows and ribbons, and dresses and ruffles, and tea parties and princesses. Or maybe she'll be more like her mother and climb trees and pitch softball, play kickball with the boys and build cities out of blocks with her brothers! We can't wait to meet her. Thanks be to God for his indescribable goodness!

Summer Season Salutations

Summer is a great time at our house! I love the extra time together with the boys, and I enjoy the extra hands around to help with house work! We have taken it mostly easy during this first month of the summer break. The boys have played in the sprinkler an average of 3 days a week. I am feeling well most of the time and am grateful for the renewed energy. I am currently in my 18th week of the pregnancy and getting antsy for our sonogram in less than two weeks. My next post will most likely reveal the baby's gender. For now, "Baby Morgan" has a nice ring to it!

July will be a fast and busy month. We always look forward to celebrating the 4th. We have planned a vacation in July, and Scott's big trade show for work is in July this year. August will be a month to visit with family in KY, relax as much as possible, and plan for the school year.

I can't believe I will have a 5th and 3rd grader this year. Each year they grow, I recognize the changes they have experienced and the changes it makes in the family as our kids grow up. We've been spending time watching old home videos and I am so thankful we have them. Time does go so fast. Kids do change so much. It reminds me to appreciate the everyday things, because we only get one today!

Hope you enjoy your season in life, whatever it may be today!

Counting down

One trimester down; two to go. I am officially through my first trimester and have a sense of relief. I have woken up the last few days feeling better than I have in the last month, but I am more tired now. I think that all my energy has funneled to controlling the nausea and keeping myself from throwing up! It has been a difficult and tiring task. It has all seemed to catch up with me lately. God knew I would need to be feeling better though....
Two weeks in a cast....My 7 year old spent the day in doctors offices yesterday. He hurt his foot at a birthday party Tuesday night and is now in a light blue foot cast. It was hard to send him off to school today. I stood watching him hobble on his large foot from the car to the school building. Part of me just wanted to keep him home again today; but he is tough, and he wanted to get back to doing things on his own. The hardest part is that he will have to sit out the rest of the soccer season and a couple weeks from Tae Kwon Do. While it is hard to see him struggle, I am so proud of his bravery!
Eric, my 10 year old, has seen this as a challenge for him to step up and help out even more. I am so proud of him. He's not complained or gotten frustrated. I can hear his sweet voice saying, "sure, Mom! I'll be right there" or " okay, Joel. I'll get it for you!"
Two weeks of school left and we can all relax a little bit. Everyone here is looking forward to summer break, summer weather, and summer fun.
We've spent lots of time counting down lately to the things we'd rather be doing. Sometimes looking forward gets us through the tough times of the present.

Getting Thru Nauseaville

Pregnancy after 30 has been very symptomatic for me. I feel OLD, and tired, and nauseous, and sleepy, and sick, and weak, and gaggy. . . need I say more? While the symptoms of this pregnancy seem more noticeable, they are shadowed by the excitement. Having two eager children, together with Scott and I, increases the anticipation and wonderment of pregnancy. Almost daily the boys ask me, "how 'tall' is the baby now?" Can I tell my friends? My teacher? Our neighbors? They are thrilled, to say the least. We are tracking the baby's development using an online resource and they are amazed at the pictures of unborn, growing, alive babies. From the size of a lentil at 6 weeks along -- to its present size of 1 and 1/4 inch at 10 weeks (about the size of a kumquat seen above), picturing our tiny baby is nothing short of awesome. Realizing the amount of growth and development that will take place over the next 6 months overwhelms us with the truth that God performs miracles for us and within us each day!

Feeling Old

I feel tired and old these days. The body is an amazing thing, but is still human, none the less. I have very good reason for it all, though! We are expecting our third child and are thankful that this time around, my only (biggest) complaint is the tiredness. So far I have not gotten sick, though I feel pretty close sometimes. At this point in my other two pregnancies, I was throwing up night and day, day and night-there was no relief. That is not the case this time, and I couldn't be more grateful. We are due mid-November. The boys are thrilled beyond what we expected. Joel is glad to not be the "little" brother anymore. He is enjoying his "Big Brother" shirt we got for him. Eric is excited to find out if he will have another little brother, or even more mysterious...a little sister. So much to discover with a pregnancy. I am glad they will be able to experience it at this age. Scott and I feel thankful that our desires matched with God's timing for our family. I am feeling hungry and tired! More updates to come . . .

Tired and Sick and Sick and Tired

It started two Saturdays ago. Chills, fever, cough, sore throat, aches and sleepiness. The flu is awful and is worsened when a parent and a child have it at the same time. Joel came down with the flu about the same time I did. It hit him differently than it did me, and he ended up missing an entire week of school because of it. Now I am on day 11 and still feeling symptoms. After having no voice for 4 days, now I feel like body aches are back. I am definitely in need of a rest. Spring was supposed to mean getting rid of the sicknesses from winter. Instead, we get another round of illness. Chills make the 50 degree days still feel like 30 something.

I know we've all been there, and my circumstance is no different than millions of other moms. But it is hard to be a good listener and comforter when you feel too sick and tired to do anything. With Scott gone this week, I find it easy to slip into a sulking attitude of complaints. So I have to force myself to seek God's response in these times.

This is what I came across! I needed this dose of spiritual medicine.
I sound like Job's negative wife . . whine, whine, whine!
Job's reply during his tragic circumstances (which should certainly put my menial circumstances into perspective), "Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?" Job's faith, not his understanding, carried him through all his troubles.**

Hope your faith in a God who sustains is carrying you today!

Lord, how happy it is when strong afflictions from Thee raise in us strong affections for Thee!
~~Francis Burkitt

**From the Power of a Positive Mom Devotional.

Reality Hits Hard

Last weekend I was able to attend the Hearts-at-Home National Conference in Bloomington, IL. It's a great event for moms of all ages and in all stages. You get refreshed and encouraged in your efforts to be a great mom and wife. I love the event and suggest it for all women as there is something for everyone. They have two more conferences scheduled for this year. If you need a refresher, check out their website at http://hearts-at-home.org for more info.

Before I got home, I started feeling like I could be coming down with something. Headaches, chills, body aches...the works all hit me Sunday. I have been sick all week and today have only a whisper left of my voice. On top of not feeling well, my 7-year old, Joel, has been sick all week and has not attended school yet. He seems to be even worse off than I do, and he will have to take the fun, 10-day, antibiotic treatment. We've spent time relaxing, but you can only relax so much while feeling badly. We've had lots of homework, laundry, nose-blowing, spitting, sleeping, TV watching, . . you get the idea!

I can't help fearing that my 10 year old is next. He's been able to go to school and he has been very helpful bringing home Joel's work, refilling drinks, emptying trash - all the fun stuff. We are praying for thorough recovery for the entire family.

The reality of life usually hits pretty hard after a personal retreat like I had at the conference, but reality is a good reminder of a REAL God that gets us through. Hope you see the joy in your reality this week. P.S. Spring is Coming!