I'm feeling excited today. Thanksgiving is tomorrow, the holidays have begun and there is snow in the air. My little ticker off to the side says 14 days. I can hardly believe it. 14 days!! Of course if she's anything like her brothers that probably means more like 19-21 days, but there's no harm in hoping she'll make her appearance on time. I can't wait to have our family whole.
I am completely unprepared for Christmas this year, and yet, I am anticipating it more than usual. Right now I don't really care about what I get for a gift. I'll be holding the greatest gift in my arms. Celebrating the birth of our Lord this year is going to have new significance as I hold my new baby in my arms.
Now I just need to find the time and motivation to go out and get some stocking stuffers for the boys. As much as they're anticipating their sister, I don't think they feel quite the same way about gifts as I do.
November 26, 2008
November 20, 2008
His eye is on the sparrow
I headed out this morning around 9:00 to our monthly food co-op. The morning was going relatively smoothly, the boys were fed, dressed and had their hair combed, we were actually on time. So we got in the van and started up the hill towards church. As we reached the top of the hill, I saw out of the corner of my eye that the semi truck that was stopped at the stop sign on the road perpendicular to us was starting to move into my lane. I honked the horn, I tried to swerve right to miss him, but unfortunately I did not have enough reaction time or room to have him avoid hitting me. 
The front right corner of the cab ran into us.
As I look at the damage now I am impressed that it is not worse. I am thankful that I was able to get out of his way a little bit and that N who was sitting right behind me didn't suffer any harm. The boys weren't even shaken up. Their mother on the other hand was crying and shaking and not really sure what to do. 
I am so thankful for a Heavenly Father who looks after us. A man soon stopped and offered me the use of his cell phone, so I could call Dan and he came up from work to help me. The police showed up and took care of writing up a report for our insurance and getting all the information from the driver so that I didn't have to worry about it. The other driver was the one at fault, so we won't have to pay for the repairs. The boys seem to be unfazed and I'm coming down from my adrenaline high. 
One of Dan's concerns was that the stress would send me into labor. Thankfully I'm 37 weeks, so if I did go into labor things should still be OK, but I don't think I am. We're still aiming for a December baby. As I drove home, the song that popped into my head was this:
"Let not your heart be troubled, his tender word I hear, and resting on his goodness, I lose my doubt and fear; tho' by the path he leadeth, but one step I may see: his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me; he eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me."
November 19, 2008
Praises!
I've had a couple of good pieces of news today that make me want to share.
1. This morning when I signed on to Face Book, the first thing that popped up was the status of one of my friends. She is the sister of my friend, Cassie, from my time in Japan, the news was that Cassie had had her second little boy this morning. While birth in and of itself is a miracle and something to be celebrated, this one was extra special. Cassie's first birth had been a c-section in Belize and the doctors here in the states were not being particularly helpful in her quest for a VBAC. The news this morning, was that Cassie had a quick, easy, successful VBAC. A healthy little boy weighing in at 7 pounds 14 ounces. I was so elated I wanted to jump up and shout.
2. This afternoon I was checking my sister-in-laws blog Poets and Saints and read her incredible account of how God provides. I can tell you the news, God used a member of their church to meet their financial needs for their adoption, but I suggest you go and read her account. She tells it so beautifully and is a much better writer than me.
I have been so amazed and overwhelmed recently over God's goodness to us. To us as an immediate family and also to our extended family and friends. It's so easy to get bogged down in the bad news that seems to be never ending, but when I look around I can't help but being thankful. All I have to do is look at my amazing, loving husband, two strong healthy sons, and feel the miracle of life that is my daughter still growing in my womb.
And that is only the beginning...
1. This morning when I signed on to Face Book, the first thing that popped up was the status of one of my friends. She is the sister of my friend, Cassie, from my time in Japan, the news was that Cassie had had her second little boy this morning. While birth in and of itself is a miracle and something to be celebrated, this one was extra special. Cassie's first birth had been a c-section in Belize and the doctors here in the states were not being particularly helpful in her quest for a VBAC. The news this morning, was that Cassie had a quick, easy, successful VBAC. A healthy little boy weighing in at 7 pounds 14 ounces. I was so elated I wanted to jump up and shout.
2. This afternoon I was checking my sister-in-laws blog Poets and Saints and read her incredible account of how God provides. I can tell you the news, God used a member of their church to meet their financial needs for their adoption, but I suggest you go and read her account. She tells it so beautifully and is a much better writer than me.
I have been so amazed and overwhelmed recently over God's goodness to us. To us as an immediate family and also to our extended family and friends. It's so easy to get bogged down in the bad news that seems to be never ending, but when I look around I can't help but being thankful. All I have to do is look at my amazing, loving husband, two strong healthy sons, and feel the miracle of life that is my daughter still growing in my womb.
And that is only the beginning...
November 18, 2008
Pictures
ok, here are the pictures I promised. A little show and tell of what we've been up to lately.
A Friday night family activity. We had a picnic on the living room floor and watched old looney toons on the computer.
The boys came running downstairs one day saying, "mom! there are Turkeys in the back yard." I think we counted at least 15 of them. 
Helping Dad put the dressers together for Pip.
Feeling his baby sister move around. Obviously not impressed with Dad's desire to take a picture of the moment.
N. reading to A.
My new diaper bag. I'm pretty happy with it.
Update
Wow! I haven't posted anything in over a month. I can't even claim to have been that busy, no more than usual. Just a little unmotivated I guess.
Nothing spectacular has happened. I've taken all sorts of pictures over the last month thinking, "I could blog about this" and it just never happened. So what have we been up to? Just the usual every day business.
I continue to teach N. everyday. We're both ready for a break and are looking forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the birth of Pip. N. is excelling in school. His reading has taken off and A. often takes advantage of having an older brother who can read to him. N. has been known to spend an entire afternoon on the couch with a Calvin and Hobbes book. I also signed him up for Bookit this year and he read 16 books during the month of October. It was a lot of fun being able to take him to Pizza Hut for his first free pizza. He is so smart and his biggest struggle with school seems to be keeping focused on things that come so easily to him. He's starting to use his phonics to spell simple words, loves it when I read History to him, and enjoys our science projects as well. This past month we studied the human body. We had fun reading about the different organs, coloring them and then putting them onto a tracing of each of the boys that we hung on the wall.
A. also continues to grow and expand in his schooling. It's hard keeping up with him. He listens to his brother's lessons and soaks in all the information. I am amazed at his ability to form letters and often comes up to me saying, "mom, how do you write......" some word like 'stamping' or 'alleluia'. He enjoys making comic books and pictures and letters for his dad. One of our favorites recently was when he handed Dan a folded up letter that had "DAD" written on it with a smiley face, but when Dan opened it Asa yelled "boom!! boom!! boom!!" and ran away laughing. It was a picture of several sticks of dynamite. I guess that's what comes from letting your boys watch old episodes of road runner.
Pip continues to grow and stretch out her mother's belly. She certainly has some boney parts. Both boys love to feel her move. They are going to be such great big brothers. This past weekend they went to Indiana with my parents to visit their cousin, as I was hugging A and saying good bye he looks at me and says, "I'm going to say good bye to my sister." Then he leans over my belly and whispers, "good by." Dan will have plenty of help looking after her when she gets old enough to start attracting male attention.
I have been doing well. Believe it or not, this third trimester has been the best for me. I have truly been enjoying being pregnant. Things seem to have finally fallen into place. We had a little trouble a while back when the hospitals that our midwife delivers at informed her that she no longer had privileges to deliver VBACs. Something about the risk assessment office deciding the hospital's insurance wouldn't cover it. This was pretty devastating for us. We thought that we had finally found the perfect solution. After being told by her lawyer that she had no legal ground to stand on to fight it, we decided to switch. Thankfully we have a God who cares even for the tiniest details of our lives and the midwife that we had for N moved back from Kentucky to take over her mother's birthing clinic. She is a lay midwife, which means she is not covered by insurance, but we decided that peace of mind was more important. I am so blessed to have such a caring and understanding husband! So now our prayer is that we will have plenty of time to drive the hour it takes to get there and that Pip will not be born in the car on the way there.
I have slowly been getting ready for her arrival. We made a trip to Ikea and picked up a couple small dressers to put her clothes in. I've sorted through the clothes I have and picked out all the little girl/neutral things and have washed them. I have my diapers washed waiting for a baby to fill them and bought some nice cotton yarn and crocheted a new diaper bag for myself. Now it's just a waiting game to see when she decides to make her grand entrance. It's going to be a glorious day indeed!
So that's what we've been up to. I'll try to post pictures sometime soon.
Nothing spectacular has happened. I've taken all sorts of pictures over the last month thinking, "I could blog about this" and it just never happened. So what have we been up to? Just the usual every day business.
I continue to teach N. everyday. We're both ready for a break and are looking forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the birth of Pip. N. is excelling in school. His reading has taken off and A. often takes advantage of having an older brother who can read to him. N. has been known to spend an entire afternoon on the couch with a Calvin and Hobbes book. I also signed him up for Bookit this year and he read 16 books during the month of October. It was a lot of fun being able to take him to Pizza Hut for his first free pizza. He is so smart and his biggest struggle with school seems to be keeping focused on things that come so easily to him. He's starting to use his phonics to spell simple words, loves it when I read History to him, and enjoys our science projects as well. This past month we studied the human body. We had fun reading about the different organs, coloring them and then putting them onto a tracing of each of the boys that we hung on the wall.
A. also continues to grow and expand in his schooling. It's hard keeping up with him. He listens to his brother's lessons and soaks in all the information. I am amazed at his ability to form letters and often comes up to me saying, "mom, how do you write......" some word like 'stamping' or 'alleluia'. He enjoys making comic books and pictures and letters for his dad. One of our favorites recently was when he handed Dan a folded up letter that had "DAD" written on it with a smiley face, but when Dan opened it Asa yelled "boom!! boom!! boom!!" and ran away laughing. It was a picture of several sticks of dynamite. I guess that's what comes from letting your boys watch old episodes of road runner.
Pip continues to grow and stretch out her mother's belly. She certainly has some boney parts. Both boys love to feel her move. They are going to be such great big brothers. This past weekend they went to Indiana with my parents to visit their cousin, as I was hugging A and saying good bye he looks at me and says, "I'm going to say good bye to my sister." Then he leans over my belly and whispers, "good by." Dan will have plenty of help looking after her when she gets old enough to start attracting male attention.
I have been doing well. Believe it or not, this third trimester has been the best for me. I have truly been enjoying being pregnant. Things seem to have finally fallen into place. We had a little trouble a while back when the hospitals that our midwife delivers at informed her that she no longer had privileges to deliver VBACs. Something about the risk assessment office deciding the hospital's insurance wouldn't cover it. This was pretty devastating for us. We thought that we had finally found the perfect solution. After being told by her lawyer that she had no legal ground to stand on to fight it, we decided to switch. Thankfully we have a God who cares even for the tiniest details of our lives and the midwife that we had for N moved back from Kentucky to take over her mother's birthing clinic. She is a lay midwife, which means she is not covered by insurance, but we decided that peace of mind was more important. I am so blessed to have such a caring and understanding husband! So now our prayer is that we will have plenty of time to drive the hour it takes to get there and that Pip will not be born in the car on the way there.
I have slowly been getting ready for her arrival. We made a trip to Ikea and picked up a couple small dressers to put her clothes in. I've sorted through the clothes I have and picked out all the little girl/neutral things and have washed them. I have my diapers washed waiting for a baby to fill them and bought some nice cotton yarn and crocheted a new diaper bag for myself. Now it's just a waiting game to see when she decides to make her grand entrance. It's going to be a glorious day indeed!
So that's what we've been up to. I'll try to post pictures sometime soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
