Just a few things...

Do you remember MckMama, and her sweet little miracle baby, Stellan?  Well, once again, they are in desperate need of some prayers.  Little Stellan, if you remember, was diagnosed w/ SVT while he was still in his mother's womb.  Thankfully, he was born whole & perfect despite the grim diagnosis.  Now, at 5 months old, he has lapsed back into the dangerous SVT pattern, and has been in the hospital for over a week now desperately fighting for his life.  If you have a second, take a look at MckMama's blog (Just click on the Praying for Stellan button on the right) and take a moment to get on your knees in prayer for this precious child.  The amount of people that baby Stellan has touched is astounding, and even through this darkness, God's light is being shown through him. 

As most of you know, I'm an avid reader.  When my book stash starts dwindling, I start to panic!  Thankfully, my Amazon order came in this week and I'm so excited to start reading all of my beautiful new books.  Actually, I already finished the first one, Jodi Piccoult's "Handle with Care" (would not recommend it for women who are pregnant!  Maybe I should have listened to my mom on that one!).

It looks like Chris won't be out of town for our sonogram on the 27th after all!!   Yay!  I was thinking that I might have to give my "results" envelope to Wendy for safe keeping!  I'm not sure that I could have it in my house and not peek!

AND, for those of you who were wondering...the clothes from the last post were from Gymboree.  And no, unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to buy even one thing...this being practical stuff really doesn't work for me!!

Hope you are all having a great week!

~Amy

This could be TROUBLE!!!

Are these not the cutest little boy shoes ever??!!

Oh my gosh...I'm in love!!

This is so sweet, I want to buy it even if I don't have a little girl!

Are you seeing the butterfly hair clips??  I could just eat them up!

Tulip Festival & Other Fun Stuff

I love birthdays!  It really doesn't matter who's having the birthday, as long as I can celebrate with them, I'm happy!  My family lovingly refers to March as my birthday month.  Something about the fact that when I was MUCH younger (at least 2 years ago!), I'd try to drag my birthday out for as long as possible.  I'd partake in as many birthday lunches/dinners/desserts as possible, and I'd jump at the chance of going bowling, to the movies, or to any other fun birthday celebration place.  And let's not forget the presents!!   But now that I'm older, and much wiser, I realize that birthdays really aren't all about the celebrations (well, maybe they are a little!), they're more about spending time with the people that you love.  

This year, for my birthday weekend, I was fortunate enough to get to visit Holland for the annual Tulip Festival.  We went w/ some of our wonderful friends, the Hilburns, and had a great time exploring Amsterdam, and enjoying the beautiful flowers at Keukenhof (the festival).  It was a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday...we even had pancakes for dinner at a famous Pancake House!  

We arrived back in England on Sunday night, and I promptly started all the paperwork for our upcoming move.  Apparently, since I have asthma, I am a "special needs" spouse.  The only thing that this label gets me, in my opinion, is a bunch of excess stress!  But, I'm trying to tackle it one day at a time, and I'm hoping that surely I'll be deemed "fit to travel" sometime between now and July!

In baby news (I know you were waiting for it!!), I had another OB appt. today!!  As I said before, I wasn't able to get another sonogram; however, I did get to hear the tiny heartbeat!  It's a steady 140 BPM, and the tech said that it sounds healthy!  Since we live in England (have I mentioned lately that I'm ready to leave??!) we won't be able to find out the sex until the end of April.  It seems like such a long time from now!  And, even at that, it looks like Chris will be gone when I have the sono, so the Dr. has agreed to put the results in a sealed envelope for us to open when Chris returns.  Though it's not an ideal situation, I am really looking forward to opening the envelope w/ Chris and sharing our excitement together privately.  I can't wait for that day!!  

If you'll notice, I've added a few things to my blog!  I stole the idea of a poll from my friend Taylor (I hope you don't mind!).  Feel free to take it, and we'll see if you think that we'll be adding a girl or a boy to our family in September!!   

Enjoy some pics of the our weekend in Holland below!

I love this picture...I think it looks like they're friends!  (Yes, I'm a geek!)

Wendy & I

New Home (well, for now!), & Baby Stuff

Shockingly, this amount of food took up our entire refrigerator at our old house!  Look at the room that we have in there...how in the world will I fill it all up??!!

My two new loves!!

I just realized that I had yet to post any pictures of our new house!  Of course, I must start off with the two things that made me fall in love with it in the first place...the washer/dryer, and the refrigerator!  Our old refrigerator was quite small, and the freezer was even smaller.  I actually think that having it taught me to really appreciate fresh food (and smaller portions, if we're being honest!).  Since moving to England I have cooked more than I ever thought I would, and it turns out that I LOVE it!  Having a small refrigerator forced me to buy really fresh products, and to use them all within the week so that none would go to waste.  That being said, I'm loving the fact that I can actually fit a frozen pizza in my freezer now...so much for being healthy!!

In other news, I'm almost to my 16th week of pregnancy!  I wish that I could say that I'm feeling great, but ummm...not so much!  The funny thing is that I didn't really start feeling sick until the end of my first trimester.  Hmm, leave it to me to get things backwards!  But, I can tell that our sweet little D is growing, which is all I really care about.  I have my 16th week appt. next week, but sadly I won't get another ultrasound.  I really love those things; it's so fun to see our precious child, and be reminded that there really is a miracle growing inside of my belly!  I wish an ultrasound came w/ every appointment...I'd LOVE it!  I've heard that I might start feeling him/her kick in the next few weeks, and I'm so looking forward to those little "bubbles" (as I've been told it feels like).  I've already bought some maternity clothes as my jeans don't quite fit the same anymore.  I think I might be the only girl in the world who actually liked maternity clothes shopping!   It was so fun to try on all of the cute clothes (minus the hideous jeans & shorts) w/ that little mock bump strapped around my waist.  I laughed so hard the first time I saw myself...so did my mom & sis-in-law!  

Well, I guess that's all I have for now.  We're going to Holland this weekend for the Tulip Festival w/ some awesome friends!  My birthday is Saturday, so this trip will be extra special!  Hope you are all having a great week!

Blessings, Amy

Updates & More Great News!

Wow, it's been a really long time since I've written!  Sorry about that...life has just been crazy lately!  Let's see, where do I even begin??

Shortly after I wrote my last post, I traveled back to Texas for a fun-filled 2.5 weeks!  My little brother got married last year, and my mom planned a gorgeous reception at her house to celebrate while I was home this time.  Our entire family came to shower the happy couple with love.  We all enjoyed the beautiful Texas weather, and we even had some swimmers!  Well, one intentional swimmer, and one quite unintentional one...but that's another story!

My friend Kelly stayed with me for a night, and (like always) we got into lots of trouble the next day!  Leave it to us to wind up in the WORST part of Dallas, lost, with no phone!  Oh, the memories of Italy came flying back to me that day!  But alas, we finally found our way to her friends apartment and all was well.  

I enjoyed LOTS of Chick-fil-a; perhaps too much, but who's really keeping tabs?  And, I got to attend a Bachelorette Party, and Wedding Shower for my cousin as well!  Chris and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary w/ a date to Pappadeaux (oh, the Shrimp Embrochette!), and a movie.  If you're looking for a good one, I highly recommend Taken...it was awesome!  We also made plenty of trips to all of the local baby stores.  It was fun and overwhelming at the same time.  In fact, there were a couple of rows that we just decided to skip at Babies R Us because we were literally worn out!  Who knew that shopping for a baby could be so tiring...don't even start w/ the jokes about waiting until the baby actually comes!  I know, I know...I'm in for a big surprise!

Our other wonderful news comes in the form of another move.  Chris got accepted to a training program in Mississippi, and it is an absolute dream come true for him.  I have always believed that God has a special plan for every person's life, and I am truly convinced that God molded Chris to fly.  This opportunity was such an answered prayer, one of many that we have received this year.  So, we're packing up again shortly and heading back to America for good!  We've already begun the house-hunting, and researching our new home...I can't even tell you how excited I am!!  I'll definitely fill you all in with more details later, but for now just please continue to pray for our family & the transitions that we will soon be making.

Below is our 2nd ultrasound pic of Baby D :)  It was taken at just over 10 weeks, and I'm almost at 16 already.  Time is just flying by!  In just a few short weeks we will learn if our sweet little baby is a boy or a girl...oh what fun!!  

  

Thank you....and Moving Day!

First of all, I just wanted to say a BIG Thank You to everyone for the outpouring of love and support that we received since I posted the last entry.  From the comments that people left, to the emails that we received, we were overwhelmed by everyone's excitement and encouragement during this very happy time!  Honestly, it was difficult for me to write my last post...to put the news out there when I'm only 10 weeks along, and to open up about the struggles that I faced while trying to get to this place.  Reading all of your sweet words helped me to appreciate that I was not alone in my frustrations, and it reminded me again of the love that our Lord has for each and every one of us.  So, from the bottom of my heart ~Thank You for all of your blessings and well-wishes, they mean the world to me.

 On a very different, and equally (well maybe not equally, but pretty darn close) exciting note...today is MOVING DAY!!  Yay!  The man is downstairs packing up all of our possessions as I type.  Chris is getting the keys to our new house, and we will no longer be residents of Red Lodge by this time tomorrow :)  I'll post pictures as soon as I get to our new Casa...and maybe after I do a load or two of laundry in my VERY OWN WASHER!!!  

1 Samuel 1:27

When I was a little girl, I would play "house" with all of my girlfriends, and we would all fight over who got to be the "Mama". From as far back as I can remember, I've wanted to be just that....a mother. As I've gotten older, my desire has only grown. I just love everything about children; from their sweet chubby fingers and toes as infants, to the precious way they have of making everyone around them smile as they grow into their own personalities. They are such a light to this world, and I have always dreamed of having one of my own.

Chris & I started talking about having kids right after we got married. Well, let me clarify...I talked, Chris listened :) In his defense, just like every good husband, he wanted to make sure that he could take care of me (a BIG job, let me just say!) before he could even think about bringing another life into this world. Eventually, we got to a point where we felt comfortable and ready to start talking about it seriously.

Well, it didn't happen immediately. In fact, being the drama queen that I am, I thought that it might not happen at all. I saw doctors, had tests run, became frustrated...okay, okay, I got a little obsessed. I thought that this was supposed to be easy. I mean, everyone else seemed to be having babies easily. (Hello post-deployment baby-boom!!) I was so excited for all of my friends, but at the same time, my heart was hurting. That's a horrible thing to admit, but it is my truth. Finally, my Dr. prescribed some medication. The first type didn't have any effect at all, and the 2nd brought with it some VERY not fun side-effects. It was at this point that I gave it all to God. I literally got on my knees and asked Him to take the hurt, frustration, stress, and doubt away from me, and to replace it with fruitfulness of my spirit. If a child was not in the cards for us right then, or ever, I asked that He let my heart be okay with that. It was hard to lay that desire down at His feet, especially for this sometimes overly-controlling girl. But I also prayed that He not let me pick that burden up again...and He didn't.

"Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."' Matthew 11:28

At the first of January I had what I thought was a stomach bug. I missed a New Year's Eve party b/c of it, and I was honestly a little annoyed! On a whim, I took a test...you know the one. And can you guess how this story turns out?? It was positive! Tears of joy flooded down my face. I can't even describe what I felt that day, I don't think that my emotions can be put into words. I immediately (yet, sneakily) told Chris, who was equally as excited and overwhelmed with joy! We then set up a web-cam call w/ all 4 sets of our parents to share our news. We wanted to see their faces, and I must say, it was absolutely priceless!

Needless to say, our year has started out on a wonderfully happy note. We are expecting a little one on September 5th, and we are so thankful to have been given this amazing blessing!! Praise God, He is so good!!

"For this child, I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him."

1 Samuel 1:27