Showers of Blessing

I have been so blessed over the past week and a half to have had two wonderful baby showers! We received so many great gifts, and are just so thankful for all of our friends and family who helped to not only throw the showers, but buy gifts and just be there to support us!

The first shower was July 16 at Shenandoah Baptist Church with lots of family and old friends.

The yummy cake!

Lots of presents!!

Mom used the lamp from the nursery as a centerpiece, and then added our sonogram pictures.

Some of the guests were family, friends from high school, and family friends from the church I grew up in. :)

A photo album to fill up with lots of sweet baby pictures!

Mom bought the baby his first suit for Easter!! :) SO CUTE!!

He got lots of clothes!

More presents!

I had such a great time!!

The second shower was at my friend Meg's house with many of the ladies from our church, First Baptist, Roanoke on July 22. My mom and sister came too, so they could meet our friends. I'm so glad they were able to come and meet the people that have become such a big part of our lives!!

The beautiful cake my friend, Leslie Ann made!

We told her she needed to go into business making cakes! It looked great, and even better, it tasted delicious!!

Some of the sweet ladies I've met through Sunday School and Bible study. I love them all!

Meg had us make a letter book for the baby. We each had to choose a letter and fill up a page with items from magazines that started with that letter. We all had a lot of fun finding pictures for each other's letters! There were a few "unique" suggestions too! :)

Opening more gifts

The Moby Wrap so I can carry the baby around and have my hands free!

So many of the cards had such sweet notes of encouragement and advice in them! I loved reading each one! :)

Still working on the letter book!

So many cute clothes!!

I'm so glad my mom was able to be there and get to meet all of the girls!

The very interesting squeezy spoon that Tyler registered us for. Everyone was very intrigued by the contraption! :)

There were several cards that teased us about being careful of the baby peeing on us, since Tyler is deathly afraid of getting peed in the face! haha

The play mat, Tyler wants one for his size!

This tote is so cute and unique! You can reach your hand in the mouth and get toys out! Plus, it totally went with our room theme!!

All in all, I had lots of fun and can't wait to use everything when baby boy gets here!!

Nursery Renovations

We finally completed the baby's nursery after a lot of planning and hard work! I had a vision in mind while picking out all the items for the nursery, but I never envisioned the final product that we got! Tyler worked hard on the room doing things like tearing out old baseboards, patching and mudding the walls, then putting in replacement baseboards and quarter round. He also had to re-texturize the wall where we had torn out built-in shelves, and where the old owners had done some electrical work and never patched the walls correctly. He then had to prime and paint the walls, which would have been easy had we not gone through four different paint samples before settling on a color we actually like. While painting, Tyler also decided to remove and replace the outlets around the room that had been painted over many times. He also painted the ceiling, doors, and trim, then decided he needed to replace the door knobs to keep with the updated look. He also decided it was time to fix the ceiling fan that we never used for fear of it falling out of the ceiling if we turned it on! But after many late nights and long weekends, the effort was well worth it!! We both agree that we absoultely love our little boy's room and can't wait to have him here to enjoy it!!

 

The alcove that caused most of the work in the room after we removed the built in shelves.

  

It might've taken us a few tries, but we absolutely love the paint color!!

 

These are all shells that we collected on our various trips to Florida! We were so excited to have a place to display them!

  

Before

Middle

Completed





1 Samuel 1:27

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him." 1 Samuel 1:27

I read this verse on one of the cards I received at my baby shower this weekend, and it put into words the very thing I've felt since December 29th when I found out I was pregnant. Having a baby is the thing I've been hoping, praying, and planning for for almost 3 years. We knew we needed to wait because of our job situation and our plans for me to stay home, but it didn't lessen that desire in my heart. There were so many times when I would read the story of Hannah in the Bible and cry because I knew how she felt, begging the Lord to be able to have a baby. I'm so thankful that when we decided to start trying, God blessed us with the ability to get pregnant easily. I had been terrified and irrationally so, that I wouldn't be able to have a baby and would worry and fret and pray and beg God to please allow us to have a baby easily. I can't imagine what women go through who do have trouble getting pregnant, but God really worked in my heart while I was waiting for the right time, and I learned that He was bigger than all my doubts and fears. The other verse I clung to was Jer. 29:11 which says that God has good plans for us. I finally had to accept that His good plans aren't always our plans and that He is still good and still God even if He chose not to give us a baby. My heart was so broken the day that I confessed that to God and laid at the altar with Him, once and for all giving the situation to Him.

Amazingly, God answered my deepest longing within a few months of trying. I was so surprised the day I took the test and it came back positive! I was sure that I would see another negative reading and be able to tell Tyler that he was wrong and that I wasn't pregnant. But instead, I was wrong! The plus sign was faint, but it was a positive.

I remember squealing with joy, then sitting down and thinking, "This is really happening!!" and then crying, not because I was scared or sad, but because I was overjoyed and overwhelmed by God's goodness and His timing. While pregnancy has had its share of downsides like throwing up every other morning for 4 months or not being able to sleep the last few weeks from being uncomfortable, there is nothing that has made me regret being pregnant. Tyler and I are so excited about what the future holds for our family, and we are so thankful that the Lord has been so good to us along the way.

Most importantly to know is that this baby boy was prayed for and longed for, and we know without a doubt that he is a gift from the Lord, and truly the greatest blessing we have received! I just hope that we will be worthy of the gift God gave us and that we will love and nurture this little guy and raise him to love the Lord who gave him to us! Just as Hannah handed her cherished son back to God when he was old enough, I hope we will also recognize that our son belongs to God alone.

Nesting

So it took me a little while to come out of the denial I was in, but the truth is I am in nesting mode full force. With only 7 weeks left until our little baby boy arrives I feel compelled to get as much done around my house as possible. I've done things like clean out the pantry, fridge, and freezer, only to fill them up a few days later with anything I thought we might need in the next few months as well as prepare several frozen meals for days when I won't feel like cooking once our son is here. I have also re-organized our linen closet, created a file box with all of our important family documents so that they are always accessible (I even found our marriage license!!), created a new address book that has updated addresses and phone numbers of our family and friends, and cleaned just about everything in sight.  In addition to all of this, we have been diligently working on the nursery to get everything organized and put away for baby, and I have now washed all of his clothes and linens thus far. Many have told me that I need to just rest and take it easy these last few weeks and that it's really not necessary to have the nursery completed before the baby comes since he won't sleep in it for the first couple of months, but that just doesn't sit well with me. I know that my life is about to turn upside down and that I'm going to be overwhelmed and exhausted when our little one arrives, and the last thing I want to be worrying about is what we're having for dinner or if the crib has been set up yet or where on earth my insurance paperwork is or if I have a clean outfit to put the baby in because company is coming over to see him. I know to some it might seem totally insane, but to me all this preparation is simply a way to put my mind at ease and make the transition to mommy a little easier.  We are so excited about his arrival! And now we feel a little more confident since we have accomplished so much in preparation for him becoming part of our home! But before you say that you hope the time flies by, don't. We're content to wait the full 40 weeks, because all good things come in time! And who knows, I might find some other chore to accomplish before he comes! :)