Tis the Season for....love and babies!!! :)

It is the day after Christmas, and I love the calmness of this morning....I can't sleep for too long anymore thanks to my active bun in the oven...but I don't mind at all. I have always loved my morning times when Jason is sleeping and I have some time for myself to read, pray and journal. :) Well, Christmas was wonderful...I don't know how we did it, but we had 10 (we were originally planning for eight and weren't sure how that was going to work in our place) people and 3 little dogs at our home. It actually got to the point where people showed up that we weren't expecting, and we didn't have enough chairs or cups...thank goodness my Grandma was on her way and was able to turn back and grab what we needed! :)I loved cooking a ham dinner with all the fixins' and was blessed with the amazing help of my awesome sister-in-law. It was special for me because I had my side and Jason's side of the family over and was able to celebrate with the people I love. (We missed you though mom and dad in Portugal!!)I was pretty tired by the end of the day, and I realized that my legs were swollen from standing most the day, but it was all worth it, and I am so glad we were able to have everyone over.

I also have a joy in my heart this morning because I have been not only thinking about how close we are getting to meeting our little Ryan, but because of the great news of life that we have heard lately. It is definitely the season of love...we have had about 5 of our friends get engaged within the past two weeks, and we are so excited about the joining of lives that God is doing. We were also engaged around this time on December 18, 2006, so it is fun to remember the excitement of that time, and all that God has done for us since then. Also, last night we found out that our friends who were in ministry with us last year are pregnant, expecting in August, and when I got on facebook this morning, one of my dear friends from High School posted that she gave birth to a baby girl! Hearing about the new life that God brings never gets old!! In the past few months, one of my best friends, Sara, found out she is pregnant with her second, my other super close friend, found out that she is pregnant with her second, and I have had some other friends tell the news as well. The journey of life is so exciting, and I love this season that I'm in right now. I love how God brings love, we share love with others, find the person we desire to love for ever, and that love produces new life....so cool! I can't get over it...Praise be to Jesus for what He is doing.

Christmas

I just finished wrapping some gifts. As I was wrapping, I was remembering the special Christmas' of my past. Two of them stand out among them all. One was when I was about 11 years old. I was living in Arizona with my mom, two brothers and my mom's boyfriend. This was a hard year for us, neither my mom nor her boyfriend were working, and they were pretty heavily into drugs at that time. So much that we had both our gas and electricity turned off due to non-payments for over a year. I remember doing my homework by candlelight and we had a propane stove where my mom would make us soup and heat up some water for the one bath that my brothers and I would have to take together. As a child, I didn't care much....life seemed pretty normal for me (I didn't know any different). Well, during Christmas time this year, I think that my grandparents told a church about our situation. We were sponsored by a church; they paid for our gas and electricity for the month of December, put up Christmas lights on our house and bought us a Christmas tree. Not only that, but I remember there weren't any gifts under the tree and my brothers and I would make 'paper gifts' to put under the tree and that's all we expected since we knew we didn't have any money. Well, on Christmas day, I remember a gang of people coming over to our house with trash bags full of gifts. I was very surprised and remember being embarrassed at having all these people in our home. But, they brought us gifts. I will never forget that Brian, my youngest brother got a collection of coloring books, pens, crayons, markers, etc. Chris got a super soaker gun that shot ink that disappeared. He was incredibly excited. And I received probably my favorite gift of all time; a Cinderella barbie doll with three outfits to go with it. I had never seen anything so beautiful. I loved it so much that I didn't open the outfits for such a long time because they were so pretty in the wrapping. I can still feel the excitement and not knowing how to react to these people who I didn't know bringing me gifts. I felt Jesus that Christmas.

The other Christmas that stands out was when I was a sophomore in high school. By this time, my mom had passed away from drugs and my brothers and I were living with my Dad in Fresno. My dad was a pretty bad alcoholic, and again, when it came to gifts, it didn't look like they were an option for our family that year. I had become a Christian when I was a freshman, and so was attending a youth group at the Evangelical Church of Fresno. I don't remember how or how it came about, but I remember one night that our youth pastor, Ed Noble, went in front of the youth group and said that they were going to take an offering for someone in need during the holidays. I didn't know it at the time, but that offering was for my family. Ed came to me after the service and gave me a check and said that this was for my family. He even took me out Christmas shopping so that I was able to get my brothers a nice winter jacket, which they needed very much. Again, God showed Himself and His love to us that Christmas.

Now, Jesus has provided for me in numerous ways that I can go on and on about, and I cannot help but be a little taken back by the life that He has given me today. I am married to an awesome guy, have a sweet little home and a precious baby growing in my womb. As I celebrate this Christmas, I am reminded that it isn't about the gifts, but about showing Jesus to others. There are so many ways to do this, and my prayer is that Jesus will use my family to be the light and love to others that He showed to me through those experiences as I was growing up. Also, I am one of those people who were blessed from the generosity of others...so be generous to those who are in need....it has a lasting impact.

I love being pregnant!

I know I kind of sound ridiculous, but being prego is one of the coolest experiences that I have ever had. It makes me think of how amazing God has created our bodies and how He is right now creating a child in His image in my womb.....it blows my mind! I also have always loved pregnant bellies (I know..I'm weird), and so I really do enjoy having a huge belly. At times it is a bit uncomfortable, and it is getting harder to get up off the couch, but the thought that there is a child in there growing is incredible. Here are some pics that one of my old high school girls took of Jason, me and baby. She is an aspiring photographer, and did an incredible job. Enjoy!

The start of blogging

Ok, so after reading a blog, I decided that I wanted to start a blog too...we'll see how good it is, but I am excited to be able to record the life adventures that God has for me (for us...my awesome husband and baby Ekk on the way). This morning I woke up around 7 am, which is pretty early, and I usually try to make myself sleep in until about 8, but I knew that if I went onto babycenter.com, it would say that today I am officially 28 weeks pregnant....and that means I am officially in my third trimester! Woot woot! (so I had to get up!) I have to say...this pregnancy has been such an amazing blessing. For those who know me, know that babies are somewhat of an obsession of mine and to have my own has been an intense dream and desire for a very long time. I really feel that when God created me, one of the main gifts that He gave me was the nurturing gift. So, with that to say, when I found out I was pregnant, it was a dream come true....it very much didn't feel real at the time, but as my little gift began to grow inside me and I can feel his (yes, its a boy!) little kicks, it is becoming more and more of a reality that we are given the opportunity to love and care for one of God's children, one that is ours! It's still a crazy thought for me....but so incredibly exciting at the same time! It has been a blessing to not have to work this year too....which I think has allowed me to fully enjoy this pregnancy. At times I do get a bit stir crazy, and my home has been kept very clean ;), but I honestly think that God gave me an enormous gift of being able to be at home and enjoy the quiet and to learn how to slow down and quiet my soul...something that was VERY hard for me to do...but I think will only help me when the baby does come. God has shown me so much over these past couple months and I think that I will always look back at this time as a very sweet and precious time of my life.

Another reason why I decided to start to blog is the chance that we may be moving away from our friends and family in less than a year as Jason is pursuing his dream of attending law school. I have to admit, there are times when the thought of leaving terrifies me. Fresno is my home, and my family here (which that includes my close friends) are treasures to me. I love living life in community, and the idea of growing old with these people is appealing to me. BUT...there are days, especially when I see the excitement and passion in Jason's eyes, that I get very excited and anticipatory of what the Lord has for us. As of right now, we have NO idea of where we can be. We can be in DC, which would be cool to live in the east coast and have so much to see and do (and I LOVE the cold), or Indiana (which I am kind of rooting for-it's the least expensive to live there, and its cold there too!) or Southern Ca-where we may be close to our dear friends Derrick and Laurel, and not too far from Fresno. Sooo...who knows. What I do know in my heart is that Christ didn't call us to live a comfortable life, and I am VERY comfortable in Fresno, and Jesus has given Jason desires and passions and gifts, and having a law degree will only open up so many doors to use those. I honestly do not know how we are going to do financially, but I know that the Lord provides and we are pursuing learning how to be good stewards of what God gives us now in anticipation for the future. We serve an Amazing God who has always taken care of us, and we have never had to go without. So, I know that if He leads us to law school, he will provide opportunities for us to survive. As I was reading my bible the other day, this verse popped out at me; "I will praise you O Lord my God, with all of my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me, you have delivered me from the depths of the grave." Psalm 86:12-13. His love is great, and I certainly have been delivered from the depths of the grave...and am continually thankful.