A Baby is Coming!

We're going to have a baby! Our due date is mid-January.

Chris and I are so very excited.

We told our parents last week, after we found out that we were pregnant. We told the rest of our family and friends tonight as we couldn't keep it a secret any longer!

Our siblings are SO excited. The screaming and carrying on that happened for the next few hours was almost more than we could handle! We are so very blessed to have brothers and sisters who love us and are excited with us!

We're only five weeks along and I am well aware that the first 12 weeks are the most dangerous for our little one. However, I have faith that God is going to protect us and our child. Please pray for us as we navigate these next 7 weeks.

I wish I had more time (and energy) to tell our story but alas, I will save that for another day.

With much love,

Leah

They told us before we were married that the first year was the hardest. I didn’t believe them. “How could the year after you’re first married be the hardest when you’re so in love?” I thought to myself.

Oh boy. They were right.

I understand it now. You go from the single life where you come and go as you please, you spend money however you want to, you sleep by yourself diagonally across your bed, you set your alarm to go off 20 minutes before you actually need to so you can hit the snooze alarm several times, you are responsible for you and only you. Then you get married and you are responsible and accountable to someone else. You learn to share a bed, a bathroom, and other living space. I thought it would be much like living with sisters but it is most definitely not.

Our first year definitely had it’s ups and downs.

We moved 4 times before the end of the year. Once to our apartment in St. Robert, once to Indiana, and twice after the initial move to Indiana. In St. Robert, we lived a mere 0.4 miles from my job and 1 mile from Christopher’s job. Our schedules matched up and we were able to eat lunch together every day. We bought a truck with the intention of only using it for a few miles a day.

Then came the decision to move to Indiana. The next 5 months were AWFUL. We lived with family (not exactly nice for a newlywed couple) and had to learn how to live with them AND each other. It was difficult, very very difficult and yet it made us stronger and made us love each other more.

I spent 6 weeks jobless when we first moved to Indiana and it was very rough on us financially. Chris had decent job but we knew that for the time being we couldn’t live on his income alone. And I was BORED. Finally, after many days of combing the classifieds and searching the internet, I found a job that helped us get back on track. I loved the people, but hated the hours. It decreased the time we were able to spend together, sometimes we had completely opposite schedules. We knew I needed to find something else. Now I have a good job.

Shortly after that we were able to move to Seymour, where we attended a great church. We found a GOOD apartment at a CHEAP price. We were able to pay our bills on time and build up our savings account.

We dealt with the difficulty of Chris’s schedule. He went from working 6am-4pm and then some overnight shifts (pure torture for me) and then finally 7am to 5pm. We get home at about the same time.

We learned that even though we DO know what we’re talking about, people may not listen to us.

Then we started to learn more about the people around us and learn that we were wrong in our perceptions of them. It’s earth-shattering thinking that someone you know is one way and it turns out that you were completely wrong. It broke our hearts.

I had to learn that my parents aren’t going to be able to fix EVERYTHING. We also learned that our parents are not perfect.

We learned that even though we’ve moved out and are hours away, our siblings can still annoy the heck out of us. And sometimes it’s just better to communicate our issues to them so they know when they’ve hurt you in some way, even though it was unintentional.

We learned that neither one of us is perfect like we thought the other was before we were married, and that it’s just me that’s perfect (kidding!). We learned to communicate our feelings and frustrations and not to go to bed when we’re hurt, angry, or frustrated.

We learned to lean on each other. It’s so easy for me to go to another room and cry my heart out but sometimes it’s okay to let Chris hold me as I cry.

We dealt with terrifying, vivid nightmares as a side effect of birth control (ask me about chicken babies, blood drives, worms, and stalkers sometime). We also learned that my body is going to retaliate against me for going OFF said birth control. We learned that even though our parents were able to get pregnant right away, we have to wait on the Lord’s timing…no matter how badly we wanted it to happen 2 months ago.

This past year has had it's ups and downs, it's highs and lows. However, I wouldn't trade the love that Christopher and I share for anything else this world has to offer.

Happy Anniversary Christopher Aaron. I love you! 

Thoughts

Disclaimer: I am not here to judge. However, this is my blog and I have a right to my own opinion. Please respect my opinion.
 
Have you seen that commercial about depression? The one that says that depression hurts...and that depression hurts everyone. Well, it's the same with divorce. Divorce hurts...and it hurts everyone.

Divorce hurts the woman.  Divorce hurts the man.  Divorce hurts the children.  Divorce hurts friends.  Divorce hurts family members.  Divorce hurts the church.  Divorce hurts everyone. 

I'm not talking about myself. Chris and I are very happy. I'm talking about others around me. I'm talking about people I know well. I'm talking about people who used to mean a lot to me. I'm talking about half the church.

When Chris and I got married, we made vows that said, "Til death do us part." I meant every word of that vow. Chris is going to have to die to get out of our marriage. I will die before I get out of our marriage. Others say that too, but why don't they follow through?

Especially if they consider themselves Christians?

What does the Bible teach about Divorce? Read this.
What are the Biblical ground for Divorce? Read this.

Divorce is wrong. It hurts everyone.

It's so funny that I was thinking about this during my shower the other day (where I do all my best thinking) and composed the first half of this blog post. AND THEN, that same day as Chris and I did our devotions before bed, the book we are working through touched a little bit on divorce. He and I had a great discussion about it and agreed on everything we discussed.

I believe that divorce is an act of complete selfishness. Seriously, get over yourself. LOVE  is a choice. We learned that as teenagers in our "True Love Waits" conferences. So, when you CHOOSE to divorce, you are CHOOSING not to love someone anymore. I don't believe there's such a thing as "falling in love" or  "falling out of love." It's an excuse. Divorce is lazy. Why take the easy way out? Divorce is costly, yes, but it's easy to just leave someone behind isn't it? Why not TRY a little harder and WORK on the marriage. When Chris and I got married, we were told that marriage wasn't easy. I believe that wholeheartedly now. And I love Chris and I honor and respect our marriage and commitment enough to WORK on it, even if I don't want to.

Both mine and Chris's parents drew a picture example for us before we were married....and it looked an awful lot like this:

And when we lose our focus on God, our triangle becomes lopsided, unbalanced.

Now, I'm no expert on marriage...in fact, I've only been married for a year. BUT I'm not an idiot. I know it takes three (God, Man, Woman) to make a marriage work and it takes two (Man, Woman) to break it apart. And once you take out that third element, you're in for a world of hurt.

Divorce hurts....everyone.

Thoughts?

"I Am"

Someone put this post on their xanga wall about six years ago and I haven't forgotten about it.

I have the day off so I went searching for it and found it. I'm not sure why she labeled it "For Leah..." And I don't even know if she really meant it for me or someone else.

It's the lyrics to the song "I Am"  by Nichole Nordeman.

And here is a Youtube link to the song... http://youtu.be/-b7vXuslOGQ

Sunday, January 22, 2006

For Leah... Pencil marks on a wall I wasn't always this tall, You scattered some monsters from beneath my bed, You watched my team win, You watched my team lose, You watched when my bicycle went down again, And When I was weak unable to speak, still I could call You by name, and I said “Elbow healer, Superhero, come if You can,” and You said “I am” Only 16, life is so mean, what kind of curfew is at ten PM You saw my mistakes, You watched my heart break Heard when I swore I’d never love again When I was weak, unable to speak, still I could call You by name, and I said “Heart-ache Healer, Secret-keeper, be my Best Friend” and You said “I am” You saw me wear white, by pale candlelight, I said forever to what lies ahead two kids and a dream, with kids that can scream too much it might seem when it’s two AM when I am weak, unable to speak, still I will call You by name. “Oh Shepherd, Savior, Pasture-maker, hold on to my hand,” and You say “I am.” The winds of change, And circumstance blow in and all around us so we find a foothold that’s familiar, And bless the moments that we feel You nearer Life had begun, I was woven and spun, You let the angels dance around the throne, who can say when, But they’ll dance again, when I am free and finally headed home I will be weak, unable to speak, still I will call You by name “Creator, Maker, Life-sustainer, Comforter, Healer, My Redeemer, Lord and King, Beginning and the End, I am, yes, I am.” ~Nichole Norderman

A Hair Experiment

Sometimes I get a little tired of the same ol' same ol' when it comes to my hair.
So this afternoon, after taking a very relaxing bath...I spent some time in front of the mirror playing.
I'd been surfing pinterest and the blogs linked to them and got some inspiration...

I took a whole lot bobby pins...

Yes, I used ALL of these!

 Used a dab of gel and then twisted and pinned them to the top of my head until I came up with this...

It looked better in person.

Charming, yes?

(Every now and then yelling from the bathroom, "Honey! Come look! Did I miss anything?")

After finishing the pinning, I waited about 2 hours, then took a diffuser and blow dryer to finish off the drying process (my hair takes FOREVER to dry), pulled out the bobby pins and got this!!

Curls!

It wasn't exactly what I was looking for but it was fun to experiment!

And hey, even Chris liked it. :)

The Unloved One...

I can't help but repost this....it's one of my most thought-provoking posts and I just love it.

Wednesday, 14 November 2007

The Unloved One.....

So I was thinking about how in Genesis there was a man who loved a girl. Yes, he did. He worked 7 years for that girl....and he ended up with the wrong one. Thus, he worked another 7 years for that girl....and he ended up with two wives. What a lucky guy.

But this man loved one of his wives and not the other one. Sad day.

I feel sorry for Leah...yes, Leah...Jacob's wife.

A lot of people have some sort of bitterness for the Leah of the Bible. Like it was her choice to let her father trick Jacob into marrying her before marrying Rachel. Thus making Jacob work another 7 years for Rachel again.

A little hard work never hurt anyone.

Did anyone ever think of the way that Leah might feel about this? I mean, back then women didn't really have much of a choice in the matters of anything, right? What about Leah? She had to obey her father....she probably didn't even want to marry Jacob. I'll bet he wasn't even cute. Yet, she had to and he did not love her. She could've found someone who loved her. She gave birth to many children of a father who did not love her. What a shame. How do you think that made her feel? Here she is giving birth to many many sons and the father of her children doesn't love her....and he treats those sons differently than he treats the offspring of him and Rachel.

How rude.

Leah....the unloved one. I feel sorry for her. I would have hated to be Leah back then.

EDIT: So I was talking to David about this today...and we went through and discussed the first four sons of Leah....

Genesis 29:
31 When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, "It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now." 33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too." So she named him Simeon. 34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." So he was named Levi.
35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "This time I will praise the LORD." So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

If you notice, every time she had a son she thought to herself, "Maybe my husband will love me now." Then at verse 35 she gave birth to Judah and praised the Lord....and then she stopped having children and her sister was very jealous of her.

Do you know that the line of Judah is where Jesus comes from???

Yes, that's right....Leah's son Judah is an ancestor of Jesus.

What now Laban, Jacob and Rachel?

Update

So, I'm terrible at keeping this updated. At least I've already done so once this year! Which is more than I can say for....other things....like dusting. Oh well.

Chris and I FINALLY got cable and internet. It's so nice to not have to watch DVD's all the time. We enjoy shows like, "Criminal Minds," "Once Upon A Time" and the NEWS!!! It's also nice to sit out in the living room surfing the internet at will while Chris watches his weird shows.

I was finally able to get my hair highlighted and cut today. Oh my it makes me feel so fresh! :)

Chris's work schedule has changed. He now works 9am-7pm. It has kind of messed up our lifestyle. We no longer go to bed before most elderly folk but instead are living more like college students, up past midnight. I can't handle the 2 or 3am nights anymore though. I'm not that young anymore! However, it is nice to cuddle in the mornings before I have to get up for work. And the couple of hours by myself in the evenings is nice for getting some things done...like dusting.