37 Weeks Today

I am amazed at how quickly this pregnancy is going. It blows my mind to think that in 3-5 weeks time a baby will have been born to our family. We are all so excited and I'll tell you that the house is in a constant debate over what this baby is. Some think boy and some think girl. I was pretty convinced that I was having a girl up until we landed in Texas and my mom told me she thinks I'm having a boy.  Jake also thinks I'm having a boy. With both of them thinking boy I doubt myself. I've knit purple pants, bloomers, and a beautiful pink sweater with mother of pearl buttons. Perhaps these little pink and purple things will all be given away to some soft little pink girl.

The fear of labor and delivery is trying to rule my thoughts when I permit it too, but I am comforted by the fact that my Lord governs all things, even pain. He knows what I'm capable of handling and what I'm not. The memory of Samuel's labor is still rather fresh and the intensity and pain isn't something I'll forget, ever. When I look at pictures of myself from the end of the pregnancy with that little guy I see how large I was. He weighed just shy of 10 pounds and his clavicle broke during his arrival. It had to break on something and just the process of getting him to birth was hard, hard work. This time around when I look at pictures of myself I'm not near as big and I have given my mind over to the idea that perhaps this baby won't be quite the whopper that Samuel Theodore was.

Whatever the size or the pain I am so thankful that the Lord would permit us to have more children. It is a privilege and an honor to have a child. I am humbled by the notion of the family that God has called me to mother. What a task and what a blessing!

If you happen to think of me, please pray for me during that moment.  That I would be strong and of great courage and not fearful. That my body would be fully prepared and my mind would be centered on things that are eternal, not perishing.

I'll try to remember to have Jake take a belly shot of me. However, that could get brushed under the pregnancy carpet that is currently in my brain. As Jake likes to tell me, this is actually not really my 3rd trimester, but my 24th trimester. At least there will be pictures when the baby comes ;).

Around the yard (again)

The weather has held up for a 2nd mowing of the lawn and for some enjoyable, lengthy afternoons. We are enjoying the outside so much that I still haven't taken any inside shots. 

 Is that John Deere green or Jake Deere green? I like to say that he's "lawn surfing." I think what he's doing in the picture is the equivalent of "hanging ten" on a surfboard except I don't know that you could call it that. Any suggestions?

 Sweet Samuel. He's officially a Washington Nats fan. He's so cute! On a side note; I suspect he suspects something's going on with me as he's been a bit clingier than usual and refuses to look at my stomach. Particularly when the other kids come up to me and rub it. Poor Sam.

In the front left of the picture you can sort of see the front parking before you get to the garage.  It's where UPS/FEDEX/USPS make their turnarounds so they don't have to back up or down the driveway. We use it for the same measure and it's a perfect place for the BRV. Though our garage is big enough and the doors are tall enough that we could probably fit the van in the garage. That's not going to happen anytime soon. Especially with two Chevy's on the lot.

Sweet Lib. She puts on a dress in the morning and runs and twirls down the long hill out front in the afternoon. Her asthma has been at bay since getting to the house. I'm hopeful it'll stay there.

A close-up of a beauty! She loves to sit out front every bit as much as I do. Makes for sweet companionship.

House is Home

When does a new house become a home? Is it after you change the first stinky diaper? Is it after you bandage the first skinned knee? Perhaps it's after the lawn has been trimmed. Maybe the house becomes home when you make jam or when the smoke detector should go off. Is it when you've got a tick and you know where to find the tweezers? I know, it's when you're able to sit on the front porch sipping coffee watching the sun get up. If all these things are so, then I'd say that our house is home. We are fully unpacked and life has taken on a bit of normalcy. The kids are working hard with homeschool again hoping to finish the school year soon. 

When they aren't schooling they're sprawled out on the lawn looking at an early evening moon with their siblings. There's more than enough property to occupy their imagination. Plenty of trails in the woods have brought out the bb guns and the tweezers for extracting ticks. Yack! They are very happy.

Jake has enough lawn for a playing field of his own. The kids have all demanded their own baseball glove so that they can enjoy their daddy's expertise on the subject. Two of the kids have already taken a ball to the face. Jake's smart and only uses soft ones with the girls, so don't worry about Lou Lou.

Even Samuel has let his imagination take flight and runs around swinging swords and making sound effects.  It's good to be home and to enjoy life outside of a vehicle.

I've found great pleasure as well. The kitchen has been active and our tummies don't fuss at us like they were 4 weeks ago. For Mother's Day I asked Jake to take us strawberry picking. We picked about 70 pounds. I've frozen some of them, left a flat in the fridge for whatever comes up and made 2 gallons of jam with the rest of it. My huge pot was slightly small and during the last bit of cooking I had to dump some jam in a separate pot. This created a minor spill which quickly set the new kitchen to smoking heavily. Thankfully there isn't a fire detector in the kitchen and there was no need to wave the broom frantically. Just opening the windows and back door was enough to suck out the cloud. With the jammy afternoon I knew I was home and that meant, I better put up a quick post. I'll post more pictures as I'm mindful to take out the camera.

Thank you again for all the prayers on our behalf. We are so blessed to be here and as I often tell Jake, I can't believe we get to live here!

We are putting together a Sitting/Pub Room for any visitors that would grace our doorstop... so please stop by and stay for toast and jam. Maybe Jake and I will have even nailed down a name for the room by that time... or maybe not.

We are Here!

In the house and there is a lot to do.

I've updated the new address in the sidebar if you want to send us a letter ;)

Pictures from Texas

Texas was so fun!  We relaxed and played and knitted.  Jake and the boys picked up golf fever again.  My folks were sweet and took great care of us.  Thank you guys so much!  

We are trying to get out of the hotel in Alabama this morning, so not a lot of time for chat.  Take care and I'll post again soon.  

Don't want to forget, our new home is in Fredericksburg.  The address is 47 Marchant if you want to google it.  Don't send mail though, we've signed nothing yet.  That will happen after the 20th.

In Texas and We Have a Home

We are currently in Texas enjoying the heat of the day and cool of the pool at my mom and dad's home.  Our time here has been such a treat.  We've been able to regain a sense of calm in the midst of all the hubbub of a move.  It's been great to put up my feet as my ankles have tried to turn themselves into Cankles...

Yesterday morning we were offered a Duplex on base housing up in Fort Belvoir, north of Quantico.  We wrestled with the idea and tried to weigh whether or not we could do a Duplex.  We understand a Duplex is a fine place to live, but we don't really want to live in a Duplex and we imagined it would be very difficult with all the children.  Please don't get me wrong, we're not above it.  On a whim we decided to call a rental property south of Quantico located in Fredericksburg.  It's a property I've looked at for 2 months, but didn't ever call or pursue because of the high rent the owners wanted.  Yesterday was different because of the whole duplex thing.  Jake gave them a call and guess what?  The lady he spoke with was out to Costco, with her 6 children whom she homeschool's stocking up on chow.  Jake told her about us, what we could afford for rent and when we would move in.  She told him how there's been a lot of interest in the property, but that the right people hadn't come along yet.  She told Jake what the absolute low is that she and her husband would rent for and it was still 200 above our max.  She asked if she could call her husband and if Jake would also call him.  Apparently between phone calls the wife told her husband that our family was the one they should rent to.  They came down 400 dollars per month so that we could rent from them.  They are moving out soon and we'll be moving in the last week of April.  I can't tell you what shock and humility has been running through my system since hearing this news.  The Lord answered our prayers over and abundantly more than what we prayed for.

The home sits on nearly 4 acres.  There's more than 4500 square feet of living area.  With 6 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, having the stomach flu all at once will no longer be a problem. The driveway runs the length of the acreage so the kids can skateboard and ride their bikes without any traffic, except each other.  It's about a half hour commute for Jake, but really that's nothing in comparison to the blessing of this home.  The property sits on a well and septic tank, so that's a set of utilities we won't deal with.  Only electricity.  We are so thankful! Thank you so much for praying for us.  We are humbled once again. Thank you Lord!

Leaving

We leave Cali today.  I never dreamed it would be so hard.  The Lord put us in a sweet God-fearing, Christ exalting church filled with Beautiful people and gave us such fabulous neighbors.  Lifetime friendships were established.  On Saturday the ladies from church held a baby shower for me.  It ended up being a crying fest, mainly on my part.  I always marvel at how friendships based on Christ are truly the sweetest, richest that there are.  I was so blessed by prayers, words of encouragement, scriptures to exhort and bless, that I simply could barely hold it together.  Thank you dear, sweet TCC ladies for pouring it on thick and wonderfully!

Sunday after church there was a huge italian feast goodbye fellowship for us.  Not only was there a feast and dessert and hugs and tears, there was a concert too!  I've blogged about a certain band before called, Brother Down.  Well, it turns out that they are actually husbands and fathers who are elders in the church we attend and they put on a concert for us to enjoy.  We were so blessed and the children were elated!  The music was awesome!  We were blown away by the generosity of the dear folks at church.

The trailer left our home Monday afternoon and we left our home Monday evening. It took a bit of time to break away as not all of our earthly things fit in the trailer. We ended up renting a mini U-haul and put all of our bikes and other things that wouldn't fit in there.  We gave away our barbecue grill to our neighbor as well. After doing one more walk/sweep of the house we headed north up here to Santa Cruz for a few nights vacation at a perfect little beach house.  The break has been refreshing and we had some very dear visitors throughout the week.  Jake's had surf buddies everyday. Despite my intentions to cook dinner for my family I wasn't permitted because different ladies from church insisted on bringing us meals.  Such a sweet week!

So today we leave.  No more Cali, no more beach house, a new place awaits and we have yet to fathom what good things the Lord will have for us.  It is a bitter sweet time, no doubt.

We are still on the hunt for a home and a church, so please pray for us.