A Reason for Nine Months

Life has been filled with many adventures...both the seemingly small and significant. I have found that life has brought many "milestones" in this stage of life filled with lots of joy, fear of the unknown, laughter, tears, and excitement. It's a bit overwhelming at times, but then again, what adventure is not, right?

Our future home site!!

We will be closing on a new home in Cottage Grove in December (hopefully!!) and are looking forward to starting this next journey in a new place. I'm really hoping the home is finished before the baby comes (fingers are crossed). It's bittersweet for me. It will be hard to move out of the town home. It's really been my only other home besides the one that I grew up in. There have been so many wonderful memories here. However, I know that there will be many wonderful times in this new home and we look forward to having a bit more space to grow our family in and have all of you over for great food and conversation.

Noah and I are doing what we can to "prepare" for all that lies ahead, but it really makes me laugh out loud because...well, "preparing" seems like a bit of a joke. It's difficult to comprehend how much our lives are going to change when baby comes. I know it. I'm not naive. One can only "prepare" for the chaos that lies ahead and then once the chaos gets here, well, I have no clue what we'll do then.

A few weeks ago we found out that the baby coming in January will be a boy! To hear the words, "It's definitely a boy" was a little strange to me. A boy? Uff-da. I didn't grow up around boys. My cousin Chris was the only one of the male species that I had much interaction with as a kid (besides my dad of course). I loved playing with him, but he would do all the "icky" and "gross" things that I as a girl didn't do (at that time anyway). It's safe to say that since then I have learned how to bait my own hook, and I don't mind getting my hands dirty, but that took me a little while to learn and find the joy in that. LOL...I think God is playing a joke on me because I really don't know much about boys except for the fact that I married one. They have a tendency to be messy and they are really active. I hope that I can keep up with him.

We've also experienced baby's first kick and I have no doubt that this boy will be an great dancer (hopefully taking on more of his mother's sense of rhythm than his father's) and an awesome snowboarder!! :) I'm noticing that in the womb he's already very active. Ha! Oh dear.

As for the two of us? I'm continuing to learn what unconditional love looks like. I am humbled by the grace I receive from Noah each day. Pregnancy does not have it's most graceful moments and yet I'm seen in a light filled with love and grace. I've had to learn how to reciprocate this grace through Noah's example. Just as I am growing and learning how to adapt to this new life, I know that Noah has to also. It's not something that happens overnight, but he's trying and in those moments where I wish that he would just, "get it", I have had to learn to be understanding that there is a reason that we have 9 months of pregnancy before a baby arrives.

We now have 16 weeks left. Oh gosh!! Only 16 weeks! I feel like we have so much learning, growing, and preparing to do in those 4 months. Keep us in your prayers. Your love and support means so much to us.

Oh, and If you have any insight on marriage after babies start entering the picture, we'd love to hear it.