Baby Bump, do I see you?

So I used to at least be able to suck my poochy tummy in all the way so it looked like it was flat... but... no longer! I can tell my belly is stretching too because my muscles are all achy and tired and the skin around my stomach is starting to feel tight and really itchy. I keep telling my tummy to just suck it up cause we've still got a long way to go, but I don't think my stomach is listening. In other body news the queasiness is definitely gone but my most recent pregnancy symptoms is some nasty headaches. Paul has again been putting up with me so well, and we are both anxious for the next pregnancy marvel... feeling the baby move! At 15 weeks I'm just at the start of the time when most women start to feel things. Can't wait!! I feel like this pregnancy has come so far, I can't believe I still have five more months to go. But patience is the theme at our house these days... something I have always struggled with. The progression of this pregnancy is out of my control (and I love to control things), the finalization of our home loan is out of my control, so many things I just have to be patient and wait on the Lord to take care of it. As we know He will!!

More and better pictures to come!

House update

This is directly about the baby but it definitely affects our family and for those of you that have been praying for us I just wanted to keep you informed.

The Recap:
In November we made an offer on a double wide manufactured home on an acre of land in Tallassee AL. The trailer is only one year old and barely lived in. It's in amazing shape and would double our living space. The offer was accepted and we were preapproved by a bank and planned on getting an FHA Rural Development Loan (100% financed... we can do that). The bank then took three weeks to tell us that they couldn't do the loan so for the last two months we have been working with a new bank attempting to get approved. It's been difficult because we don't make very much (though we aren't asking for us), we are just one and half years out of school, etc. Our loan officer in Montgomery has been wonderful working really hard for us and last week the bank gave their final approval and turned our paperwork over to Rural Housing. We were then told it would just be waiting for them to get back to us.

The Update:
This morning we were told that Rural Housing had turned us down (which apparently never used to happen but all the sudden they randomly turn people down). This was a total shock to us and our loan officer. We looked at all of our options: walking away from this house and starting over or renting in Tallassee. We could move this trailer out there but there's no place to put a baby here. Or we could stick with it an go straight FHA and hopefully close within a week or so. The only catch is this loan is not 100% financed and we need to come up with 3.5% for a down payment.

The dilemna:
We talked to our loan officer and she said to take the weekend and give her a decision Monday morning so now we are praying for an answer. The problem is we don't know if all these obstacles are the Lord's way of telling us we are not supposed to get into this house or if this is exactly where we need to be and Satan is just trying to discourage us. We are learning toward going FHA and getting this house, but please pray that if this is the right decision the Lord will give us confirmation. We want to be in Tallassee where our ministry is. I want to be there yesterday and I believe that the Lord wants you where you are serving in order to reach people the best.

Third Prenatal Visit: Addendum

Daddy was late to this prenatal visit. This DID NOT make Mommy happy. She waited on him to get there before getting on to the important part of the visit. That meant there was additional waiting after he got there. THIS did not make Mommy happy either. Daddy was and is very sorry.

I bet this is about what it feels like to be the last parent to pick your kid up from school.


[this is where the video of this appointment will go when the camera gets to the same location as the computer.]

Third Prenatal Visit: Check!

Today Paul and I went for our third doctors appointment and the biggest news is that the date is set for the official ultrasound: March 17 at 3:00pm!! This will be the big one where we find out boy or girl! Today everything checked out fine. I've gained two pounds, my blood pressure is good, and we heard the baby's heartbeat again. 162 beats per minute. It was harder to find this time, because the baby was moving so much. Apparently my baby was running away from the doppler! This does not bode well for me trying to chase the baby down for medical care once walking occurs!

P.S. Babies come as payment plans... Who knew? Made the first payment on mine today!

Smile Baby!

This is baby's 12 week ultrasound picture! When Mom came into town last week she and Gran (and Paul) got to come to Women's Hope and see our baby! Nurse Karen set me up first and wanted to make sure we would get a good look before everyone came in and as soon as she put the wand down the baby was waving at us! Everyone crowded around the monitor and we watched the baby show off some fabulous acrobatics! The first picture is the best one but in the second picture you can see the legs and feet stretched out and the hands and arms. It's not the best picture of the baby but Peach was moving so much. (Baby is the size of a peach now, so that's what I'm calling him/her.) I wish we had a video of all the movement cause it was just so amazing. It's hard to believe that Peach is moving so much but I don't feel anything. Everyone tells me that it will probably be about another month before I start to feel the baby moving around. I can't wait for that day though!

I'm still feeling pretty good, though I've discovered what foods the baby is not a fan of. Goodbye Mexican restaurants until August :(! I've been really moody lately but Paul is so patient, he's done a good job putting up with me and my crankiness. Our loan has now moved to FHA for them to approve so please please pray that that will happen quickly and we can move soon. Still no official belly bump but my pants sure are hard to button! I've got my next prenatal appointment tomorrow so we're just praying that everything continues to go well!

Baby is a lemon (the size of one that is)

Week 12 arrives tomorrow! I'm already feeling much better. I am no longer living under a cloud of queasiness all the time which is very nice. I'm not as tired as I was but I'm battling my typical preschool cold so that's drained me a little. I'm also trying to be super careful about what medicines I take. Though I am allowed to take sudafed I am definitely limiting my doses. Plus the sudafed really hasn't made me feel that much better yet. Wiping runny noses all day sure does have it's downfalls!

My mommy is coming to town this week! And I am really looking forward to spending some time with her. We are also hopefully going to go see an ultrasound of lemon. I'm still not technically showing, but I can definitely feel a difference in my stomach. My lower abdomen is hard and sticking out a little and I can't suck in my chubby tummy anymore! It's definitely making the clothing situation difficult. I'll be so glad for warm weather cause I have a lot of stuff for this summer. I'll be very glad when I am actually looking pregnant and not like I ate a big lunch!

In house news we are moving forward with our loan and just waiting for a couple things on the house to be brought up to FHA standards. So here's praying we get in by the end of February. It you've got any furniture you are looking to get rid of... let us know! Right now moving is the next big thing on our list so it's kind of hard to spend all my time daydreaming about lemon because my head is too full of other things. The baby can hear now though so we are trying to remember to talk to him/her and tell him/her we love him/her everyday. Okay so I might want to find out the gender just to make these posts easier!

On Sunday I spoke at church for sanctity of life and was reminded of one of my most favorite verses and one I am holding onto now:
"For you created my inmost parts, You knit me together in my mother's womb. I will praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:13-14