Let it begin... again!

So here's the short version of the last week of our life:

Though we "as the individuals known henceforth as Paul Edward and Jessica Joyce Mays Caspers" were "approved" for our loan, FHA refused to sign off on it for a lack of comparable sales in the area. After much "we might be able to work something out" on Wednesday afternoon we just said we're done. So we are waiting on our declination letter to get our earnest money back on the first house, but for all practical purposes that is OVER! We are both excited to be done with a five month long process that resulted in nothing but frustration. We did learn a lot of valuable lessons and we know that the Lord's sovereign wisdom will always win out for us. So that chapter is closed and new one has opened! We met with a real estate agent on Wednesday night who is familiar with the area and related to some people from our church and she will be helping us from now on. We like her very much and I think she's really going to be on the ball to get us a house. She found a bank for us and today I spoke with the loan officer about prequalification so hopefully that is going as well. We have a number of deadlines working on us now: our lot lease will expire in May, the tax credit for first time homebuyers ends in April, and baby more Caspers will be here this summer. Please pray that this process will go smoothly and we can have some housing answers soon.

Yes, in the middle of this we also found out that we have a healthy baby boy!!


I can't believe I'm getting yet another man in my life

It's... very obviously... a boy!

On Saturday all my family and in-laws gathered at my parents house to find out the gender of the baby! We all voted on if we thought it was a boy or girl and I think the vote came out 8 to 9 girl, though I'm not sure baby niece Laura actually voted for another girl (maybe she wants to be the only one). My dad grilled us up some lunch and after some socializing and chasing the nephews around the house, we gathered in front of my dad's very nice large tv to watch the ultrasound dvd. We again saw all the sweet miraculous parts of our baby and apparently right at the end the people who were still watching got a glimpse of a little something revealing too! Paul immediately started saying he knew what he was because he had seen "it". So I opened the envelope that the ultrasound tech send and the picture you see is what we found! "It's a boy" We are all so excited to finally know and after the party ended my mom, sister, Paul and I went to Belk and bought some way cute little boy stuff. My sister-in-law also gave me a bag of boy stuff so now I can't wait to get into the nursery and hang all his cute little things up! I think I am still in a little bit of shock since this just makes it even more real now. Now we just need to settle on a name so that I can really start calling him something!

It's a.... baby!

We had THE ultrasound today at our prenatal visit! This is me waiting in to go in. If I look uncomfortable it's because I have to go the bathroom really bad, but you need a full bladder for the ultrasound. I definitely have a baby bump now and am having to choose my clothes very carefully. The ultrasound technician was great and she explained everything about what we could see on the baby. Everything is the right size and in the right place which was our prayer for this visit! She says though she can't guarantee anything at this point, it looks like we have a healthy baby. I was so thrilled to hear that, I felt like jumping off the table and praising the Lord for his handiwork with our beautiful baby! For those of you who are freaking out wanting to know the baby's gender... I don't know yet! The photographic proof is sealed up in an envelope waiting to be opened on Saturday when the grandparents, great-grands, aunts, uncles, and cousins have assembled to hear the news. Until then we are waiting and reveling in our healthy baby and all his/her beautiful photos. Here are some of the best and what you are looking at:


Baby has two arms and two legs and bone measurements rule out drawfism and giantism.




Aunt Manthy says that these face pictures are creepy looking. I think it's because you can only see the baby's eye sockets and not it's actual eyes, though it does have them!


How adorable is that!?
All ten fingers are accounted for and though the toes are very small, we're pretty sure all ten are there.


The leg of a champion athlete!


Which way to the gun show?


"hm, this thumb would make a good thing to suck"


In other news, I have now gained five pounds so I'm doing good and can eat pretty freely and all my stuff looks good. The baby's heart rate was 159 and like I said, everything on baby looks great. We didn't have a picture of it but a zoomed in scan of the heart shows each chamber beating perfectly! Who could ask for a better birthday present!?

Stay tuned for new house news to hopefully come in the next few days!

Who is that poking me?

This weekend I am at a girls conference with the youth girls from our church in Montgomery and sitting in our first session tonight I felt that little feeling I have been waiting for! At first I just thought I felt something poke me just below my belly button and then after a minute I felt it a bunch more. I just burst out laughing in the middle of the session because I knew exactly what it was. The baby kicked for a little bit longer and then went still when I got up to more to the next session. He/she even scared me by hitting me kind of hard one time. Maybe it's a little girl and she is just super excited about being at a girls conference.... The speaker was very good! Laying here in bed I feel it everynow and then. It almost feels like a muscle twitch and it kind of tickles just a little bit. Mommy says that you get used to it after a while but I think it is definitely going to keep me up for a while tonight! Yay for my little kickboxer!

The stomach bug has our family in a headlock

In two years of marriage Paul has seen me suffer through the stomach bug a couple of times now. I think it's probably just one of the joys of working with little kids. So early Thursday morning after a nice round of food removal I asked Paul when I was going to get to see him throw up. Well I only had to wait 48 hours. Paul officially has it to and since I am pretty sure I gave it to him, I'm hoping I can't get it back since it took an extra harsh toll on my pregnant body. I'm still not feeling fabulous but better each day. I hope Paul gets to feeling better soon because with only one couch to lay on, it's hard for both of us to be puny at once. Plus we are going to have to miss church tomorrow which is no good cause it's a day Paul really needs to be at work. I guess it's good though that we didn't try moving this weekend cause that would not have happened in our current condition. Pray we will feel better soon and that the house will close next week!!!

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

It sounds kind of like driving over a bridge with seams, if you were underwater

Today we went for our second prenatal appointment and here's a video of us listening to the baby's heartbeat. It takes a minute for them to find the heartbeat and if you listen you can hear Dr. Golden tell us, "It sounds like it's a boy or a girl." Thanks Dr. Golden, that clears a lot of things up. We weren't sure if baby would be turned right to hear a heartbeat this time but it was so strong. We saw the baby last week and now we have heard him/her! I wanted to grab the speaker and yell, "Hey baby! I love you!" but I know that's not how the Doppler machine works. Everything else checked out fine at the appointment, so that's definitely a praise! This time the heartbeat was 181 beats per minute and I haven't had caffeine in two days so I didn't tamper with it this time! Next appointment is set for February 11.

I'm still feeling pretty good and Paul is being such a sweetheart to me and olive (that's how big the baby is now). Last night he made his first ice cream run for me! I'm starting to notice a little bit of hardness in my tummy too! My pants aren't wanting to button all the way but I'm definitely way to early for maternity clothes but my mom has bought me some great in-between stuff.

Please continue to pray for our home loan that it will be approved and move swiftly so we can get into our new house in Tallassee!

That little grey smudge disappearing and reappearing is one of the best things I've ever seen...

Last Thursday Paul and I got the very great joy of seeing our baby for the first time!! I was working at Women's Hope and when we had a little free time the nurse offered to do one for me. They are great at early ultrasounds, but at only eight weeks and two days I wasn't sure if we'd be able to see anything. But pretty quickly that little human-shaped peanut popped up on the screen. That was my first relief seeing that the baby is all settled in the correct place and then seeing the heartbeat really set my mind at ease. I am nine weeks today so I know that things could still happen but so far everything looks good. Baby is measuring a little small but when I get a 12 week ultrasound we'll know better if my due date needs to be moved. Heart rate = 170 beats per minute

After seeing the baby last week we've been a little freer with telling people our good news so feel free to share it also if you like. We won't know if it's a boy or girl until the end of March and the decision to find out or not is still up in the air. At first I wanted to know, then I thought it would be a good surprise, but now I'm thinking again that I can't wait. So at least I have about two months to decide! Opinions?

I've gotten my morning sickness under control pretty well by changing my eating habits and I'm not nearly as tired as I was a few weeks ago. We have a second prenatal appointment on this Friday and now my biggest fear is that I've already gained too much weight! I've got to remember that the second person I'm eating for isn't exactly a full grown person (or even a mostly grown person for that matter). Please continue to pray for our home loan, we hope to hear a final decision this week for the mortgage company.

So, she's said she's tired a couple times...

Well, just to give you an idea about how tired Jessica is, it's 11:24am right now. She has gotten up to pee at least twice since 7am and gone back to bed both times. Eventually, she'll wake up and realize that she's hungry, but she will take an hour to eat a small amount because she "doesn't feel good" (which is a result of her not having eaten...vicious cycle, I think so). After being up for 2 or 3 hours, she'll go take a nap for an hour or so.

I've been letting her rest all she wants these last few days because between Christmas travels, a youth conference, and making up for all the cleaning we haven't done since before Christmas in her waking hours, she's developed quite a sleep debt. On top of that, she'll be returning to her preschool class tomorrow. I hope she survives...actually, I hope it snows and Auburn City Schools close so that Lakeview Preschool Adventures will also close and she can have one more day to rest. Then she can return to a small class on Friday, instead of a full class tomorrow.

I hope Daddy (speaking in the third person here) hasn't said anything above that he'll get in trouble for. I'll stop here as not to overwhelm you in my first post.

Daddy-Out!

Baby is the size of a rasberry but fruits are the last thing on my mind

From Karen I have borrowed "What to expect while you are expecting" and "Your pregnancy: week by week" and this picture is from the latter. I put my thumb in it so you can get an idea of the actual size. It's hard to believe that baby is growing so quickly. I'm still feeling pretty good, even after a three day trip with our youth to Pigeon Forge TN! I've been sick just a little but I think that's just from being tired. I don't have to go back to work until January 7 so I am excited to just rest and clean this messy house up until then. We got a call that our loan work is at the underwritter and it should take about two weeks to process and then they will let us know if we got it or not. That was on 12/28 so please be in prayer that we will get the loan for the new house so we have somewhere to put this baby! It won't stay this small forever so we've got to have more space! Plus I've heard that babies come with lots of accesories!