28 weeks, 7 days

Can you believe that we are almost there.  I literally have 11 weeks to go.  I remember when I was 11 weeks along and it felt like I would forever be pregnant.  The second half of the pregnancy seems to just fly by.  Craziness I tell you.
Things that are happening as of lately:
-I can no longer wear my wedding rings in fear that I won't be able to get them off or worse have to get them cut off!
-I'm starting to feel really low pressure all the time and he loves to snuggle up down low and not use all this floaty space that he has.  Only a couple times a day will he stretch out and wiggle around.
- I'm just not sleeping.  My hip pain has tripled and they are now going numb at night waking me up probably every half an hour to flip over, which is also becoming quite difficult.  lol.  Oh gosh....just your typical preggy stuff.
- I'm noticing Luke is starting to have sleep patterns.  I can tell when he's sleeping or awake.
- I"m getting anxious....I mean really anxious.  I can't wait to meet him and see what life is going to be like.  I just want to hold him.  I know Justin is feeling the same way.  We are just so in love with him already.

My gestational diabetes is going well.  I'm able to keep my blood sugars in check with my diet.  Morning for some reason is the worst where my numbers get all weird and high sometimes.  The rest of the day I'm pretty good.  The Dr. was very pleased with my progress for the first two weeks.  I think timing of when you eat and when you check are huge factors in this game.  I've been a little lax in the morning of testing first thing and I need to get my eating breakfast on time as well.  So far so good though!

Some things that we are going to ask you all for prayer for:

We just found out last Friday, that Justin was put on permanent disability with restrictions.  This means that his pay shoots down to about a little more than 1/3 than what we were getting paid.  This is pretty hard on us right now.  His options are either going back to work, which they are working on finding him a job, or he has to find a different job.  We have no clue now when we will be able to move out of my mom's.  It's all up in the air as of now.  OUR plans of paying our last little bits off are hugely effecting things as well.  We won't have our first month's rent saved, nor can we even afford what our monthly rent would be at this point.  So we are trusting God.  We know He has a perfect plan, and it's definitely no OUR plan but His is so much greater.  When things are up in the air, they aren't secure and that feeling isn't a good one.  I definitely believe that it is all our attitude.   No, our situation isn't ideal, but we are safe and secure and we have that.  It gets a little crazy at times, but we have two people who are loving us and supporting us through this and have been for a while.   They are patient, and loving, and that's all we can ask for.  They are letting us in their space.  We are both giving up our personal space and that is huge.  We are thankful and grateful to my parents for what they have done so far.

Justin is also dealing with some depression issues from all of this workers comp mess.  Pray that God would just over come in his life and speak truth.  I normally wouldn't talk about Justin's personal life on here, but he needs prayer so desperately.  We both do.  We appreciate you all and we love you and feel those prayers.


Here's a picture we took last night at 28 weeks and 6 days.

It's a little hard to see the definition because I'm wearing a lighter shirt, but he is growing.  For sure.  We are so thankful for this little guy.  He just needs to be here already!

Thank you for the prayers, the thoughts and the love you all give.  Thanks for being open to hearing about our journey and walking it with us.  We couldn't do it without you all.   We share, so life is a little more tolerable, not because we like to air out our dirty laundry.  It definitely takes a village.

Thankfulness

My new challenge to myself with going through this rough patch, is trying to find thankfulness in all that I do, say, see, hear.  Among all of my health stuff going on and trying to change my attitude right along side all of that, I have been feeling so down  and can't get out of it.  I remember seeing something that my sister-in-law Jenn posted one day about Thankfulness and Attitude.  It has really reemed me hard in the head and in the heart.  God wants us to gives thanks! and praise His name for all we have! Amongst ALL my annoying complaining, I was drowing out how greatful I am for things. 

I find myself daily talking to God now, and just giving him a laundry list of things I'm thankful for.  I tell Him why I am so thankful for the things I pray about.  I feel like my heart is starting to change as well.  This week one verse has really stuck with me, Philippeans 4:6 "Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, give your requests to God."  Now, I know this verse is saying to give everything to God because His hands are in all we do, but I also find this verse to be a reminder that as much as God wants us to give everything to Him, we need to THANK Him for EVERYTHING! God loves a greatful heart. 

I know Thanksgiving is coming up, so I challenge you all to start today until Thanksgiving, (maybe it will stick longer) to Thank Him for anything and everything.  See how your outlook on life changes a tad. 

Blessings on all of you!

Thanks for listening. 

Houses and Thankfulness........

So I know it's been a while since I last posted, and I keep thinking how much I love to blog, but I always forget.

So here it goes....

The past couple weeks have been pretty action packed, emotionally filled, and hectic crazy for us.  We have been all over the place, including vacation.  We went to lake Tulloch with some very dear friends, and we had a great time! Then we came home to the daily grind and things have been non-stop! I signed up for a couple sessions of personal training to start getting back on track.  It's been going well and now my sessions are over.  I feel blessed to have the trainer that I did, as she really helped me see working out in a positive way again.

For the past 4 weeks or so we have been looking into and getting as much information about the real estate world.  We have out weighed the pros and cons, and the pros win! lol.  We are casually looking into buying a home and seeing where God wants us to be.  The beginning process has been pretty fast, and we are not getting our hopes up for anything, as we want to make sure we are making the best possible decision for our family.  Let me list you some of our pro's and our con's.  (Mostly because I'm a list maker and they make me happy)

PRO's :

• Investment
• Saving our money on rent as everything our there that is more than a 2 bedroom is ridiculously expensive and we can't afford it.  
• We can have write off's! 
• Having a safe, homey place to bring home our babies.  

CON's:

• Having to pay for everything ourselves. Even repairs.
• What if one of us looses our job, especially Justin. 
• It being a little further away than we would like, commuting. 

Ultimately there are way more pro's and con's, and i'm sure for those of you who have already bought your own home, you would say we shouldn't do it.  We feel very at peace with this decision and we are getting educated on what everything means and entails.  We have and are still doing our homework. 

  

Aside from all of this....I am just feeling over all blessed.  I have also realized that I have not pushed myself to my full potential.  Through different various occurances through different people in my life, this past week has shown me really how truly blessed i am.  I am the only one who is holding myself back from anything.  I used to have so many excuses of why things were bad, and crappy.  Not anymore.  I am in control of everything around me, what happens to me, what I do to others, and how my life plays out (well God has the upper hand in that one).  I won't go into specifics of what has happened, nothing bad, but just huge reminders of what I have.  What I can be.   I feel thankful for those things that have shown me reality.     

With that said, my daily goal, is to keep a thankful, fulfilled heart everyday.  There are so many people in my life I look up to and I'm reminded of that when I see those special people.  Mostly Justin.  He is the biggest influence in my life, and I cherish him to the core.