Something is brewing…

The news is out! It’s true. We are expecting a baby come November. It’s super-awesome and super-exciting and all those ridiculous adjectives. And now for the answers to the questions!

How do you feel?  I feel great. There were a couple weeks of feeling icky early on, but I’m pretty sure that my problem was that I wasn’t eating enough calories. Laugh if you will, but prior to pregnancy, I was still trying to lose a few pounds and get in better shape. So I had a little adjusting to do as far as the calorie intake. Also, I’m becoming even more vigilant on the eating/snacking at regular intervals throughout the day and that keeps me pretty happy.

Any weird pregnancy quirks? Well, strangely enough, I currently hate the smell of coffee. I know! It’s crazy! And almost any other strong smell just really bugs me.

I love your baby announcement. Did you get the idea from Pinterest? Haha. NO. I was sitting in bed one morning thinking about how to announce our pregnancy, and that popped into my head and I LOVED IT. Told it to Brandon and he loved it. Then I went to six different stores to find tiny espresso cups that I liked, and finally ended up finding them on clearance at Walmart for $5. Yeaaaah. I have been wanting those little espresso cups for yeeears, so it was the perfect excuse. So I essentially created my own meme by setting up the photo, editing it and adding text. Oh yes, and the background material? It was leftover table runner material from our wedding day. So cute, right? 

Are you going to find out the gender? Yes. I waffled on this for a short time, but honestly, I don’t like color yellow very much and that’s what gender-neutral clothes/nurseries/etc. tend to be. So we’re gonna find out the gender so I can plaster everything in pink or blue (slight overkill maybe/ maybe not).

What do you want? Boy or girl? We want a healthy baby. No gender preference whatsoever. Fo’ real.

Are you gonna tell the baby names? Nope. We’re secretive like that because a) naming our babies only includes two opinions: mine and Brandon’s. And we like to be without everyone else’s opinion until they can’t do anything about it (*insertevillaughhere*), b) our name list is long and want to have the option to change our minds if we want prior to birth, and c) if we’re not waiting to reveal the gender, we want to wait on the name… because surprises are nice sometimes!

Can I touch your belly? NO. Just no. Respect the personal bubble.

Onward to other interesting things….
So that’s the most wonderful-and-delightful news in our world. We are barreling full-speed-ahead towards the end of the semester and into our summer adventure in Arkansas (WOOHOOO!). These are days are full of times of transition. I’m just days away from the end of my full-time-working-outside-the-home career. I’m making jokes about “retirement” and “career changes,” but in all seriousness, this transition has been a long time coming. In one of our first conversations as friends, I remember Brandon asking me about what I wanted to be in life. My honest answer (and no, I wasn’t fishing for a husband---though honesty worked well for me!) was that I wanted to be a wife and mother. I’ve worked full-time since I was 17 years old, graduating from high school early and starting full-time work even before I graduated. I did Bible college on the side, worship and youth ministry on the side and a photography business on the side. I bought a house and went on missions trips and all while keeping my full-time job in accounting. It’s been good, but it has always been temporary. I knew God was eventually gonna take me to home. Not heaven-home. But that the home would be my focus, my ministry, my calling.

Things are getting real around here, and I am so excited that I can hardly contain myself. Though I am also so tired that I can hardly be excited (it’s a difficult paradox). Packing up necessary items for a summer spent in temporary housing and in a far-off place is mind-boggling. I’m contemplating questions like, “can I pack my cast-iron skillet? What about a teapot?”  I am a chronic over-packer and trying to get our life (even only for the summer) in a Toyota Corolla is making my brain hurt. Not like I’ve actually packed anything yet… it’s the thinking/planning/writing out the list part that’s most difficult.

I am a little nostalgic about going away from here, but not sad in the least. Since the door opened to this opportunity, we have both felt a sense of perfect peace. I am thrilled to be living out one of the things that has been on my heart since the beginning of our marriage --- the concept of “I will go where you go.” (Yes, I know that’s a verse from Ruth and it’s not about marriage and I wasn’t using it like that). I’m using it more of a “leave and cleave” concept. Marriage is a lot about leaving. Departing from the familiar, the family, the comfortable, the childhood things… and cleaving to your husband. It’s about leaving one team and making your own team. God designed the covenant of marriage to bring two lives together into one, not meld it into your current existence. Sometimes this means going away. Sometimes it doesn’t. In our case, we’ve spent a wonderful first two and a half years of marriage here, close to my family, entrenched in a life that is familiar to me--- places, people, things… it was all apart of my life before Brandon. In going away---even just for 3 1/2 months---it feels like the newlywed season again, learning to live life with only each other and the Lord to hang onto.
And that’s pretty awesome.