Gender reveal and update

This actually was a few weeks back when I got my first ultrasound and found out our little baby is going to be (Lord willing) a BOY! We are thrilled!

Here he is looking straight at the camera! You can see both his eyes and his nose.


Here is a recent photo:

Lately people in public seem to conclude that I am obviously pregnant enough to safely comment on my stomach. I've had comments in Walmart, gas stations, and even a belly rub in Cracker Barrel (which wasn't nearly as strange as I thought it might be). So far I have gathered that my bump is always cute but almost always tiny as well... ha, not sure what to think about the last one except for to just laugh. I guess people expect a little more when you say 6 months pregnant! My waist is long so I don't have the classic basketball shape belly. This also gives him a little more wriggle room (which he definitely takes advantage of!!). He's so incredibly active I sometimes wonder when he sleeps!

My next appointment is Monday where I will also have my glucose test for gest. diabetes. My weight gain has slowed down in the past month which I am glad about. I was beginning to worry that I might gain up towards 50 lbs but it is looking like it will be more around 30-35 which is average and more manageable.

This Week: 25

Weight gain: 22 lbs

Feeling: Great! Although at around 8:00pm my body starts craving the bed. I have also been having a lower back ache by the end of the day along with tingling sore legs. 

Belly button in or out: It's still in but definitely flatter and more shallow.

Stretch marks: No

Missing anything:  Sushi,  and being able to eat lots of bread and not have to worry about growing a 9 pounder

Movement: Tons!! He won't stop! Flips are the most fun and at the same time they are the strangest feeling.

Looking forward to: getting the stroller and carseat hopefully sometime early this month

Thankful for this week:  So thankful that the fever I got from the having the flu a couple days ago didn't get higher than 100 F 

Cravings: Lots of vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, salsa...always salsa, and Indian food

Maternity clothes: I've been able to buy a few maternity shirts, a wonderful pair of maternity jeans from the thrift store, and then a bunch of tunics a size or two up from my normal size. Skirts have been no problem since most of the ones I have already are jersey material or have a stretchy waist.

Somebody's New Here

A little boy or girl is coming this next April Lord willing!

Week 13 is when my bump really popped out. 

So excited to see if God's given us a little boy or girl! We'll probably be finding out at the 20 week ultrasound.

This Week: 15

Weight gain: 10lb (most of that weight I gained in the first 10 weeks!)

Feeling: Pretty good, most of the nausea has left and my energy is back!

Belly button in or out: Still in

Stretch marks: No

Missing anything: Coffee, I miss drinking coffee and decaf just isn't the same.

Movement: None yet.

Looking forward to: Finding out the gender and feeling him/her kick

Thankful for this week:  My husband making dinner for me tonight. My sister who has helped clean the house for me this week. Encouraging fellowship with God's people.

Cravings: Fresh salsa with chips and Organic Hatch Chile Chips, and Chipotle (mainly because it is the perfect size burrito for my bottomless stomach, it's spicy, and it's got lots of protein).

Maternity clothes: I bought my first maternity shirt yesterday since most of my shirts are starting to ride up in the front. Stretchy maxi skirts are working pretty well with my growing stomach and they are comfy so until it is in the 40's consistently I think I will be fine without maternity pants!

Bearing a Burden or Increasing It?

{photo credit}

 I'm so glad for this simple little verse. It reminds me of the great depth of love and self sacrifice that is possible between Christ's followers. It makes me think of the love that has filled our hearts for the brethren ever since His love has been shed abroad in our hearts. It is a beautiful thing. 

At the same time though I know the very act of bearing other's burdens is rocky ground and we can very easily add to their burden instead of ease it.

Let me not be a milepost

{photo credit}

Chico the Chihuahua

Because my husband knows how to give the best birthday gifts!

Freed to live without

I've been wanting to write this blog post for a long time now. It is has been on my mind and my husband's mind almost constantly for the past few months. We're blaming India for it...India is being blamed for a lot of things lately and they're all good!

Not long after our we returned home from India I found myself thinking much about things. I remember walking into the Newark Airport fresh from the other side of the world and suddenly feeling like I was looking at American culture with new eyes.

Our weak spots were glaring. I saw our materialism, I saw our self-sufficiency, I saw our arrogance and it broke me. 

It broke me not only because I saw it in others but I saw it in myself. I saw how I thought more about investing in making my house look pretty than how I could be investing in bringing the Gospel to lost souls around me. I thought about how many times I sat scrolling through Pinterest during many mornings when I could've been studying to get a degree that would open up a door for me to bless others.

One day I was reading and came across these verses:

"For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and clothing with these we shall be content." -1 Tim. 6:7-8

Could I really be content with only food and clothing if that was my lot? Could I really be content having no earthly possessions except what I wore on my back? The truth is we have become so deluded and worldly that we think we are entitled to a comfortable lifestyle.

"If it takes more than food and clothing and a relationship with God something about our relationship with God is lacking." Al Jackson

In order to live a life that we deem live-able we must have certain things. With some it is a job, with others it is a house and with others it is a savings account, but the reality is we are to be content with just food and clothing! You might as well call that nothing! I honestly am ashamed to say that this causes my own heart alarm sometimes.

Is this world of so much value to us that we cannot let it go and be solely absolved in the beauty and all-sufficiency of our Savior? Could we live in a "garbage city"in Cairo and yet feel and know that we are truly rich because we have Christ?
Can we identify with the Savior who had no place to lay His head? Can we identify with the thousands of believers who are each day hiding and running for their lives, without home and family?

What I'm not saying is that we must  subject ourselves to poverty or that we need to look for opportunities to humble ourselves before God (because this is pleasing to Him). Not at all! There is nothing we can do to gain favor with God as far as justification is concerned and every effort even as a believer falls into the deep chasm that separates the Creator from the created.
What I am saying is that we must be ready and willing to be content if God takes everything away from us. I want to be the kind of believer that can live out my Christian life even if I don't have a couch, a bed, or a home. I want to be the kind of person who can cheerfully go through life with nothing but my Savior to boast of.

"For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." 

I want to be the believer who doesn't stand up and shout and fight for my right to home, liberty and "this-worldly happiness". All these things are destined to perish with the using and whether I have them or not is of little issue in comparison with the real issue. That is: do I have the everlasting and eternal treasure which is Christ Jesus? If we have Christ we are blessed indescribably.
We need to reprogram our thinking to stop prioritizing the material and instead prioritize the spiritual.

You see, when we start thinking like this then we are truly free. We are freed from the love of money, freed from the thorns and cares of this world that choke out spiritual growth, freed from the constant pressure to "get up in the world", freed from the pressure of pleasing men, freed from the idea that success is what hard work deserves.

No longer burdened, choked or stifled we can fully rejoice and fully live in the endless riches that are in Christ alone.

"they left everything and followed Him."

Let love of the brethren continue...

 I've been thinking a lot lately about the issue of brotherly love. It has been quite convicting to think of how we are sometimes so inept when it comes to the greatest of Christian graces.

Christ saved us in such an awesome display of love and humility. It amazes me to think about the depth of His love toward such miserable sinners as we were. We were hate-filled liars at best and Christ came and rescued us with such indescribable, overflowing amounts of kindness, grace and love! Praise our wonderful Savior!

I've been continually asking myself something lately and it has been humbling.

What would it look like if we laid aside all our pride and truly loved? What if we loved like Christ?

"...have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself..."

"Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart."

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God."

"...and if I do not have love it profits me nothing"

Love toward God and toward man is the fruit of a life changed and the summary of the law. It is, simply put, the Christian attitude and outlook.

It is sad to see Christian men and women bite and devour one another not only in their words, but in their actions and thoughts. I think we are all guilty here. There are several times where I have caught myself grumbling inwardly about "so and so" who always is so (fill in the blank).

At the same time though I can't help but ask myself, "Why, is this happening so often among Christians?" We will spend an eternity together with these brethren. We can disagree now but bitterness, unkind thoughts and motives have no place in the heart of a believer.

The reality is that the American culture promotes and encourages self-love and places a high value on our individual "rights". Christianity, on the other hand, is quite opposite to this and says: "We have no rights but death and hell!" and "We love others more than ourselves!"

One of the best books I have ever read on this topic is Charity and It's Fruits by Jonathan Edwards. It's one of my favorite books and will really challenge your love to the lost and your brothers and sisters in Christ. Each chapter takes a few verses from 1 Corinthians. 13.

Spurgeon also put it well:

I wish, brothers and sisters, that we could all imitate "the pearl oyster"—A hurtful particle intrudes itself into its shell, and this vexes and grieves it. It cannot reject the evil, but what does it do but "cover" it with a precious substance extracted out of its own life, by which it turns the intruder into a pearl! Oh, that we could do so with the provocations we receive from our fellow Christians, so that pearls of patience, gentleness, and forgiveness might be bred within us by that which otherwise would have harmed us.

—Charles Spurgeon

What a heaven on earth we could have if we just cultivated Christ's love and let it flow through us more readily toward all men! Praying that our love would abound still more and more.