My Growing Belly

I've been horrible at blogging lately. Life has been so busy and this week, I feel like I've finally been able to catch my breath.

I'm at 31 weeks in my pregnancy which I can and can't believe. In one way, it feels like I've been pregnant forever (since we found out way back in July) but then in another way, I can't believe I'm only 9 weeks away (possibly sooner, hopefully not much later) from holding our little baby in my arms. I'm being completely honest when I say I am SO excited to give birth to him. Through all the negative stories I hear about labor and delivery, God has given me grace to ignore them all and simply look forward with excitement to the day when it happens - I have no fear whatsoever thanks to Him.

At the beginning of my pregnancy, we thought it'd be fun to take pictures in the same outfit as the weeks went by to really be able to see the change in my belly and body. I'm sure this is just a "first time mom" thing but pregnancy is such a miracle and I just want to try to document everything I can related to it this first time I'm experiencing it. That said, I've slacked a little bit on the pictures but here are some from the last few months...

21 weeks pregnant

25 weeks pregnant

31 weeks pregnant

So I probably don't have to say it, but I definitely feel pregnant now!! 

A few more weeks to go :) 

A Wii Little Blessing

Hogan and I have a lot on our plate right now. A lot to do. A lot to get ready for. We are trying to find a car and sell mine to make room for baby. I'm trying to help plan a season for Woodlawn soccer that I'm not even sure is going to happen right now. And if it does, I'm going to help coach as much as I can. We have to find a physician before the baby comes. We are praying that we get into a daycare in time for me to not have to take too much time off work. We have labor classes coming up to go to. We have to change my phone plan and thus, buy a new phone so that I can get better service at our townhome. In the back of our minds, with all this other financial stuff, is saving enough money to hopefully put a down payment on a home this next year. And on top of all of this, my work is definitely not slowing down.

From reading all that, you might assume I'm overwhelmed. I don't think I am. I know all of this has to happen but I also know who is in control. Honestly though, it's still pretty easy to feel some anxiousness. I know anxiousness and I pray it off constantly and turn my eyes and heart to the Lord but it's a continual thing lately.

But He assured me of something today...Hogan called me and told me that his boss gave him his son's Wii and a ton of games. His boss bought his son a new video system and it turns out they didn't want to keep more than one system in the house and so he offered it to Hogan. The beauty of this blessing is that over the past few weeks, we've been talking about purchasing a Wii. We thought it'd be something fun for us to do together and a good video game system for our child as well when he's old enough - basically something fun and interactive we can all do together inside. We know that the Wii isn't much money these days but it's still another expense so we hadn't purchased it yet. Hogan's boss had no idea we wanted one and were thinking about getting one. But I have a good feeling that God did. And through this blessing, he assured me that He has it taken care of. He is in control. He cares about the little things. And if He cares about the little things, he most definitely is going to take care of us in the big things.

Luke 12:27-31

“Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well." 

Living a "Fruitful" Life

I read a blog post the other day that really spoke to me so I wanted to share. It was short and sweet but a great reminder.

Here's the link...
http://www.equipandempower.org/blog/index.php/2011/12/14/known_by_fruit?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ChristineCaine+%28Christine+Caine+%28blog%29%29

To sum it up though, what is important to God is that we produce "fruit" and what's key is us knowing what "fruit" is. It's not our accomplishments or our talents or our gifts...it's the 9 fruits of the spirit...

love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
self control.

I don't know about you but I think I get this wrong sometimes. I start thinking that my "works" are my fruit. What am I doing in ministry right now? How do I get more involved to touch more lives? Why am I not seeing results like other people?

That's not it at all. Am I producing those 9 things listed above in my life? And am I producing ALL of them..even the hard ones like patience (road rage comes to mind) and self control (over-indulgence in food seems familiar lately)? The beautiful thing is (and possibly frustrating at the same time), is that I can't TRY to produce this. The Holy Spirit produces this in me as I draw closer to Jesus. If I'm not producing these fruits, I reach out to Jesus more. I ask for more of Him in me. I don't try to put the pressure on myself to go and produce this fruit. It's not about works at all. It's not about me.

So this season as I find myself yelling at other drivers on the road and worrying about if I got someone the right gift, I'm subsequently getting closer to Jesus. I'm finding more time to spend in His word and talking to Him. Because I want to produce this fruit. I know this is what really matters. And I know I can't do it in my own strength.

And if I don't get the chance to blog again before Sunday, Merry Christmas friends!!

I Love Being Pregnant

I love being pregnant.

There are the little things...
I love not having to suck in my stomach or fit into my "skinny jeans."
I love maternity pants and really wish I could get away wearing them even when I'm not pregnant.
I love feeling him move inside me every day.
I love that I'm getting a ton of sleep - at least 8 hours every night.

And then there is the big thing...
I love this precious gift from God. I love that I get to carry His creation inside of me. I love the miracle that conception and pregnancy and labor is and I give Him all the glory for it. There is no way this could happen without His control over every little detail of it. I'm constantly in awe of Him and this gift he has blessed us with. I don't take it for granted for a second.

I know people experience some miserable things during pregnancy. Fortunately things have been fantastic for me since day one, but even if they take a turn, I'm committed to not letting that overshadow the miracle that is going on inside me. I'm so grateful for this pregnancy and this precious baby that is growing inside me.

Philippians 4:8

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

I'm believing that things don't have to go downhill in the 3rd trimester. I'm believing that labor doesn't have to be painful. I'm believing that pain and sickness aren't associated to pregnancy and labor. I'm believing to not fear labor. My God tells me that he doesn't give us a spirit of fear. He tells me that by his Son's stripes, I am healed. He tells me that I live under a new covenant because of what Jesus did for us.

I think so much "worldly" perspectives and advice has creeped into this miracle. People love to tell you how painful labor is. They love to tell you that your life is over once you have kids. I really have to tune this stuff out. None of that is from the Lord. Why don't we talk more about what a blessing it is?! The verse that comes to my mind is Romans 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." I can't stop people from telling me their stories, but I can believe differently. I'm believing for greater things, for greater experiences. It's scary to write it down and to say it because what if it is painful and I do experience sickness or whatever...but that's faith...believing in the unseen.

I am so grateful to Jesus for this gift inside of me.



Fun, Fall, Family Pictures :)

We have a sweet talented friend, Ande Fanning, that we asked to take a few pictures of me and Hogan one day. My hopes were to get a good couple of shots that we could use on a Christmas card this year as well as a few with some blue balloons since we had just found out the gender of our baby and thought that'd be a fun memory to have.

Well she gave us SO much more than we expected. We went out to the Botanical Gardens here in Birmingham and she took pictures of us for like 2 hours! It was such a beautiful day and it was such a blessing to us. I've shared just a few of my favorites below...

Gender Reveal

I can't even express how excited Hogan and I were to find out the gender this past Friday. Hogan was like a kid on Christmas Eve. When he was finished getting ready in the morning, he joked about just going to wait in the car until I was ready but in all honesty, I think he would've if I hadn't laughed at him saying that.

They did the ultrasound right away when we got there. It was an incredible experience. While we were so excited about finding out the gender (which we did at the end of the ultrasound), I was completely in awe of seeing our baby on the screen as the nurse checked on the development of it's entire body. Technology is amazing. Pregnancy is amazing! Hogan and I keep saying over and over again what a miracle pregnancy and childbirth is. By no control of my own (other than being responsible with my body of course) am I forming this baby. What an amazing gift from God and what an amazing God we have!

After the nurse had checked on all the development, we had to wiggle the baby around a little bit to make him uncross his legs so we could find out! Luckily, he did and we immediately could see we were having a baby BOY!!!!! Not that I favored either gender but I just thought it'd be a girl for some reason so it was more of a surprise for me (Hogan had told me a few days earlier he "knew" it was gonna be a boy). We are beyond excited for this precious baby boy and it's so much more real now. We even have a name already but are keeping it a secret until he's born! It's been so much fun though to pray over HIM now and talk about him to each other using the name we've chosen. Now on to registering for boy items whatever those might be :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our ultrasound...

And finally he reveals that he is a boy!!!





We found out the gender on Friday and celebrated our 1 year marriage anniverary on Sunday so it was a pretty exciting weekend to say the least. We've been all smiles and are so grateful :)

Oh, and Hogan has already persuaded him to pull for Auburn...

A Beautiful Birmingham Fall

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my city in the fall. I especiallly enjoy my drive to work in the mornings because I go through an area that is abundant in trees and leaves. The entire way in this morning, leaves were falling and blowing all over the place. Put a huge smile on my face!

Also wanted to give an update on life right now. I've gotten a little lax in blogging. These past few months have flown by. Our pastor said last night at church that there were 7 weeks until Christmas - is that for real?? That kind of scares me because I am so bad with Christmas shopping. I aspire to be one of those people that buys gifts throughout the year and is done with major shopping by the end of November but sadly, I don't see that happening. It doesn't help when so much of my family have birthdays that fall closely before Christmas - gotta focus on those days first of course.

This fall has been wonderful. Hogan and I have led a newlywed small group every Friday night where we go out to eat with other couples at a different restaurant every week. We call it "Taste of the Ham - Married Edition" - all Hogan's creativity there. We only knew 1 of the couples before we started this group so it's been so neat to build relationships with new faces. It's also been fun to lead a group with my husband. We have each led many small groups individually before we were married so to join together in this has been great.

The extent of our Halloween activities included pumpkin carving and trying to hand out candy to kids trick or treating. Unfortunately I think our doorbell only rang 3 or 4 times and NO ONE was really dressed up in costumes. I really don't care if you are 15 years old and trick or treating but make an attempt to dress up at least - geez! I had so much fun though carving my pumpkin. An added bonus was the pumpkin seeds that I got from it and roasted - still snacking on those. Here are our creations - Hogan's is the left one and mine is the right one. The picture doesn't do his justice though - he actually made ears that stuck out of the side of the pumpkin as well as nostrils!

And this is Molly checking them out. She was very curious.



Even though our 1 year anniversary is this coming Sunday, we "celebrated" it last weekend by going to....................Ross Bridge! Surprise there :) But it's seriously the best in-town getaway and that's what we were up for. It basically turned into a day of pampering me though as much as I tried to take the focus off of just me, but if you know how sweet Hogan is, that's what it always turns into. I had a pre-natal massage and oh my goodness, it was amazing. I so prefer pre-natal massages over regular ones and seriously want to try to get those even when I'm not pregnant. I also enjoyed a pedicure and then we went out to dinner and dessert that night. It was such a nice relaxing night. Hogan also got me a dozen pink roses and I think the pregnancy hormones are affecting me because when I walked in the room and saw them, I just started crying. It was a good cry but Hogan was so confused, ha ha.

Pregnancy has been a fantastic experience thus far. It is such a gift from God and I'm loving every second of it. We find out the gender here soon so stay tuned!

Jesus is doing a work inside of me right now too. Every now and then I hit those seasons where I get so much revelation from the Lord and I think one of those seasons is happening as I speak. I'm going to articulate myself a bit better though and I'll post a blog on it all soon :)

Love y'all. Thanks for reading!