Mary's Song

Being a recent born again Christian, there are many parts of the Bible that I am reading for the first time. Today our church sermon was about the Virgin Mary's song...which are her words (song) after being foretold by the angel about Jesus. Luke 1:46-55

And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the
Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my
Savior, for
he has been mindful of the humble
state of
his servant. From now on all generations will
call me
blessed,
for the Mighty One has
done great
things for me—
holy is
his
name. His mercy extends
to those who fear
him, from
generation to
generation. He has
performed mighty deeds with his
arm;
he has scattered those who are
proud
in
their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from
their thrones
but has lifted up the
humble. He has
filled the hungry with good things but
has
sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful to
Abraham and his descendants forever, even as
he said to our
fathers."

Even Mary considered herself a sinner...the very one who God chose to give birth to the Son of God! He lifts the humble...what an awesome God! Today it was revealed to me that lately I have been trying too hard to be 'of the world'....that I have gone astray....that I have not been humble. Thank God that He takes us back no matter what.

Also during church today the baby was kicking away. This is probably the most movement I've felt at one time. As Pastor Rod was reading through more of the story: "As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy" (Luke 1:44), I too felt that our baby leaped for joy!...almost as if he/she was saying 'Amen'!

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day and safe traveling. We had our Christmas early with my family and will hopefully have Christmas with Shane's family on New Year's Day.

Jeff's favorite gift:

Here are the grandkids on my side of the family. Jeffrey, Seth, Autumn, and Cady. Seth and Cady belong to Cindy and Steven and Autumn belongs to my brother Wade. The newest grandchild is known as the 'tie breaker' for the number of boys vs the number of girls. :)

Well, the plan is to start setting up the nursery today...if I can pull Shane away from the Wii!

Will post again soon!

Misty

Getting ready for Christmas

Christmas is officially one week away. Got most of my shopping done up to this point with only a few people left. My sister Cindy, her husband Steven, and my niece and nephew are going to be staying with us for about a week....can't wait!....they are coming tonight. We will be having Christmas with my family at our house this year which means NO TRAVELING! We have been traveling during the holidays for the last 13 years so needless to say this is a big relief for us. For those of you who don't know we went years without having family live around us....the nearest ones were 2 hours away in Brownwood. This year it seems everyone has is near us now. Shane's parents live 2 blocks away... his sister Stephanie lives in South Austin... my parents just moved to Fredericksburg which is 90 miles away. It has been such a blessing...especially with the baby coming.

I have had quite a few changes during this 18th week of pregnancy. I feel great both physically and mentally and the only 'symptom' I have is the excessive sleeping. Still no increase in appetite and I can still wear my regular clothes. I have felt a lot of movement and kicking this week. :)

Still waiting for Jan 6th!

Thanks for reading,
Misty


Merry Christmas!

17 weeks

Had it been 5 weeks since my last post?! Wow, the time has flown by. Time sure does fly when you're.......sleeping! Yes, my life has consisted of going to work and coming home to go to bed. I do have some days that I don't take a nap but those are few and far between. I'm glad to report that I am completely out of the nausea stage! No specific cravings and I haven't seen a big change in my appetite yet....I'm trying not to have the mindset of 'eating for 2' this time around. As far as maternity clothes...I'm in between on the shirts and still in regular jeans....a size bigger though.

My last doctor checkup was at 16 weeks and everything seems to be normal. The baby's heartbeat did slow down a bit.....145-150 beats/min compared to 160 last time. I assume that is normal since there was no concern shown about it. No searching around for it this time....the heartbeat that is. :)

We are really excited about the next checkup because we are doing the ultrasound. Get to see what the sex of the baby is! To me, other than the birth itself, this is the most exciting part! It brings the whole pregnancy to life...if you will. Especially for the father since they don't get to experience the little movements; although some do have all the other symptoms. And yes, Shane does. I tell him that's the least he can do to help out during the pregnancy. lol He is the one having the cravings! Anyway, the ultrasound is set for January 6th....I will be sure to post on that day.

Thanks for reading!
Misty

12 week doctor visit

I am glad to report that baby and I are doing fine. All the blood work is normal....they tested for my blood type, HIV, etc. I finally got to meet my doctor today and she is so sweet. In my previous visits I've been examined by nurses and midwives and they are awesome too.

The most exciting part was getting to hear the heartbeat....which made my heart melt. A woman's ability to create a child (with some help of course) is such a blessing and I thank God for our little miracle every day.

I think I am finally getting over the first big 'hump' of pregnancy. My energy levels are increasing and I'm nauseous 2 days out of the week instead of 7. Yay!

This will be a short post but I will post again soon.

Misty

End of nausea stage?

Hello to all my faithful readers who have been waiting for me to post. I'll have to admit I've been a slacker these last few weeks. Constant nausea and excessive sleeping will do that to a person.

I hope I am seeing the light at the end of the 'nausea' tunnel. Very little nausea these last 4 days! Woo-hoo! Finally starting to feel normal again! (Hope I didn't just jinx myself.)

Well in a few weeks we are going to be in the 2nd trimester. Jeff tells me that I'm starting to look 'plump'...lol. He always makes me laugh. True though, I'm getting the baby bump as Shane calls it. I'm going back to wearing my clothes that I wore before I lost all the weight on Weight Watchers. I have not yet announced it at work so I need some help hiding it for another week or so. I've already gained 3 lbs! A lot of it has to do with me not being on the diet anymore. I am craving all the things that are not on my diet list. Even had a hamburger last weekend! It's been ages since I had one but it tasted sooo good!!!!

We are starting to stock up on diapers and boy have the prices gone up on those since the last time I bought them. I am more of a 'sale watcher' these days and I've been getting some good deals. I have more of an idea on which ones are better quality this time around. If you come across some diaper coupons feel free to save them for me. Any kind will do. :)

Will post again soon! Thanks for reading!

Misty

9 week appt

Sorry it has been a while since I have updated you all. I am either at work or at home sleeping. :)

I had my 9 week appointment on Wednesday and everything is going well. We tried to listen to the heartbeat but it's not quite strong enough to hear yet. I've been experiencing the usual 1st trimester symptoms.....frequent sleeping, minor mood swings, and nausea. So far organic peppermints and herbal tea are the best for nausea. Whole Foods is a great place to shop for those.

Still not in maternity clothes yet but my jeans are starting to get a little snug. I'm going to wear my 'normal' clothes for as long as I can!

Well this will be a short update. Back to sleeping!

Misty

Early doctor appt

We ended up going to the doctor earlier than planned. I was having a lot of symptoms that I didn't have with Jeffrey and I wanted to get things checked out. We were able to have an ultrasound done and so far the baby is developing normally. We are officially 6 weeks and 3 days along with a due date of May 21st. Thank goodness I don't have to go through the hot part of the summer big and pregnant. Jeff's birthday is April 25th....their birthday's will be close together.


I can't get over the fact that this pregnancy is so much different than with Jeffrey. I have constant nausea and a lot of cramping with this one. One would think that their body would be more prepared with the 2nd pregnancy but apparently not.


We let Jeffrey attend the ultrasound appt with us and being the normal 7 year old boy that he is his response was 'That's it??!!' when he saw that little 'speck' of baby. lol

Here is baby's first picture. The part labeled 'YS' stands for yolk sac. That should be gone by next week. We saw the heartbeat...127 beats/minute. Wow!! According to the ultrasound tech that little heart has only been beating for a week. We can't wait to meet you little one!

6 weeks

According to the due date calculator we are 6 weeks into the pregnancy. Of course the due date has not been 'confirmed' by the doctor yet but I think it's safe to say that we are in the right area.

This baby is bringing different aches and pains than Jeffrey did. My worst one now is nausea...not morning sickness but all day sickness! I'm either starving or nauseous. Don't really have a certain food I'm craving but I do prefer anything that is greasy. Mexican food has been the food of choice lately.

This weekend I shopped around for all the latest baby gadgets and products. Wow, they have really changed within the last 7-8 years! The newest and coolest one to me is the Bumbo Baby seat:

Luckily we don't have to start from scratch and buy everything new. My goal right now is to work on a list of everything we have.

Thanks for reading and I will update soon!

Misty

Wow!

Okay, I had no idea we were pregnant when I started this blog. Now that I am getting over the initial shock I think I can focus enough to get started on this.

In case you don't know we found out we are pregnant last Sunday. After 4 years of heartache and frustration God has decided it is the right time to bless us with another child. At this point we are 5 weeks along and I am praying that our child makes it through these beginning stages of life. I seem to be having more pain in the early stages with this one than what I did with Jeffrey. Or maybe I don't remember since it's been so long ago! :) It's nothing major....my body is probably adjusting. And I am 8 years older this time around...maybe that's part of the cause. The first appointment with my doctor is Oct 10th...we get to do an ultrasound on that day! We are excited! I hope my mind will be put to ease once I know how the baby is doing...I've been worried that something will go wrong. In fact I've been hesitant about making this announcement since we are only a few weeks into the pregnancy. Please pray for my peace of mind and that our child is healthy and developing normally. It's probably just the hormones taking over!

Jeffrey is so excited about being an older brother and of course he is hoping for a baby brother. Shane and I, on the other hand, are secretly wishing for a girl....but would also be totally happy with another little boy.

We have no idea what to do about the adoption. We have still not heard from our case worker from Gladney but we do know they did receive our file. At this point we still have another 2 years of waiting for a child. Why did God lead us to adopt and then decide to give us a biological child? If we did continue with the adoption both this child and our child from Taiwan would be about the same age. Does God think we are capable (physically AND financially) to handle that? We will definitely be doing a lot of praying...more than usual!

Thanks for reading and I will post updates soon!

Misty

Under construction

Well, I decided to start my own blog. We already have an adoption blog that, of course, centers around the adoption and includes a few tidbits of our life in general. This blog will dig deeper into my life, thoughts, and family...hopefully! I'm a very private person and very few people know what is going on in my life. So here goes!

I will spend a few days working on the cosmetic changes of the blog and then the blogging will begin!

Misty