Week 30

7.5 months this week! So exciting :). The baby growing like a weed! The doctor was concerned that my bump was too small, but after an ultrasound we found out the baby is really a week ahead of the 'norm'. What an answer to prayer. Still no name, but we love him dearly anyway.

His nursery is coming together and I'm so happy to look forward to his daddy's return soon. I've had so many wonderful friends and family help me at the house it's been incredible. We are so blessed to have such supportive and encouraging friends to help me with the house during this deployment.

The lilies are a part of my very first Mother's Day gift! I felt so special receiving that beautiful bouquet to help celebrate this new adventure.

So thankful!

Week 27

Do I look pregnant or what? Strangers are still a little tentative, but pretty sure they can ask, 'When are you due?' I still can't believe there is a tiny little man growing inside of me. It's really just too wild to even imagine.

I just got back from 2 weeks visiting friends and family in Colorado Springs and had a wonderful time! I am so blessed with special friends and a great family to support me. A big group of friends and mentors got together and prayed for me and the baby, and it was a huge blessing. I hope I can learn to be an encouragement to them, too!

While I was in the Springs my parents and my brother Mason all got to feel the baby going crazy. It is so fun to be able to share that with them! He is getting stronger every day, and now I can just start to see him moving my belly around when I look down sometimes.

I am still having a great time going to 'normal person' yoga a few times a week, but I get worse and worse every class as the baby gets bigger. This is a little annoying for the over-achiever in me. At least I'm trying to stay in shape! :)

Week 26

From Collages

What a fun milestone! :) The little guy's newest trick is that if I balance a book on my tummy while lying down, he can make it bounce up and down. Almost like there's some popcorn popping in there. I went shopping for clothes this weekend for the first time and found it really depressing until I stumbled upon a bunch of great empire waste sundresses like this one after nearly 6 hours of searching. Pregnant shopping is rough! Being an optimistic dresser, I wear things like this and just hope that the weather man is wrong. Spokane is still stuck in the low 50's for now, but I think spring will show up soon because we are getting some beautiful sunshine most days :). Thanks to all the friends and family motivating me to keep pulling out this camera to learn more!

6 Months

So excited to make the 6 month marker! The baby is getting bigger and stronger every day, and can even move my whole belly when he wants to. :) I have now cleared out the guest room to become the nursery, but it is completely empty save a few darling gifts from friends. Good thing I have some time to get this together!

Seattle!

This weekend we squeezed in a quick trip to Seattle in between tdys and deployments! Trust me, this was a feat. He was supposed to fly into Spokane at midnight, but at the last minute he had me borrow a friend's huge truck (thank you Marc & Katie!) and pick him up at SeaTac. Their 2011 Tundra is so huge I felt like a monster-truck-mama hauling west on I 90.  It was so wonderful to see Mike and be together!

I wanted to try out some of my new 'selfie' tricks from http://www.selfiemagic.com/ and came up with a few shots of our trip that I love! I just had my Canon PowerShot on auto timer, turned off the flash, and looked for great natural light.

We stayed in a beautiful room right downtown and just relished being tourists for the weekend.

I know I'll treasure these images for a long time. My bump is getting bigger by the minute. I am just shy of 6 months now, and next time my husband sees me I'll be at 8 months!

This last shot is at the top of the Space Needle. To keep up my inspiration and challenge myself to learn I'm following a good friend's photography blog, and I highly reccomend it! Check out the button below to see her work...

First attempt

I am so excited to say I have finally started playing around with my camera & tripod to capture my first pregnancy. I feel great today and with a little inspiration I came up with this image as my favorite. My goal is to have one image a week that I really like. I want to do a little journaling each week, too, so I can make a simple album to remember the experience and share in the future.

I chose the bedroom today because it is my favorite back drop in our home so far, and I think the sitting poses are a little less tricky.

Any ideas for picking a good full body back drop in your home?

Click it Up a Notch

Keep praying for the baby Christians :)

This weekend was a big men's retreat and I asked you all to really pray for God to move in these guy's lives--- he did!

We got to greet the boys at a big church-worship-service-welcome-back event Sunday night. There were hundreds of people there to greet the boys and celebrate what God did that weekend. We heard great testimonies and saw about 100 men of God emerge from the experience.

I asked for special prayer for the boys we sent: Kevin, Axel, and Sarco (plus 2 cousins). Unfortunately Sarco did not attend because his girlfriend had their baby last weekend. I was bummed that he wasn't there to hear God's truth, but I know he is becoming more open to faith and I know God is not giving up on him.

Kevin, the 14 year old that ran away from our home 2 weeks ago, showed up with his heart open to God and gave us big hugs and smiles at the church reception. The pastor said he had really changed. I continue to pray that he receives serious healing from his nightmare of a childhood that only God can give him. Many of you have asked about Kevin and where he is living: he has chosen to live in the slum barrio where he grew up with a Christian cousin, just a stone's throw away from where he was abused as a child. He is making it really hard on himself, but I know God isn't finished with what he has started in Kevin's life.

Axel & the cousins all accepted Christ for the first time and want to completely turn their lives over to him. They cried with joy when we greeted them and I am praying for them to persevere in their new faith and find a good support system to cheer them on and teach them more. Axel says he wants to leave his old life in the dust and embrace the freedom and truth God offers. Praise God!!

On a much lighter note, I treated Michelle to a special spa day as a thank you for working so hard during our move and being such a darling friend. I have gotten to mentor her during my time here and it has meant so much to me! She is so sweet and open to what God wants to do in her life. Exciting stuff. She has also helped me tremendously with my Spanish because we just sit and talk for hours together about our lives and what God is doing around us :). What a blessing! You can see we did a 'serious' before pic and an adorable 'after' pic at a cute girly crepe cafe.

As I prepare to finish my last week here, my prayer is 1 Cor 16:13: Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be a woman of courage; be strong. Do everything in love. I want to finish strong and take advantage of every little divine appointment God has for me here :)! Love you all!