Per Doctor's Orders....

Since I've been scolded by my doctor for not shouting this from the mountaintops already, and since he has confirmed it 4 times....it's time to say that I am proud to announce that I am in my 15th week of a healthy pregnancy!!!!!!! We are expecting a baby Dec. 15. Merry Christmas!!

In January, after loosing 4 babies and after several rounds of unsuccessful fertility treatments, we decided to listen to God seemingly telling us, "NO!" over and over again and we quit trying. We worked to truly become content with the beautiful, healthy daughter and wonderful marriage that He had given us and switched our expectations of having 3 kids to focusing on the joys of having 1. And we realized that we really had things pretty easy with a potty-trained, sleeping-through-the-night, responds-decent-to-discipline 3.5 year old and that maybe having a baby would complicate things. Then in March, it seems that our contentment and release of control and our desires was exactly what God wanted - because He gave us exactly what we had been wanting - no fertility treatments, no Doctor intervention - just the good ol' fashioned way!!! I can now relate to the story of Hannah in the old testament - only I hope that God doesn't call me to leave my baby at a temple at the end of weaning it!

I had already grieved at the thought of never having a surprise pregnancy or in fact, ever being pregnant again. I'm so thankful that God had other plans! I can't tell you how many tears I've cried in the past at the widening age gap between our children - we had always planned to have them 3 years apart (planning...that seems so silly now!). Now that they will be 4.5 years exactly, I couldn't be more excited. I'm starting to see so many benefits that this will bring. Annabelle is going to be such a great helper! This new baby will also help me with the transition of kindergarten which I've also been dreading for the past 2 years! She's also such a part of this pregnancy and new beginning for all of us. She is able to understand (for the most part) what is going on and it's great to be able to talk through her feelings, get her opinions, and really experience this with all 3 of us involved. God really does have better plans for us than we can imagine!

I'm so glad to be able to share this with you all! Please join us in praying for this baby and it's health and in praising God for His faithfulness! As much heartache as we've been through and all of the trials that at the time we wish would have been avoided, we KNOW that HE KNOWS what is best. I feel that our testimonies have been strengthened, our faith has been tested, and we have both grown individually, as well as in our marriage because of the last 2 years.

GOD IS GOOD!!!