Rejoicing In Him

Well, yesterday was our 15 week appointment for the baby. As we were waiting for the doctor, I told Matthew that these baby appointments used to be so exciting for me to go to, but now having experienced the loss of our two babies, I dread these appointments. I dread hearing any bad news about our baby. So that has definitely been my struggle through this pregnancy is completely trusting the Lord with our baby and entering into that full joy that I know I should be having. So now you know my heart and doubts:) I am not proud of it at all, but only ashamed as I know the Lord wants me to completely trust Him with my whole heart. I know not fully trusting Him, I am missing out on His blessings. I think it's going to be a life lesson for me as it has been in my life, but I don't want it to be. I want to learn my lesson and live the rest of my life resting in Him. So, thats what I'm trying to do:) It's not a day to day surrender, it's more like a moment by moment throughout the day surrender to the Lord!
All that to say, we got to hear our little baby's strong heartbeat yesterday. Yay!! Thank you Jesus!! The scripture I read yesterday that I felt like the Lord gave me for that day was...

"I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart;
I will tell of all Your marvelous works.
I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High." Psalm 9:1-2

As I was giving my heart and struggles to Him yesterday morning before our appointment, the Lord spoke to me in that it's easy to praise Him and tell of all His marvelous works when we hear good news and everything is going good, but if I were to hear bad news again today, will I still praise Him with my whole heart and rejoice in Him? No matter what happens, as I have learned in the past year and a half of my life, it all comes down to this...God loves me, God is good and He is so worthy of our praise no matter what! He does have a perfect plan for each one of us and for my baby and I need to rest in that. So praise the Lord we did hear good news yesterday and I am praising Him with my whole heart, telling you of His marvelous works and being glad and rejoicing in Him! Thank you again for all who are keeping us in your prayers!

Good News

Our hearts are rejoicing! Meet our new baby Shrewsberry! We had our first doctor's appointment on Wednesday for the baby and got good news. The baby looks healthy and strong! The doctor believes it's going to be a normal pregnancy with no complications from what he can see. So we are praising the Lord! We want to thank all of you who have been praying for us and our baby. We have been so blessed by our family and friends who I know have been thinking of us and praying just by your emails, texts and phone calls checking in with us. We really appreciate it and it brings us such peace knowing that people are praying for our baby! We have about six more months to go so please keep praying!:) We love you all! God is so good and we are rejoicing in His faithfulness!

5 Years Old!

5 years ago today we were exceedingly abundantly blessed as we had our first baby boy Jake Ryan. I cannot believe how fast time flys! I cannot believe I have a 5 year old! Jake is such a joy to be around and has such a good heart. He is so very special and precious to us and we are so thankful to the Lord for giving him to us and the privelege it is to be his parents and raise him unto the Lord. Happy Birthday Jake! Dadda & Mama love you so much!!

Our Christmas

Our Christmas was definitely a different one this year for us. We spent Christmas Eve with my side of the family. My parents were down south visiting my mom's family because we recently found out that my Grandma (Nana) has cancer and is going through treatment right now. My parents wanted to be down there for her this Christmas. So that left just us girls. It was definitely weird without our parents there, but we know that is what the Lord had for this year and my parents needed to be there for my Nana. So we still had a blessed time getting together and playing games. Then Christmas morning Ben woke up with a fever:( We had a blessed time just with the boys remembering Jesus and opening gifts with them. I don't think anything beats being a kid on Christmas morning, but now being a parent and watching your kid's excitment opening all their presents is so much fun too. Then we headed to the Shrewsberry's in the afternoon for Christmas dinner. We had another blessed time with them as we spent time together. So now it's time to pack Christmas away and look forward to what this next year is going to bring...ahhhh!

Here are just a few pictures of Christmas day. I'm so disappointed in myself...I forgot our camera on Christmas Eve so was not able to get any pictures of our time with my sisters, oh well... "It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a pillow pet!" Don't ask me what they see in these except that they are very soft and cuddly, but this was one of the things they both had to havePapa, Grammy & boysOur nephew Ethan with JakeThis was us by the end of the night. Poor Ben just wasn't feeling that great for ChristmasHope you all had a very blessed Christmas!