Oh Happy Day

God's favor shone down on me when I checked my email yesterday afternoon. All weekend I have been working on some crazy nutty math assignments that were due by my class this morning. It. Was. Torture. But glory, glory I checked my inbox and opened an email from my math professor saying that our THREE HOUR face-to-face class would be cancelled Monday. Oh happy day! Sweet words to read right there!

My week will now have a more pleasant start. Instead of sitting through a three hour math class this morning, I got to do my bible study, go for a walk, keep down eat a nutritious breakfast. It has been lovely.

Have you seen the show Duck Dynasty on A&E?  Christian and I don't have cable, but literally some of the fun we had this summer was getting to watch the episodes on the On Demand section of my parent's television. So funny. I love this family living in West Monroe, Louisiana that made a great living patenting duck calls and other hunting related items. They are rooted in their Christian faith, they raise their boys to be gentlemen and they all have a slap stick funny sense of humor. I discovered this little bit shared on Facebook this morning by a friend.

I don't know about you, but this week, I am taking Uncle Si's advice to heart. As an exhausted, pregnant lady I plan on enjoying my week the the best of my ability. I will work hard and I will nap.

Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSUAXYtJYCg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Favorite Things {Fri}

Christian hangs out with a group of high school guys every other Friday afternoon at our old high school. I tagged along and had some fun catching up with a good teacher friend once her classes were finished for the day. It is so weird to be "grown up" now and be friends with my former teachers...not to mention I actually have my high school principal as a mother-in-law! It is awesome. They poured into me a lot during those years and they still do! It's nice to know people that know me well.

Afterwards we hopped over to the Homegoods and had some fun browsing around. My husband will shop with me and I like to think that he has a pretty good time doing it too. See how goofy? He is my favorite thing for Friday and while we didn't come home with the giant bowl and spoon (Christian wanted to use them for his cereal) we did pick out some cool baskets to collect papers and such in the office. Christian said we should put labels in the little slots that say "Lindsey's Stuff" and "Christian's Crap." Indeed, our newly decorated office has become a dumping ground for all of our school stuff (especially Christian's giant engineering textbooks). I will be sure to tidy up before I take you all on a tour soon. Happy Friday! Don't forget to think about your favorite things and to count your blessings!

Hi Baby

It was so nice to just be able to get our news out this weekend and be able to celebrate! We have been blessed by many, sweet comments that friends and family have made. This is a little life! Definitely worth getting excited about!

My mom personalized this frame for me. It hold our first "picture" of the baby.

I often don't "feel" pregnant, but the nausea, food aversions and exhaustion remind me. I am a girl that likes to keep moving (and eating) constantly so it has be difficult for me to slow down a bit. I keep upsetting my stomach by eating too quickly or too much in the morning. I can't help it, I love breakfast foods! When I am taking care of myself and letting Christian take care of me I feel much better. I have even been able to keep up the exercise I enjoy like walking my neighborhood or riding my bike.

Every once and awhile I find myself talking to myself or the baby. Just to remind myself that he/she is there I say, "Hi baby." It has been a sweet time to realize that God has placed this little life inside of me. Even now I get the opportunity to care for this child and to pray for him or her.

This frame holds our little saying. "Night night big baby, night night little baby."

My mom has ministered to me and acknowledged this little life by telling me goodnight each evening by saying, "Night night big baby, night night little baby." I have always been and will always be my mom's big baby. When I told my little sister Maddie that I was expecting a baby; that I was going to be a mommy, she said pointing at my mom, "Silly goose! That's the mommy!" Its hard to belie
ve myself that I will be a mommy soon, but I am thankful for a wonderful mother that has always been the best role model to me in her ministry to her husband, her children and to all the other people God has placed in her life.

I have much to be thankful for!

Wednesdays are nice days for me in the middle of my week. I do not have classes with my program so it gives me a chance to write, to visit with friends and to catch up on assignments. Today, I am going to enjoy my first pumpkin bagel of the fall at Einsteins before I pick up Maddie from preschool. I am obsessed with everything pumpkin and of course I have an even greater adoration for my sisters! It should be a fun afternoon.Tonight, I am starting a book study at church with other newly married ladies and some mommies-to-be in the mix as well. I am really looking forward to all the Lord has to teach me in this new season of life. It is going to be good for me.

My Prayer for Baby Today 

Our Sweet Gift

Maybe, just maybe you have seen our big announcement on Facebook. I’m guessing that you felt that you should hop on over here to the blog to find out more about our little gift. 

We got one last wedding gift at our door today! Yippee! We have been receiving boxes that look like this for months and months surrounding our wedding day. They have always been a welcome sight and we have been so beyond blessed and have felt so loved opening each one. In addition to all the wonderful wedding gifts people have given us, God has chosen to bless us with a gift that is much more extravagant than what we have received from our friends and family. It is a gift that you can’t register for at Crate and Barrel, but I sure am glad that God has entrusted us with this amazing little blessing. There’s a little Maiocco due in early April 2013!

This truly is a gift; to be pregnant. This is a gift that I am willing to admit is not one that Christian and I thought we would be receiving anytime soon. What is true is that we realize and believe that God knows the deepest desires of our hearts. So much so that he knows the desires we have even before we know them ourselves. God has taught this to me before through Psalm 37:4, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Never has that lesson been truer and real to me than now. 

Christian looks at me lately and just says, “I love this!”

Soon after becoming engaged people began asking about when we think we would like to have a baby. Unbeknownst to me Christian had replied several times, “We’ll probably wait a year.” Since we found out about our little gift he has remarked, “Well, I guess it has been a year since I had said that!”

We have had just the sweetest weekend. We are so glad to end it with getting to share our fun news. Here is a list of some of our blessings and some of the details. I really love lists these days and I am sure that I will probably keep up the habit as we prepare for the arrival of our little guy. Yes, sorry to spoil it for you, but it has been “decided” that our firstborn will be a boy. Both mamas and multiple siblings are absolutely sure of it. That has to mean something, right? We are joyfully and prayerfully anticipating the arrival of the future man after God’s own heart, mover/shaker/defender of the Gospel that I might be carrying. Who knows though? God could choose to surprise us with a bold and beautiful princess that will someday change the world. God seems to like surprises. We do too. We wouldn’t have things any other way.

·          

• Verses that we love and are claiming right now…

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
      you formed me in my mother's womb.
   I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
      Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
      I worship in adoration—what a creation!
   You know me inside and out,
      you know every bone in my body;
   You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
      how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
   Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
      all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
   The days of my life all prepared
      before I'd even lived one day. ~Psalm 139:13-16 The Message

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. ~1 Timothy 4:12

He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. ~Colossians 4:12

•   I have gotten to have two appointments getting to check out our growing baby. My doctors are going back and forth with a due date and are saying that I am around 10 weeks. It was shocking to find out at first and it took awhile to let the news settle in, but once I saw that little baby safe and growing and little heart beating and being just 1.17 cm long that first ultrasound….I believed. Okay, I finally believed that I was pregnant. It was settling in for Christian too. We were in awe.

•   It has been so sweet getting to tell our families. We know that God is celebrating this life he has created and it was fun to finally be able to celebrate with others! Everyone is so excited!

• For one, this child will be SO LOVED! Secondly, this child will be SO confused growing up because he is going to have SO many aunts and uncles! In addition to our seven siblings, we have many dear friends that are already accepting the role of honorary aunt or uncle. I’ve got two words for you. Spoiled. Rotten.

• One neat God-thing through these past few months is that as we told people, we found that they “already knew” in some way or another. One friend we called said that her son, Tylor, had come to her a few weeks before and told her that we were pregnant. He had a very clear dream where he had a conversation with Christian saying that we were going to have a baby. I received a text from a godly “mama” in my life saying that God had impressed upon her to pray for Christian and I. It was the night that we had told my parents. Another sweet friend I called said that she had a dream a few nights ago that I was pregnant. She had been debating on whether to call me or not to find out if it was true. When I told her about Tylor who had also had the dream she exclaimed, “Lindsey! You may not be ready to announce your news to everybody, but God is already telling people!” It has been just plain cool to be brought so many forms of encouragement over the past weeks. It can only be explained as our great God who is so intimately involved in the details.

• We are thankful.

A theme throughout our relationship has been adventure. While we dated we enjoyed going on various “adventures” together. We still love getting in the car and traveling some place new. In getting married we especially felt a sense of adventure in not knowing exactly what God would be calling us to in the next few years. We were okay with that; not knowing. We simply knew that whatever the Lord called us to do we would be ready and willing. Little did either of us know that this would be the first big adventure we get to embark on together. A baby. Parenthood. What a calling! What could be more of an adventure than that?

We know that God’s plans are so much higher and greater than our own. We know that his plans are so much better than anything that we could ever in a million years come up with. I know that especially when we get to hold that sweet baby we will not be able to imagine life any other way! With our blessing on the way, we would ask that you would please be praying for us. Please pray that we would draw even closer to the Lord and each other; that are marriage would grow stronger every day. Pray also that we would experience the joy of the Lord in a special way during this time. We are especially thankful for the family and community that Christ has placed around us to lift us up!