a day is like a thousand years?

You know that passage in the Bible that says to the LORD a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day? It's in 2 Peter. Well, that about summed up my fear heading into Mason's week-long TDY. Now I am not super keen on using acronyms when I don't know what they stand for, and I have to admit I just looked up TDY because I always thought it stood for Temporary DutY and it really bothered me that the Y came from the end of the word. Wikipedia is telling me that it means Temporary Duty Yonder, which is fun sounding. I like the yonder part. So Mason went on one of these yonder assignments for the first time in a long time, and while he was gone (during the thousand-years-long days) I had some great opportunities for reflection!

After 6.33 years of marriage and almost 9 of knowing him, I love Mason more than ever. In retrospect I am sure I did not know the guy at all as we stood at the altar all starry-eyed. How could I have really known him? I knew him enough to know I wanted to marry him and that he was good husband and father material. But those were educated guesses. Unfortunately 6 years is more than enough time for a marriage to go sour, for spouses to drift apart, to become different people and to fall apart. It is only by the grace of God that I married a man who drew closer to Him since our wedding day rather than in the opposite direction. Mason might be unrecognizable next to the clueless groom he was in 2007. I say clueless in a kind way; how could he have known what it would be like to live with me and walk through 3 pregnancies and births and babies together? In marriage, as with parenthood, we had no idea what we were getting into, but we didn't really care because we knew it was right and the LORD had led us to that point. We often say to each other now, in the thick of sleep deprivation and chaos and long days and laughing as naked babies run through the house, that in 5-10 years we will look back and realize that we didn't know each other at all during this time. I guess we are learning from our own history that the passage of time reveals much and deepens our relationship. I'm so very grateful to God first and to my husband second that this has been true.

Mason is an amazing father! He has always been a good one, but seeing him literally covered in children anytime he is home (which I've only really witnessed in the last 8 months) brings a new dimension to my appreciation of him. He views each of our children as an investment in the kingdom of God, meaning that his prayer for their lives is that wherever they go they would spread the kingship of Christ, which is the highest purpose that can motivate the two of us as parents.

Mason just GETS a lot of things now that he just couldn't get right away. I get things too. This leads to many averted crises. Averted crises are good with 3 children under 4 and one more child on the way (adopting, not pregnant, for anyone who's somehow missed the memo). We laugh at the same things now, and we think each other is right more often because we both say things that reflect the other's unique (weird by many standards) opinions. We are an efficient team. We can divide and conquer and can now humble ourselves to do the tasks we once avoided because, well, if it doesn't get done now it cuts into the 10 minutes we may get together after everyone is asleep and homework is done and the house is cleaned up, so we just suck it up and do the task quickly and willingly. I could go on. Having him gone for several nights allowed me the opportunity to reflect on how grateful I am to be partnered for life with a best friend.

Another unexpected blessing from this week was seeing how the children and I were able to make adjustments in our expectations and relationships to compensate for Mason's absence. I found myself very pleased at their ability to understand and communicate (Ezekiel and Eden, at least!). Isaiah was the tall pole in the tent, so to speak, since he obviously did not possess those skills in equal amounts to his brother and sister. But he also did great and even shifted his bedtime up so that I could have time with the older kids after he went down. This took him the first couple of days to perfect, but he was adapting and adjusting in his own little 8-month-old way and I appreciated it. On the last night of the TDY, the four of us went out to dinner at McAlister's and really had a fantastic time. I was kind of in shock that dining out could be a pleasant experience with a 4-year-old, 2-year-old, and a baby - I only took them out because we were out of food and I didn't have the energy to go grocery shopping but we had to get out of the house. So, nice surprise there. True to His promise, the LORD was with me wherever I went and gave me everything I needed to conquer a big fear of mine: being on my own without husband or family around. As I read the words I just wrote, I can see why it is easier for me now than it was when we just had one baby or none at all - I thrive on being around people, so having the chaos and fun of our 3 little ones by my side is preferable to me over being left alone or with one small child. I also found myself feeling very grateful for how God has provided for us through Mason's job. Like I often tell the kids, Daddy works hard for us so that I can stay with you all day and we can live in this nice house! Sometimes the truth of simple statements I direct at them hits me like a ton of bricks. 

Mason returned home this evening to everyone's great joy, and I am thrilled to know that next time he has to go away I can face the time with confidence and remember how perfectly God provided for us this week, right down to the timing of Mason's departure with my rapid return to health after (another) bout with mastitis and the disappearance of Ezekiel's recent fever. I am getting a little closer to living like I really know this secret, the one that the apostle Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:

"I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation...I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

the orphan

That's the name of the first song I heard after meeting Mason. I hopped into my mom's car that she had let me borrow that night, giddy that I had just met the man I was going to marry, and popped my Newsboys CD back on, and there it was. That song has always been special to me because of the memories it carries, but now I see just one more amazing thing about the night God brought us together. He joined us so that we would be adoptive parents. At the time I didn't think it was anything but a beautiful melody to punctuate a beautiful night, but it was perfect foreshadowing of where He would take us together!

We discussed adoption during our first year of marriage, in 2007, and maybe even before that. I jokingly yet seriously told Mason that I would prefer to have a biological child first so that I could make sure I was a fit mother before adopting, kind of using our own flesh and blood as the guinea pig to see if I was responsible enough to take on someone else's flesh and blood. I now see that's kind of ridiculous, because there are so many children that need parents right NOW, they surely wouldn't want us potential mothers to be sitting around waiting to get pregnant before we came to get them. But, that's what we did, and anyway we were so young when we had Ezekiel (almost 23) that we wouldn't have been accepted as adoptive parents at that point. In fact, we're just now making the cut this year, 25 and (almost) 5 years of marriage! WOOHOO!

When Ezekiel was about 10 or 11 months old, the three of us were in Lifeway Christian Store together, and I passed a title that caught my eye: "Successful Adoption" by Natalie Nichols Gillespie. On the cover was a lovely photo of two fair-skinned parents kissing their sweet Asian baby girl. I don't think I bought the book that day, but later I told Mason that I had felt strangely drawn to it and really believed I should go back and purchase it. I did, and I remember saying to myself that if God wants us to have that book, it'll be there on the shelf right where I saw it; and of course, there it was. I read it in a matter of a few days, then Mason read it, and we sat up late many nights talking about how we were going to adopt. Domestically, we said, for sure - after all, there are plenty of babies here in the U.S. that need homes, and after all, we really don't like to travel. It's cheaper to adopt domestically (usually), and we could go through the foster system, too. With that being our decided stance, we found a wonderful Christian agency and I started e-mailing with them about their domestic program. After a few informative e-mails, we stopped to pray about when to make a move and get started on this journey. The next month, we found out we were pregnant with Eden! The LORD is so very clear sometimes. This wasn't the time to adopt, it was our time to grow and deliver another baby. She's a wonderful addition to our family, and when I watch her and Ezekiel play and snuggle together, I know that Eden is not only a gift to Mason and me, but also to her big brother, as he now has a best friend. I said many times during her pregnancy "I'm NEVER doing this again!", which is a common statement among pregnant mothers, but I was and still am at peace with the idea that I may not give birth to any more children. I can, and I might, but it's not something I yearn for. I yearn for more children, but not for the physical process of getting them here. So, we are certainly not planning for any more biological children in the near future.

Now Eden is between 10 and 11 months old, the same age Ezekiel was when we took our first step toward the action of adoption. The last couple of weeks have been a blur, in a good way, with so much happening in our hearts and of course so much happening every day with our two little E's. What I do remember and want to record is about this November. Did you know it's Adoption Awareness Month? I just found that out, which is cool because we have definitely been aware this month. On November 17th, our church held a Women's Night Out with the theme of Orphan Care. I had never attended one of these events because I associated them with the, ahem, older crowd, and their topics had never been of much interest to me. This one, however, I wanted to attend because I thought I might gather knowledge on ways we could help with the worldwide orphan crisis. Well, Mason's schedule, which is very unpredictable, wasn't looking good for me being able to go that evening, and we don't use babysitters for our children. I was hanging out at the playground with them that afternoon while Mason kept me posted on efforts to get himself out of a flight crew so I could go. He really wanted me to go, but I figured hey, if God wants me to go, He'll make a way. Sure enough Mason got out of the flight (even though he really needed it, and had to answer a supervisor's question of "can't you get a babysitter?"), which was absolutely essential to the rest of this story. His willingness to follow the Holy Spirit's lead at his own expense is what makes him such an amazing husband and father. I went with my good friend Jacque, and I think we both knew God was going to do some crazy stuff that night. There were 3 speakers featured that night: one social worker who spoke of showing tangible love in Jesus' Name to orphans at home and abroad, one mother of 6 (3 biological, 3 adopted), and one elderly woman who shared her life story of being adopted as God's child as she lived her entire life as an orphan. The adoptive mother's story was life-changing for me. She wasn't the first mother I'd heard of with this family situation; Steven Curtis Chapman, pretty much my favorite artist ever, has the same setup, down to the 3 youngest being adopted from China. However, this was the first time I'd heard a full testimony like this. She spoke of a lifelong inclination of her heart toward orphans and showed pictures on huge screens of the moments she first met and held her daughters. At the right exact moment in her speech when I was saying, "Ok, LORD, this is all really great and moving stuff I'm hearing and seeing, but what am I supposed to do? Eden's not even one yet! Can we do this?", she said that she also had a one-year-old at the time of her first adoption. People surely thought she was crazy at the time. That topic of craziness came up again, as our wonderful pastor's wife later mentioned that she thought the same thing about a family in our church that just welcomed their new son (4th child, 1st adopted child) from Uganda. Then it occurred to me that, to quote Steven Curtis Chapman: "It's crazy but it's true, you really don't know love at all until it's making you do something crazy." Mason and I like to joke about what to do to make people think we're crazy, and we desperately want to love with Christ's love, so this is a perfect motto for us. So at the end of the night, we had the opportunity to fill out prayer request cards that some ladies from our church pray over on a regular basis. I furiously scribbled out something like "We KNOW we need to adopt, but my husband has a job that deploys and I just don't know how it will all work out. Please pray for God's wisdom for us and that He will show us His timing."

Within a couple days after that event, I was perusing our agency's website on international adoption. Same agency God led us to in 2010, but totally different direction, and we easily and quickly agreed we were ready to move on it (thank you Jesus for hearing and answering our prayer!). Somewhere along the way, the idea of domestic adoption at this point in our lives fell off the table. I can't even fully explain why or how we chose to go international, but I do know that God has recently made this world shrink in our minds. It really doesn't make a difference where our next child comes from, just that we defend the cause of the fatherless (Isaiah 1:17) and look after orphans in their distress (James 1:27) if we claim to know or love God at all. His heart is for the orphan. It's clearly displayed throughout God's Word, the Bible. We have His heart because He lives in us, therefore we can't NOT do something for at least one of these precious children of His. Prayer is so powerful. Those ladies' prayers for me, someone they've probably never met, went straight to my Creator, and we are no longer concerned at all about the deployment schedule or Mason's job. In fact, his job is a perfect reason in favor of us adopting. God has given him the means to support a growing family, and an orphan needs a HOME and a FAMILY, two things we have by His grace. Mason's deployments, whatever comes of them in the future, are not a valid excuse to put off adoption. God's got every detail worked out ahead of time. Now is clearly the time to dive into the process, and God is so faithful to have communicated that to us!

We've just started the adoption process through Lifeline Children's Services' South America program. We're in the Peru program but are keeping our hearts open to Colombia and praying about which one to choose as we get further down the line (we would really appreciate your joining us in this prayer!). We're expecting the wait time to be about 2 years, but we know it could be shorter or longer depending on God's perfect plan. We're praying for our child already and ask you to please do the same, if you would; pray for His protection over him/her and preservation from harm, as the longer a child is in institutional care, the more they suffer developmentally and emotionally. If all goes well with Peru, we will be spending about a month there to pick up our child when the time comes. This will be our first time out of the country, and this is obviously the only thing that will get us out of this country, as neither of us has ever left it. We hope this will be the first of many times, as the experience will undoubtedly fan the fire of our desire to live out Jesus' Great Commission (to make disciples of ALL nations). We know this process will be very expensive, probably in the neighborhood of $30,000 before potential tax credits. But we know that God will provide, as He meets all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). He's led us here, He's NOT going to leave us! If you have any great ideas for fundraisers, please let us know!

Thanks for going on this journey with us. We're SO EXCITED!

wishing I had taken a picture...

...of my steadily emptying candy jar today, but the golden window of opportunity to write this post did not coincide with my remembering to take said picture. You can just believe me when I say that our deployment candy jar is finally looking like its days are numbered. Mason didn't actually count the candies to number 120, he just dumped in several bags and said "I'm sure it'll be enough to last." That's Mason for you! As usual though, it looks like he's going to be right. Hopefully there are at least a few candies left for us to enjoy together. Ezekiel has been doing a great job of reminding me about the daily Diddy candy, and even (sometimes) pulling out my love note for me after he delightedly selects his treat. At first I was like, hey kid, that's my candy, and then I started thanking him for consuming the empty calories in my stead.

It's odd to think we've already been in Orlando for almost 3 months! That's a quarter of a year...wow. To me, that sounds like an extraordinarily long time to be apart from my husband, but I realize that there are other families, both military and civilian, that have endured much longer deployments and separations. This time has given me occasion to stop and consider, admire, and pray for these people. Separation from a family member is no small deal, it affects everyone in every way, and one of many things I thank God for this summer is the opportunity to taste a small sample of what some are facing for much longer periods! Something God's taught me recently is to resist my tendency of indifference to suffering. It's in my nature and personality (most of the time) to try to ignore the negative and extol the positive in any situation, but He's shown me that there is beauty and honesty and reality in embracing the existence of suffering as a means to break my heart and make it just a little bit more in line with His. Jesus, after all, took on all the suffering in the world through his death, and not only that, but he also wept and felt compassion for and mourned with the brokenhearted during his 33 years as one of us. The Bible says that the LORD is close to the brokenhearted, and I certainly want him close to me, and I'm learning that it's okay and actually good to let my heart break for the pain that his precious children go through. This kind of intense compassion is what he wants from me, and it's what I need to let him work in me in order to bow to his purpose for my life.

I'm confident and encouraged, though, as God works with both me and Mason while we're apart. Just as we asked him to do, he's working in us in ways that require us being apart. Mason's not a blogger, but he could easily fill one up with stories of God moving in and around him this summer! I'm excited that God brought us this separation for his eternal purposes... but I'm also WAY excited for it to end in a few weeks so that we can reunite as a family and return to our life together! Ezekiel misses him so much. Each day it seems the little guy is talking more and more about things and events back in Louisiana, including the highly-discussed reunion. I talk it up so much and I pray every day that God will encourage Ezekiel's little heart with the knowledge that Mason really IS coming back to be with him soon, and loves him very much, and wants to be with him. I have no idea what a toddler's conception of time is like. Eden, on the other hand - well, she sure likes to see Mason's face and hear his voice on skype, but she is 100% Momma's girl right now, so I choose not to burden myself with any extra sadness on her behalf. Mason will just want to soak up every moment he gets with them both when he returns, and I will be so grateful just to see them interact real time! And then after they go to bed (around 11 pm), he will be all mine. :)

Did I mention that family has been amazing and so has the proximity and amenities of Disney World? A few months ago I was sobbing in the shower at the prospect of parting with Mason, and just tonight I started sniffling in the shower at the thought of leaving my parents' house and Disney World. A military girl just can't win, there's always someone to miss. But I'm hoping that my parents will be so hooked on EZ and Eden after this summer, they'll come visit us more!

My midnight snack is calling. If my nursing diet continues as it has, I will shortly pig out on ice cream, cake, M&Ms, frosting, and cookies, nurse Eden tonight and wake up 1 lb. lighter. This is nothing short of awesome.

magical!

Ahhhh. Isn't this a whimsical and romantic image if ever there was one? Well, for me it is. I just ran across it in a random picture file and feel compelled to mention that yesterday was our 2.5 year wedding anniversary, and it's been almost 4 years now since my Prince Charming proposed to me in front of Cinderella's Castle in Magic Kingdom (as pictured above). E has been with us outside the womb for 0.5 of those years, but before him we enjoyed two great years with just the two of us. I never, ever find myself wishing us back to the days before we had our pudgeball, though. I sometimes reminisce fondly about things we were able to do back then, but they are never so enticing that I would wish myself back to that time. Even though we have to be more creative now as far as spending one-on-one time together, M and I are happy to report that we're still happily married. Poo poo on those who said I shouldn't marry the first boy who came along, and that I would never find the right man if I didn't date around. Well, I don't really wish poo on them, but as a figure of speech - they were wrong in their advice to me, and although I knew so at the time, I'm glad to have proven the advice wrong. :)

The magical castle image reminded me that we're going to visit said magical castle next month! I can't wait for Christmas, when we will once again frolic through the streets of Disney World. I've done alot of frolicking there in my life, and my parents made sure I'd have someone to frolic with forever when they gave M a Disney pass while we were dating. Of course, now my mom just gets us all in for free. But DON'T go hitting her up for passes, there's a limited amount and she doesn't just hand them out to anyone! Be nice and she might offer you some though.

Thanksgiving is upon us now, and at the moment I'm thankful that E has gotten into a new routine of one 30 minute morning nap and then a 2 hour afternoon nap, which is currently underway. By "routine" I mean it's happened for 2 days in a row, and it's been glorious. When he doesn't get a long nap during the day, he's not a happy camper and usually ends up staying up til midnight because he's too tired to fall asleep...but that's nothing special, I think all kids are probably that way. I can't believe he's been asleep for long enough that I'm blue-skying about random things on my blog!!! This is great, I could get used to it, I'll just have to think of more scintillating topics to cover on here!

This isn't very scintillating, but I just have to say I'm very happy with the time it took to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. If God has more pregnancies in our future, I sure hope they're as smooth as our first and with such a seamless (no pun intended!) recovery. I'm back to where I started, but there's some redistribution of weight going on which of course makes me look different in certain ways and places...but you know, if it was swimsuit season, I would buy myself a new, flattering two-piece and wear it proudly. Hopefully that will happen this summer.

I am getting REALLY cold sitting in this spot on the couch under the window. The 60 degree air is cascading in through the glass and I can't handle it anymore. Yup, it's a good thing we're not going to Minot AFB after all. :)

Enough about me...

Happy Easter! I've talked alot about me, me and our pregnancy, me me me, so here is a post dedicated to my wonderful, cute hubby and his cuteness! He probably wouldn't be embarrassed by my saying this because I talk that way to him every day. He is just really, really cute.

In my last post I talked about his scarf drop, and here he is in his lovely blue nav scarf standing in front of the door that he will never have to go through again! He spent a few weeks in there for the electronic warfare portion of training, and he did not like it very much; hence the choice to pursue advanced navigation instead of electronic warfare. He's doing great in these final months of training, evidence that he made a very good decision in choosing his course!


A couple of weeks after that, something else exciting happened: my PC turned 23! He is such an old man now. :) To wrap his presents I used this sophisticated Tonka bag we got from our baby shower, the manliest I could find. He opened his presents (a season of '24', a WWII video game and the coveted Reester Bunny) and then we went to the Riverwalk to eat at a place called County Line Barbecue for some TRULY good Texas barbecue. Even I liked it, and it's not really my thing! Up until we found this place, every BBQ place we've tried here has been disappointing, particularly to me because they serve their meat with Wonder Bread. We talked to several native Texans about why this is so, and they insist that barbecue is about the meat, not the bread, but really - Wonder Bread? That's enough to ruin any meal, no matter how good tasting it may have otherwise been. At County Line, what sold me was their homemade wheat bread. Mmmmm, it was good!

The birthday boy liked it too, as you can see. We took home plenty of leftovers that night!

After walking around for a little while, we came back home because PC was super excited about his cake. By "walking around," I mean strolling for about 1/4 of a mile before I had to stop for intermittent twinges of discomfort to pass. In all fairness though, I had just eaten alot, and we had a nice walk on the river before dinner. PC was a very good sport though and drove us home for dessert! He had requested an ice cream cake, and of course I would not go out and buy my husband a premade birthday cake - where would the love be? So I made one myself, thanks to kraftfoods.com and my mom having made it for us before! Mine didn't make for the neatest presentation on the outside, but inside were decadent layers of chocolate yumminess with a hint of peanut butter (but with as many fat free ingredients as I could find so we could minimize the nutritional guilt). He was so grateful for it, but then again he's grateful for most anything!

And thus went my fantastic husband's 23rd birthday. It's been about three weeks, and we've watched more episodes of '24' Season Six together than I can recall at the moment, which has been really nice since we usually don't get into the same TV shows! As excited as I am about having our baby in a few weeks, I'm also grateful for our last few weeks with just the two of us - even though the growing discomfort of not being able to breathe, move, or function very well has made both of us excited to get this show on the road so I can regain full possession of my body! With all of the growing and anticipation, it's getting harder to act nicely, but that's no excuse. PC is still the greatest, like today after I left for the doctor in a bad mood because I felt super crunched for time, he left me a note and a snack in the fridge before he left for his afternoon & evening simulator. I saw that cute little wrap sitting on the shelf and couldn't help but sniffle and sob out of thankfulness for having such a loving and generous guy with which to share life. :)

The Sixth Picture & Babymooning

Thanks, Kristin, for that sixth picture tag! I delved into the depths of our external hard drive to find the TRUE sixth picture in the sixth photo folder in our possession, this after deciding that the pics stored on our computer were too recent to be interesting and that there was no way I could engineer a good story that way. If I had stuck with what was stored on the computer's hard drive, I would have had to post a picture of a wall - for real, it was a wall! That would have been a drag. But I happen to have just organized all our folders on the external drive a couple of weeks ago, and guess what the sixth folder happened to be? My summer 2006 trip to California! Incidentally this is from the day I met Kristin and all my other cousins face to face for the first time. Anyway, I *think* this is second cousin Caroline who is bequeathing a white rose to Grandpa for his surprise 90th birthday party. If you look in the background you will see an assortment of other cousins, including myself sitting next to Katie. That was a fun visit, and I had a great time meeting all my relatives that I had only heard about! That was almost 3 years ago, crazy.

Moving on, I meant to post a belly pic last week, but decided I should wait until I had more interesting things to say. Here is my 24 week pic! I'm actually at 25 1/2 weeks right now, but you know, looking good for these shots can be hit or miss, and 25 weeks was a miss. I looked like a balloon, but it wasn't my fault; it was the shirt. :) Some days I feel that I look very large, and other days I wonder, is there really somebody in there? I'd think he would show a little more! But regardless of how I look, I definitely feel full inside, especially at the end of the day. It's a little early to have trouble bending over, but I am. I'm also getting tired of wearing the 5 shirts I own that cover my belly. Looking at all the clothes in my dresser and closet that don't fit is kind of frustrating because I miss the variety, but after I have the baby and lose some weight it'll be like Christmas Day breaking out all my old "new" clothes!


Speaking of variety, PC and I wanted to do something new and exciting last week. We're happy staying in the local area most of the time, but had heard about the concept of a babymoon and decided to take a mini-babymoon to Austin for the weekend! It was great. We stayed in a very nice suite downtown where we watched the Discovery Channel and Nickelodeon (we don't have cable at home), ate good food, spent quality time together and gave ourselves a walking tour of the city including the University of Texas! I am NOT a big fan of downtowns in general, but it's fun with him because I always feel safe. I didn't get any really good photos of us together (that's always weird when there are just 2 of you), but he looked really cute standing by our window in the sunlight!!! Here he is probably anticipating the Lyndon B. Johnson museum that we would see later...he loves American history, so we went in search of this museum on the campus of UT that took forever to find. Fortunately it was a beautiful day for a walk, and I love seeing him happy even if I am not too enthralled with the subject matter. :)


Texas has a huge issue with stars. I haven't researched why this is, but there must be a good reason! This is one of the biggest I have seen here to date, right outside the campus of UT (which is a beautiful school by the way!). I asked PC if he wanted his pic in front of the star, and his response was "I'm not putting my arms up like that." I hope I didn't embarrass him too much. :) Being on a college campus again was fun. At first we felt old, but then we realized that at 22 we're both probably younger than alot of the people walking around there! So that was last weekend, and this weekend we're just going to take it easy around here, work out together, go on a date...that's how we like it. The rodeo is in town though so we're planning a day to check it out this month! As for this afternoon, our base has a New Parent Support Program briefing where we are rumored to be receiving a "free layette." Neither of us really knows what a layette is, but we will find out. He's coming home so we can go together, so that's all for now!

Chocolate Overload & '24'

One of the cool parts of having a blog is that I am now always on the lookout for something blogworthy. Every day is full of anecdotes that could easily be forgotten, but some I'm just not willing to forget because they are too awesome. In fact, they're beyawesome - that's beyond awesome, if you who haven't seen the new Disney movie Bolt. Please see it, it's basically the best movie I've seen all year. Rhino the hamster is my new hero. But this post really has nothing to do with Bolt, it has to do with the beyawesome events of last night. If I was dense enough to not know I was pregnant yet, I would know it after last night. Here's a little background: on Saturday night PC and I went to his squadron's annual fundraiser, a big chili cookoff/auction/social in one of the base hangars. It was lots of fun, and although the chili was free, desserts were up for auction (I originally volunteered to help with this function and was actually going to bring something to auction myself, but I couldn't make any of the committee meetings and bowed out hoping no one would notice. I didn't get many dirty looks from the committee wives that night, so I think they understood). There was a table full of delectable cakes and pies up for auction, so a friend and I decided to make a bid on this amazing Chocolate Overload Cake. It was beautiful, and it looked something like this. I patrolled the silent auction table until I was sure that our $13.00 bid would go unchallenged, because I REALLY wanted this. We won our spoils and went to our friends' home on base to partake of our sweet victory, and at the end of the night we divided the leftovers and PC and I went home. The cake was amazingly decadent, with so many layers and kinds of chocolate that it was like a different cake with each bite (I need to find out who made this at the next wives' meeting and get their recipe). I stole a couple more bites after we got home while I was "putting it away" in the kitchen. Now fast forward to Sunday. The cake was all I could think about all day, and through church, I wanted it so badly. After church we came home for lunch, and after eating some real food I got out the leftover cake. It was about one sixth of the original size at this point. PC quickly realized that I had no intention of sharing and that I fully intended to eat the whole thing, today. He was kind to give up the idea of getting any more cake, but he did encourage me to cut a piece and put the rest away for later, so I did. Later, it was time to make dinner, and I wanted to cook what is probably the healthiest dinner I know, stuffed spinach manicotti with tomatoes. I used to love this dish, but the last time I made it I couldn't stomach a bite, and last night was unfortunately no different. One whiff of spaghetti sauce and I was afraid I was going to puke (I've been avoiding spaghetti sauce for weeks because of that but thought it would be better by now - not so). PC helped me make the dish and even served it to me in hopes I would choke some down, but it didn't work. I am not making that again anytime soon. So there I was, 8:00 at night with no dinner and nothing that sounded or looked remotely good - EXCEPT the cake. PC had held out some hope that he would get some for dessert, but now that I had the "I didn't have anything for dinner" card to play, his kind heart wouldn't let him take more than two bites. In a sweet, sacrificial gesture, he gave me the cake that I had been intending to take anyway. I honestly can't describe how evil I am sometimes. I know I'm being mean, and irrational, and possessive, and I apologize for it at the same time I do it. I've never been like this in my whole life. There I was, sitting in my pajamas on the couch, selfishly enjoying my dinner of cake and frozen yogurt, with PC next to me watching the show 24. I've never really understood that show, and I asked him, "Do you feel about The Bachelor the way I feel about 24?" to which he responded yes. I understood, and figured sitting through another hour of it wouldn't be bad, since I had my cake to entertain me. Within a few minutes I was wholly engrossed by this show. Jack was in Africa trying to save a group of poor innocent child soldiers from abuse by terrorists, and he was escaping with Mr. Benton, who was the boys' legal guardian who was trying to get them safely to America. Mr. Benton stepped on a landmine, but he knew what it was and that as long as he kept the sensor depressed with his foot, the bomb wouldn't go off. The poor little children didn't know what was going on, and didn't understand why Mr. Benton wasn't coming with them anymore. Jack had to leave him there to get the boys to safety, and they both knew Mr. Benton was going to die. He waited until the terrorists found him, shot him twice trying to get him to tell them where the boys went, and stepped very close to him before finally lifting his foot, killing the evil terrorists and saving his children from pursuit. At this point, cake in hand (and mouth), I burst into violent sobs. PC turned to me looking very confused; he hadn't seen this coming. Trying to answer his questioning look, I choked out between my crying and my full mouth, "You were so nice to give me the cake, and this show is so sad!" Hearing myself say that made me laugh, and once he knew it was okay to look amused, he did too. He went to turn it off and I said no, keep it on, it was just so moving. His new go-to phrase is "you're pregnant," sometimes said to encourage me and other times spoken to comfort himself, I think, on days like yesterday when he doesn't get any cake. I love you PC, you are the best!!!!!!!!

My new 14 week physique!

I've noticed there are several takes on when the first trimester ends and the second begins, but I'm pretty sure I've crossed over! I feel better now than I ever felt in the last 10 weeks. That's a long time to feel sick, and I'm still not quite sure how and why people go through this multiple times, but I'm sure I'll end up doing this again in a few years. Nemo will need some biological brothers and sisters, although I really hope he/she ends up with adopted ones, too. We have to practice parenting on Nemo before we adopt, just to make sure we know what we're doing, but adoption is seriously something God's placed on our hearts that we hope to do when the timing is right.

Pregnancy is starting to get alot more fun, especially since I cracked and bought some basic maternity clothes this week! With none of my shorts or pants fitting anymore, I had no choice. I thought I could find non-maternity bottoms that were stretchy, but apparently that style is like, SO two years ago. I got a great pair of jeans, khakis, and one pair of shorts, which should be enough to get me through the next several months because, honestly, who actually looks at your pants? Shirts are much more attention-grabbing, and fortunately for me I can buy stretchy Old Navy shirts for five dollars like the one in this picture. I did let myself purchase just one frilly, billowy maternity shirt because it was so fun to wear! I'll try to restrain myself from now on, though. I spent the rest of the day after my shopping trip rationalizing to PC why I spent a hundred dollars on clothes, how it fit into our budget, and how we could make up for it by not going out to expensive dinners for a few weeks. I think he was so exhausted from hearing me discuss the ramifications of my big purchase that he knows he can trust me not to go out and blow our money on frivolities. :) Speaking of PC, he is doing great at training! I'm so proud of him. He's really busy and mentally preoccupied but still takes time to learn about my day, talk about all the baby-related topics on my mind, and of course listen to his son or daughter's heartbeat with me every night. Today we've been married for one and a half years! He is the cutest husband in the world...and speaking of him, I'm going to meet him on base right now for lunch and workout.