Getting My Kicks

The baby kicked me this morning! It was like a little thump from inside my lower belly--amazing! Now Jon keeps talking to the baby bump trying to get the baby to do it again, but so far it hasn't happened when he can feel it.

Fingerprints

I get an email update from whattoexpect.com every week which tells me how the baby is developing and gives tips for a comfortable and safe pregnancy. I am always so excited to read the emails on fetal development week by week, but this week was especially sweet. I found out that by the end of this week of pregnancy, the baby has eyelashes, eyebrows, hair, is gaining body fat, and has fingerprints!! Fingerprints! Can you believe that? The baby is approximately the size of a woman's open hand and yet it already has fingerprints--a stamp of individuality. It just made me wonder what my child will be like--what unique blend of looks and personalities and gifts will make him/her an individual. What an amazing proof of God's hand in our lives, that from such an early age there is already nobody else like this child....knit together...special....unique....precious.

On another note, please join me in praying for two young women who very lately lost their tiny little ones to miscarriage--a grief some of us know all too well. One is Katy, and I understand this baby was her first. The other is Allison, and though she has another child, this is her second miscarriage. I well remember the grief and pain in seeing pregnant women everywhere when I least wanted to see them. It is never far from my mind and I pray God will always allow me to have compassion for others even while I rejoice in new life. He gives and takes away...blessed be His Name.

Tickin' Right Along

I dropped by my doctor's office this morning and he let me listen to the baby's heartbeat--what a great sound to start the day with! Everything looks good and we'll find out if Baby Brokaw is a Lily or a Benjamin on October 13 when we have our 3D ultrasound. Pray for patience--five weeks is a long time to wait. But in the meantime, Dr. Tadvick says to feel free to come by and hear the heartbeat if I get scared sometime. Thanks for all your prayers and much love to you all!

Too much drama for baby mama!

So my sister got married on Monday. She decided to tell us today. She also decided to break some news about my cousin and his fiance which he will break to his mom tomorrow. My stomach is cramping up--it's too much stress. I'm counting the hours until I can drop by my doctor's office to hear the baby's heartbeat (I'm thinking, the minute they open Monday morning!). Oh, and just as I started to get used to the policies and procedures at my new school, the superintendent broke the news Friday afternoon that he is replacing my principle. So here we go again--for the third time I will ask permission for the same days off!!! And I will get to know a new boss. Too much at once! Pray for me!

Nursery

We have great friends! This weekend Shanna, Trish, Trey, Meg, and Charles fixed up the baby's room for us and it looks amazing! They brought tools and expertise and energy. They gave up a lot of their time. Trish and Trey even drove all the way from Lubbock to do this. They did it in two days. Jon finished touching up yesterday and now all I need is baby furniture!! It is my favorite room in the house. I just keep walking in there for no reason--just to look at it again. I will love rocking my little one in there and reading to him or her. Jon and my friends worked so hard on Labor Day weekend to get this done for me and I think I worked for about an hour total--I didn't even make brownies! I am so appreciative that they do not resent me for my laziness. My dad said it's a good thing I wasn't a pregnant woman in the pioneer days when no one would have let me get by with just lazing around the house when there was work to be done in the garden and chickens to kill and pluck and cook for dinner! So I'm just going to add this to the things I'm thanking God for: Thanks be to God for putting me in the twenty-first century with air conditioning, grocery stores, boneless skinless chicken breasts, Amazon.com, people who understand the fatigue of pregnancy, and the American Medical Association! I am thankful for Lowes, where I can get any color of paint mixed in about three minutes. And I am thankful for Birdseye frozen steamable brussels sprouts which I am now going to fix for myself in the microwave oven that I am also very thankful for!

Post Script

And I love you in New Mexico and Washington and Illinois and anywhere else I may have forgotten to name. You are divinely placed.

BabiesBabiesBabies!

This weekend I got to go to a Living Proof Live event in San Antonio, TX where I heard my favorite Bible teacher, Beth Moore. It was a wonderful weekend (despite the somewhat amusing spectacle that I am in a swimsuit at the hotel pool!). I really felt blessed when we first arrived at the event and I met a woman (a friend of a friend) whom I had prayed for when she lost a baby to miscarriage a few months ago and found out that she is expecting again! Alright, I know that was a really poor sentence, but it's hard to care when I'm this emotional. I just choked up right there in the Alamodome before the conference even began--it felt like affirmation to me. After that we had an incredible time of worship (it's been a long time since I've experienced worship like that!) before Beth got up to speak. Imagine my surprise when the first thing Beth did was announce that her daughter is four months pregnant and speak a blessing over all of the expecting moms in the room! I truly believe God has a calling on our little ones in their generation because I keep finding out about one godly couple after another who are expecting. I also think it's noteworthy that these little ones are so spread out geographically. I hope you'll join me in praying for the following babies: Baby C. and Baby Girl H. (both making their debuts in December), Baby H., Baby B., and Baby P. (all arriving in February and all part of our family!), Baby L., Baby M. and Baby P. in March, Baby N. and Baby S. in April, and Baby C. in May! These babies represent six states in the USA, 3 cities in Texas, and one of these little ones is all the way in New Zealand!
One last thing about the Living Proof Live message--one key point in Beth's lesson was: "I am an heir of God. My life is not left to chance." It hit me like a ton of bricks and yet made me feel light as a feather. Everything that has happened has been in His hands and the timing of our baby is not a coincidence. My life is not left to chance. Neither is yours. While I wonder how many of these babies' paths will cross and when, God knows every day allotted to each one of them, where they will grow up, who they will marry, who their best friends will be, what their gifts will be. I know some of my friends out there are searching for jobs and learning new cultures and starting churches and stepping out in faith in a dozen other ways. But God knew when you were only centimeters long where you would be in this season and it is not a chance! I am crying. I love the Lord. And I love you, my friends in Japan and Chicago and Dallas and Andrea, whatever state you are in (I can't remember), and Belton, and Bryan/College Station, and Lubbock, and Nashville, and North Carolina. You are divinely placed.