Wednesday, March 3, 2010

January 2010

After so much travel, it was nice to be home for a little while. Most days the high's were in the low to mid 30's so we spent most of our free time indoors. David got Lego Rockband and Lego Starwars for Christmas so the Wii became one of our favorite forms of entertainment.

We also relished our more predictable schedule for another reason. We were finally able to get more plugged into our new church. In November and December we attended morning worship and learned names : ) In January we started attending Sunday school and a small group as well and began to get to know the people around us. There are a lot of wonderful older women in the church who have children my age and are eager to share their wisdom about pregnancy, parenting, and home making. There are also two other young women at church who are expecting either in May or June. The pastor began a new sermon series in January called "The Big Picture". Basically, looking at the Bible as one large story about God's grace in redeeming his sinful people rather than a grouping of stories about morality. It's really helped me recognize the Gospel in each passage of scripture. The Old Testament is so full of foreshadowing of what's to come. God has been so faithful to provide a good teacher where ever we've lived.

Not traveling in January also meant we got to know people outside the church better. While I had met all of David's coworkers, we hadn't spent much time together outside of work lunches. This month we finally had a big group over for Lunch, went over to another couple's home for game night and went to the Ice Festival with a coworker who lives near us. It was awesome to get to know people in other settings. I felt especially blessed to have the game night with Tim and Jen. They got married the month after David and I and are pretty much in the same stage of life as us (except they're not expecting a little one just yet). Jen teaches pre-k so when the boys start talking tech or using acronyms we've never heard of we still have each other to talk to : ) The ice festival was wonderful too! A balmy 20 degrees, the outdoor ice sculptures were in no danger of melting. We walked around with Denise who was there before us and was able to point out the highlights. We watched local artists paint, smelled the wonderful aroma coming from the chili cook off tent and of course, looked at the variety of ice sculptures that lined the street. I forgot the camera, but this photo from the newspaper shows one of the sculptures sponsored by a local company that builds armored vehicles for the military:

Our biggest news in January came just as the month was ending. At 19 weeks pregnant, it was time to get the anatomy scan and make sure all of our little one's organs were present and accounted for. We'd also be finding out if we would be welcoming a boy or girl in June (assuming he or she was cooperative). I had been thinking it was a girl early in the pregnancy, but for the last month had been dreaming of a boy. I knew I'd be surprised (and excited either way). David also thought girl, but really wasn't sure. There was no doubt about it on the ultrasound, our little one is all BOY! The feelings from seeing him squirming on the screen, watching his heart beat and hearing that everything looks healthy were indescribable. It was joyful, but also overwhelming that God has entrusted us with this little person. Fortunately, God is faithful and recognizing my inadequacy only helps me to lean on Him more!


Of course, baby wasn't the only one getting bigger: