Sunday, August 22, 2010

Blessed

Sometimes, I need the Lord to remind me of how many blessings he has bestowed upon me, and I don't even know it. But He always knows it and I think he enjoys reminding me that He loves me.. that He cares about me.. and that He cares about the things I care about, however small they probably are. Lately has been one of those times. How easy would it be for me to pout over small things and ignore all the good, amazing things that are going on in my life. So I will focus on these things in this post, as a praise to the Lord for being the Provider, the Comforter, the Healer, and the Lover of my soul.

- Brad and I are having a baby in about 5 weeks!!! We get to be parents!!!! We have been praying together for months that the Lord would be present throughout this pregnancy, and throughout us learning to be parents. We have been praying for the health of this child and that, above all else, this child would grow to know Christ as Lord and Savior... that is of utmost importance in our role as parents.. that we teach our child the Truth that we know, that the Lord has promised. John 3:16 style.

- Facing the challenge and the excitement of becoming parents has really deepened my marriage with Brad. We have prayed together more than ever, we have really been bonded over similar worries and anxieties and been such a comfort to each other as we both learn (or re-learn) every day to give these anxieties to the Lord... 1 Peter 5:7... really I must learn this every day, Brad not quite as often! He does much better in this than I do :)

- This move has been quite an adventure, and it is really easy for me to focus on the negatives of it, to focus on the loneliness of being in a brand new place all alone (but Brad gets back in about a week!) But I know that being here is God's will and I can already see Him proving to me that He wants me here. I don't know what His plan for us here really is, but I do know that His plan for us IS here. He has been proving this to me by:
1)finding a Church so soon. The first day that Brad left I went to a Church we had found online and loved the service. Usually you can't tell much about a church from their website, but that is all we had to go on this time and it has been such a blessing already!
2)Having that Church be so welcoming and reaching out to me. I have had two men on the visitation team stop by my house (a deacon and a guy on the worship team) to welcome me and see if there is any questions I might have or anything they can do to help me feel more welcome there. I have had one lady from the Church e-mail me and call me. I was invited to a newcomer's class (which I went to by myself!) introducing me to the opportunities in the Church. And the deacon who stopped by my house invited me to go to lunch today after Church with him, his wife, and two of their grandchildren.
3)Understanding that I am not someone who likes to be alone very often, and bringing things to fill my days, or at least some of my days! :)
-I have family members that are willing and able to come stay with me to make things a little easier, both now and after baby is born!

-although my house has had somethings that have needed dealt with, the neighborhood is wonderful and really the Lord has provided... this house fits our needs and most of our wants!

-Brad and I are able to get all the baby items we think we need (how do you really know what baby items you actually need though?!) without it stressing us financially.

Since I know that the Lord truly cares about the things I care about, I am holding onto His promise that He will give me the desires of my heart. (Psalm 37:4) I do know that He knows the desires of my heart even better than I do... and that usually my desires are transformed into what His desires for me already are. Not always.. I am a little stubborn sometimes.. but in the end I always lose. (which in all actuality is winning, right?)

Anyway... I have been praying that the Lord would continue to reveal to us where He wants us within the Fort Bragg/Fayetteville community as far as ministries, that He would provide us with good friends who would lift us up and encourage us in our beginning parent-hood journey, and that He would be visibly present in our lives to us and to those around us.

This post might feel a bit scattered, it is midnight right now and I was in bed when I felt like I just needed to write this all down! Part of that might be the insomnia that comes with being uncomfortable due to 35 weeks of pregnancy, but who knows :)

Blessings to you!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Brad left about 10 days ago and life has been a little up-and-down since then. He left on a Sunday, super early in the morning for his 10ish hour drive to Alabama. We had decided that I would go to Church after he left that morning by myself... partly because then I would not be spending the whole day by myself in our apartment and partly because I really do want to find a home church and get involved pretty quickly. The church we had picked out (from their website.. haha) I actually really liked. I found the welcome desk and was invited for Brad and I to join a Sunday School for military couples. When I saw that they have a large deaf ministry I just knew that I had to bring my mom back the next week. The rest of the day and all the next day were quite lonely... I didn't know what to do, I didn't know where to go, we had no stuff in our house except an air mattress and two outdoor chairs... I was definitely feeling a little down. Luckily, Tuesday I got to go pick my mom up from the airport and on Wednesday the movers delivered our stuff. I don't think I would have survived on Wednesday without my mom being here. There were two guys carrying everything in and the one from Missouri was really nice, didn't talk too much but he worked hard and listened to us when we said which room the boxes and furniture went in. The other guy was one of the rudest people I have ever met. He made fun of our bicycles, complained every time i said something went upstairs, put boxes marked "kitchen" or "baby" in the garage so my mom and I would have to carry them in after that. He also told me that once he set a box or piece of furniture down, he would not move it, so we better be 100% sure we know exactly where everything is going or else we would be the ones rearranging everything to make room for other things. He tried to refuse to take the boxes we had emptied and broken down unless we paid him per box, luckily the other guy heard him doing this and told us that their companies get paid by the army to offer this service to us. Oh gosh was i mad at this guy! He even started making fun of me for unpacking clothes boxes while my mom did kitchen boxes, saying I was letting her do all the hard work and I was a slacker... I don't really know who he thinks he is but my "interactive customer evaluation" that the army asks us to do about our moves is going to reflect very poorly on him!!!

anyway... i need to stop ranting about this guy, he just gets me so angry! so my mom and I spent the next couple days unpacking and organizing the house. it was a very long process this time, probably because Brad wasn't here so it took longer than when we moved in January. We didn't finish, there are still boxes in the garage but most of those are marked "army" and there are boxes in the bonus room but most of those are marked "craft stuff" or "books"... and I don't know what to do with my craft stuff or all of our books... so I am keeping things for Brad to do, he doesn't get off easy with this move!

One day that my mom was here we decided that we'd had enough unpacking and needed to have some fun, so we found a beach that was supposedly less than 2 hours away and headed off for an afternoon in the sun. It probably really would have been only an hour and 45 minutes, except the GPS took us the weirdest possible way, and there was crazy traffic once we got closer to it. But, we found Wrightsville Beach, found a parking on a side street at a meter, and walked to the beach. I would have thought it wouldn't be too busy since school is in session already and it was a weekday, but there were still tons of people there! I guess that's what happens when you go to a public access beach, though. Either way it was beautiful, and so fun to know that i can drive from my house to the beach to spend an afternoon there, and then drive back home right after! Living in the midwest my whole life, I have never had that ability before.

Well my mom left two days ago and now I am here by myself once again. It's not as bad as last time since I have stuff here, we have TV and internet, there are still things that need done around here, but I am quite lonely. I didn't leave my house once yesterday (how sad huh?) but mostly that is because I had three people come to fix different things (the internet, the exterminator, and the work order guy). Today though I will venture out of the house! Probably just to WalMart to get milk though.. and maybe to the newcomers class at the church i have gone to the last couple weeks. Part of me wants to wait until Brad gets back to go to this one-time newcomers class, but the other part of me wants to go just because it will give me something to do this evening. Does my life sound sad right now? Because it is.

On a bright note... I think I get a new dish washer installed, hopefully today! Ours is broken so I have been having to hand wash everything. My mom hand washed everything while she was here but now it's all me. The work order guy (i don't know what his name or title is?) said it is not fixable so he will try to get a new one installed for me today or the next day. I can't wait!

PS... my mother-in-law comes in 6 days. I can't wait!!!!!!!!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Heading East

On Monday, Brad and I began our journey PCSing from MO to NC... a total of 964.88 miles, and my first move out of the midwest. We were probably quite a spectacle... Brad driving a truck, with a motorcycle loaded in the bed, pulling a trailer, with the mustang on it. Me, 8 months pregnant, following him in my squeaky old Camry that is stuffed to the limit. The cat was in the truck, the dog in the car with me. I will admit I was a little bit nervous about driving that far while I feel like I have to pee every 10 minutes (and sometimes I really do!) but everything was smooth and seamless. I can't tell you how many times I thought "I should have to pee... it's been 3 hours... but I am sure I can make it another hour" and I was right. I could just tell that we had family and friends praying for us those two driving days and that made all the difference.
So here we are... in NC. The state is beautiful! We have moved into our new rental home, and I love it. Only a few minor set-backs with the whole moving thing, and I think I will tell you about them now so I can end this post all positively!
1. The house is dirty and there is a spider-infestation all around the outside. EW. Remember how I hate tics? Well I think I hate spiders even more! Brad and I were going to just suck it up and clean the house, spray for spiders, and whatnot by ourselves, but it seemed the more and more we cleaned and he sprayed the more we realized how much stuff there actually needed to be done to this house before I felt like it was ready for us to really live here and to bring a baby to live here. So today when we were talking to the property manager, we mentioned how disappointed we are with the condition of the cleanliness of this house when the lease had made such a statement about the expectations when we move out (carpets professionally cleaned, yard fumigated since we have pets, everything in a state of cleanliness and order, etc.) Well.. I am not a confrontational person so mentioning this was very nerve-racking and I almost didn't do it but I am so glad that I did! She has someone coming to spray early this next week and she has hired a professional cleaning service to come out and scrub appliances, clean the floors, shampoo the carpets, clean the windows (there are spider webs between the windows and the screens.. I don't know how! gross!), clean the base boards and scrub the walls. I am so glad that I was not a push-over on this and brought it up! This house was about to start stressing me out!
2) At my last DR appt before we left MO, my Dr reminded me that I now need to start my every other week appointments and to set up my insurance and make an appointment here as soon as possible. So, the very first day we were here Brad and I went to Tricare on post and switched out of the midwest region to the region here, got assigned a Dr, went there to get a referral to the OB/midwife section at the hospital, went there to give them my medical records from my MO dr, and was told to wait for the nurses to review my records and decide which dr to assign me to. The next day, they called me to set up my first appointment, but unfortunately they are not able to get me in for 3 weeks. I dont think this is a big deal, but my last appointment was already 2 weeks ago, when I was at 30 weeks. I will be 35 weeks at my up-coming appt, which is when they start doing every week appointment since 36 weeks the baby is no longer considered premature. Now.. I feel confident that everything will be fine but I am just a little disappointed that it is taking this long to get to the dr here, and only a little nervous that it I will go into early labor and have to go to a hopsital and a dr i have never been to before. Hopefully that will not happen! We have been praying and praying that God takes control of this pregnancy and so I know I should cast all my worries about it to Him... but sometimes that is easier said than done!
3. Brad leaves on Sunday for 3 weeks for a school that has a no communication rule (not even letters, how primitive!) I don't much like being somewhere where I don't know anybody... and I like it even less since I am not allowed to travel (the hospital made me sign this waiver saying I would not travel past 32 weeks without dr consent, but I can't get consent because I can't see the dr any time soon! i'm not sure I would have gone anywhere anyway, but it would be nice to have the option).

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE (and yes, there is a bright side to my complaints)
My mom is coming to stay for a week on Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The movers will drop our stuff off (no more air mattress and achy back for this big bellied girl) a day or two after she arrives, and life will be much better having our stuff back! Also.. the sooner Brad finishes this dumb school he is going to, he will get back, and we will only have less than 4 weeks until our little guy should enter this world. EEE! Also... I get to start putting together and decorating our nursery, which I have wanted to do since I found out we were going to have this baby. We have been talking and dreaming about it (mostly my dreaming and us talking about that actually...) and now it all gets to come to fruition! Our little baby boy is going to have the cutest sailing/nautical themed nursery you have ever seen. I have looked at hundreds of bedding and found one that we both fell in love with. And there are so many cutesy nautical themed decorations for baby rooms out there! Most of them are online unfortunately but I suppose I am perfectly okay shopping online. Also.. my mom leaves and I will be here a week and a half by myself but then Brads mom is coming to stay with me for the last part of Brads school and the first few days after he returns. It will be so good to have her here! I only have like 10 - 12 days that I have to be here by myself while Brads gone... which is good.

Okay.. super long post but I feel like moving adds a ton of stuff that could be said! And I am really going to try to not wait another 3 months to update... we shall see though :)