Happy New Year!!

Hello, dear friends! We're back from a wonderful vacation with family and in the process of getting organized and unpacked. Nick was a hero today, as he drove 10 hours (Indiana to Gaithersburg), then turned right around to come pick me up from the airport. I, on the other hand, enjoyed my short little 1 1/2 hour flight. :) We're glad to be back home and out of suitcases. I'll post more soon with details of our Christmas as well as pictures. Happy New Year, everyone!!!!

Getting Ready...

I decided this week to try to get baby stuff ready, just in case this baby comes earlier than expected. When we get back from Christmas travelling, we'll have 3 weeks until my due-date. So my project for last night was making a bassinet sheet out of an old pillowcase...it turned out great, even though it took a little longer than it would have, had I known what I was doing! :)

Then I set up the Winnie-the-Pooh mobile that Mom gave me, so now all that's needed is a bumper. I have an old sheet that I'll try to make into a bumper with some foam...we'll see. That's this weekend's project. We also managed to clean out one of our closets (which had become a collect-all), so that there is lots of room for baby stuff.

Our First Baby Shower!

This last weekend I headed down to Charlotte for my first baby shower! I left at 6am and got there around 12:30 (I did find that stopping every two hours, like pregnancy books recommend, helped from getting too stiff). One particularly fun thing was that my mom was able to come down from Wheaton. What a fun combination to have friends from Charlotte get to know her and vise versa. So I got there Friday afternoon for a relaxing evening at the Freases house with Mom. Saturday morning was the shower, and I was completely blown away by how many ladies came! For those of you reading the blog who were at the shower, thank you so much for coming and blessing me in that way! Not only was it a fun time to see all of you and catch up, but I was really impacted by your generosity to help me with the things I need for this baby. Several of the ladies pitched in to get us a very snazzy travel system (stroller/carseat combination), which was the main big thing that we still needed. In fact, I think we'll install the carseat in Nick's car when he drives to Indiana for Christmas (JUST in case!). Two highlights of the shower- a slideshow that Juli Morrison put together with secretly obtained photos of me when I was little and of Nick and me. Mom and Nick, you were both very sneaky! I didn't have a clue about it! The other surprise was a love letter that Nick wrote, which Kristin Freas read out loud. I had no idea that Nick had done that! Of course, I started crying before Kristin even started reading the letter! I guess I have a few more weeks of blaming those pregnancy hormones! :) Nick, thank you for your constant encouragement. As always, you are such a source of joy in my life! I love you! After the shower, a few ladies stuck around to go out to lunch at Chilis. After lunch, Mom and I did some shopping...note to self, stay away from Concord Mills Outlet Mall before Christmas! We did manage to get a parking spot after following someone to their spot from the door of the mall. We felt a little bit like stalkers. :) We picked out some very cute boy and girl clothes from Babies R Us, which makes me appreciate the reality that this baby really is a little girl or a little boy (well, duh!). Seriously, though, I do feel like I'm anticipating finding out the gender of this baby even more now! I am glad, however, that we haven't found out yet. It's fun not knowing! I stayed in Charlotte until Tuesday morning, enjoying lots of time with friends (and eating out quite a bit...what a treat!) Tuesday morning Jeanie Lechner and I managed to fit all of our stuff (with Alathea in the back seat) in the car. I think if we had had one more thing to take back, it wouldn't have fit. But we made it! All in all, what a wonderful weekend of fellowship both with Mom and with friends from NC. I was glad, though, after 4 nights away from Nick, to come home and be in his arms again. :)

My Hot Chocolate Expertise

I learned something new a few weeks ago, and that is that Starbucks offers kid's size hot chocolate for close to $1. It is a little smaller than a "tall," but not by a huge amount. It's not on the menu, so you have to ask for it (I asume they do it for coffee too, although I don't know for sure). And for the amount of sugar that's in it, it's probably about the right size! :) I've also made a wonderous discovery: "Trader Joe's Natural Mint Hot Chocolate" tastes almost identical to Starbucks's "Peppermint Hot Chocolate." As a hot chocolate coneseur (sp?), this is a very exciting discovery (ok, really it just means I can have really yummy hot chocolate every morning!!!)

Blessed are the Meek...

"Let not pride swell my heart...Keep me humble, meek, lowly"

(Valley of Vision, PRIDE)

MEEK- 1. Of gentle and long-suffering disposition. 2. Submissive, compliant. 3. Humble, lowly.

HUMBLE- 1. Having or expressing a sense of selflessness, meekness, modesty, etc. Syn: modest, meek, selfless, unassuming, submissive

LOWLY- 1. Meek, modest, or humble.

"But the meek shall inherit the land

and delight themselves in

abundant peace"

Ps. 37:11

"The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD..."

Isaiah 29:19

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Matthew 5:5

"Though the LORD is great, he cares for the humble,

but he keeps his distant from the proud."

Ps. 138:6

"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

James 4:6

Lord, make me aware of my pride. Help me cling to the cross and learn to lay down my life in humility. How my flesh fights this battle! How often I strive for my own praise and recognition, and how this grieves you! Give me grace to humble myself before you and others. I desire to sit at your feet in humble submission, drinking in your daily grace to me, a sinner.

"Help me to stand with wary eye on the watch-tower of faith, and cling with determined grasp to my humble Lord; If I fall let me hide myself in my Redeemer's righteousness, and when I escape, may I ascribe all deliverance to thy grace." (Valley of Vision)

We Give Thanks...

Well, I really did mean to post last week for Thanksgiving, but somehow the weekend slipped away and already it's Thursday! This year for Thanksgiving, we stayed here in Gaithersburg. Our good friends Joe and Jeanie Lechner came up from Charlotte to be with her family, with whom we celebrated our day of Thanks. This year we have so much to be thankful for!

Most importantly is our salvation...the best gift either of us could ever receive. And beyond that, the Lord has heaped blessing upon blessing in our lives.

We are thankful to be here in Gaithersburg at the Pastor's College- and thankful to all of you who have allowed us to be here by your generosity.

We are thankful for new friends and dear friends from home.

Of course, how can we not also thank the Lord for his kindness in allowing me to get pregnant so quickly last spring and for an easy pregnancy. As Nick and I have walked with friends through the grief of miscarriage and the hardship of infertility, I certainly don't take this pregnancy for granted. Every good gift is from above, and I am thankful in advance for the blessing this little one will be. I'm also thankful that I can say that in full faith now, since I have fought many fears in the last few weeks about the coming changes of having a baby. I think the most helpful thing in dealing with my sin of fear and anxiety has been to dwell on God's promises and character. Hasn't he proved to be faithful in every other area of my life? Will he not also provide abundant grace in the coming season of change to handle each and every new thing that comes my way? The answer, of course, is yes. I am thankful that God has answered my prayers this week in giving me a new excitement for the coming of our baby, as well as peace with an increased reliance on Him for strength. With the Lord as my Savior and loving Father, what cause have I to fear?

We are also so thankful for a growing marriage...how far the Lord has brought us in just 2 1/2 years! God has worked in our marriage to bring about much sanctification in both of us...something that has not always been easy, but oh so rewarding. Our marriage is stronger now than it ever has been, and we give thanks to God alone for that.

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving to you all!

A Whirlwind Visit

My parents were able to come for the weekend, and we had a wonderful time together. I must admit, it was a bit of a whirlwind visit since they arrived Friday night and took off this morning ( Monday). But we managed to fit quite a lot in 2 days! On Saturday we went into D.C. and went to the Holocaust Museum and an exhibit of the first 1000 years of the Bible. This time in the Holocaust Museum, we were able to see the main exhibit...how sobering. I'm afraid we didn't have our timing very well planned, though, since it was about 12:45 when we got on the elevator, and on our way up the museum staff told us that most people take 3-3 1/2 hours to get through, but that there was 12 hours of material! We hadn't eaten our packed lunch yet, so we were a little unsure as to how we would make it throught he whole thing! But we did manage to sneak eating granola bars during one of the exhibit's short films. On the whole, the exhibit was very thought-provoking and sobering. I think by the end we were all ready for an emotional break. So we headed to the cold outside and ate our lunches on a bench (at 3:30 pm!) on the Mall green. After getting some coffee and hot chocolate from a nearby vendor to finish off our meal, we wandered down to the WWII Memorial. After that we headed to the Smithsonian to see an exhibit of old, old Bible texts, all before 1000 AD. Although I have a little bit of a hard time fully engaging in exhibits like that, it was pretty fascinating to think how old some of these pages were.

It was pretty cold eating outside!

Dad and Me at the WWII Memorial

Looking Forward...

Hello, Dear Friends. This last week didn't hold a lot of new things on its plate, but I did have a nice visit on Friday with Jessica (Hoffmeier) Lim, a high school friend, and her sweet baby Daniel, who is 6 weeks old. We enjoyed lunch out and then a walk in a nearby park. Thank you, Jess, for the nice visit!

Coming up in the next few weeks, we have several things that we're looking forward to: My parents are coming to visit this weekend, then our good friends Joe and Jeanie Lechner are coming to town for Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week! How much I have to be thankful for (more on that next week...) I'm also looking forward to a trip down to Charlotte in December for a baby shower, and then to our families for Christmas. When we get back from Christmas break, there will only be 3 weeks until our sweet baby is due! Wow! I should pause here to ask, "am I getting ahead of myself?" I think I can often do that, especially with so many exciting things coming up. In light of meditating on contentment recently, it is good to ask myself if I'm really focused on today. The next few weeks really will fly by with all this activity, and I don't want to look back on these weeks wishing I had invested more fully in each day. That being said, I do think its good to look forward and be excited about God's blessings- time with friends and family, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and January 24. Please pray that God will keep my anticipation in balance with taking delight in TODAY, that my eyes would be ever watching for his mercies and blessings today, not just looking ahead to them.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

If you have never read Jeremiah Burroughs's book "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment", I highly recommend it! Written in 1648, this book is packed with wonderful truth. It's not a "quick read," but the time is worth it- at least, that has been my experience in reading it so far. Here are two quotes I found particularly meaningful.

"A christian comes to contentment, not so much by way of addition, as by way of subraction...not so much by adding to what he would have, or to what he has...but rather by subrtracting from his desires, so as to make his desires and his circumstances even and equal." (pg. 43)

"I know nothing more effective for quieting a Christian soul and getting contentment than this, setting your heart to work in the duties of the immmediate circumstances that you are now in...." (pg. 52)

What good truths to be challenged by...I certainly am! How often do I find myself looking ahead to the next thing or wishing something else in my life instead of quietly taking joy in the duty that the Lord has given me today.

Turning Over a New Leaf

This picture may seem a little weird to put on the blog, but this represents a milestone in my medical life! Today I went in to get the glucose test to screen for gestational diabetes. They give you a concentrated drink that tasted like a melted freezy-pop and then I had to wait for an hour until they drew blood. Why is this a milestone, you may ask. Because when I went to get my blood drawn, I did not 1. pass out, 2. cry, or 3. throw up. I have never gone without one of these three (or all of them) for the last many many years. AND that was with taking three vile-fulls of my blood, which is more than usual, I think. So perhaps I'm getting over my fear after all and turning over a new leaf!

Nick's First Sermon!!!

Nick preached his first sermon tonight! It was so fun to see him in that role, and he did a great job! This was a little church (not Sovereign Grace affiliated)...very little, as in 15-20 people. The people were very friendly, and it was a great setting for Nick to try his wings at preaching. He has a homiletics (preaching) class this week, and he said it will be very helpful having this experience fresh in his mind as he learns more about preparing a sermon. Thank you again to all of you who are supporting us and praying for us this year. It is truly a joy for Nick to be preparing for ministry...we couldn't do it without you!

Covenant Life Soccer Game

On Thursday we had great fun going to the Covenant Life School Girl's Soccer Game. This was a semi-finals game, and they won! It was fun for us to see Julie Bowers (Jeanie, I put this on here just to make you jealous!) Julie, hopefully you don't mind that I put your picture for the world to see. You played so well! I was quite impressed watching these high school girls, remembering my days of being a goalie way back when. I think they put me as goalie because 1. I couldn't run very fast and 2. I wasn't afraid to get my knees dirty by "pouncing" on the ball. The only problem is that I got so used to being goalie that once I caught the ball when I was playing defense...oops!

Rules of Contentment

Recently I have allowed myself to become anxious when I think about becoming a mother, and I realized this morning that it is really a lack of trust in the Lord. He gives me grace each day. His grace is sufficient, and he is most glorified in my weakness. I'm learning to give up every detail to the Lord, even in the privacy of my thoughts. He doesn't just want me to SAY that I trust him for the future, he wants me to BELIEVE it with my whole being! He has always been faithful, and He will continue to be faithful every day of my life! Here are Elisabeth Elliot's "Rules of Contentment," that I find quite challenging and inspiring... I have reworded them a little bit for clarity.

RULES OF CONTENTMENT

1. Allow yourself to complain of nothing, not even the weather.

2. Never picture yourself under any circumstances which you are not.

3. Never compare your own lot to that of another.

4. Never allow yourself to dwell on the wish that anything be different than it was or is. God almighty loves you better and more wisely than you do yourself.

5. Never dwell on the morrow. Remember that it is God's, not yours. The heaviest part of sorrow often is to look forward to it. "The Lord will provide."

More DC Pictures

Top to Bottom: The White House, Vietnam Memorial, Dennis and Marilyn in front of the Washington Monument, Nick in front of Big Abe.

Fun in DC

Is it possible that such a long time has gone by without a post?!? These weeks keep flying by. But be assured, our lives have not been extremely exciting or different over the last two weeks. At least up until this weekend, when Dennis and Marilyn (Nick's parents) came to visit. We had a wonderful time with them! They arrived Thursday night, and on Friday Marilyn and I went on some errands while Dennis visited a fellow glass manufacturer. On Saturday we headed into DC with three things on our agenda: The Spy Museum, the Holocaust Museum, and the American History Museum. We rode the metro in to the mall area, walked to the Lincoln Memorial (stopping by the WWII memorial and Vietnam Memorial), then walked over to the Spy Museum. Unfortunately, it was not free admission as we had thought (it's $15 a person!). 0 for 1. Then we walked over to the Holocaust Museum, just in time to learn that they had given up all the tickets for the main exhibit already. 0 for 2! But we did see one of their exhibits, "Daniel's Story," a walk-through exhibit of the Holocaust from a Jewish child's perspective. It was geared towards a younger audience, but it was still quite thought-provoking. After that we walked back to the American History Museum, only to learn that they are closed for renovations for 2 years. 0 for 3!! We were a little bummed that we weren't able to fully take advantage of the three things that were on our agenda, but we did get LOTS of walking in and enjoyed the memorials and walking by the White House. Needless to say, when we got on the Metro to go home, we were all exhausted!

Then Yesterday we met up with my aunt Marty, since she had invited us to a Gospel Choir concert at a church in DC. It was quite an experience! Talk about some LOUD music, with electric organ and all. The event was supposed to go from 5-7, but it was more like 5:20-8. I think we were the only white people in the congregation, and I must say I felt very "white" watching all the people around us really get in the groove, dancing around and shouting with arms swaying in the air. We did our share of clapping, but I think we definitely stuck out like a sore thumb! :) After the concert we went back to Marty and Art's house and ate a delicious dinner, since we were all starving after three hours of sitting (and standing) through the concert.

Riding the Metro into the City

In front of the WWII Memorial

A Wonderfully Full Day

Yesterday was a nicely full day. I started the day by going to the Tedesco's house, a couple that has a "food ministry" for the Pastors College families. Every Tuesday they have groceries in their garage that are donated by Trader Joe's, and we can take home what we can use for the week. It's kind of hit or miss, but yesterday I came home with a whole bag full of food (most of the stuff is "sell-by" that day, so it's still good, but Trader Joe's just can't sell it.) Then I headed to Wal-Mart to stock up on some household items. From there I headed over to Butler's Orchard, via a beautiful drive through a bright canopy of leaves on a tiny country road. The orchard is not far from us, but it feels very secluded. I was hoping to get some more apples, but it turns out the apple picking season peaked early this year. So I headed for the raspberry bushes instead. I have only gone raspberry picking one other time, and that was 10 years ago (!). I think now I know why they are so expensive in the grocery store! Granted, they were kind of picked over already, so it was hard to find the ripe ones. I did manage to come home with 2 lbs. of raspberries, with only a few scratches on my arms from the thorns. In the afternoon I had a doctor's appointment (baby is growing right on schedule!), and then I came home to try my hand at making raspberry jam. I was delighted to find that it was much easier and less time-consuming than apple butter. The jam turned out great! I popped some bread in the oven so that we could try it out on fresh bread as a bed-time snack. Needless to say, I was a bit tired at the end of the day last night. But it was a nice kind of tiredness. I am greatful for sleep, for knowing that it is a gift from the Lord, to refresh my body for a new day. I think I fell asleep the minute (literally) that my head hit the pillow. And now I'm looking at a new day, eager to see what the Lord has for me today.

Great Falls National Park

This afternoon Nick and I ventured out to Great Falls National Park with some friends from church. It was a perfect day to wander around the trails and see the Falls. There were a lot of people, but Nick and I ventured down onto some rocks away from the crowds. What a wonderful way to spend our Sunday!

24 weeks- 16 to go!

A Rainy Day

I'm sitting in front of the computer, listening to the rain outside and sipping some homemade hot cocoa. Now, if only we had some firewood! :) There's nothing too profound on my mind just now, but I thought it would be a good day for a post. Actually, this morning I was thinking about some of the things I'm most thankful for, so I'll share them here:

Things that make me smile...

• Salvation. Simply put, the greatest gift I could ever receive.
• A godly husband and a marriage that seems to get better and grow every day.
• A great pregnancy- I love everything about being pregnant: looking pregnant, wearing maternity clothes, feeling our little one move all the time. I just love it!
• Thinking about our little baby that I get to love on in just 3 1/2 short months!
• Deeply knit friendships back in Charlotte
• Growing friendships in Gaithersburg
• Apple butter on homemade bread
• Hot cocoa
• Good books to read on a rainy day
• Lovely autumn leaves

...just to name a few. May the Lord bring joy to your heart today!

Apple Picking

Look at that growing belly!