Emily and Kolby

A Dozen Years

Our story began a dozen years ago today. You can read it in a nutshell here.

I couldn’t have asked for a better story. It’s ours, and it’s perfect.

There is a theme of waiting weaved all throughout our story. When at age 16 you know you’ve found the one you will marry, waiting is just part of the game. Waiting to graduate from high school so people take our relationship seriously. Waiting to live in the same state again. Waiting to graduate from college. Waiting for marriage, as God intended. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Just over seven years after our story began, we were wed. No more saying goodbye at the end of each day. The wait was over, and we were together.

What is marriage like for us? In a word, easy. It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It just works for us. Hard to say why exactly, but the Lord has certainly blessed us with a marriage filled with all joy and zero conflict.

Just a few years after we were married, our familiar waiting theme returned. We had a deep desire to grow our family, and we were ready. It didn’t happen right away, and we waited. Friends and family members got pregnant and had babies, and still we waited. We felt very at peace with the waiting. After all, we’d waited seven years to be married and my goodness it was a marriage worth waiting for. We knew God would bless our waiting once again.

Then we had the privilege of walking through a difficult time together. What began as waiting had turned into a couple of bad diagnoses, and it was looking like our family wouldn’t expand in the way we thought it would. But still, we waited, just in case. And we leaned on each other and grew together and fell even more deeply in love.

Isn’t the Lord’s timing perfect? It’s not our timing, but it’s somehow even sweeter.

And now, we find ourselves waiting again. Counting the days until we meet our precious son.

Our story is far from over. My heart just melts thinking of the life we have ahead of us together. Husband and wife. Best friends. Parents!

Kolby: Happy anniversary, my dear. Thank you for loving me well for a dozen years. What an incredible blessing to get to grow up (literally) with someone loving me as you have—it has shaped who I am. And now onto the greatest adventure of our lives. Let the wild rumpus begin!

Six-Word Memoir

Kolby gave his students an assignment last week to write a Six-Word Memoir--a platform for storytelling where the goal is to tell your life story (or at least a big part of it) in only six words. He offered his as an example:

Hello. I do. It's a boy!

He asked me to come up with one, but I couldn't do it. Writing and creativity are his strengths, not mine.

Then today I had a conversation with a friend at work where the story behind Beckett came up. I hadn't realized how long it'd been since I'd shared that story. The infertility diagnoses. The 1-2% chance. The cyst. Surgery day. The nurse walking in with a positive pregnancy test. The worry at the beginning, when it was unfathomable how my body could sustain a pregnancy. The miracle of life.

The conversation reminded me what a truly amazing story it is. It's a story Beckett will have for life. It's a story of God's power and His faithfulness, something we will always proclaim.

On my drive home I finally came up with my memoir:

We prayed for healing. God answered.

Infertility

As I've mentioned before, starting our family didn't exactly go as planned. But I have to say, I wouldn't trade our experience.

I feel that I ought to share more of our story on here, since infertility was and will likely continue to be a part of our life and that's what this blog is---a snapshot of our life together. But infertility talk is by nature very personal and the internet is by nature a completely public venue. Kolby and I ultimately decided that this blog is not a good setting to share the details of our journey. However, I have a deep desire to share our experience, mainly because I know there are others who may be on a similar journey (or know someone who is). Infertility is a lonely and disheartening thing, and I want to offer encouragement and hope.

So, we came up with an alternative. I wrote a [long] document entitled, "Our Infertility Journey." Creative title, I know :). It includes three sections. One is an infertility Q&A, where I cover questions like,
Can you give a snapshot of your fertility treatment timeline?
Are you glad you started seeing a fertility specialist rather than just your OB/GYN?
How did you decide who to tell that you were dealing with infertility?
What are some things that people said to you that made you feel better? Did anyone ever say anything that made you feel worse? and several others.
Then there is an encouragement section. By far the greatest comfort and encouragement came from knowing that God was in control, that He cares for us, and that His ways are far greater than our own. I was often reminded of these truths through worship songs at church or by certain scripture passages. I kept a journal of those reminders, and included them in this section. Then finally I wrote a short section about the helpful ways our family and friends supported us, hoping that it may be a useful resource for anyone with a loved one dealing with infertility.

Email me at emilyandkolbyblog@gmail.com, and I'll send you the document. I know that's not as easy as just reading it here, but this is the best we could do! As our family and friends, you may want to just get a snapshot of this part of our life or maybe you or someone you know is going through something similar. Whatever the case, I won't make any assumptions and would just love to pass on our story to you because it's a great story of God's incredible power and work in our lives!

So please don't be shy---when you read the document you'll see that I clearly was not :).

Ramblings

Here are a few things going on around here these days.

I’m anxiously waiting for an iPhone 5. I’m sad to say that I think it’s finally time to trade in my Jitterbug knock off. Not familiar with the Jitterbug? It’s a cell phone for senior citizens. It has no extra features, a loud (and hearing-aid compatible) speaker, big buttons, an easy to navigate menu, and an insanely long battery life. It was basically everything I was looking for in a phone :). It’s treated me well, despite the fact that a friend’s puppy chewed off the battery cover panel a couple years ago and put bite marks all over it, and it *may* have recently earned a few strips of tape here and there to keep it limping along. But with a baby on the way, I just can’t resist the chance to upgrade to a phone with a good camera and video capability. So I will be saying farewell to speed dial and T9 predictive text, but hello to the world of Instagram and FaceTime (or as my parents both say, FaceTalk).

Switching gears, we’re now accepting bets for who will weigh more—Kolby or me—by the time the baby comes. If I’m turning into a whale, I might as well make it interesting. Feel free to get in on the action if you want! Here are some clues to help you choose your side:

*Kolby may be lean, but he’s tall. 6’3” to be exact. I am 5’6”.

*At 28 (of 40) weeks, I had gained 30ish pounds and was 15 pounds shy of Kolby’s weight.

*The recommended weight gain is 25-35 pounds throughout pregnancy.

*The average weight gain in the third trimester is ½-2 pounds per week.

May the best team win!

In other news, our nursery is coming along great! It makes me smile every time I walk by (which is a lot). Here’s a sneak preview:

And here’s a peek at our cloth diaper stash:

Yes, we’re planning to cloth diaper most of the time. You may think we’re crazy. What an inconvenience! What a hassle! What about the poo?!?! Trust me—we’re thinking all those same things, too! :) But we’re giving it a shot. I may write more about it later, but it boils down to the fact that we like the idea of saving thousands of dollars. We also think they are super cute and we like the thought of our baby’s bum in soft cotton. But we may totally hate using them… stay tuned, I guess!

To keep the belly pic streak alive, here’s me (us) at 31 weeks:

Everything is going so great. I feel wonderful—not a single complaint! We really feel the Lord’s peace during this pregnancy. Absolutely everything has been perfectly normal. It’s funny… every appointment starts with our doctor asking me what questions I have for her, which I always just meet with a shrug. For a type-A personality like me, that is beyond strange and unexpected. I can feel that everything is going well and just can never think of anything I care to ask. Anyway, we are so thankful for a smooth and healthy pregnancy and for a baby who is crazy active, always letting us know that he’s doing just fine!

More updates coming soon. We’ve been crazy busy lately trying to tackle a very long list of home projects and to get the nursery ready in time for our first shower this weekend. Our due date is now just 8 weeks away!

Hello Third Trimester!

Well, we’re in the home stretch!

We’re now in the third trimester and will be meeting this little guy in less than three months!! I just can’t believe it!

Kolby and I took a road trip last Thursday afternoon to Waco to visit my dad at his Baylor office and to visit my mom at the pregnancy center where she volunteers. [We also had lunch at Schmaltz’s. Dear Blue Plate Special, you complete me.] While at the pregnancy center, we had the privilege of having a free sonogram because it was the end of the day and there weren’t any clients and these sweet women had been keeping up with our infertility journey through my mom and were excited for us. It was such a joy to see our little guy!! We likely won’t have any more sonograms and thus wouldn’t have seen him again until his birthday!

My mom was there and my dad came too, so we all got to enjoy seeing baby Beckett—even in 3D at times! We learned three things. 1. He is definitely a boy! I had some doubts from our 20 weeks sonogram, but those were put to rest in a big way after our previously shy guy flashed us in 3D. In case I ever doubt again, I have a very conclusive picture I can refer to :). 2. He has the most beautiful lips! Actually his whole little face is absolutely beautiful, but those sweet puckered lips really stand out. 3. He has chubby cheeks already! At only 28 weeks along, babies are super skinny. They spend the last trimester pretty much doing nothing but gaining weight. But somehow our little guy already has some pudge on his face, which comes as no surprise to anyone who knew me as a baby. Girl had some jowls. All in all, the sonogram basically confirmed that Beckett will no doubt be the cutest baby ever born in the history of the world. But I guess we already knew that!

In other baby news, we started our birth class last week. We started on the nursery this weekend. I’m so excited to see how it will turn out! It just seems so crazy that it’s already time for stuff like this! It seems like it’s taken FOREVER to get here, but I’m hoping that these last few months will go by fast with all of the business and holidays (and Kolby would add baseball playoffs).

Outside of baby stuff, we're staying really busy between all of our commitments--birth classes, a photography class I'm taking, lots of Rangers games, leading/hosting a Bible study group, etc. Plus Kolby started a new school year. All good things... but I certainly look forward to the weekends where we can catch our breath!

I need to post some pictures of our minor living room/kitchen remodel, but there are a few loose ends of that project that still need to be tied up. Hopefully those will be wrapped up soon. Then before too much longer I'll hopefully have some pictures of our nursery to share!

Kolby's Sermons Online

As you know, Kolby has the privilege of preaching at our church on occasion, when our pastor is out of town or just needs an occasional reprieve from the pulpit. Kolby has a tremendous talent for teaching, and teaching from God's Word is no exception.

It's an honor to witness him prepare a lesson and then deliver it to our congregation in a way that really impacts lives. I know most of you aren't able to be there (but thanks to the many of you who have come!), so I found a way to post Kolby's sermons online. Thank you, technology.

Click here or go to www.emilyandkolby.podbean.com. The sermons are in order starting with the most recent, and below the scripture passage for each one you should see the words "Listen Now" with a play button underneath.

There is a sermon from a series our church did during Lent on the topic of healing. Kolby preached on the role of faith in healing. If you are praying that God will heal you or someone you know, I think you'll really benefit from Kolby's message. This sermon (and whole sermon series) came at a time when Kolby and I--along with our family and friends--were praying for healing for my body. A few weeks later, we found out that despite my litany of infertility issues we were miraculously pregnant. God is healer, indeed!

The next sermon is based on a text our pastor assigned to Kolby--the story of the newly resurrected Jesus appearing to two men on the road between Jerusalem and Emmaus.

Then there is a sermon from our church's summer sermon series on the fruit of the spirit. Kolby preached on joy, and it just so happened to be Father's Day. Enough said.

Kolby preached again during the fruit of the spirit series, this time on faithfulness. He gives an interesting take on this word that has become a bit cliche--faithfulness to others is believing in them even after they've let you down time and time again.

I encourage you all to have a listen!

Summer 2012

Kolby and I have had a wonderful summer this year! Here is a snapshot of some of our travels.

Late June—Kolby met up with his grad school buddies for a reunion. Most of them live in the Pacific Northwest, so Kolby flew into Portland, OR and they spent a week at a house along the coast.

Mid July—We spent a week with my family at Lake Hamilton near Hot Spring, AR. Lots of fun, sun, and games. And plenty of relaxing. This picture about sums it up:

Early August—We took a short road trip to Wimberley to spend a long weekend at Kolby’s parents’ ranch. We relaxed, floated the river, and enjoyed great food. Maya tried to soak up her last months of being an only child:

Mid August—Kolby and I flew to North Carolina for a beach vacation to celebrate our upcoming 5^th anniversary. We also dubbed it our Freedom Tour 2012. We will welcome our big life change with open arms, but it sure was nice to have one last getaway just the two of us!

And boy did we enjoy it.

Our typical daily schedule:

9:30am—wake up

10am—eat breakfast (cereal plus cinnamon rolls, pancakes, eggs, or biscuits)

10:30am—Emily takes a nap, Kolby reads

Noon—pack a picnic lunch and beach bag, slather on sunscreen

12:30-3pm—chill at the beach (read, play paddle ball together, have lunch, wade into the water)

3:30pm—shower

4pm—relax at the beautiful house (read, watch the Olympics, talk about Beckett)

6pm—dinner (cook something easy, pick up pizza, go out)

8pm—curl up on the couch together and watch a rented movie

11pm—go to bed, get 10+ hours of sleep!

Baby's first trip to the beach!

Favorite foods (K: hot dogs, E: grilled cheese)

Also this summer I had the chance to spend a couple of weekends with my best high school and college friends. We spent time with Kolby’s grandparents. Plus we attended more than a few Rangers games.

This picture cracks me up. Kolby picked me up for the game straight from work and was in charge of bringing me a change of clothes. I have outgrown my Rangers t-shirt so I asked him to bring me one of his to wear, since a size large is a pretty decent fit these days. He shows up with a free XL t-shirt he'd gotten at one of the games, a pair of long shorts, shoes, and a jug of water so that I'd stay hydrated. I told him that if his goal was to take away all of my self-esteem, then mission accomplished :).

Hats off to a great summer! But for the first time in my life, I'm looking forward to the cooler weather since it means we're getting closer to the arrival of our little guy. Our due date is exactly three months away!

Impossible/Possible

Every time I look in a mirror I can't help but think,

two broken ovaries, rampant endometriosis, and a uterus that was deemed an inhospitable environment,

yet Baby Beckett is here and making himself right at home.

"For all things are possible with God." -Mark 10:27b

24 Weeks

We’ve hit the six-month mark! I can’t quite believe it.

I’m feeling wonderful! This second trimester has treated me very well. After being so sick in the first, it’s made it even sweeter to feel so good in the second. It’s just a great stage right now. The baby is moving around like crazy which is inexplicably awesome to feel, and my baby bump is definitely obvious but not heavy or uncomfortable yet. I’m seriously soaking up every single day of this.

I stepped on the scale the other day and it wasn’t pretty. I was at 22 weeks and had somehow already gained over 20 pounds. Oops. That seemed like a lot but I wasn’t sure, so I did some recon. Here is the chart that gave me the not so polite answer of “you’ve gained 9 more pounds than you should have.” The lines show the upper and lower bound of recommended weight gain for someone with my starting weight and height. The green dot is me.

I blame ice cream.

Seemingly contrary to the point above, a couple of months ago I joined 24 Hour Fitness. Talk about 5 words I NEVER thought would come out of my mouth. I’m not exactly a gym rat. Our evening walks with Maya had always been about the extent of my physical activity. But I want to have a healthy pregnancy, and the oppressive Texas heat was taking away my chance to even keep up the neighborhood walks. So I took up swimming. Best decision ever. I love it, and our fertility specialist had recommended it as the absolute best workout for a pregnant woman. It’s safe and it’s aerobic while also working out every muscle in the body. I swim 3x a week at the gym’s lap pool, and I’ve honestly kept to it. I’m really proud of myself. It may not sound like much, but I haven’t had a regular workout routine in….. well, I guess never.

So when I realized I had packed on so many pounds—which was honestly a surprise—I asked Kolby if he thought there is ANY way that swimming was behind some of the weight gain. And like a good husband, he said “sure, because you’ve added muscle and muscle weighs more than fat.” I’m happy to let that be the final word on the matter because I like his answer :)

Here is my 24 weeks (6 months) picture:

Planning for the baby’s room is coming right along. I am a VERY dangerous shopper right now :) Boxes keep being delivered to our house and Kolby is always perplexed when I can’t even think what each one might be. I think that means I’m ordering too much. We’re using touches of gray/white chevron (apparently ‘chevron’ is the new name for zig-zag?!?) and if you go to Etsy.com and type in gray chevron… you can see where the danger comes from. Everything is so cute! I’ve already ordered pillow covers, a baby blanket, and a changing pad cover. I’m hoping I can stop there. Kolby can’t really complain though because he’s also purchased a baseball lamp, baseball nightlight, baseball cards, and a Beckett baseball card magazine (yes, the name of the magazine is Beckett, but I promise that's not how we came up with our baby's name!).

My mom is coming in town for a long weekend to help me get our closets and garage better organized so that we’ll have more room. Then we’ll be ready to paint the baby’s room and then assemble furniture and really start pulling it all together!

Ramblings

“When is Beckett going to be here?”

It’s a phrase Kolby utters every couple of days, in a very childish and whiny voice liken to an “are we there yet?” complaint.

It’s funny because Kolby has never once had the capability to look forward to something in the future. I guess he’s just more of a here-and-now guy. “Are you excited about our wedding?” “Are you pumped about our trip to Australia?” It was all met with an “eh” response and an explanation that of course he’ll be excited when it’s actually upon us, but that it’s just hard for him to feel excited about it NOW.

Seems like the prospect of becoming a father, and bringing home a sweet little baby boy that is half me and half him is all it took to change his tune. He’s excited. I’m excited. Just a long 4+ months to go!

There are some things about pregnancy that are baffling to Kolby, and it’s pretty funny. He doesn’t really understand how our baby can now be 10” long—more than halfway to his birth length—but weigh only a tiny fraction of what he’ll weigh at birth. The funniest was when I was reading aloud a line from a pregnancy book a few weeks ago that said, “your baby’s ears are now in their final position” and Kolby looked over with the most shocked and quizzical expression and asked, “where were they before?!?!” It’s a valid question. I told him they were probably roaming freely about the baby’s head :)

We’ve purchased our nursery furniture and crib bedding, and we’ve started our registries. It’s all been so much fun. Kolby has actually picked out most of our main baby gear (stroller, car seat, etc.). In general, he doesn’t have a preference about much so a lot of the time it ends up that I get what I prefer for things like where we go out to eat, etc. But as we were shopping for baby stuff, he had a preference and also had a lot of great ideas, so it was fun to just agree and go with it.

For the baby’s room (I’ll never get over how wonderful it is to get to say that!!), we’re planning to go with a gray and white color scheme, with some red accents. Kolby of course wants to have some baseball accents as well. He has this idea to get a team set of vintage-looking Rangers baseball cards, and then choose 9 players to mat and frame on the wall (one player for each position). Then each new season he and Beckett will choose what 9 they want on the wall for the season. It’s pretty much the cutest idea I’ve ever heard, made even more so by the fact that he woke me up the other morning at 5am to tell me about it. Including details that the mats would be white, the frames would be red (possibly square), and that it’d look best hung 3x3 over the changing table :)

Anticipating and planning for a baby with Kolby has been everything I’ve always dreamed about and more. And the fun is just getting started!

Here is the 20 week (halfway!) belly picture. I now officially look like a pregnant woman, and I love it.

Kolby can now feel the baby move/kick! He felt it for the first time just the other day and he goes, "I just felt my son kick. Or possibly pitch." :)

We had our 20 week appointment a couple of weeks ago and things looked great. Everything is right on track. Praise the Lord!

Baby Name

We have a name for our sweet little baby boy.

His name is Beckett.

We love it. I hope you do too. If you hate it, don’t tell us… and maybe when the little guy gets here he can change your mind about it! :)

It’s a name we first heard about three years ago when a pair of missionaries visited our church, and they had a new baby son named Beckett. Kolby leaned over when they introduced themselves and mentioned what a cool name that was. He thought it was probably from Thomas Becket, who was the archbishop of Canterbury (i.e. the leader of the Church of England) in the 1100s. He was killed at the request of King Henry II, and is recognized as both a saint and a martyr for the Christian church. Anyway, we logged the name away, and it’s been in our top three ever since.

For a middle name, we chose the name Miller. It’s Kolby’s middle name. It’s also Kolby’s dad’s middle name. And his grandfather’s middle name. It originated from Kolby’s paternal great-grandmother, whose maiden name was Miller. It’s a great family name with a long history, and I’m thrilled that our child will get to be the fourth generation to keep the tradition going.

So there you have it—Beckett Miller.

So what is little Beckett up to these days? Oh, you know, just hanging out and growing like a weed. He moves and twists around all the time and it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world. He’s working on getting nice and strong so that soon he’ll be able to give a kick that his daddy can feel from the outside. Kolby is DYING to feel the baby move. Every time that I say the baby is really moving around in there, Kolby rushes over to feel, but can only vaguely feel that something is going on in there. We’re still waiting on that good swift kick!

Keep growing healthy and strong, little Beckett— we can't wait to meet you!!

It's a...

It's official--- we are having a sweet little baby boy!

We were set to find out the gender at 11am last Monday, but I got a call early that morning saying that the ultrasound tech had to leave the country suddenly for a family emergency. We were leaving town that Wednesday for vacation so our only option for finding out the gender before then was to go to a diagnostic imaging center. It sounds silly, but when you have been counting the days and then wake up that morning knowing that today is the day that you'll find out if you're having a boy or a girl--- you'll pretty much do anything to keep that a reality. So we got the first appointment we could at the imaging center, at 4pm.

Of course by 4pm our sweet baby was sound asleep for his afternoon nap, and he had his legs completely glued together. We could not get even the slightest peek at the gender. A doctor finally came in to give it a try, and it was the same story. He was really nice and even let me walk around for a few minutes to try to get the baby to move into a different position, but even that didn't work. He said that it was probably a girl, but that we need to come back in a couple of weeks to find out for sure.

All of the baby's measurements and organs looked perfect, and Kolby and I were first and foremost so grateful for that. But I will say that we were disappointed that we would have to leave without knowing for sure whether we were expecting a little girl or a little boy. As one final last-ditch effort I started pressing on the side of my belly a little bit, and just then the doctor yells, "there it is!" and the ultrasound tech freezes the screen on a picture that we couldn't make heads or tails of but was all it took for them to officially declare that our baby is definitely a BOY!

We are so excited to have a little boy on the way. We didn't have a preference at all (or so we thought), but as soon as we heard the doctor say "probably a girl" we both realized that we had been hoping, just a little, that it was a boy.

Baby boy is happy and healthy and growing right on schedule. We finally have an official due date-- December 5. I can't believe we're already half way there!!!

Praise the Lord for our healthy little guy :)

Catching Up

Let’s see… lots to catch up on!

I’ll start with a baby update. We’re now almost halfway there! The second trimester is treating me MUCH better than the first. Being very sick 24/7 was way rougher than I expected, so I’m glad to have that behind me! I’m now in maternity clothes pretty much full time. Speaking of which... where have maternity clothes been all my life?!?! Elastic waistbands, longer tops, longer sleeves... it's everything I've ever wanted in clothes! Several friends/family gave me plenty of casual maternity hand-me-downs, which I’m very grateful for! Building a new work wardrobe has not come cheap, though, but giving speeches wearing a suit where the skirt was only half-zipped just couldn't cut it forever!

Here’s an 18 weeks belly picture:

[P.S. Posing in pictures alone is among my least favorite things in the world. I apologize for looking so awkward in these... I'm embarrassed to do this at all but I know I'll like having it to look back on.]

In other news, guess who’s back?!?

That’s right—it’s Summer Kolby! What a relaxed guy. I have a lot of jealousy about Kolby getting a summer break, but I am working on it! Then something like this happens:

K: Hey, I didn't fix you a lunch today because I figured you’d go out to eat.

E: Why would I go out?

K: Because it’s Friday.

E: Honey, it’s Thursday.

Oh what I wouldn't give to be off a schedule and lose track of what day of the week it is! But he deserves the break for sure.

I know y’all are all on the edge of your seats waiting for an update about our garden. No? Well here’s a picture of some of our loot anyway:

We often eat sliced tomato with sea salt as a snack, Kolby puts jalapeno on EVERYTHING, we have roasted and stuffed poblanos for dinner about once a week (yum!), and a few weekends ago I made my first batch of homemade salsa and it was delicious! We've really enjoyed having the garden. And public service announcement to anyone planning a garden soon—beware of tomatillos. Everyone warned us that our cantaloupe plant will take over our garden, but it’s been our tomatillo plant that has gone bizerk and will likely make its way to your front porch at any moment. Plus the stupid thing is too busy taking over the world to produce a single mature tomatillo. So my batch of homemade salsa verde remains only a dream.

Let’s see what else… oh, we have a new roommate! It’s Russell :). You may recall that we have a detached garage in the backyard that the previous owners finished out and turned into a game room. We had a friend from church live out there for the majority of last school year, and then another friend from church lived there for a few months this winter. I was just about to turn it back into a nice guest house when Russell decided to take us up on our offer for a free roof over his head after graduation. He started a job that keeps him pretty busy, but it is so nice having him so (very) close. I don’t know how long he’ll stay, but we’re enjoying it while we can.

I don’t have any pictures to share yet, but we have a small remodel going on in our house right now. We’re reconstructing the wall between our living room and kitchen to open up the space. It looks amazing so far (thanks to the fact that we are doing none of the work ourselves). We considered the project for years but finally went for it. I’m using it as an excuse to redo some decor in our living room as well, so stay tuned for some pictures of the finished product in a few weeks!

Oh, another great thing… Kolby preaches at our church once in a blue moon when our pastor is out of town or just needs a pinch-hitter for a Sunday. It’s a great honor (pastors don’t give their pulpits up for just anyone!), and Kolby is an incredibly talented teacher—including the teaching of scripture. I’m so amazed at his ability to write such incredible sermons, and it’s just so great to see him deliver them and hear so many people talk about how it touched them. Anyway, he preached on Father’s Day this year. I don’t really have the words to share what a wonderful and unique experience that was. I think I’ll try to find a way to put the text to his sermons on the blog somewhere because I promise it’s worth your time to read them! He preaches again toward the end of the month.

Well, that’s about it around here!

We find out whether we’re having a boy or a girl VERY soon… so stay tuned for that announcement! To go ahead and answer the questions I get asked a lot these days—no, I don’t have a feeling as to what it is…. and no, we don’t have a preference! A boy seems natural since both of our families started with boys first, but my heart melts at the thought of Kolby with a girl. Can you even imagine thatfather-of-the-bride toast?!? Oh dear. So we’re thrilled either way! As far as names, we have about three of each that we both absolutely love. Some are ones that we've loved for years, and others are new. We’re hoping one will jump out to us when we find out the gender and see our little one on the sonogram screen (which I absolutely can’t wait for!!!). If not, our fallback plan is to have six children so we get to use all of the names :). Sounds like a great plan to me!

Pregnant

If it wasn’t blatantly obvious from my last post, we are pregnant :)

And super excited! Our baby boy/girl is due the first week of December. Just in time for our 5^th wedding anniversary. It’s going to be a wonderful month!

Getting here is a fairly long story, but I will say that I wouldn’t trade our experience with infertility for anything in the world. So much growth comes from trials, and I learned a lot about who God is during that time. Plus, the extra time of it just being Kolby and me is something I know we’ll always appreciate. We’ve had a great couple of years—had so much fun together and also had a lot of time to dedicate toward serving together at our church.

That said, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t difficult at times. But we can save that for another day.

For now, I’ll share the much abbreviated version of our journey. After about 10 months of trying to get pregnant, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is the #2 cause of infertility in women. Awesome. Then about 9 months after that, I was diagnosed with severe and aggressive endometriosis. Endometriosis is the #1 cause of infertility in women. Double awesome. We were told by our fertility specialist that because the way my endometriosis was behaving, my ability to ever get pregnant would likely diminish fast, and he advised that we consider some rather serious fertility treatment. I came to grips with what had turned into my absolute worst nightmare, and Kolby and I (and a few others) began praying for healing. God is healer. Before giving much thought as to where to go from there, I first needed to have a very large endometrioma (ovarian cyst caused by endometriosis) removed from my left ovary. This is where the story takes a wild turn. I go in for surgery on March 30. I’m at the hospital, in a gown and cap, waiting alone for the anesthesiologist when the nurse walks in with a positive pregnancy test. Absolutely the most crazy moment of my life.

There is so much more to the story, but there it is in a nutshell!

Right now we are just soaking up every single moment of this experience. It is truly a miracle, and we remain in awe of God’s work in this.

Switching to much more trivial matters, I feel like I need to post the obligatory belly pic. I am completely obsessed with my baby belly. I look at it and touch it a million times a day. I just can’t believe it. Sounds silly I know, but it’s the first tangible evidence of this dream come true. And I think it's growing well ahead of schedule because while the books all say that I may be starting to show soon and that at 14 weeks “your uterus may be enough to push your tummy out a tad,” some nights I seriously look like I’m six months pregnant. Ha!

Here’s my belly on a pretty normal day (14 weeks):