New Niece and Last Shower

Matt and our niece Jenna

We started our weekend on Saturday by hearing from Matt's brother and his wife that their new baby was born at 6:25 in the morning. Since we were already going to visit Matt's family this weekend it was perfect timing to meet our new niece on the day she was born. She is so beautiful and it was fun to hold and see a brand new baby. It was a little bit of a reality check for us and made me think a lot more about the day Grace will be born. We can't wait for Grace and our neice Jenna to spend time together and become friends over the years:)

Matt's mom and us at the shower

Sunday afternoon some women from Matt's home church threw a shower for us. It was wonderful. So many people that Matt has know since he was little were able to attend and blessed us with too much stuff. This was our last shower and it is amazing to think about how much people were willing to give to help us prepare for Grace. We do not have to buy much ourselves and we really appreciate it.

A Place for Grace

I totally stole the title for this post from my mom's blog with the same picture:) I also stole the picture off of her blog too. O well, I'm just so excited to show off the new crib that my Dad made for Grace. I love it!! I can't wait until they can bring it over sometime next week.

33 Weeks

Headless 33 weeks shot:)

Only 7 weeks to go! I'm so excited to meet Grace and so scared of giving birth to her. I just sit and look at people and remind myself that we were all born. Every time I see a baby I think that baby was born and I can do this. Grace has been moving around a lot these days and it's fun to feel her strong movements. Although I do get up a lot to pee, she has yet to wake me up at night. I'm either really tired at night or Grace is already getting into her routine so she can start sleeping through that night as soon as the doctor says she won't starve. Also, I just read that she is over 4 pounds now!

I'm also dealing with winding down at school. I can't believe how soon I will start my maternity leave. I am officially done on March 20th. It worked out nicely that is when our spring break starts and then when its time to go back I'll be 37 weeks so I just decided to start my leave. I'll take a little time without pay but I think my feet will thank me. I also just told my principal that I am not coming back next year. I almost cried but it was nice to let him know my plans and just communicate to him why I'm not coming back. I guess his wife stayed home with their kids for a while too so he was very receptive of the decision. So, I only have 12 days left in my high school teaching career (at least for a while). I calculated I've probably spent over 1000 days teaching. I'm very excited to be moving on to the next stage but I will have to greive the end of something that God lead me too for the past 5 years and despite some of the low times I have truly enjoyed and been blessed by.

Some of our family friends threw a shower for me this past weekend and it was so fun. Most of the women there have known me since I was in my mother's womb. It was neat to be able to celebrate with them. My sister and 2 other friends were the only other ones from our generation who were able to make it to the shower. Grace got tons of adorable clothes, blankets, and a very useful high chair! I can't wait for her to join us at the dinner table. My sister made a quilt as did my mom so those were both really fun to receive. Check out pictures and how my mom made the quilt here.

Enjoy the pics from the last week...

Teresa and me at my shower.

The crib my dad is building in pieces. It is getting really close to done!!!

"Everything Is Amazing And Nobody's Happy"

32 Weeks

Not much to report about the pregnancy this week. I'm getting closer and closer to the due date, which in my opinion is fabulous. We're getting very excited to meet Grace. I have been feeling kind of yucky again but the end is in sight. I only have 18 days (4 weeks) left of school and then twiddling my thumbs until Grace arrives.

Sorry about the outfit. I had to put on a t-shirt so I wouldn't make a mess painting stars.

I have a few updated pictures of the nursery too. Hopefully the crib will be done soon. Once that is here it will be pretty much ready for a baby.

The couch with pillow shams to match the curtains and the adorable afghan my grandma made.

The above two pictures are the super cute wall hangings from Target that Amy Jo got me for a shower present. I bought plain wood stars and paint at Hobby Lobby to decorate and hang some of the wall hangings on. The project was only $12 dollars and 30 min. of my time.

Our dresser. We ended up getting it from Wal-Mart because of free site-to-store shipping. It beats the $75 shipping Target wanted to charge. We'll put a changing pad on here so it will double as a changing table.

Quest Shower

I had a great time at a shower today thrown by some of my church friends. It was so fun to hang out with them and just feel blessed by the gifts they gave me. They also prayed for me and our family at the end which was very encouraging and made me cry:) We got lots of useful things including a car seat, baby monitor, organizing bins, clothes, and much more. I actually have enough clothes and towels that I could do a full load of laundry for the baby. My friend Maggie got us some practical cleaning agents for baby and clothes...so I'm doing laundry now with our baby-friendly detergent. It's fun to wash Grace's stuff for the first time. I'm sure I'll get sick of it but it's fun for now. I know a handful of the women at the shower read this blog so I'll give a shout out to you all. Thanks so much for your love and support! We have a wonderful church family to bring our baby into. I can't even begin to fathom how much you'll mean to her and have already meant to us over the last few years.

Yellow cake with chocolate frosting made by AmyJo. Yummy!

The hosts and me.

Convicting

I just read a really cool post on a John Piper's Desiring God blog. Since I tend to lean more towards the legalistic side (wrongly so) this really challenged me to search my heart a little bit more deeply. Please take a few minutes to read this because it is really good stuff.

Knowing the Nature of Your Evil

February 19, 2009 | By: John Piper
Category: Commentary

It is important that we know the nature of the evil in our hearts.

Do you think the essence of your evil is disobeying commandments? That’s a good start. But it’s not the essence of our evil. Commands simply name the evil and its fruits, and tell us not to do them.

The essence of our evil is that we prefer anything to God (Romans 1:23; 2:23). Commands do not create the possibility of evil. Commands name it.

Long before we are told not to covet, we covet. Disobeying the command, “Thou shalt not covet,” is not equivalent to the evil of coveting. The evil of coveting is there first, and then is compounded by the transgression of the commandment not to covet.

Paul said, “I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7). That is, I wouldn’t have known the seriousness of my evil if God had not named it in the law.

But lawbreaking is not the essence of my evil. Desiring anything above God is the essence of my evil, before any commands name it.

One reason this is important to know is that it will affect the way you pursue change. If you think the essence of your evil is commandment-breaking, your focus for change will be commandment-keeping.

That is doomed to fail for two reasons. If we get good at it, we think we have changed, but the essence of our evil remains. If we can’t get good at it, we despair and quit trying.

But if we know that the essence of our evil is not commandment-breaking, but preferring anything to God, then our focus for change will be a change of heart. That is hopeful, because God promised, “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).

This is the new covenant that Jesus purchased with his blood (Luke 22:20). We receive it by faith.