I Would be a Mommy Blogger...

I was just going through my e-mail inbox and deleting hundreds of e-mails...and my heart was filled with thankfulness and amazement of how God has been good to us these past few years. Since BG #1 was born, it's been a lot harder to keep up with my blog (I would be a Mommy Blogger, but I elected to feed my children instead!).

My e-mail inbox reminded me of people from past stations that I haven't talked to in way too long. Like a friend from Pensacola who wrote to let me know that she was praying for Tim as he landed on the aircraft carrier for the first time! Then there were e-mails from family after I sent them pictures of my first gender ultrasound in 2013. That brought back memories of how incredibly nervous I was thinking about life with children. Now we've got two! (I'm still a little nervous).

Last year this time Tim still hadn't flown the Harrier yet - after waiting months for training to pick up. I was tense about the future, although my tension was mostly about having to adjust to a more mobile Baby Girl.

On April Fool's Day I got a positive pregnancy test, and soon after, Tim got to solo in the Harrier for the first time. He loved it! I tried not to think about his job too much, since the further he got in training meant the closer we would be to a deployment. I'd also occasionally have dreams about planes crashing into the forest next to us...

The rest of the year was really hard, but really good, in a Romans 8:28 sort of way. After three years of training, Tim had a sudden military career change. We spent the summer and fall wondering what that new career was going to be. I prayed for two things: that it would allow us to remain at our church for the next three years, and that it would be a non-deploying job. So far, both prayers have been answered - Tim will be an adjutant at the MAG level and we get to stay here.

 BG #2 arrived November 24th. 8 lbs, 5 oz, 22 inches long. We celebrated Thanksgiving three days later and our fifth anniversary the day after that. I had thought before that I would like to be able to fit into my wedding dress on our fifth anniversary. That did not happen. That's ok - my stretch marks look like flame tattoos. Some people pay to get flame tattoos. Mine were free, and a lot less painful. They don't give epidurals at tattoo parlors!


Here is what I did get for our anniversary: a real wedding album! Isn't it gorgeous? The cover is pearly and stamped and the pages are silver-colored on the outside. I'm so happy with how it turned out.

The next big holiday was Christmas...our first one getting a real tree! It was the biggest, most wonderful smelling tree I've ever seen.

Four days before Baby Girl #2 was born I got a 3D ultrasound picture of her. A few days ago, I took a picture of her sleeping and sent it to Tim, who pointed out to me that she looks the same now as she did when she was inside...

November 20th, 2014

January 13th, 2015

Baby Girl #2 has been awake for about five hours between when the two pictures were taken (I may be exaggerating). Tim and I remark to each other often that for someone whose name means "resurrection," she sure does sleep a lot. "Awake, O sleeper, and αναστα (anasta) from the dead!" But seriously, isn't it amazing how the Gospel works? You're dead, and then you're alive, and Christ's light shines on you! I love Ephesians.