Ok, let's try it again...

As you can see, it has been a LONG time since we last posted. A lot has happened, and there just isn't enough time or space to write it all out. So let's just start fresh, and go from there. Just a little recap...
This is our third year of marriage
We have two kids; Elijah who is 2, and Kylah who is 3 months
We are currently living with family, and hoping and praying to have our own place soon!
Corey is working from home doing graphic design, music, and web work
I am trying to get my photography business off the ground, trying to sell things I crochet, and teaching Messianic Dance at our church to almost 40 people!

Those are the basics, and will hopefully be back soon to add more. Gotta go check on dinner! :)

Almost 31 weeks pregnant!

I can't believe how quickly time has gone by. I will be 31 weeks tomorrow and things are starting to pick up. There is so much to do, and not enough time it seems. As of this week we have the whole house to ourselves...YAY...and now the work starts. Cleaning, painting, moving furniture, organizing, buying things, etc. We have started cleaning, and hopefully will be painting within the next week. Unfortunately, the way things are, we are going to have to do the nursery last. Because of this, I am hoping that we can get everything else done rather quick. I know that we have time even after the little one is born, but it would be nice to have it all ready. Before I go on, let me recap what has gone on since my last post...
I received a call from home saying my dad was going to need fairly "emergency" surgery on his heart. We knew that he would need it eventually, but things had gotten worse very quick and they needed to operate immediately. I was about 20 weeks when I flew out to Denver to be with him. His surgery, which was about an 8 hour procedure, was a couple days before Thanksgiving. They had to do basically an overhaul on his heart. They had to repair/replace his aorta, his aortic valve, and his mitral valve. They did an ablation to correct his irregular heart beat, put in a pacemaker wire, and put in a defibrillator wire. The first few days after were the worst...the day of the surgery he was taken off the ventilator and was doing great...then that night, he tanked and they had to put him back on. It was so hard to see that. He gradually got better and was finally off the ventilator for good a few days after the surgery. He was in the Cardiac ICU for most of his stay and was put in a regular room the last two days. He came home right before I had to leave to come back to Virginia. I had prayed that he would be out of the hospital before having to leave, and my prayers were answered. He is doing great now...his rehab is going great, he is gaining weight, getting healthier, stronger, and as of two weeks ago has been released to go back to work.
On December 11th, a couple days after returning to Virginia, we had our ultrasound...IT'S A BOY!!! We are so excited! God gave us the name Elijah...so Elijah Michael is his name.

Since then, we have been pretty busy...we have been working on ideas for the baby's room, getting our registry together, getting ready for the holidays, and so on. Christmas went well, we were all at the parent's house Christmas Eve, and had a nice dinner. Corey and I spent Christmas morning home with each other, then went back over to the parent's house to spend the day with them. We also went over there for New Years, and got to recap the year and reflect. And what a year it has been. It would take a book to tell everything.
That pretty much takes us to today. I have been teaching dance every Tuesday, and unfortunately I am starting to slow down. I can't dance for very long during classes, but I still enjoy it. I now teach dance at church during Sunday school which is pretty fun too. I have also started teaching math to two home schooled teens which is going well. On top of that, Corey and I will be starting to clean the church this week. Needless to say, we are keeping busy.
This coming month we will be hopefully getting the house the way we want it, and be ready to set up the nursery by the 28th (our baby shower). It would be nice to be able to come home after and put things in his room. :) Below are pictures of my ever growing belly...23, 26, and 28 weeks)

The Christian Vote

I don't normally get worked up about political issues and usually assume an internal posture of prayer when I see injustice, evil, and hypocrisy in the world we live in, but this time I feel a deep sense of dread and my spirit feels very heavy over recent political and historical events. So I am not afraid to step out on a limb and say it like I see it.

The first issue is obviously the fact that I believe it is clearly evident, that America has just selected an extremely unrighteous man as President of this nation. This is not meant as a disrespect to our new President-Elect (because I believe that we should bless those in leadership) but if we don't see the truth, speak the truth, and call for true justice in our country, what good are we as Christians?

The second issue is the Christian vote. I was shocked to see and hear how many Christians support this man. I want to know how it is possible to call oneself a Christian and vote for a man like this. I wonder are people aware of all of the many evil, socialistic, and almost communist ideals he stands for? He is not simply radical, the man is frightening to say the least.. and the scariest thing of all is that he has deceived so many people.

Let's take abortion for example. It's enough that we already practice the mass murder of unborn infants in this country, but the first thing on our President-Elect's to do list is to push the Freedom of Choice Act. What is included in this? Partial Birth Abortion.

Forgive me for this next part, but all I can do is grieve over the fact that so many Christians in this nation can be in full support of a man who wants to make the act of stabbing live born babies in the back of the head and leaving them in another room to die a legal process.

How can followers of our Lord, a God of mercy and love support this kind of evil?

Mark my words, if and when this Act is passed, this nation will suffer God's swift and righteous justice because of it.

All we can do is pray now.

Corey Johnson - Music, Sound & Video Production
Oracle Flame Studios & Breakthrough Media
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17 Weeks Pregnant

Hi everyone! I created this blog quite a while ago, just haven't sat down and started writing. So here I am 17 weeks pregnant, and have not really written a thing. Of course I have the occasional mini journal post on how I am feeling physically be it nausea, fatigue, etc; or just small comments on my mood and thoughts. I have not yet sat down to really write how I feel. As you know, when you are pregnant, you have thoughts swimming in your head all day about nearly everything: how am I going to decorate the nursery, will I be a good mom, am I ready for this?, do we have enough money?, I can't wait to see my baby's first smile, are the cats going to be OK around the little one?, am I eating right?, I can't wait for our next prenatal appointment, how are we going to raise this impressionable little person?, etc. These among what seem like hundreds of other thoughts fill your head, and its no wonder they say that a pregnant woman forgets things and gets sidetracked.
I catch myself nearly everyday "zoning out" while sitting down talking to my husband online, or trying to read an article, or making a to-do list. When I "snap out of it" so to speak, I sometimes forget what it was that I was doing. I have to say my best moment was when I was doing laundry a month or so back. I had fallen into my routine of bringing some clothes down, putting the wet ones in the dryer, the new ones in the washer leaving the basket in front of the machines, then after taking the dry ones upstairs, brought down another load for the washer. I went down to change a load (with a thought in my head) , brought the dry clothes upstairs and started folding them. Because there were no more loads I didn't have to go back downstairs until the last load was done drying. I was still deep in my thought when all of a sudden it hit me...did I ever start the dryer? I went downstairs, dryer wasn't running so I turned it on, and went back upstairs. About 45 min later, the buzzer sounded so I went downstairs with my basket, opened the dryer and...it was empty. I had completely forgotten to put the clothes in there. Oy! I had a good laugh with that one. The whole point is, we do silly, crazy things when we have this much stuff on our minds to think about. It is no longer about us and what we do with our day, its about planning for a adorable but major adjustment to our lives. I always thought that I worried too much about things; but now I start to wonder if I am worrying enough. I am so afraid of forgetting to do something or think of something that is going to be crucial for at least the next five or so months until the baby is born...I haven't even gotten to all that is going to happen and be items to worry about then.
I have spent hours and days looking at pages and pages of baby websites, signed up and get emails from three of them, and trying to take in as much as I can. It's exhausting! LOL. I have spent hours looking at nursery decorating websites; and trying to put together a registry, which I can say personally can be frustrating when you have no idea what you need. This of course brings up one of the thoughts that come to my mind every day...how are we going to afford all of this? I have been looking at ways to save money, whether it be looking at overstock.com and similar websites, to finding how-to ideas so that I can make some of the things we need. I have been saving/downloading tons of do-it-yourself ideas, crochet patterns for baby clothes and toys, and pictures of other people's nursery decorations. We have yet to decided on a scheme; we have no color, no theme, nothing. I am the most undecided person I know, and now because its not for me, I am a whole lot worse. I keep thinking...will this baby ,once she/he has gotten a little older, like what mommy and daddy have decided on for their room? It's a good thing I started looking at ideas early...maybe this way we will have it picked out in time. I am such a procrastinator that we will be lucky if we have everything ready on time. I don't even have my first midwife appointment until I am 18 weeks. Didn't see the doctor until I was 12 weeks.
When Corey and I went to the doctor when I was 12 weeks, we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. WOW!!! It was one of those speechless moments. I couldn't believe how incredible that sounded. Not because it was a heartbeat, but because that came from inside me; I had a life inside of me. A huge moment of reality hit me. I knew before that moment that I was pregnant, but up to that moment all I had memory wise were my frequent trips to the bathroom for one reason or another, terrible nausea, and a complete lack of energy; might as well have been the flu. But at that moment, it all changed. I was not just a newly pregnant woman with the "sickness" (in my case it was not just morning sickness, it was an all day thing), but I was a woman carrying a precious cargo inside her; a mother. On the trip home Corey and I talked about an idea we had about recording the heartbeat as time goes on (because it gets slower) and making it the background to a song; a song Corey can write for/about the baby. The heartbeat will get slower and end with the first cry at birth. It will all be personal and real: our baby. No synthetic, pre-recorded sounds. Our baby's actual heartbeat and cry. I can't wait! Now all we have to do is remember to record the sounds...lol. We get so excited (OK, I get so excited) that I forget things when I am walking out the door, and then remember halfway to our destination.
Our first midwife appointment is next Monday, so I will keep you updated on that. Not sure really what to expect. Speaking of that I need to call my midwife Nancy. (Made a quick note) Hopefully not long after that we will have our first ultrasound. I cannot wait to see that image of our little one...and hopefully she/he will cooperate and reveal a gender. All we want is a healthy baby, but of course we have our guesses. For a while there we both thought boy, but lately I have been feeling girl. Either way we will be truly grateful and feel blessed!
Starting last week (Tuesday), Corey and I got to feel the baby for the first time. I thought I had felt it earlier in the day, but I wasn't sure. Later that evening, Corey put his head on my abdomen and started talking to the baby. We both felt a kick or such and his head shot up. That was incredible! Since then I have been feeling the baby move every day. Some days more than others, but every day. We definitely have an active baby. Like right now I have felt some "jabs". I read on websites that at this stage they are like fluttering sensations...yeah okay, totally not just fluttering around. I was told by an older friend that I will probably be one of the women that feels everything, if I can already feel that. I guess that will be both wonderful, and not so wonderful...depending on timing and strength. I look forward to it though. It is nice to feel this little person inside of me moving around. Makes it all the more real at those times when you get lost in the day. I get sidetracked now, even from previous "sidetracked" thoughts. Movement takes precedent over thoughts. I will be standing at a checkout line, the baby will move, and I forget that I am in line. I just smile at the cashier, and don't really worry about what the people behind me are thinking: I am enjoying these moments.
Now, before I go on forever, because I know I could, I am going to just say a little bit about how I am feeling, post a picture (not a good one) but the only one I have, and wrap this up. I always have other posts. The nausea has pretty much gone except for a small bit here and there. I have started getting my energy back minus the past two days...baby growth spurt I think, and I am overall very happy. I am excited, nervous, anxious, thrilled, worried, amazed, scared, and at times speechless. But all in all, I know that everything will be OK because I know that God is watching out for Corey and I, and our little one. Without faith and trust in a wonderful God, and my loving husband, I don't know where I would be.

We Are Pregnant!

Well, speaking of new beginnings, I just found out that I am going to be a father! Sabrina took a pregnancy test this morning and it was positive! Amazing. I believe this is also symbolic of the new life God is breathing into our lives and the new things He is birthing in our relationships and community. We prayed and blessed the child as soon as she found out and gave the baby to the Lord. I'm very happy and I am looking forward to all the new things that God is going to show me through this. The gift of life is such a wonderful thing. We are both so blessed that God would find us worthy to receive such a gift. Thank you, God! I am going to be a Daddy!

Corey Johnson - Music, Sound & Video Production
Oracle Flame Studios & Breakthrough Media
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