8 weeks.

Written on: 05/04/14

8 Weeks. 2 Months. Unbelievable. 

8 weeks of sweet baby pregnancy.  I really like being pregnant.  I think it is cool that God has made this tiny human inside of me that I get to keep safe until it is time to enter the world! It’s just amazing to me, only God could write a story like that.  We are so in love, and it’s only been 8 weeks! 

We had a little bit of a scare moment last week.  I was having some pain consistent with cyst pain that I had experienced in the past.  The pain was concerning to the doctor coupled with the fact that my silly intestines were very, very inflamed.  My doctor asked that I get an early, internal, ultrasound at the hospital when I was 7 weeks.  Which was Thursday, April 24th.  They wanted to check for fetal viability and she wanted to make sure we were only dealing with one sweet babe! The possibility of 2 babies made my heart flutter, with excitement. However the ultrasound not only confirmed that baby was just fine, there was also only one sweet baby safe and sound in there. : ) We got to *see* the heartbeat on that monitor.  Seeing that tiny little flutter was absolutely the single most amazing thing that I have ever experienced in my life.  I’m so, so thankful.  God is so good. 

I had an icky sinus infection and touch of bronchitis this week.  Which wasn’t that fun.  I also had my first pregnancy migraine which had poor Seth in a panic.  I got them before I was pregnant, but now I can’t take any of my medicine.  It’s just hard to not know what to do yet.  

We got to take some sweet announcement photos this week with the ever talented Amy Sprengel.  Here are some of our favorites. 

Aren’t those just the best thing ever!? We had SO much fun and I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to do this! 

How far along? 8 weeks 

Total weight gain: I actually lost 4 pounds, apparently this is normal. : )

Maternity clothes? Nope.

Stretch marks? Not yet!

Sleep: I am tired all the time.  However, my body has decided that it would like to be away around 5:30a or 6:00a every. single. day.  No exceptions.  This is VERY unusual for those of you that know me.  I’m not really an early morning lady, I rock 11:00a like nobodies business.  Now don’t get me wrong, once I’m up, I’m up, ready and happy to go.  I think that God is getting me ready for baby wake up calls.  Which I am ridiculously looking forward to.

Best moment this week: Seth and I got to spend quite a bit of time together this week cooking, laughing, and laying on our couch.  Those moments had been pretty few and far between, so I’m thankful there were lots this week.

Miss Anything? Nope!

Movement: Not yet.

Food cravings: Fruit, ranch, vanilla milkshakes and chicken farfalle. Seth has been the bomb about any and all cravings! He's just the best. 

Anything making you queasy or sick:  My sense of smell is still a little cray.  I also turned the eating corner this week.  I have to eat every 2 hours or I feel like I’m going to throw up and/or pass out.  Not my two favorite feelings, so I try to avoid them. : ) 

Have you started to show yet: No

Gender: TBD

Labor Signs: None.

Symptoms: Sense of smell, tenderness, crying a lot (read: all the freaking time), I cannot stop.  Even a commercial can send me over the edge, watch out people! : ) 

Things I’m looking forward to: We get to hear the heart beat this week at my 9-week appointment.  I. Cannot. Wait.  That might also be the biggest understatement of the century.  

6 weeks: 4 days.

Written: 04/16/14

We are now 6 weeks and 4 days into the Baby Roberts adventure!

We cannot wait to tell everyone and even more I cannot wait until he/she gets here, I feel like I’m going to burst!

 I cannot believe I have to wait almost 6 more weeks to tell everyone something I’ve been dying to have to tell for a little over a year.

Seth and I have been praying for a baby for over a year.  That seems like an eternity to us, when really it was not long at all.  Many people have to wait even longer and sometimes their answer is no.  We are so thankful for all the people who have been excited for us and with us, and prayed for us before and now. To those of you who cried with me, prayed with me, laughed with me and had a dance party in a back closet for me, thank you.  Your excitement has made this exciting announcement even more exciting. God is so good and it is only because of Him that Seth and I even have exciting news to share at all! It was sort of a long road, with a lot of hard and a lot of sadness. But God is always glorified, even if we have to wait.

Our first OB appointment will be on May 7^th.  I made it the day I found out (April 4^th) and I feel like it is never going to come! I’m so excited for it, I can hardly stand it! But I’m also have a lot of fear. Every cramp or bit of pain makes me wonder. But, I know that everything is going to be fine. Baby Roberts is probably loving being all snuggled up inside me, oblivious to everything I know I am sure loving having them in there, with me all the time.

How far along? 6 weeks, four days.

Total weight gain: None.

Maternity clothes? Nope.

Stretch marks? Thank goodness not yet!

Sleep: I am tired all the time.  Although I seem to be waking up a few times every night.  Baby makes my back hurt and it’s hard to sleep.

Best moment this week: Getting to take 2 naps. : )

Miss Anything? Nope!

Movement: Not yet.

Food cravings: Fruit, ranch and pickles.  Don’t worry, not all together... yet : )

Anything making you queasy or sick:  My sense of smell is crazy. I feel likes it’s a superpower I wish would go away! I'm not really hungry until I feel like I'm going to pass out.  Appetite is absolutely gone! 

Have you started to show yet: No

Gender: TBD

Labor Signs: None.

Symptoms: Sense of smell, tenderness, cramping, wicked heartburn, super sleepy, super duper sleepy oh and did I mention sleepy!?

Hurry Up

Yesterday I noticed an epidemic in our society and it really got me thinking.  

I was at Target and there was this woman frantically running around with her child to get to the check-out and leave.  At one point she darted into one line, grabbed a soda and then frantically pushed her way in front of me so she could check out before me.  She then huffed when she got all of her things piled on the conveyor belt and a sweet teenage boy opened the check-out next to us.  She hurried the checkout girl and then ran out the door and threw everything (including her child) into her SUV and peeled out of the parking lot.  A few hours later I witnessed more hurrying when I almost got hit by a man last night because he didn’t stop at a stop sign and then raced off into the night. Now, I am not discounting the fact that these people may have truly had somewhere very important to be... it just really made me stop and think. 

I began to wonder so many things.  Not only why were these two people in such a humungous hurry, but why are we all in such a hurry?  I constantly have to remind myself to slow down and really experience things. It doesn't matter what I am doing or who I am with, I have to force myself to be in the moment.  To not worry about the next step, but really to be in the moment that God has given me.  Why can we never be still, and calm in today society? 

 I also then started thinking about this in alignment to my relationship with God.  How often do I race ahead of Him? How often do I tell myself that it's OK to race ahead of Him?  I find myself thinking, toiling, and striving to try and get things done faster and better. Not even stopping to think how laughable it is that I think I can get things done faster and better than the God of the universe.  I forget that in His perfect timing exactly what He has planned for my life will happen exactly when He wants it to happen.  No amount of worrying or planning can make God's plan for my life happen any better than he has already planned it since the beginning of time. There is great peace in that. 

But I think that we all do this all too often, and when we do this we are really questioning the sovereignty of God.  We worry that if we really put all of our trust in Him then we may lose out on something that WE really wanted for our lives.  Instead of remembering that what God has planned for us is always best, even if it isn’t always easy or what we wanted and planned for our lives. 

We can find ourselves questioning if He really knows, “…the plans He has for us…” are they really, “… plans to prosper and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future…”? I think sometimes if we really look deep into the hearts of every believer, and non-believer for that matter, we will find the fear that if I don’t get this figured out then no one else will.  We sometimes fear that includes the God that has promised to love us until the very end of the age. 

We see in Exodus 14:14, "The LORD your God will fight for you, you need only to be still." The God who sent His son to die on the cross for you has promised in His word that He will fight for you, just be still. I think that sometimes God does ask us to act, but sometimes He doesn't ask us to act.  He asks us to be still and allow Him do His work through us. I believe that when do this we can really feel the full power and love of the God of the universe.  When we stop to realize that we don’t have to have everything figured out, because the one who formed us in our mother’s wombs and has loved us even the midst of our deepest darkest pits already has our whole story written out. Not only does He have our whole story written out but he is already waiting at the end of it.  We don’t have to hurry and rush around to figure everything out.  If we seek God in His word and with prayer He will reveal His will to us, in His perfect timing.  We won’t then, have to wonder what God has for us and rush to get there, because He will show us with great love and unending mercy. 

He’s already there.

A New Year

This year I've resolved to write more.  Not like a New Year's resolution... because let's be honest.  Its January 16th and this is the first time I've put "pen to paper" so to speak.  Writing makes me happy, and I think we should all try to do just a little more of what makes us happy.

I've been thinking a lot about the concept of a "new year". We have a big party to celebrate it coming, without thinking of what it really means. I have been thinking about how the new year can sometimes make people feel inadequate, because of all the things they set out to do before the "new year" came, and maybe didn't get done.  We then decide that we are failures and that we accomplished absolutely nothing in the last year.  I challenge you to look at life just a little bit different.  365 is a long time, and I believe that God uses us during those 365 days to change.  Now, you might not be changing necessarily for the better, or worse, but you are changing.

Look at some things that happened in my small life over the last year and tell me if you think God can't use a year no matter what.

This time last year:

I hadn't laid eyes on Autum Joy Nennig. 

We didn't even know what this precious little girl was going to look like. 

My dad had not started and finished his first triathlon

Alec hadn't even been diagnosed...

Or... (thank you Jesus) cured of Cancer.
Gets me every stinkin' time. 

My sweet baby sister hadn't even done this yet.
I cannot look at this picture without getting weepy.

Sweet Alayna Grace, wasn't even 5 years old yet. 

I thought I was never going to graduate from college.

And Grace wasn't even home with a healed heart.

The list goes on and on.  This year my sweet friend Jenna decided to move to Kenya to be used exactly where God wants her, and Stephanie got a real life teaching job where she is making a huge difference.  I got a new job and Seth shepherds some sweet students at Fox River Waterford.  

God will use your year when you're not even looking. Sometimes we feel like He is going to use us whether we like it or not. If you are open to his voice and anxiously waiting in hopeful anticipation, God will use your year.  He might not use it the way that you had originally hoped for, or the way that you *really* wanted him to (ahem, I know a thing or seven about that), but He will use you.  He didn't put you on this earth to waste away into nothing. God is always, always using our days to shape who we are going to become.  And it is up to us know we respond and use those days that he has gifted to us.  What are you going to do with the next days that God has decided to give you? You can love, laugh, struggle or waste them.  It's completely up to you.

We have 349 days left in 2014 to let God use us.  Are you up to the challenge?

Remember, He's already there.

The God of Immeasurably More

Last night we looked at Ezekiel 36:24-27. God takes Ezekiel out and is looking over all the dry bones. Not new "fresh" newly abandoned bones. But dry, hard brittle bones. The dead of the dead. And God asks Ezekiel if those bones can live again. Have you ever looked at this passage before? Really looked? I hadn't. Ezekiel answers, only You can know of sovereign Lord. What an answer! What an amazing answer. God was asking Ezekiel an impossible question. And yet Ezekiel had the wisdom to look up and say, only You know that God. Only You. But we know and should live in the knowledge of, that when Jesus comes He breathes life into dry bones. Some of you have walked in that with Him, some of you have watched it happen to those you love dearest in your lives. You have watched people be broken from sin that didn't just make us bad, ugly or unwanted but made us dead. You have watched those broken bones be healed. In the power and name of Jesus.

Then we looked at Mark 9 talking about the little boy who was possessed by demons. The father said, help me if you can. Of course He could! He was and is the savior of the world.  With Him and through us our lives can do immeasurably more than we ever could even think in our hearts or minds. And He lives inside of us dear ones! We have the living and breathing God dwelling right inside of us! What a priceless privilege we have. If we just trust and believe and live in the faith of knowing that our God, our Christ, our savior wants to do immeasurably more in us and through us.

But the enemy doesn't like that. And just like the demon inside the little boy threw one last fit before exiting. So will the evil one that dwells among us. He knows that Jesus has a hold of us, he knows that if we obey Christ's calling in our lives we can and will do more. The enemy can't have that so he tries to take one last stand. To raise one last battle against you. But stand strong in the hope and faith of Christ and the immeasurably more that He wants to do through you!     

He's already at the end of Your story. He placed you just where you were supposed to be. He's not confused, He isn't up there looking down surprised at how your life is going. You are His child. Walk with Him and in Him and you can do immeasurably more!

He's already there. 

We Are Here!

We are here! We are actually here. In Atlanta that is. I almost (actually) physically cannot believe it. Over the short time God has allowed me to be on this earth. God has given me several passions and then shut the door. For good and perfect reasons, because He only knows what's best. And I was mostly OK with it. So I was really super hesitant to have this passion. Really hesitant. It scared the living tar out of me. But I followed. I asked people to pray for something I wasn't even sure why I wanted it.

We are sitting in our hotel waiting for our room to be ready. I am giddy with anticipation of walking into that Dome with tens of thousands of other believers. Giddy for those who will come to believe this week. Giddy. Seth and I have been waiting with great anticipation for his day. God has provided in the most amazing of ways for us to get here. He knows exactly why we are here. I can't wait for Him to show us. I know it will be great and good and perfect. Because that my sweet friends is exactly what our God is. Thank you, thank you a thousand times for journeying with is. It means the world. We will keep you posts as the week progresses. Trust me. I'm sure I won't be able to keep it inside!

He's already there.   

Passion

I know I haven't blogged in a long time. So forgive me if this is a really long post.

Seth and I have come a long way since I received the scholarship from Beth Moore a couple of months ago. I was again on Twitter and saw that the Passion conference was giving some men's scholarships away. Seth applied immediately and by the grace of God was granted a scholarship.

The next matter that we were praying to God to provide for was the hotel. We no new God would provide if He wanted us to go and we were praying with great expectation. During a women's event at church Jessie and Mom Roberts were selling mittens. The next day they told us at lunch that they were selling mittens to pay for our hotel room at Passion. I was in tears. I knew this was where God wanted us to be simply because our family was prepared to also sacrifice for us to be there.

We also were given financial gifts from my best friend Stephanie as well as my Mom and Dad. We are so thankful that God has given us people in our lives and believe in the vision that Seth and I believe that God is asking us to follow. One sweet friend of mine is even fasting from movies and TV while we are gone so she can more passionately pray for us. We couldn't be more thankful.

God also gave us other jobs that we could do to make money to keep us afloat while we were saving for Passion.  He gave me perfectly placed overnight nannying jobs and even a house/dog sitting job over Christmas right before we left.  God was making it so clear that we were supposed to be at this conference.  I have never felt anything more clear from God in my whole life.  Ever.

 Seth and I have felt as of we have been called to ministry together for a little while. But more specifically I have felt like God has been preparing me for ministry my whole life. How, where and when that will be He has not yet made clear, but he has put that passion in my heart. And he has finally shared that passion with my husband. We feel like this may be why God has called us to go to Passion this year, to reveal something to us. But we don't know. Because of that, we ask that you will partner with us in prayer with is while we are gone.

Please pray that God will make it clear why we felt so led to go to this specific conference, and made it so possible this specific year.

Please pray that for everyone else coming to the conference as we all prepare our hearts in prayer.

We are so thankful for your prayers and love already. We couldn't ask for better people to do life with.

I know we aren't going to do missions, or even leaving the country.  But I feel like this trip is really going to change our lives, forever.

 He's already there.