A Precious Heartbeat

Our first ultrasound was Friday, September 28th. I just knew that the doctor would say, "There's no baby in there! You're crazy!" but she didn't! She said, "There it is! A beautiful baby. With a precious heartbeat..." Of course this made me tear up, and of course I was ecstatic, and of course I wanted to fast-forward 7 months and have the baby safely here.

Proud mom and dad with first ultrasound pics and
first baby gift (from Mema and Granddaddy, of course).

I haven't figured out the rest of the acronym for PREGNANCY, but the P definitely stands for "paranoia." For example: "Is the cigarette smoke coming through my vents from the guy in the car in front of me, going to hurt the baby?!" "Are the fumes from the Sharpie I just used for .05 seconds going to harm the baby?" "The book says don't eat soft cheese that's not pasteurized. Do you think this cheese at the Mexican restaurant is pasteurized?!" I know - I know-- a little ridiculous. I'm hoping this is a first pregnancy thing, and I am sure it is a "Mary Beth needs to give this to the Lord" thing. Fortunately I haven't reached obsessive paranoia (Donald wouldn't let me get away with that), but even subtle thoughts show my independence from the Lord, and how greatly I need to depend on Him (which, ironically we are studying at church right now). Not that dependence is a magical formula for a perfect life, a perfect baby, but relying on the Lord for everything and praising Him for everything is the way to go. Today the teacher at church, Alcides Fuentes, from Nicaragua, said that we need to handle the possible and let God handle the impossible (well, I think Ruth Graham said that), and this baby is definitely my "impossible." A miracle that the Lord can totally take care of. My job is to not smoke the cigarette, not inhale the Sharpie on purpose for like a long time, and do a little research on cheese.

The Secret Month(s)

Knowing that you're pregnant and not being able to shout it out to the entire world is quite agonizing. It was official for us on September 7th, the day upon our return from California, 5-6 weeks into the pregnancy and 4 weeks before we started telling "the world." Of course our families knew, which was super exciting, but keeping it from everyone else was hard.

The day we found out was exciting and surreal. I took the test after Donald had left for work, and I just knew it was going to be negative (by the way, for those who are not up to speed on pregnany test jargon, "negative" means "not pregnant"). I just knew I was "not pregnant." So, I took the test, placed it next to the sink and immediately began brushing my teeth. I looked down, and WHA-BAM it was instantly positive. As you may have guessed, "positive" means "pregnant," and I was very pregnant. My heart dropped, my eyes bulged out of my head. I was very, very excited. I immediately thought about calling Donald and saying (screaming), "it's a plus, it's a plus, it's a plus!!!," but decided I wanted to be more creative than that, which ended up not really working out. He called me, said he had to swing by the house for something, asked what the test said, and of course, when I said, "I"ll tell you when you get here," that meant, "heck yeah, I'm pregnant." Oh well. No cute little baby shoes for him to open in a cute little perfectly wrapped package, no cards, or t-shirts, or mugs that said, "World's Best Dad."


My actual plan was to continue the "bun in the oven" theme that stems from an event that had happened a few months back. You see, an actual bun (hamburger, if you need to know) had fallen to the bottom of our actual oven, and the oven being too hot for me to retrieve it and me not wanting it to catch on fire the next time we pre-heated the oven, I left him a note. "Honey- There's a bun in the oven." Cruel, you might say, but since we weren't trying to get pregnant, and therefore it wouldn't be a let down when it wasn't actually true, I didn't think it'd be too harmful to make his stomach drop for about 3 seconds. So he saw the note, looked at me to see if it was a joke (it was), and then I had fun telling people about our bun in the oven (oh, and once the oven cooled, Donald rescued the burned bun). So I was going to use that somehow in telling him that we were pregnant, but it didn't work. Next time, we will just take the test when we're both home like normal people. Next time?! Or I will just rent this hideous costume...

Looks More Like "A giant fortune cookie in the oven"

So the Secret Month(s), as I have called them, were not too bad, physically. The first several weeks I had lots of cramping, the next weeks brought on complete exhaustion and starvation. I was and am utterly ravenous. Feed me. Feed me. I need more food. Praise the Lord for this absolute miracle.

California or Bust, SC if We Must

Well, we're back from our trip to California, and it was absolutely wonderful. We had an awesome time and enjoyed viewing some of God's masterpieces, which I'll share with you below. There were some of the most gorgeous views on earth over there! The whole trip went off without a hitch, and we got plenty of rest while still seeing lots and lots of stuff and reflecting on the Lord's majesty. We also had fellowship with a bunch of great people (Bonnie (friend), Frances (old youth group friend) and her boyfriend, Greg. Herb and Helen Selby and their fellowship group who we hung out with on Labor Day). The fellowship group was very gracious while we watched the Clemson/Florida State game. They all thought it was quite humorous how we southerners get all worked up about college football. They even made sweet tea for us!

Here are some of our favorite shots:

What is that sticking out of my head?

A view of the bridge from the Marin Headlands.

The Sea Lions have taken over Pier 39 in San Francisco. They are cute!

This is what I'm talking about when I say, "most gorgeous views in the world":

Here we are at the "Lone Cypress" on the 17-Mile-Drive in Carmel.
The Sun Setting in D's Glasses

Long Beach, CA

La Jolla, CA (San Diego Area)

So, it's good to be home, but we're not really looking forward to the reality of work and busy schedules, which are quickly approaching as the weekend disintegrates before our eyes. We hope you are doing well and are enjoying football season like us, and praising God for the miracles that he performs each and every day!!