About a month before we found out we were pregnant, Josh was approached from a professor of his,
with an opportunity to come on staff as pastor of a church here in Lakeland. After getting to know the heart of the church and the focus the people have towards missions and meeting needs in the community, we were both super excited and thankful to get the chance to come along side them. Josh has continued working at SEU and taking his grad classes, so with the addition of the church responsibilities, his plate became much more full. But after sitting down and mapping out a plan for his week to week, over the past few months everything has meshed really well together. Coping with morning sickness so soon after becoming apart of Genesis Church, left me a bit disappointed as I had to miss out on events and even attending services the first couple of months. But now that I'm feeling better and am out and about again, I've been excited to get the chance to connect with the people there and begin to get involved. We're planning on starting a couple's ministry in March that I'm thrilled about and can't wait to get more things started over the next few months. Its going to be a great year. :-)
Over the weekend, Josh and I finally got to have our Valentines Day date. The plan had been to go out for lunch and then make our way to Picasso's cup to paint pottery. But once we got there, we found that there was a birthday party being hosted and so the studio was crawling with kids and the walls were lined with supervising parents shouting above the noise in order to have a conversation. So since it was so busy, we decided to walk next door and go see a movie instead. During the movie, I started to feel fluttering in my belly. I knew right away what it was since this was the 2nd time I'd felt the baby moving around. But to my surprise, when I put my hand on my stomach, I could feel the little kicks on the outside too! So I told Josh and he quickly put his hand on my stomach. When I saw the big smile spread across his face, I could tell that he could feel the baby moving around too. The baby kicked for about a minute or two before we couldn't feel it anymore. It was such a surprise since that day I was only 16 weeks, 2 days pregnant. My doctor had told me just a couple days before at my check up that it all depended on where the baby had implanted as to when I would start to feel him/her a lot and how soon that Josh would get to feel kicks as well. She had told us she'd had women as early as 14 weeks start to feel the baby and some not until week 20. But with a large majority somewhere around 18 weeks. So I was super surprised that the baby had kicked hard enough for me to feel it on the outside of my stomach. But it was such a fun moment. It was the perfect addition to our Valentine's Date. :-)
The upside to how busy we've been, is that its made time fly by. I'm now 17 weeks pregnant! Which means that we only have 3 more weeks until we find out if we'll be having a little Jackson or a little Nora. Both Josh and I think the baby's a girl. For some reason, I've thought that all along. I can't wait to buy huge flower head bands, pink, pink, and more pink. But at the same time, if we end up having a boy, we'll both be super thrilled with that as well. Josh and his Dad have started the "Annual Grace men camping trips" and Josh has already started talking about being able to take our son along on the camping trips, if we end up having a boy. So I guess either way, we're both going to be super thrilled. :-) All I know is that our ultrasound on March 12th can't come soon enough! :-)
16 weeks, 2 days pregnant and all set for our Valentine's Day Date 2/16/13- Josh felt the baby for the 1st time :-)