16 & 17 Weeks

I haven't posted in a while because we were in Grand Cayman for 8 days!  We had the amazing opportunity to go on a winter vacation.  Friends of ours generously invited us and several other couples to join them at a house that they had rented on the beach of Grand Cayman.  It was an amazing trip, and I will post more pictures and stories soon.  It's crazy to think that we went from laying on the beach to being back in MO just in time for a blizzard!

But it was a much needed break from the cold and snow.  I've been cooped up in this house for most of January with snow days.  I was getting serious cabin fever!  Sitting in the sun for a week and swimming and being active was SUCH a blessing!  And at a perfect time in my pregnancy- not nauseous anymore but not huge and tired either.  I felt great all week.  I even looked pretty good in my swimsuit with my little baby bump starting to show!  That's right, I checked when we got home from the trip and I finally gained some weight!  3 lbs!  It's a weird in-between.  I am ready for the bump to get big enough that you can tell it is a baby bump and not just bloating or eating too much for dinner. :)

What I can't believe is that we will be finding out the sex of the baby in less than a week!  Next Monday we will have our sonogram!  I still don't even feel pregnant most of the time and we will find out if it's a boy or a girl?!  CRAZY!

I had some good reflection time with the Lord as I sat on the beach early one morning, watching the waves roll in.  They were the most peaceful moments, sitting on the shore, listening to the waves, and feeling the breeze and the sun on my face.  I wished that we could live right there, but then I know that I wouldn't appreciate it, I'd take it for granted.  Anyway, I was journaling praises for all of the blessing in my life and thinking about Jeff and I becoming parents, when I realized that we are already parents!  We already have a child, growing inside me.  We are getting to know him or her every day, every week, every time we hear the heartbeat, or read about how he/she is developing.  We are already taking care of him/her.  We will continue to grow in our love and getting to know our child as we see them again on the sonogram, find out the sex, as my stomach starts growing, as I feel him/her flutter and move and kick within me.  We are already parents.  A mom and a dad to this child.  What an amazing and indescribable gift.


Stand still and consider the wondrous work of God.
Job 37:14