May We Gather All That Is Good

Just an update on our circumstances for those who wonder...

Baby News:

Just started the third trimester. He (the ultrasound tech was 100% sure it's a boy, we saw "it" too, but you really never know!) is kicking and stretching and rolling around all the time now. I can interact with him and push back on his little feet when he stretches his legs. Coolest... thing... ever! I passed my initial glucose test which means I'm off the hook and don't have to take the second one that's a big hassle and would have interfered with my enjoyment of Christmas feasts. Very happy about that. The second trimester was a breeze - it went by super fast and I felt great! I still feel mostly great... just running into a little more difficulty finding comfortable ways to sleep, managing the acid reflux/heartburn with daily pepcid and watching what I eat, and feeling a little fatigue lately, but that could be due to low iron levels I just learned I had --- it's no wonder beans and peas and raisin bran have all sounded so good lately! (Baby just kicked the laptop to say hello)  This is all going by so fast. I'm looking forward to this next week off of work to slow down and take it all in - Christmas, the New Year, and the fact that I'm just a college quarter away from giving birth if all goes well. Wow.

Nic's Job News

Thanks to connections from past employment, and thanks to our Good Dad for opening doors, my guy will once again find himself fashioning delicately balanced and heartwarmingly delicious libations at Starbucks! The formal interview process is out of the way. We are just waiting for word on where and when to start, as well as what official position he will hold - whether Barista or Shift Supervisor. And what the heck, I went ahead and asked the Lord if they would just say to themselves, "You know what? We already know Nic is awesome, let's just go head and make him an assistant manager and start the management training process!" It's a long shot, but God's been known to answer prayers like that for us before, like the time we were buying a car and I asked if I could have a car just like the one I used to drive but in awesome condition. What do you know, one turned up just in time and just in line with our budget. He said yes. :-)  Nic is pleased to start working at the 'Bucks again. The current plan is to do his best there and work his way up while going back to school with a focus in business (perhaps finance and/or management?) starting next Fall or soon after. We had talked about starting school sooner but figured it probably wouldn't be the greatest idea to heap several big life changes into a couple of short months - i.e. I stop working, Nic starts new job, we move, Nic starts school, AND we have a baby? Yikes. How about one thing at a time --- ish.

All in all, we feel a lot of peace, like maybe right now is a calm before the storm, a time to walk slowly and breathe deeply before we have to pick up the pace to keep up with all of the changes coming our way. May we gather all that is good during this season (and the next)! And there is so much good...

Blessings,

Sarah
for both of us

Pregnancy, Parenting, Job Hunt, and God's Hand In All Things

19 weeks pregnant today! Next week we'll be half way and we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl. I've been feeling little kicks and twitches, it's amazing. When I imagine what it will be like to meet this little creature growing in there, I pretty much burst into tears. So far enjoying every minute of the process - even when I'm annoyed that I have to go pee again, I think "it's because I'm pregnant," and it makes me smile. 

We have conversations about the kind of parents we want to be. We want to apologize to our kids for the ways we'll fail them. My own healing of childhood wounds has been greatly helped by my parents' participation. It's wonderfully freeing to have them understand and acknowledge ways that their brokenness affected me. And our brokenness will affect our kids. I'm terrified to find out how, but comforted knowing the Redeemer can make beauty out of it all.

Nic is still job hunting and purpose hunting. A deep desire of his is to find a niche. We pray for direction and for courage and for faith in God's sovereign goodness. Stu Weber's message at Good Shepherd this weekend hit right at home! Thanks, Stu! For now the plan is to find any job that can provide for our basic needs for the immediate future, and to make a decision about a direction for school. He's arranging some informational interviews with people who work in fields that match his personality and strengths to get some perspective. Thankfully, unemployment is providing a time cushion for this process. I'm eager to see how it'll all unfold - and we're prayerful and hopeful that we will continue to find ways to say thanks for many things in the midst of this (particularly on difficult days), and that we'll especially say thanks down the road when we look back and see the rich blessings of fruit that are now being produced (not without painful pruning). I'm fully convinced that all pains in life, whether great or small, can be pathways through and to the sweetest joys.

Cheers to life's ups and downs and God's hand over them all!

A Snapshot of the Process. One week down, ___ to go?

Some of the process today 
- acknowledging how different each of our experiences of these circumstances are from the other's, and how that has contributed to some of the tension we have felt but haven't been able to place over the last couple of days
- acknowledging my fear of the circumstances straining our relationship
- nic acknowledging and helping me understand how much his career and ability to provide is a central part of his sense of identity, and how he's struggling with feeling like a failure
- a cherished friend giving us encouragement both from her own life example and with specific words and prayers for our situation
- distinguishing between well meaning but empty platitudes vs. God's promises, and seeing how having hope in Him, even though it doesn't fix everything, actually does help/feel better/make things a little and sometimes a lot easier (what if we had nothing to hope in but ourselves? Good luck...)

At the end of the day we feel peace and thankfulness. One day at a time... 

-Sarah

Small Piece of the Big Picture

Good process yesterday. After a bout of feeling discouraged and a good process from there, here's a quote (close paraphrase) from Nic: "I don't want this to just be about getting better circumstances, like a job I like better or making more money. I want this to be about growing my faith and assurance that God is good... And good to me, not just to other people or 'better' people than me..."

-Sarah

DAY 1

First off, I wish to let it be known that I stand in abject opposition to the titling of this blog.

My wife is smarter than I am, and can piece together concepts of thought in a more coherent fashion than I, but I utilize punctuation better than her.  That is all you need to know about us.

The ensuing chaos will include random musings, rants, soap boxes, missives, and the occasional spark of esoteric genius that will catapult this meager and unassuming little blog into the far reaches of opined preeminence.  Actually, we'll probably just talk about regular stuff, and if we throw in gummy-bear-ultrasound-baby pictures, we might get my parents to read.

Nic