We snuck off to Virginia for a few days this week to let family and friends kiss on our littlest while he is still little.  He came home to South Carolina tuckered out. 

With our oldest two playing basketball plus our midweek church activities the week nights are filled.  We are plugging away at our homeschool.  I nurse the littlest around the clock and often.  He's been a very hungry baby who is just now showing signs of establishing a more normal nursing routine.  My days are (joy)full but leave me wondering where did January go?  And how the heck is it already mid-February? 

All the time we wondered and wondered, who is this person coming/growing/turning/floating/swimming deep, deep inside.

Josiah David

December 31, 2011

9lbs 2ozs

More to come... I'm on my "babymoon" and relearning to type one-handed. 

It's my due date party and I'll cry if I want to. 

Not really.  I mean, I'm not crying.  Yet. 

I've got encouraging words from all of you. 

I've had my "gonna have a baby, need sparkled toes" pedicure.

I've been listening to my Baby Mix.

And tomorrow we enter the land of "post date".

P.S.  If you go shopping on your due date, strangers will ask when you are due.  You will respond, "Today."  They will freak a little and cashiers will express concern that you do not go into labor while shopping in the store.  You will leave knowing that people watch too much television. 

I'm not gonna lie.  I was kinda shocked when I saw all the deer in our "herd".

But a quick count confirmed they all belong.    Our friends gave us this ornament for Christmas and I LOVE it!  As you can see, we've given baby a name.   

Now we just need him to make an appearance. 

2011?  2012? 

I recently finished the book, Kisses From Katie. 

I cried and cried as I read it.  I cried because reading it during the Christmas season, a time of excess (excess food, toys, gifts...) reminded me of how truly blessed we all really are.  Even those of us here in America with little have so much more than these precious children of Uganda. 

My husband is a pastor of a church in the second poorest county of South Carolina.  It adjoins the poorest county in SC.  I blogged the other day about the culture or mentality of poverty.  Unless you have worked in a culture of poverty, you might not "get it" and that's okay.  It is kinda like trying to empty the ocean with an eyedropper. What little you can do is never enough.  There is always more need.  Thankfully, when God calls you to something the discouragement lasts only a moment and God moves in hearts to keep going. To keep filling the eyedropper, emptying the ocean one drop at a time. We will not eliminate poverty. We're just here to love, give, and because of God's great goodness - receive.  Katie in Uganda reminded me of that. 

I believe anyone can be and should be a missionary right where they are. Luke 12:48 says, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." And we have been given so much.  We are truly blessed. 

P.S. We had a wonderful Christmas.  So very blessed by God's provision and goodness.  We are remembering in prayer several of our friends/family who have lost their jobs in recent days.  And finally, we are STILL waiting for baby to make an appearance.  Due date is four days away. 

These kiddos are so very anxiously awaiting your arrival.

There will be no shortage of hands to hold you. 

Hugs and kisses will be plentiful.

Hurry along now.  Waiting is hard. 

Christmas threw up all over my house. 

But what's not to love about soft lights and pretty sparkley things? 

Last week found us in Virginia visiting family for Thanksgiving.  These are "my" mountains.  The mountains I grew up seeing everyday.

Our family and friends always bless us abundantly.  It's wonderful to be loved on and fussed over for a few days.  A few baby and Christmas gifts found their way back home to SC with us too.  Um, "a few" might be an understatement.  The suburban was packed out. 

Speaking of baby, I had an ultrasound.  Check out "fat cheeks".

And what's Christmas without a Christmas Playlist?

I love the low country.  I do.  But the mountains still call to me each season.

The fall most of all.

So recently the Chief took me for a rainy day drive through the NC mountains. 

The rain did nothing to dampen the splendor of God's creation.