Ordinary miracle...

...to God maybe.


We had our second ultra sound last week. Amazing. Beautiful. Breath-taking. Awesome. The hands of my Creator continue to amaze my mind and my soul. Take a look for yourselves...

Baby's little legs and bottom.

Baby's head and body.

Baby Klemsz. I think his/her little hand is waving 'Hi!'

I love how you can see the spine in this one.

See what I mean? It is just beyond my comprehension the amazing miracle growing and changing inside me. To God it's just an ordinary miracle. To me, so much more than that. More than I think I may even know right now. We had a chance to listen to the heart beat, too. So amazing! Brings a smile to my face every time I think of it.



Everything looked great at our check-up. I'm even a bit farther along than had first thought. Well into the 12th week, I'm beginning to feel much better (Thank you, God!). Our little bundle is due to be here on March 10, 2011. It has been great to finally get to tell people our wonderful news. I surprised my co-workers with a happy and delicious message...

I've never been one to enjoy the spotlight, but it's fun to see how excited people close to you get at a time like this. I've already enjoyed some of the best conversations with people.
My mother came to visit me last weekend to celebrate my birthday and to take me on a maternity clothes shopping spree! We had so much fun and found some super cute stuff (and some sweet deals! Cardigans $2.99, I think I'll take one in each color!) My belly can no longer be hidden!


We are excited for Husker football to start next week and the beautiful fall weather is getting closer. I love this time of year and look forward to the weeks ahead. Thank you all for the continued prayers. They have worked! I want to close this post by sharing a song that touched me the first time hearing it. The lyrics speak so much about every day occurrences that we don't ever think twice about, but how truly awesome they really are. Having a baby used to kind of be like that for me. When you wanted to start a family you did. No big deal, babies are born every day. So much I have learned and how wrong I was. Having a family is far from ordinary. I've learned this in my own life after losing our first baby and have had so many conversations with women who have struggled and continue to struggle with what may seem like a natural and easy thing to do. Yes, creating a human is just another miracle God chooses to do, but to many women, having a baby is supernatural. God created each and every one of us for a purpose. He created us to be extraordinary.


 

My little kumquat.

I have no idea what a kumquat is, but the pregnancy books and websites I read, say that my baby is now the size of a kumquat.

The 10th week begins today and I don't know if it's the beautiful weather we've had the past couple days or what, but I feel great! Today was the first day in a month that I haven't had to take medicine to make it through the day! And the past two days I've also 1) worked out and 2) made the bed! Two additional things I haven't done the past month! Could this be the beginning of a new chapter in the pregnancy? I hope so! (Gran, I think that three and a half hour nap I took on Sunday instead of going miniature golfing paid off!)

The past few days, my belly sure has made an entrance. I thought I'd better start on the belly bump pictures so in 7 more months I can see how far I've come.

A week from today we have our next ultrasound. We'll be able to see our growing baby and hear the heart beat for the first time. I'm excited and anxious. And a little nervous, hoping and praying that everything is still going well.

A song very dear to my (and Justin's) heart is "Blessed Be Your Name". It's a song that many of us connected to in college during our "Challenge Band Years". Justin and I sang it together at our wedding and we actually sang it this last Sunday while leading worship at church. So much can be learned and breathed into your life through the lyrics. I, as any of us have, have known what is it like for God to bless our lives with good things and we can praise Him and live thankfully and happily. But there are times that God may take away something from us that we just don't understand and we get angry or even turn away from Him. Though there are many aspects of my life that these ideas pertain to, none have touched me more than the hope of becoming a mom. God gave me a gift almost a year ago to date, but it wasn't long before He took that gift from me. The pain was more than anything I've ever had to bear. But I knew God was still with me. As mad as I was at Him for taking my first baby away from me, I clung close to His word and His promise that He loved me. I learned much about life and about myself that I know I would never have learned had I not have had to bear that load. I will praise Him all my days for His love and mercy for me. Now, I've been given a new gift. And as happy and thankful I am for this gift, I know that God has His hands on my life and life growing inside me. I don't take one moment of this time for granted and continue to want to know and learn what His plan is for me in all this. "God gives and takes away, He gives and takes away, but my heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be Your Name!"

Pro.duc.tive.

What a fabulous day today! Last week was a stressful one at work and with a nervous breakdown waiting to happen, I decided to take today off.  Best. Idea. Ever.

The past few weeks, with "all-day" sickness getting worse and worse, I have had no energy or motivation to do any of my usual "around the house duties". People close to me know how much I enjoy cleaning and organizing and just tiding up around the house. It's really my way of de-stressing. Well today I got a long list of things done that I've been waiting three weeks to do. And it feels great! It took 2 nausea pills, a huge bowl of cucumbers and a big wedge of pumpkin bars to get me through, but I survived. (Yes Margie, I ate every last one of those cucumbers and every last crumb of the pumpkin bars, in one day!)

One thing in particular that I have been excited to tackle, was to go through the closet full of baby items we bought about a year ago. Shortly after discovering our pregnancy about a year ago, we came across some items for sale from a co-worker of mine. At the same time, Justin and I were in the middle of our finance study with Dave Ramsey, so the opportunity to buy some gently used baby furniture at a fraction of what it would have cost for new, was a huge blessing. Even though our first pregnancy didn't turn out how we had planned, we were still so thankful that we took advantage. For $500 we received a crib and mattress, dresser and 2 night stands (from Pottery Barn!), infant carrier and stroller, and high chair. When the lady delivered the stuff, she also brought along with her tubs of other items that she found during their move to a new home and threw all of it in at no extra cost! We got baby bottles, a mobile for the crib, sheets, Baby Bjorn carrier, Boppy pillow and Bumbo chair. I can't even tell you the amount of money that was saved and how thankful we are for such a wonderful blessing!

So anyway, today I took apart the carseat, stroller and high chair and got everything cleaned up for the new little one. Everything is a green color (my co-worker didn't know what she was having) which works out great for us! It was nice to have the motivation to dig into the exciting stuff. I can't wait to put the crib together!

 I know I love seeing baby stuff, so I thought I'd share some pictures of some of the items we have ready to go!