baby shower!

After almost 3 weeks of delayed mail due to all of the hurricanes affecting either Florida or Haiti, we finally got a shipment of boxes yesterday! And what awesome boxes they were, with four separate boxes just celebrating Lily and giving Matt and I both the reminder of some of the more fun things about Lily coming!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the fun baby clothes and necessities!

Coffmans, thank you SO MUCH for the beautiful photo album and baby books, and for some adorable clothes, towels and washcloths!

Lori, this outfit is TOO CUTE, and I really don't know how you found a baby mosquito net! The hangers, too, came at the perfect time!

Laura, they finally came...you are already such an amazing aunt and sister to us three! And as promised, here's a couple photos of my ever-expanding midsection!

Lisa, Matt LOVES the overall dress, and the CD's and candy got me through our first long day of meetings today!
And Patty, the maternity clothes, not to mention the mango pop-tarts and twizzlers are all things I'm becoming quite dependent on :) You're wonderful...

You all are wonderful, and on top of the beautiful gifts, we are so thankful for everyone's encouragement and prayers! I felt a little saddened this week looking at what will be Lily's room...wanting to decorate and go "all out", and instead not even being able to go to Target or somewhere when I'm feeling hot, fat, sore and tired to buy a pair of baby socks! So these gifts blessed me so much...The Lord knows what I need, and sent these gorgeous things through you all to remind me that even though I can't do some fun "baby things" He's still taking care of us and blessing us in other ways!

22 weeks today!

Lily is supposed to be hitting the one pound mark this week! I'm still only 2 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, but my belly keeps getting bigger and she is definitely getting stronger! She's still pretty calm during the day, but any hour of the night, now, Matt and I can both feel her dancing around. Not ballet or the waltz, more like the Can-Can!

Her eyelashes and eyebrows and taste-buds are all supposed to be forming this week, and all my books say that while she's been able to hear our voices for several weeks now, she can now distinguish Matt's and my voices from other voices...pretty crazy!

I was thoroughly scolded this week by a Haitian woman who saw me walk in the rain. Rain, apparently, is very very bad for pregnant women, as are stairs, the sunshine, heels greater than 1/4 inch, and standing for more than 2 minutes at a time! It also seems to be very appropriate for people to just stare at my stomach. Our students are starting to come back now, and instead of saying anything, like "Congratulations", they have just been staring at my belly while I am trying to talk to them, and then whenever I finally say, "So, you see we are pregnant", then they will talk about it...usually with, "I am so happy to see your stomach! I hope it is a boy!" It really is fun experiencing all of this in another culture...we'll have good stories to tell Lily :)

It's really starting to hit us how much life is going to be changing very soon now!

week 21

Lily is officially 21 today, and keeping surprisingly calm about it :) I'm feeling good...just obviously a little warm and tired. Lily is mostly still during the day, with a kick or two here and there, but I can feel her moving almost any hour of the night.

Having the Bundy kids back has been a blast as far as Lily is concerned. Before any of them greet me, they first yell a hearty "Hello!" at my belly and usually give it a joyful pat. Alanna, Brianna and Jake bring her all sorts of flowers, which I am to save for her for after I get "REALLY BIG, and then she COMES!"

Two days ago Alanna continued to roar like a lion at my stomach. When I finally asked what in the world she was doing, she told me she was indeed "roaring like a lion, so that whenever the baby comes, she'll think she is born in a zoo!" I'm not sure why this is a perk, but Alanna seems to think this is a good thing. Both girls talk to Lily as if she is playing next to them, but Jake is quite confused about her name. Since I had explained that a lily is a flower, he continues to just call her "Flower", and whenever one of the girls corrects him, he says, "OH, so you're going to call her Lily for short?"

Their mom is a good mom, they insist, because her mom taught her, and "because MY mom is not in Haiti to teach me," Brianna has promised that all four of them will help me learn.

Mostly, it has just been a joy for us both to remember what a joy children are, how funny and smart they are, and how capable they are of reminding us how unimportant many of our "very important" things are. They are good for our priorities, and it's been wonderful having their squeals outside our window and their laughter in the house again.

Congrats, Jenny and Will, on your precious new son!

feeling Lily

I was pretty sure I felt Lily kicking a few days ago, then definitely felt her kicking on Sunday, and then all throughout the night last night I could feel her bumping around frequently...It's the coolest thing now to be more confident that that is what I'm feeling, though Matt is still quite disappointed that he can't feel anything...soon!

We got two old rocking chairs yesterday from a missionary that just left the field. They are in pretty bad shape, but Matt is going to work on one of them and get it ready for Lily's room. We'll only be in this house for about 4 months after she is born, so we don't want to go all out on her room, but I am hoping to decorate a little bit in the coming months. Hopefully we'll get to do some painting/etc. at the next house. God always seems to have us on the move...we're so thankful He's got Lily on the move, too!

Halfway!

Today, we are officially 20 weeks pregnant, exactly halfway there! Lily is supposedly 10 inches long from head to toe and around 10 oz...almost a pound now. My pregnancy book outlines a pregnancy as 10 months, 4 weeks each month, 40 weeks. So based on this, I am 5 months along.

In so many ways it seems unbelievable that I am halfway along in this pregnancy, and in other ways it feels like I've been pregnant forever, and like another 20 weeks is an incredibly long time. We're sure it will fly, and are hoping the last 20 weeks are a little bit easier.

Lily and I celebrated by wearing our brand new maternity dress that we got in the mail yesterday (THANK YOU, Don and Brenda!) and by having homemade pizza for dinner, a rare luxury. (We have to have cheese shipped in, so we don't do a lot of pizza!)

As excited as we are for this drastic and beautiful change in our lives, we are trying to soak up the independence that we enjoy now...spending some evenings with coffee and good books, sleeping in on Saturdays, coming and going as it works for us... The Lord definitely has a time for everything, and we're adamant that we enjoy exactly what He's given us as He gives!

A year from now, Lily will be 7 months old. Now THAT is crazy!

19 weeks!

We're happy 19 weeks today, and I just cannot imagine feeling any bigger than I do right now! According to all my books (and my dad) this is going to be a problem, because NOW is when I'm supposed to start really getting big :) Our 2 mile walk to and from the market today, even before the heat of the day, proved to be just a little much for Lily. I'm not sure if it was the heat, the hike, or the cow's snouts, sitting in the sun covered in flies, that really did me in, but I think next time I'll pay a neighbor kid to make the trip for me :)

We were also able to finally catch up with one of my dearest friends here, Madame Giselaine...She knocked on the door first thing because she was dying to see my "ti-vann", or small belly. She was in complete awe over the ultrasound pictures, raving over the miracles of science and of Our God. Everyone is quite disappointed to hear that we won't be having the baby here, but understand the concept of our families wanting us to be with them.

Giselaine will probably be the friend who will watch Lily while I am teaching from 8-9 each morning, so she seemed satisfied to know that she'll have as vital a part in Lily's life as she has already had in mine and in Matt's. We are so very blessed to have so many people around the world already praying and excited over this little one. We cannot wait to see what the Lord has in His perfect plan for her...