Smelly Gas

Stephen and I had an interesting night on Friday. Stephen had mowed the yard that day with an old mower but, it worked great. While getting gas for the mower he accidently spilled the container in the bed of his truck. Later that night we went out to eat and came home and smelled the gas in the gagrage and slightly in the house, so he moved the truck out of the garage. A few hours after we had gone to bed Stephen woke me up to ask if I smelled gas. I wasn't really awake and didn't want to be so I said no. About thirty minutes later I woke up told him I did smell gas. The smell had engulfed our house and was getting worse. Stephen realized the lawn mower was leaking and moved it out also. We opened all the windows and were still nervous about the babies so I tried to sleep in the closet because there is no air vent in there. That lasted about thirty minutes and then I decided I needed to sleep on the porch to avoid the smell. The back porch is scary and had a snake before and so that was out. So I sat on the front porch for the next few hours until the smell went away. At 6:45 am our house was finally smelly free. I bet you thought I was going to blog about some other gas. I hope you're not disappointed.

Real Nice!

Our our way back from Oak Dale we spotted this great ride from a 100 yards back and Marcus made sure we caught up with it. Stephen got these close ups of the Caddy. It had a huge flat screen TV inside and on the visors. I wonder if it could hold twins?

Day Trip and CFS

In April Stephen and Marcus came across this cute little restaurant and ice cream/ soda shop on a hunting trip. They came back telling us that they had already had dinner but, Marcus wanted some Chicken Fried Steak (or CFS as he calls it). They thought about splitting one and then thought that may be not the manliest thing to do and so they settled on sitting in the pink soda shop, in their camo, drinking milk shakes. Dina and I thought that was a great mental picture and wanted to see this place and so yesterday we went out there for dinner.

The restaurant is an old house and the Soda Shop was the Oak Dale Community Center, the owners moved them to their current location. Behind the restaurant they are building a saloon, general store, and sheriff station. They will be a separate eating area, museum, and "jail".

Our Babies

I am going to the doctor every week now and it is so neat because they do a sonogram every time and I get to see the babies. It is amazing to see them grow and move. Next week we get to see the real doctor and have a 3D sonogram. I have always thought those things were scary looking, but now I am excited to see a great picture of them.

This is our 11 week sonogram. "Baby A" is on top and "Baby B" is on the bottom in each picture. The last picture is "Baby B's" heatbeat.

Double Blessings

Sorry I have not blogged in a long time. I never know what to put on here but, it appears we have two new little reasons to blog. Stephen and I are so excited that God has blessed us with twins! They will be here at the end of December!



I have taken a while to write anything because I don't even know where to start. We have been blown away by God's blessings. Many people know that we have struggled with infertility for a few years now. After meeting with doctors Stephen and I thought that adoption would be our best route and started to pursue that through one agency. As we learned more we felt uncomfortable, like the Lord was leading us away from that decision for now. We still would love to adopt one day but, the timing was wrong a year ago.



God worked in some amazing ways to lead us to the decision to do IVF. Stephen and I both prayed for over a year specifically about IVF. We were concerned about any extra embryos (babies) and told the doctor we didn't want to do IVF the traditional way and have embryos that we weren't prepared to use. Our doctor was very supportive; however, God did all the work.



My uncle passed away at the end of February and it was and is very hard on my family. That same week God led us to begin the IVF process. It was so neat to see His timing because after a year of prayer and mostly silence God spoke clearly that week. We met with the doctor again and kept praying for confirmation. That same day a family member I haven't seen in a long time approached me and said that they had done IVF and had $1000 in medicine we could use. That was a blessing financially and felt like a confirmation that this was the right road for us now, no matter the outcome we felt this was what we were supposed to do. The process went very smoothly and to make a long story short God provided the two babies with no embryos left over. We were so thankful to see His hand over the process.



After the procedures there is an excruciating two week waiting period. During that two weeks I needed a root canal and my doctor said no way, take Tylenol. Due to the pain and that I saw that God had potentially given us another gift, I tricked Stephen and went to the doctor a day early to find out if we were pregnant or not. I have always wanted to tell Stephen that we were expecting a certain way and it involved a park in Bedford. God worked it our that we just happen to be down the street from the park for a party the night I could find out if we were pregnant. So I seized the opportunity. I went into the doctor that morning for my blood work and as I was waiting to go in God gave me this verse Isaiah 30:18-20

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.
O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.
Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher.

I was scared to believe that the verse came from God and wasn't wishful thinking but, that afternoon He confirmed it to me when the nurse called and told me Congratulations! I met Stephen at the park that night and gave him a baby Bible. I was trying to tell him we were pregnant but, he kept talking about Dirk and his girlfriend drama. Finally, I was able to interrupt and tell him we were pregnant!

Sorry this is so long and if you are still reading then you deserve a cookie or honorary degree. God has been so gracious and faithful throughout this journey and I wanted to share about His character. We believe that God has called us to be open about our process for others that may go down this road.

Before and After

After

I wanted a new dining room set that wasn't so formal and Dina told me to paint it. I was nervous but I had seen some done at Canton and I liked them and so we went for it. The Watson's were nice enough to come over and spray it down with their big paint sprayer thing. The room is almost done. We need a new light fixture, to paint the alcove and a few other special touches. Here are the before and after pictures.

Moooo!

We definitely are feeling like Texans in the Spring at our house. Right over our fence there is a herd of black cows. They are cute and have babies now. Sometimes they lean up by our fence and moo, that scares Isabelle. I have to "encourage" Stephen to not try to shoot them with the bb gun.