Anticipation

I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support through this entire journey. Pregnancy has been quite the experience, especially paired with being a newlywed. I am incredibly blessed with a supportive and encouraging husband who loves me and leads me well. We have been overwhelmed with the wonderful church family God has given us and cannot imagine being anywhere else right now. Our family have been amazing through our marital transition and we are both blown away by their generosity. 

With all that being said, I am still a fleshly human being, and it has been a very difficult week as we wait to meet our little girl. PJ and I both came early, so naturally, our families assumed that I, too, would deliver early. I expected myself to be late, but deep down, I have realized I did want her to come early and I hoped to be holding her in my arms already. When my birthday came and went, when the weekend came and went, when my expected due date came and went... I was pretty disappointed.  

The hormones have been taking over my reactions and I have pretty much been at the brink of tears for the past week. I have been tryng so hard to be grateful for the extra time the Lord has given me to spend alone with my husband; to welcome the pregnancy overtime, thanking Him that we are both healthy and there have been no complications; and still working hard to become a better house-wife, finding a routine for myself that will be completely altered once AJ does arrive. 

I have challenged myself to pray through my discouragement, to smile and accept the love coming from our friends and family when they ask me the same questions, to dive deeper into the Word and distract myself until the contractions come, but it has been a difficult week. I have been filled with discouragement and impatience without allowing the Lord to soften my heart and accept that those who are asking the same questions and sending me the same messages are showing their support and wanting to be encouraging. 

Through each time I've sat down to pray, I have confessed my hardened heart and saught out His grace to give to others and the fruit of His Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22). Last night, He answered my prayer, and it was as if He flipped a switch. 

PJ and I were reading and I realized that He is granting us more time to prepare, He is giving me people who want to love on us and bless us and do life with us, He is reminding me what we are to be characterized by and what the fellowship of His church is for. I woke up feeling so refreshed. God is so good and I am so grateful to all of you for your prayers! 

I also want to apologize if any of you have felt that I was giving you the cold shoulder or was being rude to you. Thank you for your grace and understanding. 

Love, Jessy :) 

Almost 10 Months

PJ and I have been married for almost 10 months now, and our little one is due in just a day! How incredible the blessings of the Lord and His faithfulness? 

PJ's work is going so well! He is ahead with the schedules for his store, preparing his staff for his vacation/family leave, and he has just been so much more encouraged lately. It has been so nice that he's been able to come home on time most every night and seeing him in a better mood. There are still difficult customers and slow floaters, but the store is in a good place. 

These past 2 weeks have been the longest out of the last 9 months! AJ is due tomorrow, mom has been encouraging me that she thought she would be early, and now I'm just exhausted and uncomfortable. We also found out that our neighbors are expecting, too! She is due around Christmas. In my looney state of mind, I had a dream that she had her baby before me and he was perfectly healthy. 

I felt like Rachel from FRIENDS when she has Emma and she is in labor for hours upon hours and mother after mother keep coming into triage and leaving for delivery, "I've been here longer!" 

Please be praying for a safe delivery, hopefully one without being induced next week, but if that does happen, pray that AJ still comes safely. Thank you all for your love and encouragement and prayers. 

:)

Maternity Session

Hubby and I had a wonderful time on Sunday with our "Family Photographer," Darren. We spent the morning at the park taking maternity pictures and enjoying the wild geese :D

I want to take the time to share my absolute appreciation for Darren. He spent his week camping and drove home late Friday night. He shot a wedding on Saturday. Then he woke up early, so we could all get to church, on Sunday morning to take these photos! This guy is a champ!

Monday night, after his first day of classes, he finished posting our session on his website; having finished posting the wedding photos from Saturday as well, and they were all ready for Facebook Highlight posts when he texted PJ around 10pm!

Darren also shot our wedding, and the amazing thing was that he had his computer ready with a slideshow mid-reception, having never eaten his meal until after we left. His girlfriend, the lovely Ladonna, saved him a plate of food which had to have turned ice cold by the time he got to it.

We are calling him our Family Photographer because he takes beautiful photos, has them done as soon as he possibly can, and alerts us via email and text with the download information as soon as it's ready. In his consideration, he also asks permission before posting to his FB page, even though these are his work. We will continue to support him with our business for all our big moments :)

Thank you, Darren, for all your hard work! We are so grateful for you, friend!