A HUGE Surprise and Tiny Blessing!!

WE'RE GOING TO BE BIG SISTERS!!! 

We got the surprise of our lives in February... we are expecting another BABY FISH!!! S/he will be arriving near October 6th and everyone is super excited, especially Madison Grace, a first-time Big Sis ;)

Sweet Baby, 12 weeks, 5 Days

Besides being in total shock for a few weeks, we are finally getting use to the idea of a family of 5. I've had all day nausea since 6 weeks along, and it's almost gone as I head into the 2nd trimester, similar with both of the girls. With this little baby, I have been super tired and craving weird stuff (for me at least!). I have embraced the inner cave-woman in me and been loving ribs, steak and meat...LOL. My favorites go-to foods are salty potato chips, any potatoes really, scrambled eggs and fresh fruit. Aversions: Coffee (?!), a lot of sweet and spicy.

This time around, Jarrett proved again how well he knows me, and how little I really know my own body... haha! I hadn't been feeling well for a couple weeks, super-tired, and emotional. I figured it could be because I've been watching our neighbor's little boy (whose 2!) and chasing him around the house. Jarrett suggested one evening that maybe (just maybe) I should get pregnancy test from CVS. So I drove around the corner and picked up the cheapest, generic brand I could find. I took the test with J (this was a first - I did it by myself both times before) when I got home after the girls went to bed and watched the clock... it came back positive! And we said, better get another test; these generic ones aren't working... LOL. The next day, and two tests later, it came back again... positive for a bun-in-the-oven!

Our little jelly bean is such a gift from God! I wanted share a bit as to why this Sweet Baby is such a testament to God's power and His great plan. Before becoming pregnant with Lindsay and Madison my OBGYN discovered I had cystic ovaries, which means I would rarely ovulate, and made conceiving on my own "highly unlikely" (the doctor's words exactly!).  Fortunately, with the help of some medication I was finally able to ovulate and conceive twice, once with Lindsay and again with Madison.

Fast forward to May of last year; my body was broken and definitely not functioning normally. My doctor wasn't sure what was going on, and I thought was possibly entering early menopause. I was grieved at the thought of being "finished" while I was so young, and so I just prayed for contentment with my beautiful life and two precious blessings, and God's plan (because His are so much better than ours!). We were so busy with family visiting for 1-2 weeks every month from Sept.-Jan., the girls birthday's, and Jarrett finishing his dissertation, plus his school loans coming due this fall....a baby was probably the furthest thing from our minds... But not from God's!!

Now, most people know that Jarrett and I are planners -- we had our children almost exactly two years apart and try our best to be good stewards of the resources God has given us to plan for the unknown. Our precious little one has us stepping out in faith and relying on God's provision and grace, which is a little scary and absolutely wonderful place to be. I marvel that God in His power was able to create a new life using my broken body. All Praise to Him! We already adore our precious little Jelly Bean, and can't wait to meet her/him!!