Love

Yesterday, I was driving to McDonald's to get us lunch and I was overwhelmed with love for my husband. I love my husband all the time, but this strong feeling just hit me hard.

When I first met Craig in early 2007, I was dating someone else. I had no clue if our paths would ever cross again. Then our paths did cross again a couple months later when my previous relationship was over. I was speaking at his church to raise support for Ukraine. It was nice to see a face I recognized. Our next contact wasn't for a couple months later when we talked online a little, but I was once again in another bad relationship. When I finally realized that the relationship I was in wasn't healthy, I decided to try to contact Craig a little more. I had no idea if our first date was actually a date, but it was just nice to get to know someone new. Since I was traveling a lot for support raising and we were about 4-5 hours away from each other, we took it slow meeting up almost every other weekend. Then 5 short months after our first date, I got on an airplane to Ukraine and left him for 5 long months. The time apart wasn't easy at all. Our relationship had a lot of rocky times during those months, but we made it through it and came out stronger.

That's just the beginning of our story, but it's so neat to see how God had a plan in our relationship, even when we weren't in a relationship. I didn't have to meet Craig that very first time. He didn't have to be at the church service that I spoke at. He didn't have to agree to meet up with me that very first time in Louisville and stick with me during the long distance. He didn't have to stay with me knowing I was going to Ukraine. We could have easily given up during our rocky times when I was in Ukraine. But we made those choices and God has continued to bless us and our relationship.

And here we are 4 years after the first time we met...so in love and with a child on the way. I can't imagine how life would be without him. He's been my provider, protector, best friend, supporter, encourager and so much more. And I thank God for how He has directed our lives and our paths to become one.

28 things...

Back when I was in high school, Baz Lurhmann came up with a song/speech called Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen). I recently re-read the lyrics and still love the advice he gave back then. There were many things that were beneficial for people to hear. So as I was thinking about getting older, I thought about some of the things I've learned through the years. There's probably many more things I could say, but here's my list of 28 things that could be beneficial in your life if you put them into practice. They have helped me in my life.

1. Be a consistent Christian…whether at church, work, online, in car…or wherever…let others know who you serve
2. Make time to spend with family
3. Laugh
4. Read
5. Though life is entertaining at times with drama, it is much more peaceful to have none.
6. Pray
7. Forgive
8. Smile
9. Appreciate the small things-sunshine, minor accomplishments, etc
10. Life is too short to waste it away by worrying. It won’t solve a thing
11. Take time to read the Bible-you can learn something each time you pick it up!
12. Tolerate those who drive you nuts!
13. Love
14. Don’t live your life with regrets. You can’t change things. Let it go.
15. Learn from your mistakes and try harder next time to not mess up
16. Always do your best and let God do the rest!
17. Be content with what you have. God has blessed you, even if you have little money
18. Live within your means-there is no reason to live in so much debt!
19. Be proud of your heritage. It has helped shape you into who you are
20. Trust God’s way….He will never let you stray
21. Compliment others
22. Sing loud and proud
23. Be open to the things that God wants you to do
24. Travel and be open to other cultures
25. Spend time with people who are different from you (in age, culture, etc). You may learn things from them
26. Learn who your friends are and cherish them
27. Enjoy sleep-don’t fight it! Take naps when there is time!
28. The things of this world will all fade away, but my Savior remains!

patiently waiting

While I know I better get used to waiting since we still have approximately 20 more weeks until we meet our little bundle of joy, it's still not easy to be patient! We are trying to be patient until our next ultrasound next Tuesday! This is THE BIG ONE where we hopefully find out if our baby is going to get lots of dolls and dresses or lots of cars and blue outfits. It's been a mixed review of what we are having-my dad and even the doctor say it's a girl (the doctor is just going by heartbeat), but my dad really believes it! But some of the online gender tests and lots of my friends say it's a boy. So we will find out in less than a week! I am so ready to buy baby furniture and register at Babies R Us. Craig thinks I'm a bit crazy for constantly looking online at baby things, but I just can't help it! While 20 weeks seems like such a long time to get everything in order, I feel like there's so much to do and it will likely go quickly.