From Forest to Highlands

The story begins on Friday the 25th.  At 10:30 I went in for a *3rd* membrane sweep to try and coax labor into starting.  The first sweep was done by Rachell who recently joined the clinic and is also a nurse practitioner. The second sweep was done by Eileen. She does the non-stress tests and has YEARS of experience and tons of certifications too. For this third sweep, Charlotte came and did it herself. Now I had heard some things about her membrane sweeps and... I was not led astray. She sure knows what she's doing! She was very thorough and did not mess around!! I was glad I used evening primrose oil judiciously throughout the third trimester. Her sweep allowed me to experience several of the most intense contractions that I had ever felt up until that point. In fact, Charlotte said they seemed like 'transition level' contractions.  I was intimidated yet thankful for a brief little window into what I, naively, hoped to be experiencing as soon as humanely pos...

Growing up, I was taught this ideal version of life, a vision of parents raising up their children as shining pillars of studious righteousness and light. As these children are sent out into the world, like a quiver of arrows shot from a bow, they make this huge impact and amaze everyone they meet. Hearts are captured for Christ, and the darkness and sin are rendered powerless and weak against these superhuman warriors of light. They can quote Scripture, whole books of the bible even! (If they are especially disciplined!) They are graceful, obedient, elegant, alluring, submissive women, and strong, protective, pure, hardworking sucessful men. They both equally are able to conquer any and every challenge that is put in their way. Because of these traits and their virtuous character, the Lord blesses them, and life is prosperous. In all they do, they succeed... But what I have come to realize, and what my thoughts here, are this: The real world is waaaay different from that. I wish it we...

Here are some other important pics. 😊  The positive pregnancy test. (July 18th)  Mom, you're a Grandma! (She was SO excited!)  Promoted to Grandpa!! (Yes, we both teared up 😊 ) Fun fact, later that same day Jeremiah and Kaylie came over to announce that they too were expecting a little one! We managed to get pregnant within 2 weeks of each other! How'd we do that?!😆 Of course Justin and I had to do a goofy photoshoot out by the river too:     Equipping all that Dad gear 😎 (Yes, we totally used Kiana's stuffed rabbit as a fake baby... we're weird like that... 😆 ) So, as my pregnancy progressed and I got sicker and sicker I wasn't able to keep up with my internship at CBC. I also wouldn't be able to bring the baby in to the church office to work after she was born and the sickness had subsided. So ultimately we had to let go of the plan to do the internship in Washington. Maybe a different year, maybe a different church, who knows what God has down the...

We found out in July of 2021 that we were expecting a little one!  We were, of course, over-the-moon excited but also nervous at the thought of becoming parents. We hadn't been trying to get pregnant, but God decided to surprise us with an addition to our family. ❤️ Just 2 months before this I had graduated from Frontier School of the Bible with an associates degree and Justin and I moved from Wyoming all the way to Washington to complete my internship. It was a busy 2 months getting settled in and things were going great. Little did we know that our plans were not the Lord's plans. He had something much better in store! Over the next few months (really like 7 or 8 months) I questioned whether this really was a good thing or not. I had horrible 'morning' sickness that felt more like "all day unrelenting, stomach flu sickness" and was puking at least 3 or 4 times every day, if not more than that. I ended up loosing a total of 35 pounds until things got getter i...

As I promised in the last post, here are some pics from our wedding on May 4th, 2020. 😊 Most of these pics were taken by a sweet friend of ours (Lauren Kent Photography). It was a whirlwind day that went by all too fast. We could only have 10 people in the chapel at once due to the Covid restrictions, so it was a very tiny wedding that included some members of each side of the family. Those in attendance were Justin's parents, my parents and Chris, Kiana & Elijah as well as Mr. Hornick and Justin and I. Thankfully we were able to get photos with Lauren after the ceremony. We are still so thankful that Mr. Hornick was able to officiate our wedding. We did our premarital couples counseling with him and he was one of my favorite teachers, so we were really glad he was willing to be the one to marry us! ❤️ I was so nervous and excited that I barely remember what happened. All I know is that I was so thankful and so relieved to be able to spend the rest of my life laughing, ser...