Trials and Blessings

This last Sunday started off like any other Sunday, albeit we were a little tired from Christmas the day before.  Judah and I slept in, then got up, got dressed, ate breakfast and then headed off to church to meet Daddy.  After seeing and talking to some friends and dropping Judah off at his class.  I stopped by the restroom before heading up to join Nathan in the Junior High room.  I was shocked and horrified to see that I was bleeding, and not just a little bit.  I immediately started praying and freaking out a bit.  I made my way up to the Junior High room and pulled Nathan out into the hall.  I told him what was happening, and he immediately went in and told one of his leaders they needed to cover for him, then came out and told me he was going to get the car.  I went and got my mom out of service and gave her the keys to my car and asked her to take Judah home after church, because Nathan was taking me to the Emergency Room.

We prayed and cried in the car ride over, pretty sure we were losing our baby.  After a horrible 3 hours of waiting in the waiting room, then another 2 1/2 hours waiting in my ER room, they finally took us back for the promised Ultrasound.  To our surprise and amazement, the tech was able to see that the baby was measuring perfectly and had a heartbeat of 183 beats per minute.  She couldn't find the source of the bleeding, but the baby was great.

When we finally walked out of the ER 8 1/2 hours after walking through those doors, we were exhausted but elated.  Our child was still alive and seemed to be thriving.  I didn't have a reason for the bleeding, but we prayed that it would stop.  By that evening it slowed down and over the last few days I have just been spotting the "old" stuff.  (Nathan joked before we left the hospital that this must be a girl, because she was already costing him time, money and worry!)  That made me laugh, especially after such a long day.

I went for a follow up Ultrasound today with my doctor's office and wonder of wonders, this sweet baby is measuring perfectly...in fact is measuring 3 days ahead of schedule, and the heart rate was 168. God is so good.  As my aunt has been praying for us and for this baby, she has seen the Lord's protective hands around this baby, and I believe that is exactly what He is doing.  Protecting this baby and I pray that He continues to breathe life and His Spirit into this little one. 

Here is a picture of our baby.  You can see the head, body and even the arms and legs perfectly! 

Judah's Christmas Stocking

Well...I finally finished it.  I never got around to making a Christmas Stocking for Judah last year.  (Don't tell Judah he didn't have a stocking for his first Christmas!)...BAD MOMMY!!

So, I was bound and determined to get on it this year.  I originally planned on knitting or crocheting him a stocking, but decided I just didn't have the time to do this.  So, I went and looked at the stockings that were around at the craft and discount stores to see if I could buy one and just embroider his name on it.  I hated every single stocking I saw, plus they all cost $20 or more and that was at 50% off.  So, I decided I would buy the material and make his stocking myself.  That way I could make it how I wanted.  I spent $26 total on everything!  So, pretty much the exact same price I would have spent to get something I hated, not to mention impersonal!

I am not an expert sewer by any means, but my mom taught me when I was young and bought me a sewing machine back before I was married.  I figured I could do this.  I didn't use any patterns, but did watch a video on how to do the lining of the stocking, which I was glad I did.  How I had it figured out in my head definitely wasn't the right way!  It isn't perfect, but I really like the way it ultimately turned out and thought I would share the process with you.

These are the materials I bought...most on sale!

I used Nathan's stocking as a template and traced it on newspaper.  I wanted Judah's to be a little longer then ours, so I added length to the top as well as a half an inch all around for a seam allowance.

The material I chose was really thin, so I decided to add fleece inside.  (They didn't have any black fleece, but I figured you wouldn't see the blue...so it worked.)

Here's the body of the stocking with the cording sewn in the seam.

This is the cuff of the stocking

 

I added some tassels so it would look like mine and Nathan's stockings.

Here you can see the blue fleece inside, because I hadn't added the lining inside yet.

Now the lining has been attached with the cording at the top of the cuff.  (This was the trickiest and most difficult part of the whole thing for me.)

Once I stuffed the lining inside...

...I had the completed stocking.  Well...almost!

 

 I still had to embroider Judah's name.  I couldn't figure out how to transfer the name once I had drawn it out onto the cuff, since it was made of black shiny material.  I had no chalk or anything that would write on it easily.  I started to embroider it without any guide and got the J and the U on it and it looked HORRIBLE!!  So I took all the stitching out and let it sit for a couple of days. 

Finally I thought of a way...
 

I drew out the letters of his name onto tissue paper.  Then I pinned it to the cuff.

I then literally sewed right through and over the tissue paper.  Once I finished I picked all the pieces of the tissue paper out of the stitching.

Here's his name all finished

...and here is the completed stocking!

I like that I made it a little longer.  We'll be able to put more toys and goodies in it for him when it's time!  Doesn't it look fun hung up with our stockings?

 

Big Announcement!

For those of you who haven't seen on Facebook already...we just discovered some wonderful and amazing news!  (So much for doctors who said we couldn't have kids!)  God is so good!  I wanted to share with you how we announced the good news to our family.  First of all, I borrowed the shirt below from a good friend...

This is the best picture I could get that night.  If you can't read it...it says "I'm the Big Brother"

Basically...we were together with all of our family for my Sister-In-Law's birthday.  So, after we'd been there for a little bit, I took off his jacket, and let him loose.  I wanted to see how long it would take everyone to notice.  You can see from the video below...it didn't take them long. In fact, I barely got the video camera started in time to catch the first reaction from my sister-in-law Bethanne.  Check it out...



(Sorry the video is so dark...It happened so fast, I didn't have time to ask where I could turn the lights up!)

Christmas Advent Calendar

My mom is so precious...She made an awesome Advent Calendar for us Judah. (Let's be honest...she made it for Judah!)  :-)  You can see the calendar to the left and the tree to the right...

This is the calendar...it has 25 drawers...

In each drawer is a little ornament to hang on the miniature tree...

 Here, you can see the four ornaments that have already been hung...

Judah loves it! All we have to say each day is... Are you ready for the Christmas Tree Calendar?  He gets all excited and runs over to the table.  We lift him up and let him pull out the drawer and pull out the Ornament.  Then we take him to the tree and he decides where to hang it.  (He "hangs" the ornaments like he did in the last post I showed...holds it up to the tree and drops!  So, we help him by picking it up and putting it exactly where he "tried" to hang it.)  So fun...Thanks, Mom!  You are so awesome!

Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree...

We had fun decorating the Christmas Tree this year.  Judah got to help, and we put all the "safe" ornaments down on his level. 

Here's a good example of how Judah hung the ornaments...

 He'd pick a place on the tree, and more or less drop the ornament...

 ...Wherever it landed was good for him!  :-) 

Ahhh...the finished project!