Just before Christmas last year Matt and I found out we were expecting a baby.
It was very unexpected news, but along with the feelings of nervousness, we
were really excited. When we went to our first appointment in January, we were
saddened to hear silence instead of a heartbeat when doing our first
ultrasound. We had experienced a missed miscarriage, and two weeks later the
pregnancy was officially over. It was a difficult time, but we were surrounded
with love and encouragement from our family and church.
The news of a baby, though, got us thinking about our
situation, and we decided it was time for Matt to actively pursue a full-time
congregational ministry job. We had known for a long time that we were headed
in that direction, but it just hadn’t been the right time yet. We started
praying about it, and Matt started applying. That, in itself, was an
interesting process, and often led us into both laughter (some of the
application questions were… well, questionable) and tears (when one we thought
was surely for us didn’t work out). After a lot of talking and praying, Matt
decided to apply for a job as the youth minister in Canton, TX. That decision
took a lot of talking and praying because that is the church where Matt’s
parents attend, and almost all of his family live very close to Canton. And as
you can imagine, the thought of living that close to his family!!!! Well!!! Wait… do they read this blog? Moving
right along, we decided that was something we could work with, and believed we
could serve alongside the church in Canton, so we went ahead and pursued the
opportunity. Things moved pretty quickly and over the next couple of months,
Matt accepted the position, and we started packing up to move from Austin to
Canton. Matt’s first day on the job was June 1st.
During the move and transition, our sweet Ginny stayed with
Matt’s parents in Athens, which was tough. They took good care of her, but I
sure missed her! Unfortunately, near the end of the summer, her hips had gotten
really bad, and she started showing signs of a stroke. Matt and I knew she
wasn’t ok. We took her to the vet and they confirmed that (1) her hips were bad
and her muscles were weak, (2) she had suffered something similar to a stroke
which led to loss of function and vision in one entire side, and (3) she had
some kind of mass near her stomach that we weren’t aware of, that could’ve been
cancerous. The vet told us that we could do all sorts of tests and surgeries,
but even then, her quality of life would not be great. We made the very
difficult decision to let her rest. That was one of the hardest days of my
life. I am sobbing right now as I write this! She was a good pup, and we still
laugh and tell stories about her often.
We lived with a family from the church for the first couple
of months after we moved while the church prepared a house for us. I spent the
summer searching and applying for jobs and working alongside Matt in getting to
know the youth group. Near the end of the summer, things were starting to get a
little stressful for us. I still hadn’t found a job, we were about to move into
the church’s house and have to start paying bills again, and everything just
seemed up in the air. About a week before we moved into the house, I was
offered a job in Tyler managing some office tasks and was excited to accept it.
Things seemed to fall into place just in time.
Once we were in the house, we were ready to start the dog
search. We went to several shelters, met up with several people who were
fostering dogs, and believe it or not, I wanted to take every single one home.
I know. Matt was surprised by that, too. We were doing our best to be patient,
though, to make sure we got the best dog for our situation. We’d been told
about a place near Canton that boards and trains dogs, and were told that they
usually had a few that were up for adoption. Matt called them to see what they
had, and they described a dog to us named Cinnamon. She sounded like she might
be a good fit for us, so we drove out to meet her. Since I had been the one to
always fall for a dog right away, I was surprised when Matt immediately made a
connection with this dog. He gave me that sweet grin after playing with her for
a few minutes and I knew he was hooked. She finished her training with them,
and we brought her home a couple of weeks later. We changed her name to Penny,
and she has been a wonderful addition to our family. She loves when the youth
group comes over and usually gets some extra loving and spoiling from them as
well.
September rolled around and we were really feeling settled
in. Matt had formed strong relationships with the youth group and things were
going well. I was settled into my new job and things were going well. We were
in our house and it finally felt like a home. Penny kept us busy and
entertained and provided those sweet puppy cuddles that I love at the end of the
day. Then…
“I think I’m pregnant.” Everything changed. We decided not
to tell anyone for a while. We wondered how long we could keep it a secret
when, at 6 weeks (only about 2 weeks after we found out) nausea kicked into
high gear for me. At 9 weeks it went from just nausea to throwing up several
times a week. We got creative with our excuses for why I was missing out on
things, and kept with our goal of not sharing the news until around
Thanksgiving. During that time we had our first two doctor visits and got to
hear the heartbeat and see the baby. Hearing the heartbeat, especially after
our experience earlier in the year, was incredible. We still laugh about how
the doctor turned to Matt, with the heartbeat thumping away, and said, “Hear
that, dad?” I don’t know which was more overwhelming for him – hearing the
heartbeat, or being called dad! Over the Thanksgiving break, we shared the news
with our family, then shared with our friends over the next couple of weeks. It
has been exciting to share the news with those we care about. Now if I can only
get over this morning all day sickness, I would really be a happy woman.
The due date is June 1st, which is also when Matt began his ministry
in Canton.
So, in a (big) nutshell, that sums up 2014 so far. We’re excited
to start giving regular updates on church work, pregnancy, and goofy things
that Penny does. Matt and I are excited about the things coming up in 2015, and
are looking forward to sharing some of that with you here.
No comments:
Post a Comment