A gift

A couple of weeks ago, one of the wonderful ladies at our church offered to buy BJ a clerical robe. For those of you unfamiliar with these robes, it is a huge deal to get one. Most ministers are given one by the church they grew up in when they are first ordained, and these robes are pretty much used for the rest of one's career. For the next thirty something years, BJ will look like this on Sunday mornings.


Seeing BJ in the robe means so much to me. For one thing, it represents the generosity and kindness of the people at our church. It reminds me that they have taken us in as more than just an employee, but as a treasured member of their family. It is also an outside symbol of what BJ has been constantly being formed into for the past five years of our marriage: a man of God's ministry. Of course, he is that without the robe, but the robe, in all of it's old-world quirkiness, reminds us that this is a calling different from any other God gives, and that it is to be taken seriously by the one who is called and those who support him or her. Perhaps I'm reading a bit much into a robe, but I am very glad BJ was bless with this gift.

*sniff, sniff*

This pregnancy has been quite different from my first. I was more nauseated and more hungry the first trimester than at any other time in my life. I started showing a lot earlier. But mostly, I've just been much more emotional than I remember being with Shepherd. Crying is becoming a daily occurrence. Here are just a handful of the things that are making me cry these days:

1. One of Shepherd's favorite books is Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. Since it is a favorite, I read it 3 to 5 times every single day. The last line of the book is the daddy bunny saying to his son, "I love you all the way to the the moon and back." Everytime I read that last line, all 3 to 5 times a day, 21 to 35 times a week, and 90 to 150 times a month, I cry.

2. If you've ever been around me and BJ, you know that we do a lot of psuedo-argumentative, playful banter pretty much every moment we are together. It is just who we are. During dinner the other night, we were in the middle of some verbal jousting when all of the sudden I broke down crying. Whatever little joke BJ had said apparently hit too close to home, and it hurt my feelings. So like a complete idiot, I started gushing tears in between bites in the middle of a nice evening meal. When BJ started panicking and asking me what was wrong, I simply responded, "I'm just so pregnant."

3. For the past couple of months, BJ and I have been watching through Frasier on Netflix. We just got to the episode where a major character, Niles, has heart bypass surgery. When his wife, Daphne, was telling him goodbye before the surgery, I broke down crying. During what should have been a relaxing lunch hour, BJ paused the episode to see what was wrong with me, I sobbed, "I just can't stop thinking about what it would be like if you ever have heart surgery." I probably should have just made the I'm-so-pregnant excuse again.

On that note, here is a picture of the 4-month bump. It is sizeable.

A few things I love about my 16-month-old son

When we have our outdoor time every day, he relishes everything about it. I guess it is one of those things where I'm seeing the world again through his eyes, but whatever is going on, I find I enjoy doing nothing more than standing outside a lot more than I ever have before.

He has a handsome face. I apologize in advance for broken hearts that might occur as a result of this face.

He has the tiniest bit of a shy streak. It is the part of me that snuck into his gene pool.

My Monday morning grocery shopping took over an hour this morning, and he quietly set in the grocery cart an chomped on some snacks the whole time. As every mother knows, this is something to really, really love.

Happy Valentine's Day from Shepherd

Last year, Shepherd was too small to do much more than wear a cute onesie for Valentine's Day. This year, he got his first official Valentine's gift! It was a card and a box of chocolate's from his Mamm and Pap Pierce. Here are a few pictures of my kiddo enjoying the loot. If he likes eating the box this much, just think how happy he'll be when I let him open it!



Also, as a side note, Tuesdays happen to be laundry day at our house, and laundry day happens to be Shepherd's favorite day. The fact that Valentine's Day landed on a Tuesday is just icing on the cake for Shepherd. So here are some pictures of Shepherd doing what Shepherd loves doing the most: playing with dirty laundry.

On expecting my second child

I just did the pony-tail band loop on my blue jean's button for the first time this pregnancy. It is one of those we-really-are-having-a-baby moments.

Pregnancy number two has been much more surreal than my pregnancy with Shepherd. I don't know if it is because it happened so much sooner than we expected or because we had a miscarriage scare early on (a long story for another time), but it is really hard to believe that we will soon be the four of us. Perhaps, that is why I haven't blogged on this pregnancy quite as much. It hasn't sunk in yet.

That being said, the important things have been the same with this pregnancy. I find myself day-dreaming about who he or she might be. I love reading what size it is with each passing week (right now, he or she is the size of an avocado). I am itching to start the nesting process and get a space and essential items ready (this will kick off in a few weeks when we find out gender). But mostly, I just find myself in the mushy process of falling for a child I can only imagine, a process also known as pregnancy. Despite the surreal-ness of the pregnancy, this is exactly were I want to be.