next up: new baby

Wow, it has been such a busy few months that I'm glad baby Benjamin has waited his turn for an arrival date!  Now that everything else is out of the way, any day would be just fine.  Well, according to the family, a weekend would be best for traveling and work schedules, but I'm sticking with ANY DAY.  soon.  I'm like a ticking time bomb.   I've reached the point where any time I make a phone call to close friends and family, I think I have to start with, "No, I'm not in labor."  Come on little guy, we are all very excited to meet you! You are a long-awaited gift.

This baby's been growing inside since May, but because of a strange start we didn't really know that until a good while later.  I actually thought I'd had yet another (third) miscarriage back at the end of May while I was home throwing a baby shower for my sister.  I had the very same symptoms/indicators as I'd had the other times, and after a week things seemed to go mostly back to normal.  Shortly after, we headed to Costa Rica for a missions trip with our youth, which was great but I did not feel like myself at all on the trip.  I even started to feel really sick by the last few days, but I assumed that was just a little bug I'd picked up while there.  When I got home I thought, ya know, things have still not completely gone back to normal, maybe I should see the doctor.  It was now July and I still remember sitting in the hospital, getting a series of blood taken to figure out what was going on. I was trying not to worry about the results and also trying not to get my hopes up because pregnancy was one of the possibilities.  I sent out a text to only one friend, explaining what was going on and asking her to pray for me.  We didn't have to wait for the full results because the doctor called me in after the first round.  After staring at the ultrasound for what seemed like an hour, it registered in my brain that there was a baby on the screen with a little heart pumping away.  Not only was there a baby, but he was 10 weeks old!  What a shock to us and my doctor!  That would mean that the miscarriage was not a miscarriage at all and I'd been pregnant through all of that time, including baby Ben's first missions trip.  We'd made it through what was the uncertain/scary part for Brandon and I and were even able to see that he was doing well at this point. I think I sent back a simple text to that same friend saying, Yay!  She understood and said she'd been praying that we would find out that there was a baby and that I was at least 6 weeks along (something that I would have thought was ridiculous) - what a prayer to be answered!

Though I may have let out some complaining in the last 30ish weeks, the time really did fly by and everything was pretty uneventful, which is of course good when it comes to pregnancy.  Baby Ben, we thought we lost you but are so thankful that's not the case.  We already love you and know what a treasure you are.  Now it's time to come meet us!