Baby Levi

Last week, on the 8th, my dear friend Mandy gave birth to her first baby.  Levi!  He weighed in at 8 lbs and 1 oz.

Here she is at her shower.  She would hurt me if I posted pictures of her in the hospital:)
Baby Levi!  Isn't he adorable?
Awwwhhhh!
wrinkly little feet and all....
The best part for me?  Mandy asked me to be there for the delivery:)  What an honor.  I was supposed to help her push but she ended up needing a c-section after a very long labor.  She was such a trooper.  And hey, once you're a mom, it doesn't matter how the baby comes.
Gracie and Piper begged to go see baby Levi in the hospital.  I was going to wait until they got home.  But I caved and took them anyway:)
Little Pipey loved holding this sweet one.  She had Mandy doing all kinds of tricks.  "Can I see his head, take his hat off?  Can we unwrap him?"  Mandy was so kind to let her explore what a newborn is like.
Congratulations sweet friend on the birth of your precious baby boy!  And thank you for letting me be a part of it.  I loved every minute of being there with you.  Can't wait to hold him and see you again soon.

Move Baby Move

I think I can safely say I AM FEELING THE BABY MOVE!!!!

At first when I felt it on Saturday I thought I was crazy.  "I'm only ten weeks."  But I felt it yesterday and just now too:)

Oh it's the best feeling in the whole world:)

***Update-  From the comments...don't mind Michelle, she is a little crazy. And if there is two, she will have her fifth child.

  And for Marge, I know it does seem quite early and I thought the same thing but a friend who is pregnant with me felt it this early.  I thought she was crazy (sorry Lisa, I do believe you and I love you:)) and since I was a labor/OB High Risk/Postpartum nurse I've been around tons of pregnant ladies.  And I had an ultrasound at six weeks that showed ONE baby (that was for Michelle although she still doesn't believe me) and it measured six weeks old .  They are pretty accurate at that gestation.  So I don't know:)  I waited until I felt it several times to make sure. It's a feeling like no other!  Amazing!  But also Marge, I had to have an early ultrasound with Piper for dates and she did end up coming 10 days earlier than they said.  So maybe you're right.  That would be a bonus!  And does that mean the sickness will end sooner?:) Ooohhh, I hope you're right!

  

The Difficult Work of Waiting

Do you have those devotions where God speaks directly to you?  Sure, we all do.  Somedays it's really clear to me and others, well not so much.  Today is one of those days where it is clear as a bell.  

I am reading "Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality," a reformed commentary on the "Gospel according to Abraham" by Iain Duguid.  I started reading it last year and then went to something else.  Well, I'm back and boy is it good!

Today the chapter is from Genesis 16, where Sarai tells Abram to take Hagar and try to accomplish the promised blessing.  They were willing to try to make it happen on their own, instead of waiting on God to fulfill his promise.  You all know the rest of the story and the mess that created.

 So here is what I read, "An attitude of impatience and distrust is intensely dangerous.  You are eager to see events unfold and have grown weary of waiting for God to act.  You are anxious to see the way ahead, instead of walking by faith.  You want to see every obstacle removed immediately."

 BAM!  There it is.  When I read that, I knew it was for me today.  Most of you are aware of the building we are doing over here on our land.  So I won't rehash all of it, except to say it's been the hardest thing we have ever done and there have been obstacles at every turn.  Well, here we are a year and a month from the day that our dear friends signed papers to buy their land and start building their houses.  They should have been in them 4 months ago.  Today, two of them are 99.9% complete and we are waiting on our final inspections. (The third one started much later than the first two).

  What's going on in my heart?  Not much faith.  I am anxious to see this done, to see my friends get their houses and to have my husband back.  I have grown weary of waiting on God.  It's been long enough!  Two years now! I want to see every obstacle removed immediately.  I want these inspections signed off pronto.  No more, fix this and do that just because the inspector wants it his way (which is totally subjective we have learned). Let's just be done here Lord!  We've endured enough!!

  Then Mr Duguid says, "But what do you do when it seems the desires of your heart are good and proper, yet they remain as unfulfilled as ever?  You must continue to wait for God's timing.  God is not slow-but neither is he in a hurry."

We wholeheartedly believe God called us to this monumental task.  And that He will bring it to pass.  But there have been many days where I have wondered what we were thinking!  Then I have to remind myself of what I just stated, this is God's project, not ours.  The desires of my heart are good, to see God's plan continue to unfold and for the vision of Treasure Cove to begin.  Friends living together, glorifying God and raising our children to love and serve Him. That's our heart and that's the heart of the Balts, Hollemans, and Lucases. BUT I MUST WAIT ON GOD'S TIMING.  HE IS NOT SLOW NOR IS HE IN A HURRY!!

I am convicted.  I have repented this morning of my unbelief in what God is doing in and through me and through this project.  When I read this, I just groaned cause I knew it was just what I needed and the sins were mine.

"But, like a patient and long-suffering parent, God bides his time, neither delaying nor hurrying, until every thing is in place.  Then-and not a moment sooner-he gives us the good things he has promised."  

Amen! He will finish the work he has begun. When the timing is perfect and not a moment 

sooner! So from this day forward, Lindsay is going to trust Him and lay it all at his feet knowing it will be done in His perfect timing.

  

Dinner and 2 months

Last night, Gracie came walking into the family room with my camera around her neck!  I about had a heart attack, but I recovered quickly enough to see that my sweet hubby bought me an external flash for my camera for our anniversary! At least he had a good excuse for letting my five year old hold my camera!  But I just couldn't get upset, cause Gracie was the cutest little thing holding that big old camera.  And she was snapping away.  She took this pic of us.  Didn't she do good?  I see photography in her future:)  

  We had a nice dinner at Maggiano's down at Southpark.

 And here you have it, the first belly picture.  People, that's only 8 weeks right there.  I was this big 20 weeks with the girls!  Gees!

 And by the way, I am feeling a little better:)  I went to Bobby's last week and he gave me some supplements to help with the nausea and the intestinal issues I was having.  Praise the Lord, they are helping.  Hopefully, only three more weeks of the ickyness anyway and we'll be good!

Christmas Eve

So I did find some Christmas Eve pictures on my camera of these super duper cutie patooties!

We had the Mannino clan over for Christmas Eve dinner before we all went to the service at church. 

  Piper, Alyssa, Gracie, and Faith
  These two crack us up.  They are so much alike, it's scary! They have lots of fun together.

  The Manninos helped us eat Jesus' birthday cake too:)  It was cute watching all of them sing to Jesus.  That's what I want them to remember....

Happy 10th Anniversary

Ten years ago today at 2 pm, Jeremy and I said our vows.  That seems crazy to me!  I can't believe we've been married that long.

"Do you Lindsay take Jeremy to be your husband? To live together after God's ordinance-in the holy estate of matrimony?  Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon him your heart's deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto him as long as you both shall live?

YES, I DO.  I ABSOLUTELY STILL DO!

But even more than what I promise to do, I want to honor you, Jeremy Grey Gibson for the way you have upheld these vows in our marriage. (Ya'll, seriously....I married up! This man rocks).  

Thank you for loving me unconditionally.  I am not the most easy to love, yet you excel at loving me anyway.  I have never questioned your love and devotion to me.  You are a constant.

 Thank you for loving and comforting me during sickness.  Obviously this is at the forefront of my mind right now.  My you have gone above and beyond the call to serve and love your family and wife during these past several weeks.  Having pregnancy sickness is new territory for us but you have risen to the occasion.  You have cooked every meal, or at least heated it up;), cared for the girls mostly by yourself once you get home, you have cleaned for me, gone to the store, ran other errands, prayed for me, and been by my side.  I can't thank you enough.  And of course, when I have a migraine, you drop whatever you are doing to care for me and the girls.  No complaining, you just do it.  You are my hero.

 "For richer, for poorer," Because of your gift of money managing, we have been very blessed in this department. God has always provided far and above what we have needed.  Thank you for giving it away!  For being so generous with what God has given us.  Whether it's helping with an adoption, giving to World Vision, which you have done for 8 years now!, supporting our friends in Crusade, pro-life causes, or whatever it may be- you give freely.  I really appreciate that about you.

"For better, for worse," I can't recall much "worse" in our marriage.  Again, due to your humility and desire to please the Lord as you lead our family.  There have been lots of "betters."  It's been a privilege to share them with you as my husband.  Several of the betters for me are, our wedding day, our honeymoon in Jamaica, the day we held our little Gracie for the first time, the day we met Piper and snuggled her, the day we purchased this land, our dream.  I look forward to so many more "betters" with you.  And I know the "worses" will come and we will weather those too.

"To cherish and continually bestow upon her your heart's deepest devotion."  Well obviously, I think you excel at this.  You are devoted to me and to the girls like no man I have ever seen.  Thank you for being willing to do whatever it takes to care for us.  Lately, this has meant a ton of extra work for you.  Wow you are one devoted man!

"Keeping yourself only to her as long as you both shall live."  Thank you for taking this seriously in this day and time.  Thank you for keeping yourself only for me, both before we were married and now.  I do not take it lightly and I know the temptations are tremendous.

  

  Told you I married up!  Happy Anniversary my dear husband.  I love you tons.

                Yours Forever,

                        Lindsay

Things that make you go Hmmmm.....

You might be wondering why there aren't any pictures on here from Christmas???

I offer you a very simple answer....I don't have ANY.  Nope, not a single ONE.  Very sad, but very true:(  I was in bed with a migraine from Christmas Eve till the day after Christmas, literally.  It's okay, no pity needed, it could have been much worse.  But just wanted to let you know why there aren't any pictures of my little ones enjoying the joys of Christmas.

I will tell you about it:)  I did get to rush them through their presents so I could see them open them.  That in itself is sad that the poor things didn't get to enjoy them cause their mom was hurrying them along.  But they survived.

The both got American Girl dolls and that was a highlight!  Gracie got Kit, and they really look alike!  And Piper got Ruthie.  They also got a bed and horse to go along with them. Oh and beauty chairs so they can style their hair while Kit and Ruthie are comfortable:) To top it off, Gamma made them and their dolls matching outfits:)

 Another favorite was princess shoes that light-up.  They wear those a lot.

It was a special year for us here.  Gamma and Papa came on Christmas Eve and spent the night with us.  It was so fun having them here to open presents with the girls on Christmas morning.

Then everyone was off to Nanny and Papaw's (my mom and dad's) for presents with them and my sisters, then Dad's side comes over for lunch. Then for dinner, they all went to Mimi's (My mom's moms).

Don't worry, Jeremy took good care of me:)  He was going to stay home with me but I insisted that he go and have fun.  He came back to check on me periodically.

I've really enjoyed seeing your Christmas pictures on your blogs!  Makes me feel like I didn't miss out as much.

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!, by the way.