15 wks and growing!

Well today marks the 15wk mark! We are still so amazed at how God works. According to babycenter.com the baby is the size of an apple this week. An apple, isn't that crazy! I know he/she will be getting a lot bigger in the coming months, but right now an apple seems really big to me. Plus, I feel really big. I feel like in the last two weeks I have gone from a slight bump to a full out prego belly. I know I know its only just begun, but it is really hard to imagine my body morphing so much. There are numerous times a day/week depending when I say to andrew " I dont really look pregnant today do I?" He then usually tells me to turn sideways and ask him again. Its just so weird because I have moments where I feel huge but most of the time I feel normal until I catch a glimpse of myself and I'm like "That is so crazy I really am pregnant." Its so weird. Also this week, they say if I shine a flashlight at my belly the baby will see it and move away from it. This seems pointless though since shining a flashlight in someones face is both rude and intrusive, and because I can't feel it move anyways. I am so happy that we are going strong though. In fact, in five weeks or so we should be able to find out what it is...again how exciting. Jonas is still telling us he wants a sister and even has a name he's fond of, but we aren't spilling the beans until we know what it is and have agreed on a name for sure. I am still on bedrest for another weeks and a half or so and will hopefull be off it by 16.5 wks. So please keep praying and keep hoping! We have still not heard anything from the adoption front. It is beginning to look more and more like these babies want to come at the same time. We are just so excited and so blessed...we are just more and more amazed by God with every passing day!

This baby is grounded...

Andrew and I have already discussed it and we have decided that when this baby gets here it is going to be grounded for at least the first year of its life. Just when we think everything is about to return back to normal...normal seems to elude us. This week it all started last thursday. My bleeding had finally stopped and the doctors gave me the green light to go on our Mid-Winter Retreat with our 7th and 8th graders. I got really excited and other than needing frequent naps, the weekend was wonderful. We had a great time with the kids, Jonas had a great time with his friend Hope and her family, and we spent the entire day Monday resting up. Jonas was acting a little under the weather but nothing major. Monday night we had a friend bring us dinner (thanks again Christine) and everything seemed headed toward normal. That was until about nine o'clock. I went to the bathroom and passed a pretty big clot, which mildly alarmed me. Soon though I started feeling a little sick at my stomach but after a couple of hours it passed. When Tuesday morning came I called the doctors and told them about the clot so they could put it in my chart. However, they seemed more than mildly alarmed and told me to come in immediately for an ultrasound. An hour (and another 5 yrs off my life; again this baby is grounded) later we found out everything is perfectly normal and apparently the clot was the last hoorah because they think the tear has even healed...yay! So we went home elated and sporting pictures of our "lemon-sized baby." I was told to go back on bed rest until 16wks but everything was great! A few hours after we got home Andrew started feeling sick and as it turns out got the worst case of the stomach flu in our house. He was up all night and is still recovering. He's actually not even going to church tonight so he must feel pretty horrible. Hopefully soon we will be able to find whatever normal we can. As for Jonas he is at a friends because neither of his parents can care for him, but he doesn't seem to mind:) He's getting all kinds of attention and special outings. He should be home soon and it will be family nap time. I will leave you with some absolutely priceless pics of our new baby:)

14wks...let the second trimester begin...

Well we have officially made it to the second trimester. You may be like me and naively think that the second trimester begins at 12 weeks but no in fact they don't consider you second trimester until 14 wks. Who knew? This is just one of the detailed facts I have learned since becoming pregnant, but who cares we finally made it!!! I feel so much more confident and am starting to really accept the fact that there really is a baby in there. In fact I experienced my first belly touch today. I still think I just look like one of those high school girls that wears their pants to tight and ends up with a slightly prego belly on top, but Andrew assures me that no it is too round to be considered a muffin top. (He's so sweet) Anyways back to the belly touch...it happened at the dentist's office today I followed the tech to the room and she got me just before I sat down. She put her hand firmly on my stomach and said "What's this?"(I'm pretty confident she had inside info from my chart) I never really understood how unnerving it is to have a stranger touch your stomach (especially when its poking out a bit). I know this is only going to get worse, and for those of you who know I'm not too fond of touching this should be a challenge. It's kind of funny though how people who normally would never just reach out and touch a strangers stomach will feel compelled to once they know you are pregnant:) I think it will maybe be better once I can feel the baby move, but right now it just feels like they are touching my pooching belly...not cool.

Anyways in other news the tear seems to be healing (my symptoms have gone away) maybe they will do an ultrasound to confirm that for sure, until then I have another 2 wks of the modified bed rest. However they did clear me to go on our Junior high retreat this weekend as long as I promise to rest and take care of myself which of course is my number one priority. It will be nice to get out of the house though...I can hardly wait. Everyone else is doing great. I could not ask for a more understanding and patient husband. Andrew has just been incredible! Jonas is doing good also. He had his first dentist appointment today and he did really great. I had to sit in the chair with him but he let them clean and even floss his teeth. I was so proud. He is so excited about a sibling. He always says he wants a sister so we will see.

There is no news on the adoption front, but we did tell our social worker about the pregnancy and she was really excited. Hopefully the adoption will go through soon. I am feeling myself growing impatient as the weeks go on, but all in Gods time which is always perfect. This is just such an exciting journey I am trying to remind myself to enjoy the steps along the way and not to look too far ahead. I think thats easier said than done but its another lesson I am happy to learn.

13 wks! (first belly pic)

13wks down only 27 to go...

So I thought I would write a little about how this pregnancy has been so far. Like I said in my last blog we found out we were pregnant in November and as soon as we got the news to the doctor they put me on a strict regimen of baby aspirin, 3x's the amount of folic acid, a prenatal vitamin, and supplemental progesterone daily. The first 11.5 wks flew by and were really uneventful. At 11 wks 4days however things took a little bit of a turn. I had some bleeding and had to go to the E.R. We feared the worse but were semi-reassured when we found out that the baby was fine (in fact it was moving around like crazy) and its heartbeat was 176 ("good and strong"). It turns out I have a small tear in my placenta. This sounds scary but is one of the few conditions that doesn't affect the baby. So YAY! I am just on modified bedrest which means no heavy lifting (no more than a gallon of milk-sorry Jonas), not a lot of walking (which seems pretty vague if you ask me), and as much rest as possible (laying or sitting in the bed). This was supposed to only last 3wks but today it got extended another 3wks. So I will be pretty much in the bed until 16wks. It will all be so worth it though so I just have to keep my eyes on the goal. Most people's reaction when I tell them about this "modified bed rest" is a sarcastic "Oh poor you, you have to get Andrew to do everything that must be so bad." Well trust me the first three days were pretty good I was given full permission to be lazy, but after that I have quickly learned that resting is a full-time job. It is hard to rely on people for everything, but it is definitely a lesson in humility and sacrifice. So while I rely on everyone else I have to remember that I have one little tiny being that is relying on me for everything and that is my number one job right now. So other than that things are moving right along. The baby is the size of a small peach and next week will be the size of a lemon (that is just CRAZY). It is fully formed now and just needs to fine tune all its organs for the next 27wks. I am so blessed to have this experience and haven't once taken it for granted. It is crazy that God gives us women the amazing gift of actually carrying a human being inside us while He fully forms all its parts. That is a concept that I don't think I will ever get over.

In other news...

We told our adoption agency that we are pregnant and they were so excited. They said it will not affect our adoption at all and in fact they have had several birth families come in recently. Maybe one of those families will be ours...We cannot wait to meet both of our new children. God is just incredible!

oh p.s. I promise I will have belly pics soon...right now there's not too much to show...

Proof that God has a sense of humor:)

Well as you all know we have been in the adoption process since May. It is going much slower than Jonas' but we know that our child is out there so we are keeping the faith. What most of you don't know is that in November we found out that God has quite the sense of humor. I (crystal) have always loved the saying that "if you want to make God laugh tell him your plans." Never did I ever think that that would be so true for us. See when we first got married we had a plan...get married and have kids, but God has something else in mind. So after three years of infertility we felt God calling us to something bigger...adoption. Soon Jonas came into our lives and there has never been a happier moment. So we thought "ok God new plan...we will adopt all of our children," but 2 yrs ago our plans changed again when we unexpectedly got pregnant. Immediately we thought "oh we get it so we will adopt and have biological children, thats cool," but those plans soon changed too when we suffered 2 miscarriages in the last 2 years. So we were back to our original plan of adopting all our children. Then in November God showed us that he was in control again when we found out that WE ARE PREGNANT!! We have entered this new journey with much trepidation. We never know what is next and for a constant worrier like me that is a hard pill to swallow, so we have kept very quiet until now. I am currently 13 wks pregnant and by all accounts in the clear. The new peanut is healthy and it looks like this whole pregnancy thing is really going to happen. It is so surreal to think that I will actually carry a child. I am still trying to wrap my mind around it. So about now most of you are probably asking yourselves "so what about the adoption?" Well that is a go as well. Adoption is something that we really feel called to and we feel like God is leading us to our child now. I know it sounds crazy, but God always seems to call people to crazy things. We are so blessed beyond belief to be given the gift of life and adoption all at the same time! We can't wait to meet both of our children and Jonas is so ready for a brother or sister or both! He can't decide which he wants more, but he is constantly talking about it. We aren't sure he really understands everything, but we do know he will be excited. We are truly humbled by how God has formed our family...we cant wait to see his completed work! We ask that you pray for us and all of our children, please pray for our adopted child's biological family as well. We also ask that you journey with us, get excited, and keep checking out our blog for upcoming belly pics, adoption info, and everything else God has in store for us....2010 looks like a GREAT year for the Arp family!!!