Dear Little One-- Half Way There!

Dear Little One,

You have been growing for 20 weeks, and you have 20 weeks to go (approximately). You are roughly the size of a banana weighing in at 10.1 ounces and measuring at 6.50 inches!

We got some Ben and Jerry's "Half Baked"
ice cream to celebrate your "Half Way"
Day today!

You are now yawning, hiccuping, sucking, and swallowing. You are also twisting, rolling, punching,and kicking. Daddy even gets to feel you move sometimes, without any doubt. You are quite active!

I, on the other hand, am not as active as I would prefer to be at this stage, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel and this pregnancy seems to be progressing rather quickly. I'm sure you'll be in our arms before we know it!

I try to pass time by thinking of my pregnancy with you in small increments. At first, it was counting down the days until we could see a heartbeat. Then I was counting one week to the next, praying for sweet relief from "morning" sickness (which still hasn't entirely gone away). I anxiously awaited getting past the first trimester, which held the highest risk of losing you. Then I wanted to find out your gender (which I already know, but haven't announced publicly yet). Next up is your 20 week anatomy scan, which is only 2 days away. Then I'll count down to 23 weeks which is when you begin to have a chance of living outside of my womb should something happen. Each week after that is another viability milestone, increasing your chances of being born healthy.

In late November/early December I'm going to start counting down the days until you get here instead of counting down the days of keeping you safe and tucked away in my womb. Ironic, isn't it?

In the meantime, your family is hustling and bustling with summer plans and projects. Most of my projects have been done from the couch with the help of Google, but I've also been able to fulfill a few cookie orders I already had scheduled for this summer before I knew about you. I've researched and ordered Leeann and Titus's school curriculum for next year, and I continue to schedule it out piece by piece, recognizing that I have no idea what this next year will hold. I'm hoping to more or less have the year planned out before it starts so they can keep going even if I end up in a spot where I can't help them as much as I'd like. Along with reading, writing and math, I anticipate that both your sister and your brother will always look back on this year thinking about how much they learned about pregnancy, childbirth and babies. Talk about a real world education!

I've also been doing a lot of research. On a church. In a town. In a state. That's kind of far away! We are currently walking through the process of figuring out whether or not daddy would be a good a pastor for a particular church, and whether or not the church and community would be a good fit for our family. So far, we are very excited about the possibility of this new opportunity, but it's a little weird to think you might not end up being born an Oregonian!  

This church's search committee has asked us a lot of questions, and have answered a lot of our questions. They've interviewed us and checked daddy's references. We are praying that God makes his desire for our family very clear in the weeks ahead, as we walk down the path of seeking his will together.

One thing you will learn in life, dear Little One, is that you simply never know what a day will bring. When I wrote our family update in March, I could not have dreamed what kind of excitement would be in store for us in 2016, but daddy and I were already calling it a year of hope. We still have no idea how this year will end, but there is plenty of excitement here in the middle as we watch God's will for our futures unfold!

Love,

Mommy