Our bean is lucky

So, I found these pictures today when I was looking through our camera at old pictures. They are pictures of Mike with our friends, Eric and Anna's, son Gabe. We went camping with them in June. How lucky is our baby to have Mike as a daddy, when you look at these pictures you can just see how good he is going to be.

war

So, I am going to attempt to write this post without getting political at all. My purpose is for one reason. Last night I got a phone call from my friend Jyl who was so saddened. I didn't realize it, but the Cedarburg soldier that was killed in Iraq on Monday was one of her husband's good friends. They had just spend the 4th of July with him, 10 days before he was being sent to Iraq. He had only been in Iraq for three days and was on his first mission when he was killed. This is the first time this war has hit so close to home. I have always been incredibly saddened in hearing that one of our soldiers had lost his life fighting for us, but I had never really known anyone that had been killed. My mom called me yesterday morning to tell me that this had happened and told me that I had gone to daycare with this soldier long ago. I certainly don't remember him, but it was weird to think that at one point in my life I knew this person who had just died fighting for us. He was his parents only child. My heart hurts for my friends Jyl and Jeff who are grieving the loss of their friend and for everyone else that knew this man. Whether or not we agree with the war, our people are dying everyday so we can live the lives we live. I am going to do my best to never forget that and be thankful to them each and every day for the sacrifices they are making. I just hope they can all come home soon and safely.

friendship

So, I am straying from the typical post of what is going on with the baby today. I am going to attempt a post a little more "deep". Most of you reading this know the story of the couple we met on our honeymoon, Josh and Anna. If not, ask us sometime, it is an amazing story. Mike and I have been blessed in our lives to have amazing friends. There is no question about it, we would both tell you, our friends are the best you can ask for. We have always felt that way and always will. We thank God everyday for the amazing people that we have in our lives.

So, when we left for our honeymoon we never would have thought that we would add two more to the list of simply amazing people we have been blessed to cross paths with. We left for our honeymoon with the simple expectation of relaxation and some fun times together. Never would we have guessed that we would meet a couple that would change our lives. We ended up meeting Josh and Anna and spending most of our week with them. With them we had some amazing conversations about life, God, and spirituality. You see, we had no idea, but they were struggling with their life at home, in their community. They were trying to figure out how to be themselves and still fit into the expectation their community had for them. We talked frank, we told them our story of being essentially thrown out of the churches we had grown up in for one decision we had made. We talked of the pain that caused us and the faith we had always had that was in an instant questioned.

Then we told them the story of Janis, our pastor. We told them about how our tears were instantly erased when we met him and started attending his church. We never realized that we would feel so at home and welcome at a church. We had no idea that we would be able to have in depth conversations with our pastor and that he would listen and encourage us to keep digging. Neither of us would have guessed that we would miss church when we couldn't attend a Sunday, we had never experienced that feeling. We have never felt so at home in a church in all of our lives.

I digress though, when we returned from our honeymoon, we kept in touch with our newfound friends. We were introuduced by them to the blogging world. Their blogs told their story, their story of what they were going through and the journey that they were on and how much our friendship had impacted them. Josh has actually been blogging the last two days about this and you can check it out here: http://www.iamjoshbrown.com/blog/ His posts are extremely thought provoking, I would encourage anyone to read them.

So, to Josh and Anna, know that you two have affected us also. We are inspired by your story and your journey. You have allowed us to have many conversations with each other that have made us grow as a couple. We thank God for your friendship and look forward to many years of trips to each other's "worlds".

And to all of our other friends reading, those who have been with us for the long term, we love you with our whole hearts and thank God we have you. Thank you for defining who we are as people.

Week 10

We can't believe that we are almost done with the 3rd month of pregnancy. This move towards the second trimester is being met happily by myself as I am beginning to finally not feel like I am going to die everyday all day long from sickness! (: I have started to feel exceptionally better, not perfect, but the change is amazing! Just the ability to eat a little healthier, not have to eat every single hour and to not have to spend all of my precious free time on the couch or in bed feeling sick is wonderful. I am still having an aversion to chicken most days, but I have been able to stomach it a few times! We continue to attempt to think of a boys name that we both agree on, but the girls name is set. Neither name will be shared with anyone, just to add to the surprise! Other than that, not much is new in Bean's world. Outside of becoming a little person each and every day that is!

Babies, babies, babies...

So, we had our good friends Joe and Melissa over for dinner last night, as usual we had a great time together. They also are having a baby due October 1st. We are both holding out the dream that our kids will fall in love and get married of course! (: It was a great night with great food and great company. Here's a picture of Joe and Melissa that we took last night!

Our friend from Atlanta's brother's big dream....

So our friend Josh from Atlanta's brother needs our help! I don't know who reads my blog but if you happen to come across this please vote. I'm copying and pasting s an e-mail from this morning. It explains it better than I could. It only takes a minute at the most!

Hello, my faithful friends. Josh's little brother Blake has been involved in a contest over the past few weeks to become the new morning co-host of an Alabama country radio station, Kicks 104.1. The competition is called the sidekick search and he was on the radio a week ago today. Voting is American Idol-style, with the most popular contestants staying in the competition. Voting is online and I beg and plead for you to vote for him, it would help him out so much. Here's the link ... http://kicks1041.com/side_kick_search.shtml.


Scroll down to the bottom of the page, click to vote, and select Blake Brown, then press vote. I appreciate all of your help so much. This is the kind of opportunity he's always dreamed of.

The bean

So, we now affectionately refer to the baby as the bean, just made it a little more fun for us. We have crossed over into the 9 week mark and I am still feeling pretty nausious all day every day, but it does come and go and to be honest I have pretty much gotten used to it! It is going to be amazing to return to feeling great every day! Most of you know now that we are pregnant, but in case you missed any of the details, our due date is February 18th and we will not be finding out what we are having. We have had one doctor appointment and an ultrasound and have seen the little one with its heart beating strong. I have already started to gain weight due to the fact that I pretty much have to eat all day long in order to keep the sickness away, but that is okay. The doctor said I need to do what I need to do to get through this time so I am just taking it day by day!

Because of our friends...

So, we are going to attempt to join the world of blogging! Since no one knows of this where we are from really, it may just end up being for our dear friends Josh and Anna, but that will be worth it. After spending a fantastic weekend with them, we realized that we need to keep them more up to date on our lives especially with the bean on the way!!! So, we will use this opportunity to write what is going on in our lives, what we are thinking and to chart our journey to parenthood! Who knows, maybe this will be the beginning of a blogging revolution within our "wisconsin friends" too! Hopefully for those of you who don't live close to us, this will be a way for you to know what is going on with us on a regular basis!