A Day to Celebrate...SURPRISE

Thank you everyone for your tremendous encouragement as we seek to adopt from China in the coming two years. We have had adoption on our hearts since we've been married. Please, please continue to pray towards that end as we believe that it is God's will for our family. He is in control and His plan prevails, but we are convinced that He has given us this desire.



AND



We are excited to announce that I am pregnant! Thank You Lord for Your blessings! My heart is so overwhelmed with gratitude. I have so much to share. So many thoughts, but first I'll tell you how everybody found out. Sunday evening I attended a church fellowship. As a church we are in the process of making significant missional and ministry decisions. I decided after breakfast to fast through lunch and supper over these decisions and how God would have us to be a part. Fasting is something that I believe God leads us to do from time to time; however, after church Sunday…after I made the decision to fast…I felt God clearly leading me not to. So I unpacked the very filling lunch that I made that morning and ate.



Early the next morning I took a pregnancy test (since I knew that it was about time to). It came back POSITIVE. I thought, “I’m so glad that I ate yesterday! Our little baby needed the food!!!!  God knew…what a miracle!!!” Nathan was still asleep and I really wanted to surprise him, so I tried with all my might to act normal through breakfast until he left for work. Later I called my doctor, talked to the nurse practitioner and set up an appointment. I went to the store, bought two more tests, a birthday card for Nathan (because his birthday is this week), and some brownie mix.


When I got home, I baked the brownies.


Then I wrapped the card in wax paper and taped around the edges so that it could be read and protected from getting dirty.

After I baked the brownies I placed the card underneath. I placed four candles into the brownies: white (representing Nathan), yellow (representing me), and a pink and blue (representing the baby…boy or girl).

I told Nathan on his way home that evening that I had a surprise for him each day of the week for his 30th b-day (I kind of told him this as an excuse for making brownies a week before). Waiting to get to dessert that night was soooo difficult. Finally, he cut into the brownies and found the card. The look on his excited face was priceless!

Then we had to decide how to announce to our family. We wanted to surprise them so we began planning trips to Scottsboro and Tallassee…BUT WHAT NATHAN DIDN’T KNOW IS THAT…


Since August, I’ve been planning a surprise 30^th family birthday party for him. I’m so excited that it was a success. Nathan’s parents and grandparents came, and he had no idea!!! (AND THEY HAD NO IDEA THAT I WAS PREGNANT) I planned it so that everyone except me would stand in front of the piano in the living room. I would stand in the kitchen as usual preparing our supper plates. The family parked in our neighbors driveway ( I need to explain that our country neighbor is a half a mile away with a very thick layer of planted pines that block us from seeing each other at all.) Nathan would walk in the door and around the corner to change clothes before supper…then SURPRISE…


BUT


He didn’t round the corner at all. He was fixated on talking to me, some birthday cards that came in the mail, and on supper. He walked in the door and said, “Well hey there Mommy! How are you feeling?...(read a birthday card from my parents which mentioned praying for our baby-to-be) Oh!!! How sweet! Are they talking about our baby from China or our baby in your tummy?



HE HAD NO IDEA THAT HIS FAMILY WAS IN THE LIVING ROOM, which I think is hysterical. I just knew that they would let out a squeal of excitement, but it turned out that they didn’t hear a word he said. So finally I turned Nathan’s face to the living room because he was about to sit at the table. Oh the grin on his face when he saw everyone. He said I got him so good. But the fun wasn’t over. Then I said, “Oh no!!! I forgot to call my parents to let them in!” So I dialed, put them on speaker phone and said, “Sorry guys, I forgot to call you but Nathan’s hear now…Nathan why don’t you tell them what you wished for your birthday?”  Then Nathan announced: “ For a healthy pregnancy. We’re having a baby!”

I have my parents on speaker phone. They were soooo excited!!!

We are overwhelmed with the Lord’s loving kindness and his mercy. We are thrilled and humbled. Now as I take prenatal vitamins to nurture this child, I pray over his/her soul, and I pray for the child we believe we’ll adopt. When I rest or take it easy because pregnancy has me tired, I think about how God created and equipped this body he gave me to nurture and love this baby even before he/she is born. And I pray for him. I pray also for the baby we desire to adopt. I pray for their sibling relationship. We pray they are drawn to the Gospel from a young age. We pray for wisdom, gentleness, and patience in parenting because that ability can only come from Him. And we thank Him.