Pregnancy and its symptoms

Well I am well into my 19th week of pregnancy and they were right you definately show sooner in your second pregnancy. It was somewhere around 17 1/2 to 18 weeks that it was like boom there is a baby bump. In the first pregnancy it was around week 21-22 time period.

I begin to think about how this baby will not get the same attention that Niah got when it is born or even now. Then I realize all of the things this baby gets that Niah did not get. Every Night I pray with Niah while rocking her and then we sing a worship. We started praying for baby #2 in our prayers, which I think is neat that Niah is getting to be apart of this pregnancy. As well as I never sang to Niah in utero and this baby hears me sing every night and hopefully it will be a comforting sound to baby once it is born. I started feeling baby move around 17 weeks, I believe it is just a week earlier than Niah.

Here is a picture of me now on the left 19 weeks and the pic on the right is me at 18 weeks pregnant with Niah with my sister (check her blog out about being a mom here) who was also pregnant.

Well my husband and I honestly never fight, maybe in the first year we had few or several arguments but since then less than a handful. Since being pregnant I can think of 2 disagreements which ended in me crying. My poor husband said after the 2nd disagreement, "I have to believe that you started crying because you are pregnant, the only other time you cried was when target would not return something for you and you were pregnant." I had to agree, I would not say I am an extremely emotional pregnant lady like some of the stories I have heard but at the littlest disagreement (I hate disagreements) I end in great big tears. Darn pregnancy hormones. I already knew that I cried alot easier in movies which Matthew already picked up but real life it seems the tears come. I guess it is healthy to have a good cry!

Well for the biggest news we find out what we are having this week. Cast your vote on what you think? I will tell you that I am leaning towards girl only because everything about my pregnancy is exactly the same, blood pressure, weight gain, sickness, nonexistent heartburn, carrying high, babie heartbeat, and overall how I feel.

Well I have to leave with a pic of my sweet girl, here is my little girl with her best friend and cousin Kyah on her new toy.

Niah Getting Ready

Being Niah's mommy is an absolute joy. I have to say that every second I am with her I enjoy and every second I am not with her I am sad she is not by my side! (I do realize that may be weird or it may be because I only have one child.) She is growing up so fast and her mind is already hard at work. It would take me days to write everything she is doing now.

I will tell you I believe God is getting her ready for the addition to our family come January. She has came to every Dr. appt we have had, which is more than a normal person but I never really said you will be a big sister, we will have a baby type thing. In the last week out of no where she started looking at every child (newborn to 6) in stroller saying "baby," and wanting to go see them. She looks at my baby magazines on her own and flips through the pages and points at every picture of a baby and says, "baby." She does not even like baby dolls and we have no friends with children younger than her so on her own she is figuring out what a baby is and that she likes them. I have to say I believe that is the way our God works, he works to prepare even the littliest people for big changes in their lives.
This her reading a book, I couldn't get her to let me take a pic of her going through a magazine

Some of the very cute things that Niah has done lately:

Her Uncle J got her a monkey and we tell her go get monkey and she picks it up and hugs it and says, "Kyah." We are pretty sure she named it Kyah because anytime we say monkey she says "Kyah."

Niah does not care for stuffed animals and 2 now she has piled them all up and pointed at them and said, "this Kyah" I said, "You want to give to Kyah?" and she goes, "Yes!"

She will dial numbers on the phone, then hold it up to her ear, Carry on a conversation mostly about babies and crackers, then go bye bye and guess who she always says Hi to thats right she is always calling Kyah. Pretty sure Kyah is her favorite friend. If she see another child close their age she will throw hands in the air and ask for Kyah. We have to tell her Kyah is not here so play with so and so.

We love her so much and find it such a joy to watch her grow and learn.

Dark truth: Modern Day Slavery

The US ended slavery in 1865 at the end of the Civil War but everyday people, girls are enslaved not just in other countries but in the United States. They are enslaved and forced into the sex trade. Girls, young precious innocent girls' lives are threatened and forced into a life of prostitution. Where people are actually makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a DAY as these poor girls are stripped of all humanity daily, hourly as men take advantage of them and treat them worse than an animal. Sex trafficking is becoming bigger and bigger, for several reasons but one is the money involved. Drugs you can sell the product 1 time and it is gone, girls can be sold over and over. Sex trafficking is the world's fastest growing industry and most profitable criminal activity". It is believed well over 30 billion a year is made in the business. I watched a movie called, "Human Traffic," the man in the movie said, "Sex traffic is such a large enterprise in the US because unfortunately there is a demand."

That qoute has stuck with me since that movie. There is a demand for it and what is the US doing to stop it. I understand that world peace is not obtainable and I realize I can not save the world but I can do something. This subject, this terrible horrifying act has always been close to my heart but since becoming a mom to a daughter it is even more important. Those girls are DAUGHTERS, some as young as 5 and most not older than 25. They are someones, daughter, niece, sister, or grand daughter. They have been tricked, kidnapped, and threatened for their life (and their families lives) to perform over and over sexual acts.

What am I going to do to help, raise awareness, support financial, pray and look for signs in my area. I refuse to close my eyes to this terrible thing and hope and pray that more people will begin to call out Americans actually spending money on girls enslaved. With just less than 30 mins in research, I have found that the state of Missouri is a state with a huge demand for sex traffic. In Kansas City alone, at least 5 girls are rescued from being enslaved in sex traffic a month (a very surprising statistic but I actually know someone coerced and now enslaved in the KC area). I ask and beg of you to do the same.

This week my sister is hosting a Vault denim party in Joplin and all proceeds go to Project Rescue, read about it here I am making my way to Joplin to attend and give my financial support and hope anyone close by can come to. If you do not live close by you can shop online here and enter code 162348.

I post this picture because this is my little girl, my daughter, and my niece. I think of these two often when I think of the poor girls enslaved in Sex trafficking

This is my cousins, one 7 and one 19 and I think of their faces often when I am praying and pleading for the girls enslaved because they are the age of those girls.

I see my girls' faces and think sex trafficking has to be slowed down and stopped for them. Stopped for all of the other daughters, sisters, cousins, nieces, and grand daughters across the world.

The details of Pregnancy #2

I figured I would share all of those details that people want to ask but most do not :-) We started trying for baby number 2 mid December. From then on out Matthew would ask, "Are you pregnant yet?" In March I bought a 5 pack of pregnancy test, just for fun to start taking them randomly. I took one in March, nothing, I took one in April, nothing. Then May rolled around, the week of Mother's Day, the week after Niah's Birthday I took one and I got a very, very faint second line. I really had no reason to believe I was pregnant, I had no symptoms yet. I didn't tell anyone I took the test and so I took another one 2 days later and got a very faint second line again. I figured that was good enough!! So happy I found out in the comfort of my home instead of the ER (like I did with Niah). I purchased iron on letters and made a onsie for Niah that said Big Sister. On Mother's Day morning while Matthew was making breakfast for me, I put the onsie on Niah and gave her the pregnancy test and sent her to see Daddy. He was very surprised and excited!! He then asked, "How accurate are those things?"

This is my pregnancy test

We made an appointment with the Dr. that next week on thur. We went in and did the ultrasound and the dr. told me it was too early to see a heart beat and he thought I was just over 4 weeks. He told me to come back in 3 weeks and we would do another ultrasound. 6 weeks to the dot, I started getting sick. When I say sick, I mean I can not get out of bed without throwing up and I feel completely lifeless and no energy. I got sick for the first time at Kyah's Birthday and that night completely sick, Niah was also out of routine so she woke up twice in the night and everytime I went to get her, I would get her and immediately be running to the bathroom to THROW UP. Niah thinks it is completely normal to lean over the toilet and fluid come out of your mouth she has watched me throw up now more times than I can count. We returned to the dr. for our second ultrasound and found out I was almost 8 weeks. The dr. was very concerned about my weightloss since the 3 weeks he had seen me before and gave me a new medicine. Thankfully, I still dealt with sickness but I could take one of those amazing pills and be able to get out of bed within a couple hours. Before, I would take my medicine and 3 days later I could get out of bed. The medicine did not take away the nauseaus feeling but no complaining here because I felt human again!! Since then I have gained all the weight I lost plus 1 lb.

I am 15 weeks and go back to the dr. next week.

This picture was just taken and my mom kept telling me she did not think I should still be able to wear a pencil skirt and was concerned there was no baby in there. I took my belt off so you could see the bump a little better. The dr. says I am carrying very high again!

We are so excited for this little bundle of joy.

I have to end with a picture of our dear sweet Niah, this was right before church last sunday

Niah's Secret

That's right, our dear sweet Niah will be a big Sister around January 19. We are so excited and can hardly wait for this new baby's arrival.

I will blog all of the details later this week just wanted to share Niah's secret :-)

Tradegy in our World

I have been thinking about the terrible tradegy that hit Colorado Thur/Fri during that movie since friday evening when I sat down and read article after article and watched news clip after news clip. Knowing how my mind works I should have known I would never be able to go to sleep after going over the tragic events, I just began to have such sorrow for the victim's families. Reading about all of the children that were victims just broke my heart. The entire incidence is so saddening.

I began to think as a mom, how scary to think you are going to a movie and it could turn into a mass murder. That would be the unthinkable to imagine taking your children to what you thought was a safe enviroment and it was the complete the opposite. As I lay there fear swept over me. Am I really raising a child in a place that really any public place is not safe, that it could be potentially dangerous. As a child my mom believed that almost anywhere we were going was safe and that she would let us move leisurely around but I began to think this same world is not as safe as when I was a child. There was no school shootings, there was no mass murders, and was not nearly as many gun shot wounds. I litterally began to sob thinking about the world and how sin has taken it over. Even more so I began to feel so fearful.

I lay in bed and (not trying to make every post spiritual but the truth is God is the biggest part of my life so how could I not) cried and all of sudden of felt a supernatural peace. I realized we do live in a very scary world but God is the ultimate protector. When I put Niah down for bed every night we say a prayer and every Niah I pray, "Protect Niah." Now more than ever I have to have faith that our ultimate Protector will protect her and keep her safe from the evil things of this world.

I also realized even more than beyond my child their are millions of children in this world that need God. They need to know that God is their protector even when no one else is in their corner. They need to feel God's love and know that He is there for them. So yes, we do live in this terrible world filled with heartache but it has given me even more of a desire to reaching out to people!! Letting people see that God is in this dark world, that He can change hearts and lives, and he is our ultimate protector and comfort.

Where I work

I could tell you alot of pro's about my job that anyone would love, I could tell you about all of the food I get to eat on the job, I could even tell you about the wonderful scenery at my job. Where I work is one of my favorite places in the summer since I was a child. There is a beautiful lake complete with a blob, iceberg, and a waterslide, we have a pool, wonderful lookout points (one of which I got married at), a great staff but none of those things is what makes my job great.

Tonight, I am sitting on the deck praying for 500 chidren that are getting ready to go to the alters and God touch their lives like never before. My job is the greatest job in the whole world because I help make church camp happen for the Southern Missouri District. All summer long thousands of youth and kids come to the Lake of the Ozarks for church camp and they walk into a service each night where if they are open to it God will move in there lives like never before.

Let me give you a little personal background about this camp. I grew up going to this camp here and my very first kids camp, I had just turned 8, I got filled with the holy spirit. Not only that but God really strengthened me and gave me such a desire to share him and not long after that I helped prayed with my friend and sister in my basement to get filled with the spirit. The next year at kids camp I got called into the ministry. I believe that God can move anywhere but I will tell you I believe that there is an annointing at our camp and God touched me is special ways each and every year I was at camp and not only me but he has touched millions over the years. As soon as I was old enough I started going to kids camp as a counselor and I would encourage every child in our church to go to camp. I will never forget the special times I had praying with kids for God to save them, fill them, and speak to them and God always did and I felt so special being apart of that.

Now, I live and work at this camp every single day. I have a one year old with an early bedtime and I do not always get to go to the services like I would like to but please believe I am praying every single night for every kid that walks onto the camp. That God would touch them, that those kids would feel His love, that God would speak to them, and that they would walk away from camp closer the God than ever before. Not only do we pray for camp during camp but all year. Through out the year, I randomly walk into the tabernacle and think about everything God had done at those alters and pray for what God is going to do in the coming camp seasons.

I truly feel priviledged to be apart of what God is doing at this camp