A Baby Story

This is the letter I wrote to our little one explaining how we found out about him or her. This was written back on September 28, but I thought I'd share it as a way to tell all of you the story too. Our ultrasound is coming up on this Wednesday! Nervous & excited all at the same time!

Sweet Baby,

Your Daddy & I just found out about your precious self on Thursday, September 22, 2011. We are full of JOY! We weren’t expecting such a blessing so soon, so we believe God knew it was time for you to join us. It is HIS perfect timing, as always.

I had been feeling sick to my stomach for a few days, and your Daddy decided (more as a joke than anything) that I should take a test to “just to see.” Later that morning, I decided to do just what he suggested … couldn’t believe it … and took three more! “Pregnant” four times. Oh my goodness.

I needed to tell your Dad! I called him and asked if we could meet for lunch after I went to the gym. I didn’t give anything away though. After the gym I ran by the shady store, “Dollar and More” to purchase your FIRST ever clothes, two pairs of these teensy tiny pink-and-blue striped socks for $1.49. (It’s amazing the details we remember, isn’t it?)

We met up at one of our favorite restaurants, Cheddars, and during that slow point between receiving our drinks and ordering our meals, I told him I had something to show him. I pulled out the first pregnancy test I took as well as the itty bitty socks. Your Daddy just stared at them for a moment, and then started crying. He is OVER THE MOON about you, little one, and so am I!

Your Daddy & I are so in love, and so happy. We started planning your nursery, and thinking of names. I’m also constantly eating saltine crackers, pretzels, and drinking water and Gatorade. According to all the doctors, you’ve been only the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen until now, yet my whole body can tell you’re there.

We love you so much already, sweet baby.

Keep growing and growing!

Love, Mom & Dad

Thankfully so far baby has been following our wishes, and if our guesses are correct, baby has grown from the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen, to now the size of a raspberry! That's pretty exponential growth. I'm feeling it too. Although I had got into the habit of getting to the gym regularly before the baby, I've still been doing it, but it's gotten far more challenging, especially with the nausea and fatigue I've been feeling. Mid-mornings and evenings are the most challenging right now, but I'm grateful for it because I know things are going well with baby.

I owe lots of posts about football games, new cars, etc - our quarter grading period is over, and life has settled down, so I'm determined to get caught up SOON! :)

Our Emotional Ride

I know I've been absent for a few weeks, but that's because our life has felt a little turned upside down, and then put on an emotional roller coaster ride. So even though blog-worthy things have happened, it's all faded into the background compared to the fact a few weeks ago,
Bryan & I found out we are pregnant.
(That's a story for another day - a very sweet, precious, and fun story :)

Since then:
- I've been incredibly nauseous, exhausted all the time, and full of JOY because those things meant we had a baby growing and developing
- I've battled neck pain, a sinus infection and allergies without medicine
- I've continued working with a personal trainer and (attempting) to eat a balanced diet
- We've both been daydreaming like crazy about nurseries, names, teaching our kiddo how to read, and thinking about how smart/athletic/musical they will be :)

As well as:
- Had our first ultrasound last Wednesday (earlier than usual due to severe cramping, which is sometimes a sign that something is wrong)
- Had an U/S tech tell us that our pregnancy was no longer viable and that there really wasn't much of a point meeting with our midwife as planned. She also told me to stop crying and we should just "move on and live our lives."
- Felt absolute devastation and loss

On Thursday:
- Still feeling shock, we researched causes, options, and more information than what our lousy and insensitive U/S tech gave us
- Found out that no matter what the U/S showed (especially at this early date), there should have been additional blood work done to check levels of progesterone and HcG levels to compare to the levels I had tested at a week prior.
- Because of my bizarre and irregular cycles, we don't have a definitive due date yet, and therefore NO assumptions should have been made about how far along I am, which means there may not have been a heartbeat clear enough to been seen on an U/S (and this one was ancient anyway) and that it's possible our little tater tot is just still pretty small/young, and that this doesn't necessarily show that it's not progressing, but that it just hasn't had TIME to get to the size they were thinking it should be at based on the date of my last cycle.
- Therefore, I set up an appointment and met with my midwife to have the blood work done
- Spent the day with Mom trying to NOT continue to panic and break into tears every 10 minutes

On Friday:
- Opted to not spend the day at work, distracted and randomly crying while waiting for blood results
- Spent many AGONIZING hours waiting for my midwife to call and give us numbers
- Finally received a call, and:

We are thankful that (as of now) we are still going to be parents in May/June!

We are seeking comfort in the Lord, and knowing that he counts every hair on our head, and therefore knows every single cell in our baby's growing body, and knows when things are perfect and when our baby may have complications so severe that their life would be impossible or quality of life negligible. He knows that we long to parent this sweet life, but we are also trying to recognize that in His infinite wisdom, He knows best.

Please pray for miracles, for emotional balance, and for our baby. This has felt like a very rocky road so far, and we've only had our baby for a few short weeks. This won't be the first or the last time we feel sorrow, joy, and so many more emotions regarding this little person.

Most people do not share about their pregnancies before the end of the 1st trimester, and so far (other than immediate family, one co-worker, and a friend) no one really knows about ours. I thought how silly is it that the ONE thing on my mind all the time - how is baby doing!? - I felt like I couldn't write about on a blog meant for me to share what's going on with me personally. It will be heart breaking if we find out that we miscarry, but if that happens, I would *need* to share about it, the same way I feel a *need* to share about what's going on with us right now.

We are not necessarily asking folks to refrain from sharing with others, but given how emotional it has been, I don't want to find myself in a position of needing to "untell" too many people should the Lord chose to have us wait for another tiny miracle. Please be sensitive about who you would share with if you chose to, knowing their likelihood of asking a lot of questions that could be painful for us later. I will keep everyone posted!

Many prayers in the works for little Baby Evans!

Oops!!

So much has been happening recently, and I owe posts! Sorry about that!

.... that said, this is mostly a teaser. Posts coming soon!

Crafting: Fall Wreath Edition

A friend of mine, Jessie, gave me this fun idea for a homemade fall wreath. I thought it was so stinkin' cute, and pretty much went to Hobby Lobby the next day ... :)

To make one, you'll first need a wreath form.

You'll also need 1/2-3/4 yard of fabric, as well as 5-6 sheets of felt, straight pins, some scissors, and some free time.

Cut your fabric into 2.5-3" strips.

Using your straight pins to secure the fabric onto the form, warp the fabric around until completely covered. (*Hint*: pick which side you plan to be the front or the back at the very beginning, and strive to always patch the different strips together on that side so you don't have small silver pieces showing from the pins.)

Then cut your felt into circles or oval-ish shapes. This is not an exact science. I pity all of you perfectionists (I'm definitely not one) because it is HARD to cut a perfect oval, so best of luck to you! (This is the most time-consuming part of the project.)

Once you've got a pretty hefty set of them ready to go, fold the circle in half, in half again, and secure them onto the wreath with a straight pin, so that it sort of resembles a flower/rose.

Keep placing them on, fluffing them out, and rearranging until you like the look/fullness of it.

(I obviously spent some time fixing the above ones :)
You definitely do not need to use that many colors, I was just shooting for a fall-theme so I used browns, oranges, and deep red, but you could do a black and white print with all red felt, green & red for Christmas, green for St. Patrick's day, etc.)

For fun, I added this sweet little scarecrow to add to the fall festive look.

If you are lucky enough to have a sweet pooch, he'll sniff it out and make sure it's A-OK :)

This particular wreath went to MeMaw and Paw Evans. Happy FALL!
Hopefully the weather will match the season soon!

Puppy Lovin'

Shredding Rubber on I-45

Well, today started out interesting because yesterday we had a momentary hesitation due to some new information that we had, but we decided to go through with it - adopt a Guardian Dog from the same place we got Maverick! That meant she would still be breeding once a year or so for the next 3 years (we'll spay her when she's done), but she lives with us and acts like our dog except when she's in McKinney having puppies.

This little one's name was "Pink" - terrible, I know - so we're trying to rename her "Goose" and she's catching on pretty quickly given that she's already 2 years old. She's housebroken, playful and seems to get along really well with Maverick! More about her and some pictures in a new post coming soon.

Instead I'm going to tell you all about the nice "simple" flat tire we had on I-45. The irony is that we decided against taking the CRV because the last time we took the CRV on a trip to get a new dog, the A/C went out and it was a LONG, and MISERABLE drive back. Do y'all remember that?

Anyway. We took the Camry instead.
And had a scary and massive blow out.
No big deal right?

Well, apparently Toyotas put this special anti-theft "key" lug nut thing on their tires to prevent theft. If the key is missing (it got left at the last mechanic we had an oil change at), however, it means you CAN'T CHANGE YOUR TIRE! Oh, crap.

It's also a Sunday evening, which means basically no mechanic or wrecking company is open. More oh no's.

I called MANY mechanics and wrecking places until we finally went through this fiasco of one saying they were coming ... then they never showed ... another saying they were coming ... then they changed their mind ... another saying we were too far (3 miles down the road?), and FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY I-45 Wrecking Tire & Tow rescued us!

Meanwhile, while we waited for the several hours as the above happened, I REALLY had to use the restroom. So I fashioned a restroom out of 2 doors & an umbrella:

g

Should you find yourself in a fix, this works quite well!

Goose was handling the wait decently (isn't she precious?):

The massive blow out:

Many hours later ... The WRECKER arrived!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Maverick was concerned, especially when I got out of the car to talk to him too. (More like gush over him like he was my hero ...)

They originally said that they were going to tow us to the nearest hotel, we'd stay the night, and the next morning they'd tow us to the Toyota Dealership not too far away. This plan was not ideal for several reasons - some of which include neither of us would make it to work the next morning, we had two dogs and didn't know if the hotel was pet friendly, and all 4 of us were seriously HUNGRY.

However, this guy broke the lug nut key thingy, which we'll have to get fixed, but at least he managed to find a way to get us on the road again headed HOME!!

The tire looks pretty awful, huh?

Anyway, we had to stop at a gas station and buy overpriced nasty puppy kibble (the only kind of dog food they carried), but at least the dogs were fed, and we just got home a few minutes ago. We're trying to quickly train Goose to use the doggy door so we don't have to worry about them tomorrow at work .... we hope :)

Pictures of the two pups coming soon!

A&M vs. OSU

Yesterday Bryan and I found ourselves yet again in College Station, ready for game day. This time we brought along Adam and Steven to join in the fun. (As always, here is my big THANK YOU to Mom and Dad for their spectacular season tickets :)

As you can see, the gentlemen were armed with Shiner and Whiskey&Coke for the tailgate. I, however, was (as always) drinking LOTS of water.

How awesome is this truck-made-into-firetruck?

Bryan's stoked to be here, and ready to BTHO OSU.

I asked Steven to take a picture of the two of us, since it doesn't usually happen.
(We can count this as our anniversary picture too, since we didn't get one of those either .... oops)

The first half we played INCREDIBLE. It was 20-3 to the Aggies going into half time. The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band played a great halftime show- and even did some cool new moves. Unfortunately for the Aggies, however, our football team fell apart the second half.
We're used to the Aggies forgetting to play the 3rd quarter (anyone remember last year? and the year before?) ... but they usually pick it up again in the 4th quarter to narrowly recover. Yesterday they also forgot to play the 4th quarter. It was pretty awful.

I think most Aggies are going to try to remember the first half and pray they do that for ALL FOUR quarters next game against Arkansas.

Don't forget to come to the A&M/Arkansas party at our house next weekend!