BOY BOY BOY!!!

On Friday, December 20th, Rance and I headed to our 16 week appointment (I was 15 weeks, 6 days to be exact).  This was just a quick checkup where we would hear the heartbeat, etc. and be on our merrily little way (or so we thought). 

Bathroom picture before heading to the doctor!

When we arrived at the doctor's office that day, we found out we were seeing the midwife that we saw our very first appointment (we rotate each appointment in order to meet them all).  It's fun how you just automatically share a special bond with her so we were super excited when Judy walked into our room.  After catching up and all that - she informed us that we could always shoot to the Franklin office and have a 'sneak peak' done to find out earlier than 20 weeks what the baby was if we wanted.  First of all, I had no idea this was an option.  Secondly, we were heading to Nahunta for a week so there was no way to have it done before we left.  We politely said we would just wait and thought that was the end of that.  NOTTTT....

Within a few minutes, we were totally blown out of the water to be offered to have a SNEAK PEAK THAT DAY in the doctor's office we were in IF WE WANTED.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME????  I cannot even begin to explain how my body started SWEATING.  I have no idea why?!  I think it was pure excitement and JOY and being completely SURPRISED.  I mean, we had NO idea we were going to be able to find out the sex of our baby THAT DAY, only 5 days before CHRISTmas!!!  

Rance and I waited in a room for about 10 minutes until they called us back for our 'sneak peak' ultrasound.  Those 10 minutes were PRECIOUS.  We were squealing and sighing and saying 'can you believe we get to find out TODAY?! ' We were even more excited because this meant I could tell my family IN PERSON for CHRISTmas (whereas if we found out at my 20 week ultrasound in January we knew it would probably be done over the phone).  God and His sweet, sweet timing and gifts to His children.

Once we arrived in the ultrasound room, it was less than a minute before the ultrasound began and the VERY FIRST PICTURE that popped up on the screen could not have been more clear what we were having.  In that moment, Rance and I both FROZE ... waiting for the nurse to confirm what we KNEW we saw!

She said...

"Well....there is a leg....


....and the other leg...


...and Yep, there is His stuff in between!


YOU ARE HAVING A BOY!


YIKES!  You can't even imagine the squealing and shouting that followed :)  Homeboy's legs looked a mile long and he was kicking them 100mph and they all said 'he's a runner'!  While I was thinking 'awwwww' then I thought 'I bet that is going to feel GOOD soon jabbing in my side.' HA! 

I absolutely LOVE surprises and this day was one sweet surprise that we will never forget!

Here is a viewing of what we saw on the ultrasound...
 

Legs just a kickin'!

 

full view of baby boy!!!



This gal is AWESOME for sneaking us in that day
and totally surprising us!

Who would have thought at 15 weeks and 6 days, we would leave our doctor appointment knowing God is knitting a little boy in the womb!  Thank you DADDY for such a gift!

Looking back on 2013....

WHAT A YEAR OF UNKNOWNS!

I'll recap on CHRISTmas soon but the last couple of days Rance and I spent at the house (rare and so needed) doing several projects but also spending much time with Father (in the Word, in prayer, and being STILL) and time together reflecting back on this last year.

WHAT A YEAR OF CHALLENGES & SPIRITUAL GROWTH!

Our heart's desire is to constantly be growing spiritually, KNOWing Father more, becoming more intimate with Him, and changing to look more like His Son daily.  When I think back on 2010 - that was a year of change for me - BIG CHANGE; however, when I think back on this year, Father grew us in so many areas individually and in our marriage that were completely unexpected and through lots of physical attacks on our family (especially Rance).

Just to recap:

As 2013 began, we had no idea what the Holy Spirit was doing behind the scenes until He decided to reveal Himself and rock our world through our connection with His Bride in Zionsville, Indiana.  I remember vividly the time Rance and I spent on our knees in prayer expecting the Holy Spirit to make our role clear in it.  Little did we know we would soon commit to moving to Zionsville, Indiana for the entire summer but the Holy Spirit knew - the question was, would we be obedient to Him? (DUH!).  In the meantime, we were challenged with effectively balancing our time with full time jobs, discipleship groups, sermon prep time for Rance and traveling back and forth to Indiana.  It's incredible what strength the Lord provided where we did not grow weary but rejoiced in the work He was calling us to do. 

In the meantime, the physical attacks began which we know all came from the evil one doing his best to attack our family.  As I headed to Trinidad in April 2013, remember the attack that happened (read here!) on Rance which started as poison oak covering his body, which then turned into a severe, awful staph infection, which then led to him breaking out in rashes/hives all over due to an allergic reaction to medicine (all in a span of 2 weeks)!  The physical attacks did not end there though.  Let's not forget when he messed up his leg at the beginning of XC season and could not run the rest of the season (read this!).  He has been so sick this year on several different occasions including over CHRISTmas.  He has joked that he's spent more time on the couch having to lay down this year than in all of year's past combined.  Not only did Rance suffer several physical attacks but so did our teammates as well as my family (just recently). 

The GIFT is all we have learned through these trials and attacks - knowing that we have HOPE and access to the abundant life even in the midst of intense circumstances and it's only through Him and His Spirit that we can do WELL physically, mentally, and spiritually.  Suffering had me on my knees before Father several times in 2013 where all I knew to do was ask for His wisdom, hand it over to Him, trust Him fully, and guard my mind from the 'what ifs' that wanted to enter.  I am so grateful we can have JOY in Him and because of Him no matter the hardships that surround us.

Several other JOYS & highlights in 2013 include:


Spending time with my TRINI family and best friends from back home in Trinidad!

Discipleship among these two brothers began!



Having the privilege to begin discipleship with my 2 cousins - Brooke & Lauren



Discipleship with these gals! I love them deeply!

Time spent in the GREAT OUTDOORS hiking...

...not to mention time hiking with FAMILY visiting from out EAST!!!!!!!

The time spent with my family may have been less in 2013 but every minute counts!



Ben & Jess moving to Robbinsville and WYATT being born :)

Working together as teammates in ministry with these rock stars!

The amazing bond we have with our Brothers & Sisters in Christ in Zionsville!
  

Best friends that will hold me accountable and always have my spiritual best interest at heart.

Best friends that will hold Rance accountable
and always have his spiritual best interest at heart!

Bonding with our church family from Robbinsville in Indiana this summer!



The ministry the Lord has provided through Rance coaching XC! It was a challenging season with several injuries but even through those we rejoice! The team is still going through a study on the book of Ephesians on Sunday mornings!

These two crazies began meeting weekly!

Watching lil Frank grow spiritually this past year and the bond these two share grow deeper and deeper!

Hunting is always a JOY especially when Rance can go with his daddy!

Let's not forget Rance's favorite - FLY fishing (which he rarely had time to do in 2013) and time bonding with cousin David!

Finding out we are expecting a baby in 2014!!!

I have thanked the Lord a million times
for the teammate He gave me in this life,
my husband!

We have no idea what 2014 has in store but we are thankful we have the opportunity to walk by faith each day and trust Father along the way!

Indiana Road Trip in a BLIZZARD...

...Siiiike!

Last weekend, Rance, lil Frank, and I headed back to Indiana for the weekend and although we did not get in a blizzard, we did get to see and drive in A LOT of snow!  The three of us (or maybe I should say 4 counting "hootie") headed down on Friday afternoon and back on Sunday.  Rance and I were pumped to have lil Frank join us and also estatic to be staying the weekend with Eric & Ellen (Eric is one of the leader's in the church and Ellen is his rockin' out wife). 

Saturday consisted of several hours of amazing conversations about the Lord, what we are all learning and the crazy spiritual journey we have all been on this past year.  It is so encouraging to be able to share these conversations with others in the Body of Christ and to edify and pray for one another. 

I love this building in Eric & Ellen's back yard -
 it looks like it belongs in the mountains!!!

Roads were covered even though they were constantly scraped!

Rance, Eric and Lil Frank scraping the neighbor's driveway! 

Saturday also consisted of playing in the snow & building a very unique snowman.  Part of this time I was in the house with Ellen building a fire and taking pictures from the window.  We honestly laughed nonstop watching these 3 build a snowman (going about things totally different than we would have).

Here it goes...

Eric rolling the center of the snowman!

Please notice how uneven the layers are and when they
added the head (Ellen & I predicted this) - it broke the
center of the snowman b/c the head was bigger than
the center!  Oh how we laughed inside!

They asked for a red kitchen table cloth for this lovely cape!

Yes, that is BLACK spray paint and YES, those are abs!

And apparently the snowman got SAVED!

Lil Frank and I were beyond excited at the site of snow because that meant SNOW CREAM!!!  Eric & Ellen had never had snow cream so we had to show them all of it's goodness!

Oh my this was amazing!

Ellen, Lil Frank, Eric

So much love between these two!

 

The church parking lot was lovely and safe on Sunday morning!

 

The troops heading back to North Carolina!

*Thanksgiving & Deer Hunting*

The week of Thanksgiving seems like yesterday yet NEXT week is CHRISTmas - what is happening?!  Thanksgiving week was full of family time & hunting for Rance.  He was able to go on a family camping trip Monday & Tuesday before we headed to Nahunta on Wednesday.  We enjoyed MUCH quality time with our families.  It was restful & wonderful!

Please enjoy the hunting pictures :)  I think my husband is possibly wanting to be on Duck Dynasty with the insane beard he is growing!




Rance & his dad



Rance, cousin David, Uncle Marvin,
and Ronnie (Rance's dad)

Campfires

Don't you love the face paint?!

Hunting in Nahunta!

...and another one I received while
Black Friday shopping with my mom!



Selfie's continued! 
I love receiving these while he is hunting!


The following weekend was the LAST weekend Rance could go hunting in Graham County since deer hunting season here is VERY short!  I absolutely LOVE the beauty of where he was hunting with his dad by Fontana Lake.



Seriously - I would take up hunting to just
look at the view!

My friend Sara (who I met freshman year in college) and her husband, 2 little boys and her parents were in Bryson City riding the infamous POLAR EXPRESS on this same Saturday Rance was hunting so I THOROUGHLY enjoyed them all stopping by for the first time since we moved to Robbinsville.  I was a slacker taking pictures of Thanksgiving and all that but I did remember to sneak one picture of Sara & Cooper & I right before they were walking out the door...

How cute is he?!

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DECEMBER!