Conversations...

I love how me and Cecilia, (a friend at church whose baby is a month younger than Jakob) sat in the nursing room yesterday and discussed our baby's constipation and pooping situations...I adore being a mommy :) If you'd rather not hear about Jakob's poops or his drooling, or something cute he's done then you'd better just pass by me, I've waited a long time to talk about this stuff.

Checking things out...

I'm gonna try to write about all that we experienced this weekend, but alot happened in two days, so we'll see. Sunday after Church we went with my family to Ruby Tuesdays for Jeremy's birthday dinner. They have this stuff they call "Succotash" which the very word sounded so gross to me, but it is yellow corn, soy beans, bacon pieces and this spicy red sauce and it is oh so yummy. After lunch we stopped by my mom and dad's house and fed Jakob then hit the road for Georgia. We had no idea that there was a whole ton of rain coming to our area around 3:00 Sunday afternoon. Needless to say we drove through pouring rain where we couldn't even hear what the GPS was saying, and could barely see the road. Jakob did really well with traveling. We only had to stop once to feed him and change his diaper. He made it almost the whole trip without a meltdown...unfortunately the melt down happened in Atlanta, in the rain, while we were trying to find our exit. It was o.k. though, after exiting and getting back on the interstate a couple times we found our hotel. The hotel was decorated very modern, and the carpet was navy blue with lime green lines and leaves on it. Jakob was so fascinated by everything in the hotel. He couldn't decide what to look at, and kept bending his head backwards to look at stuff we'd already passed by. He was so cute (as always!). We got to Ga. on Sunday around 7:30 their time, so we unloaded the car and then just watched some t.v. and chilled out. Monday morning Jeremy went to meet all the guys he will be working with and that took a few hours. Me and Jakob hung out around the hotel. I had brought some of his portable play things, so he wasn't bored. He layed down and took a nap, and then Jeremy got back. We headed out so Jeremy could show me the lake and where he'll be working. The area is absolutely gorgeous!!! I am very excited to have the hiking trails, fishing and sight seeing so nearby. Jeremy was very excited about the place and showed me and Jakey around. Next we headed back into town (about 10 mins. from Lake Alatoona) and talked about finding a realty office to chat with a realtor about houses. We saw a Century 21 office and pulled in. This was about 11:00. There was a sign on the door that said they were out and would return at 1:00. We were kinda bummed, but then I looked across the street and saw a sign that said Asher realty. We walked across the street and asked to talk to a realtor. We met a lady named Tina. We told her what we were wanting to spend and where we'd like to live and made an appointment for Tuesday morning to go out and look at houses. She also recomended some apartments for us and we headed over to look at a little apartment so we'd have somewhere to stay till we sell our house and are ready to buy one there. The apartment is in a gated community, it is only one bedroom, but we won't be bringing much stuff there (we will wait to unload all our stuff till we get a house) so it is o.k. It was a quiet little neighborhood 5 minutes from Jeremy's work, so we liked it, but didn't exactly just want to jump on the first appt. we'd seen. We left and found another appt. but the girl was locking up and we decided to talk to them later. I was just praying that if God wanted us to rent that first apartment that he'd keep it open (it was their last one bedroom) We went Tuesday to tell them we'd like to rent it and the girl said a guy had come and looked at it and liked it, but he hadn't come back to rent it. We set up everything and should be getting the paperwork soon! I told Jeremy we did things backwards, bought a house, now renting an apartment, but it's only for a little while (hopefully) We went out Monday night and walked around this little shopping area. They had a Belks, Target, Hibbett, Khols, lots of shopping places and we just wanted to get Jakey out of the hotel and car so he'd sleep good. Once we went back to the hotel Jakob was not sleepy at all!!! He was very fussy, and everytime I laid him down he would scream and cry. Finally around 12:00 at night I gave him some Tylenol and he fell asleep for about 4 hours, then woke up screaming. Needless to say we were pretty tired by the time Tuesday morning rolled around. We met with Tina and saw some really cute houses. Tina set up a meeting for us at 2:00 to meet with a mortgage lender and we talked to her about what our options toward financing would be...I'll tell y'all more about that later. We left Ga. at about 2:45 and arrived home at about 7:30. We were definitely ready for some sleep(!) but very glad we got so much accomplished. Once we get moved I'll put up some pictures of the houses we're looking at. Until then, here's a couple pictures of my precious baby boy... Jakob was so sweet on his first long car ride Watching Sesame Street and being such a good boy :) Thank you gamma for the gift...just in the nick of time!

Five Months Old...

Big enough to hold the sign now!!! Yes, we've finally found our feet...they're fun to play with! My gorgeous baby boy

Hitting home...

Saturday started our work on the house. Jeremy has patched up the corners of walls that we have hit with furniture or heavy things and kinda dinged up. The bathrooms will be painted this morning, and I am going through every room finding things that we do not use and I don't want to take with me to Georgia. Last night was my first emotional moment when I thought...o.k., this is gonna be hard. My Pastor was preaching on "precious memories" and talking about people in his life that when he remembers them he remembers good things and it encourages him. He used me and Jeremy for an example. I came to this Church when I was 2 years old. Jeremy and I were in the Nursery at Faith (together) when we were little children. Through the years Jeremy's family moved all over the place with the military, and then ended back up at Faith when he was 19, I was 18. We fell in love, got married and have been through our infertility struggles, which everyone knows about, but my Pastor knows (from our own words) the hurt and sorrow and now joy and healing that we have experienced. I sat in Church and thought about the things these people know about me, and have prayed me through...I did not hide the fact that we were struggling with infertility. I wanted people to know that I had hard times on this journey, and I needed their understanding and faith to help me out of the valleys. We rejoiced as one big family when Jeremy and I found out we were finally pregnant. I had a Church full of prayer warriors when I gave birth to Jakob and was admitted back into the hospital. I know a new Church family will bring new memories, but there will always be special memories at Faith that will not (and can not) be replaced. Jakob has 200 special Aunts and Uncles, adopted brothers and sisters. I will be leaving people who have made such an impact on my own life, it will not be easy. I will be leaving a place and many friends that have helped me grow in the knowledge of God and in my Faith in him. I know that wherever we end up my story will be told, because I will tell it. God gave me a miracle when he gave me Jakob, and I can't help but glorify his name in that. Maybe, just maybe God has another special person who needs to know that He will bring them through their trial, and maybe Jeremy and I are the people to bring them hope and faith. I'm glad no matter where I end up Faith will always be home... and just a small trip away.

Starting date...

So we have a start date... March 1st. Yeah, a little over a month.(!!!!!!) The only time I've ever moved was when I got married and moved my stuff 20 minutes away to my house. I am seriously gonna have to sit down and talk with my Mother-in law because they were military and moved around alot. We will have our moving expenses paid as well as per deum(?) -money- to go up there and look for houses. We've also got to get our house on the market (Jeremy knows someone at work that might want it! so pray about that) It's amazing looking at my house from the perspective of buying it there's so much I need to do. We will probably be painting this weekend or Monday, which is a holiday. We have never gotten around to painting the bathrooms (though we've planned to) and the last time they were painted was 6 years ago when the house was built. I am just trying not to stress, things will get done and it will be fine. We will probably make a trip up to Georgia in a couple weeks and look the area over, and meet with a realtor. The company pays for 90 days of temporary housing and 60 days of storage for our stuff, so at least we don't have to make a decision on a house right away. I am gonna start today with going through the house and things we don't really need or that I just don't really want to keep that much I will be piling up to take to the Goodwill or Salvation army. Lots to do...better get busy!

Well y'all, Jeremy got an e-mail today saying he got the job!!! Don't know much right now, but I will keep y'all informed as we find stuff out. Pray for us!

Moving on...

So... Jeremy has been wondering and contemplating and thinking and imagining about the job that he applied for in Georgia. The man he talked to on the phone said that Jeremy was on the top of their list for people they'd want for that position. They told him he'd hear from them sometime after the first of the year, but we've got some big decisions to be made so Jeremy really wanted to know if someone had been selected, and if they were going to notify everyone or not. The man could not tell Jeremy who got picked for the job, but he did say that whoever was chosen for the job would receive a call next week, everyone else would not be notified. When they went to hang up the phone the man said to expect a call from them next week, so basically they couldn't tell him he had the job, but he will be offered the job. That means that we are moving to Georgia! There's been alot of things transpiring at Jeremy's job lately, alot of office politics and it's kinda just pointing us in the direction of leaving. I am excited about what's to come, yet sad to leave. We really wanted something to open up for us here, but it is not. I will miss my family most definitely. I will miss my church family. There are so many people that I've known my whole life in that church, it's more like leaving a bunch of family than just friends. We're waiting till next week for them to call, then we will start finding out what we need to get done. It looks like they will pay for our moving expenses, and even buy our house from us if we can't sell it. That will be something that Jeremy needs to find out from them. There's alot that needs to be done in a month or so before we would leave. We are not announcing this to anyone until we know for certain what's going on, so please just pray with me about it, and if you know any of my friends please don't say anything just yet. I have really been contemplating my Christian life lately, I feel like I just live my life, I think about God, I talk to him, but I'm not really doing anything of lasting value right now. We waste so much time on unimportant things, don't we? To be honest I really need to be shaken up a little, and I feel like maybe that's where I'm headed. I don't want to live my life for myself, I'm not o.k. with conformity or mediocrity, I want something more. Those are the thoughts running through my head lately. Just pray for me. Leaving will not be easy, but I want to be in God's will, because that's the only place I can truly be happy. We have major life changing decisions to make, please pray we will make the right ones. I love you all and thank you for always being there to listen even when my mind is running in a thousand directions.

Quiet times...

O.k., so I've been thinking something over for quite some time. I can't really share it here, and for some of you I'd sound crazy anyways, but I have to say I thank God for giving me an answer on it. It wasn't one of those things where God did something I asked him to do, it wasn't even that I heard him speak to me, it was just in a moment I knew what I am supposed to be doing. He just touched my heart, and I think that no matter how difficult this thing may be I'm o.k. with it now. God impressed this answer on my heart enough that I don't think I'll ever get over this one. Sometimes no matter what people may think of you, even if they do think you're crazy you can know you're doing what God would like for you to do, and really, is anything God may ask us to do too much??? I just had to thank him as I'm driving down the road in my car, tears pouring from my eyes that he can speak to me in such a subtle yet totally audible way. PTL!

Jakob sitting up...

Wisdom teeth, bottles and breastfeeding...

So I got my wisdom teeth pulled out on Wednesday. Yeah, ummm, it was awful. I sure am glad that you only do that once in your life. It literally took 4 hours to get them out. The dentist had to break out the hammer, and this little saw thingy to get them out. I didn't know what the difference between having a dentist take out your wisdom teeth and having an oral surgeon do it. The biggest differences are: 1. The oral surgeon can put you to sleep (I didn't think this was that important) 2. The oral surgeon can prescribe the good medicine that actually helps, dentists can only give a certain level of meds and they stink!!! My conclusion from all this is: 1. I'm really glad it's over and I never have to do it again 2. I will forever and always recommend that people go to the oral surgeon to get their teeth taken out. Now that I'm done with that I will get to the real posting :) After I had my teeth pulled I had to take some meds. I don't actually think they helped, but I didn't want to stop taking them and find out. Jakob had to take a bottle. Well, my body had adjusted to Jakob's feeding schedule or something, because no matter how hard I tried to pump I could only get less than an ounce at a time. Finally, I saved up enough for one day, hoping the dentist could give me a medication that I could nurse with. (I had oxycodone after my c-section) The strongest med the dentist could prescribe was demorol, which as I said did nothing, and I couldn't nurse with it. After one full day of bottled breastmilk we had to switch to formula.... I was in alot of pain, and frankly could barely stay awake for more than 10-15 minutes at a time, so Jeremy had to feed the baby. He mixed up the formula, (first time ever) and gave it to Jake. The child ate it up. He didn't fuss, he just ate all the formula. Thank the Lord. I was not thinking about it at the time, but if Jakob wouldn't eat that stuff things would have been much harder on me. After a day of formula eating we ran out of the little single servings of Enfamil, so we got out a sample can of Simulac. Mr. Jakob did not like the Similac. He would not eat it. He didn't fuss or cry, he just would not eat. My mom had a can of Enfamil at her house that somebody had given her so thankfully she brought that to us and Jakob ate again. What I'm trying to say I guess is I'm really glad he ate the formula, we had no other choice for three days. But...as a mommy who was glad I could breastfeed, I don't really think I appreciated being able to supply my son with what he needed. I was glad after all Jake went through with me in the hospital after his birth that he has no problems breastfeeding, but when I would be out shopping or visiting someone I'd think "this is when bottles would be nice." After three days of everyone else being able to feed my son, and this formula that someone invented, not what God intended for him to have I kinda felt like the bottle was my rival. That formula was doing something for my son that I should be and actually wanted to be doing. (don't get me wrong, I'm not against formula, and I know some people have no other choice, but this is me) I cherish the ability to breastfeed Jakob more now. I see that to me there is a difference with bottle feeding and breastfeeding. If I had to bottle feed I would, but I am so thankful that I can have this time with my son and provide him food that will keep him healthy and no formula can do it any better than I can. That's all I had to say. Lesson learned. :)