During this month, we’ve crossed the Atlantic 6 times.  Thanks to Ironman (Chester Van) and Justin(case) for hanging out with me.

The purpose of our visitations was to “visit, attend, observe, and explore a possible relationship” with other “youth conferences” around the globe.  We visited New Zealand, Korea, and Australia, and we’re finally home for a while now…at least until the baby comes and I learn a few things on how to be a father.

The baby is not born.  And I promise that I will not notify most of you when he (if “he” really is a “he” according to the ultrasound) is born.  But don’t worry, Daniel and Kerri, we’ll call you since you are always nice to me…and constantly hook me up with the cashew cheese sauce.  😛

I’ll end with a story, since it’s good practice for sermonizing…don’t worry,  people, no altar call this time…

Justin(case) and I are in Australia, hit really hard by jetlag.  We eat some REALLY good Thai food…and since we are health reformers, we eat it with enough time to digest before going to sleep.  However, when night came, nightMARES came with it.  I woke up several times in the night being kind of weirded out.  So I wake up in the morning, kind of out of it and I call Judy.  I remember that the time difference is four hours forward and the opposite side of the next day 🙂

I figure that it’s 10 p.m. Judy time so I call home and pay a million dollars a minute.  I wait for that caller privacy ID thing to kick in at home in MI and I hope to hear Judy come on…but no answer…no that’s not what happend.  The machine says “the person you are looking for is not available.”  So I’m like hmmm…Judy doesn’t want to talk.

So I call her cell phone…straight to voicemail.  Now I know how all you feel when you try to call me 🙂

I freak out…she’s about to…you know…(deliver…she’s in the hospital, she’s having the baby, she’s had the baby…)

I talk to JK (Justin Kim, not just kidding) and ask for advice…he doesn’t say anything comforting.  And then I get desperate so I HAVE TO CALL JUSTIN NAMM!  I call him up and ask him what’s going on with Judy and he says that he thinks that all is well.  I hang up and tell Justin Kim.  And I’m expecting some words of assurance.  And JK says, yeah, but can you really trust Justin anyway?  So I freak out again and get mad that I just may have wasted half this month’s paycheck talking to JN. 

After consulting with myself, I realize that it’s not 10 pm…it’s 2 PM and Judy’s at school teaching!

When I realize that, Justin says, “yeah, I knew that” — but he didn’t tell me before!

So, there’s the story.

Goodbye.

IR

P.S. All you gamblers on Steph’s xanga, I mean “guessers” who guessed Feb…you are not right.  Sorry.  (But you are all winners in OUR books.)

I’m just about finished completing the general lesson plans for my substitute who will be filling in for me for the month of March.  I’m almost reluctant to go home.  Next week is Spring Break and then I’m officially on maternity leave for the month of March.  Going home means that I most likely won’t be coming back to school until after the baby is born!  This thought gives me the chills.  The kids were very excited about the fact that the next time they see me, I will have a baby.  They shrieked with joy when my principal made that announcement after worship this morning.  *sigh*  It’s very hard to imagine that I’m going to be a mother.  I mean, I’m going to be someone’s mom.  Israel is going to be someone’s dad…very soon!  It’s a crazy feeling and it’s becoming more and more real.  Well, I’d better head home.  I can’t stay here much longer.  I need to prepare for the Sabbath and get my house in order.  Have a happy Sabbath everyone…     

The other day, Israel’s brother, Juan, told me some interesting trivia about their family.  Juan, the first son, was born to their parents when their dad was 26.  Juan had Jacob, his first son, 2 days before he turned 26.  Israel turns 26 on Feb. 26.  If he follows after his brother, the baby would have to be born tomorrow (2 days before he turns 26).  The problem is Israel doesn’t get back from Australia until his actual birthday, Sunday, Feb. 26 at 6pm…on which he will turn 26.   

Cast your vote on when you think the baby will be born!!  

www.xanga.com/steffyjaney

Jen came to spend the long weekend with us.  Along with Jen came a bunch of junk food, unwanted snacks inbetween meals, pizzas AFTER “dinner”…and the list goes on.  And, I believe she even read the last xanga entry!  THANKS, JEN! 

Anyhow, I’m not sure if that’s what did it, but last night, I started getting some contractions.  They most likely are “fake” contractions called Braxton-Hicks.  Basically it’s like your body doing practice contractions before the real ones come.  They’re pretty crazy because your uterus just tightens up and your stomach literally feels like a basketball.  It gets SUPER hard and you’re not tensing at all.  I’ve been getting them on and off throughout the evening and even some today.  They haven’t been at regular intervals, nor do they hurt…but it makes me a little nervous.  Within the past couple days, I’ve also had major muscle soreness in my legs…particularly in my thighs.  I don’t know if it’s from my weight gain, my sleeping position, or if I accidentally pulled something.  My bones in my hip area are starting to get noticeably loose as well.  It’s a very weird feeling…like my body is preparing itself for the big day.  The baby is dropping gradually.  There is pressure build up down there and at times it feels like I have to go #2, but I really don’t.  They say that’s the baby’s head pushing down there.  I’m doing weekly trips to see the doctor now and they are going well.  The baby is in the right position and everything is normal.  I just have to wait.  I’m trying to be more in-tune with my body since I generally am not at all. 

On a different note, this is my last week teaching until I am home-free!!  (until April that is…)  Our spring break is next week and then I have a long term-sub who will come in for the month of March.  I’m hoping that they baby will come right around Sunday evening or Monday (Feb 26-27) so I can have spring break to recoup in addition to the 4 weeks of paid-leave for the month of March.  I intend to finish off the school year in the months of April and May.  We’ll see what happens though.  Israel leaves for Australia tonight and so we’ve definitely been praying that the baby will hold off at least until Sunday, which is when Israel gets back.  But God’s will be done.  I’m sure God will work things out for the best.   

Thank you all for your prayers, love, and the many gifts that we’ve received the past several months.  I can’t believe the baby will be here so soon!  I mean, the baby WILL be born within the next couple weeks…YIKES!  Israel and I are getting more and more anxious for his arrival.  We’re waiting to see exactly how our entire lives will change.  🙂          

No one would believe how much weight I’ve gained.  I’m beginning to scare myself!  At first I thought it was the scale at the hospital…but that’s no longer an excuse…DOH!  It doesn’t help that Israel has been losing weight like crazy.  You know how husbands are supposedly supposed to gain weight with the pregnant wife?  Well, Israel got so sick from the motherland because he ate unclean food.  Well, so did Pastor Justin Kim.  They both ate unclean bottom-dwellers of the sea!  They have been defiled!!  I should add that it wasn’t on purpose of course.  Israel ended up with some stupendous stomach flu and he was vomitting non-stop.  As a result, he lost a bunch of weight which closes the gap between his weight and my weight and it is getting embarrassingly close!  What am I to do?!  What a stab at my pride.  So yeah, the purpose of this entry is so that you don’t ask me how much weight I’ve gained.    If, after the baby arrives, I jump back down to my pre-pregnancy weight, I may feel more secure with myself to let you in that info…

Okay, well, I need to take the kids out to recess now.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.  I’m really excited about the DKAY baby shower that will be tomorrow.  Hope there’s a lot of food!!  — NOT that I’m going to eat a lot of food…because I’m watching my carb intake…

The past week has been GREAT.  No, not because Israel has been in Korea.  Israel’s brother Juan, his wife Evelyn, and OUR nephew Jacob is staying with us and have been helping us prepare for the baby’s arrival.  It’s been so nice.  First of all, Evelyn cooks Mexican food for me every day.  Second, they clean the house for me.  Third, Juan cleans out the kitty litter for me.  Fourth, Juan drives me to school and picks me up.  Fifth, Evelyn is teaching me how to crochet.  Six, Jacob makes me laugh all the time.  Seventh, Jacob is “breaking in” the animals for a new baby.  Eighth, they shovel the driveway when it’s snowy.  Ninth, they take Bentley out to use the potty.  Tenth, Evelyn makes me laugh all the time.  Eleventh, they buy me plenty of snacks to eat.  And twelfth, they never let me do anything related to bending over or reaching up.  Can’t you just feel the love? 

Evelyn wants to give a “shout out”…Well first of all, we want everyone to know how happy we are to help them out.  In reality it is not helping it’s just caring.  Israel & Judy are wonderful people that deserve the best. I know they will be great parents.  Ok.  just so everyone knows, I’m getting paid with chocolates and they are helping get my green card by telling immigration that I work for them.  

HAHA, okay, it’s me again.  Well, I truly thank God for having such cool in-laws!  Happy Sabbath everybody!

During lunch today, I was sitting with several of my students and the topic of conversation found its way to Mrs. Ramos’s baby.  There has been quite a lot of hype in school about it.  First, the fierce debate of whether the baby was a girl or boy (the girls are still suffering from that one) to the daily prayers that go up during worship asking the Lord to help Mrs. Ramos’s baby grow and be healthy.  (I think God is answering the “growing” part!)  I get daily tummy rubs from Kelsea one of my 2nd graders and royal treatment from all of the kids.  It especially manifests itself when I happen to drop something on the ground and I need help picking it up.  Anyhow, during lunch today, Andrew, a 3rd grader asked me how the baby comes out.  It was a great thing that all of the students love talking at once and haven’t really understood the concept of pausing to wait for someone else’s answer.  A 2nd grader responded, “the stomach opens up and the baby comes out!”.  The others just kept talking about whatever they were talking about.  But Andrew kept asking, “But how?”  Then, Andrew asked, “How do you make a baby?”  This time, the entire table was silent and all four of them looked at me.  I responded with a nervous laugh, and said, “Well, you need a mother and father and then God gives you a child…and…”  They all looked confused.  Uh oh, I thought, they’re not buying it…  Then Kelsea respnds, “So, you were a mother already?”  I laughed.  I told them that the only kids I have are Bentley, the cats and the fish.  But bringing up Bentley was enough to change the entire topic of conversation.  Praise the Lord.         

This entry is dedicated to Stephanie Quick.  🙂

So, my pregnancy is at that stage where it’s getting old.  Israel was telling me this morning as he dropped me off at school that he thinks the baby is never going to come out.  I’m more thinking that if the baby doesn’t come out soon, he’ll just grow and grow until…I don’t know!  I can definitely tell that he’s growing at a more rapid pace now.  I’ve also developed my first battle scars around the lower periphery of my belly.  My skin just couldn’t take it anymore!  The baby likes to play this game where he tries to see if he can cram himself on one side of my uterus…either the right side or the left.  My tummy often looks lopsided.  He doesn’t really kick as much since he’s running out of room in there.  It’s more like he slowly turns into different positions to find one that’s the most comfortable, not thinking of his mother whose skin ends up being stretched like a drum.  It’s not really all that bad though.  The kicks and movements are not painful at all.  He’s never kicked at or stuck his limbs into my ribs or jabbed at my lungs.  Nothing like that.  I think the worst part is when he’ll move into a certain position and suddenly, I have to pee and unless he repositions I must be on a toilet within 1 minute!  That’s embarrassing AND uncomfortable.  When I lie down and feel my tummy, it’s easier now to get an idea of the different body parts.  I’ve been trying to pay attention when the nurse practitioner feels the baby and tells me how he’s positioned.  I can feel the head pretty well and the back is pretty obvious as well.  That’s been neat. 

I think my biggest struggle has been trying to stay positive and not let my emotions get the best of me.  For those of you who haven’t heard, my grandmother passed away last week and I attended her memorial service and funeral.  It was a very painful time and I have many regrets.  She always wanted me to visit her.  She would always ask my mother how I was doing and why I hadn’t come to visit her yet.  I took her for granted, thinking she would always be there.  So, I put off visiting her.  I would pray for her pretty much every day…but she wanted me to visit her.  I would often think how neat it would be that my child would have a great-grandmother still living.  Unfortunately, that will have to wait until Heaven.  It’s so difficult to grapple with the idea that how I feel and what I’m thinking affects the baby.  It’s forced me to depend on the Lord to help me overcome my weaknesses and to help me in times of temptation…for the baby’s sake.  Everything I do, I want to make sure it’s in the best interest of the baby.  Love is a powerful thing.  By God’s grace, it can bring our carnal natures into submission.  That has been one thing that I’ve experienced as a pregnant Christian.  If I am so willing to change areas of my lifestyle – devotional life, sleep habits, diet, demeanor, attitude, for the well-being of my child whom I don’t know, how much more should we be careful with our thoughts and deeds knowing that the King of the universe desires to dwell within us?  Are our bodies fit to inhabit our Lord?  I often pray for myself, that God will help me to love Him more and treat Him better.  God is so merciful to us.  I’m so grateful that we serve a God who loves us so much and entrusts to us the responsibility of raising His children…because I know that in doing so, He is trying to save us as well.