Mother's Day...I knew I would eventually blog again!

Life lately has been so incredibly busy. To say I am behind on blogging in an understatement. I have lots of upcoming posts though, so stay tuned! I plan to use the blog as Avery's baby book...so I am playing major catch up. To start my updates, I will begin with May 9, 2010...My first Mother's Day with Avery!

The day began with Levi making us cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Next to my plate he had two cards waiting. I love cards. Levi always does an awesome job with finding just the right one, that says just the right words. While I love the one from him, the one that Avery picked out for her Mommy was just precious. She even signed it with her tiny little hand (Levi brought home his engineer stamp and put her hand print on the inside cover). How adorable is that? Lastly, he designed our upcoming picture wall. We have a pretty large blank wall on one side of our living room. He knew that I was wanting to put lots of different pictures of family up on it, so he designed the layout using his rad auto-cad skills! He wanted me to be a part of picking out the frames and pictures, so the actual completion of the wall will not be for several more weeks (probably after Camp War Eagle is over). But, I love the layout he did and think it is going to be beautiful once he hangs all of the pictures.
To finish this post, I thought is would be a good time to document the time surrounding the day I found out I was going to be a Mom. Back in 2008, Levi and I kept going back and forth on if we were ready to be parents. One of us would be ready one day, and then the next have a change of heart. We were praying for God's guidance and knew that he had a plan. So Christmas morning 2008, we were at Levi's parents house getting ready for breakfast. While I was drying my hair, I turned to Levi and said, "Wow, I feel really nauseated. Could I possibly be sick again?" You see I have had really bad luck with having the stomach virus on Christmas. It has happened to me three times in recent years. So I just assumed it was happening again. I laid down and tried not to inhale the smell of the bacon that was frying! The feeling finally passed and we went on to have a really great day with family and friends.
The next morning we left to spend the night with Levi's Uncle Keith, Aunt Johanna and cousins Kelly and Zach in Birmingham. We had a great time eating at Olive Garden and catching up. It wasn't until the 27th that I started to think...something isn't right...I think I might be late. This led to a sort of joking comment to Levi in which I said, "I'm not 100% sure, but I think I might be pregnant. In the rush of getting through Christmas, I just realized that I am now 2 days late" To which he responded with something like: no way...really? I say: "Really, but I am not going to worry too much right now. We can talk more on the way back to Auburn." So we packed up the car and started our drive.
Once back in Auburn we decided that the next morning, December 28th, we would take a pregnancy test. We just happened to have one from an early marriage scare to use. I woke up and had it waiting in the bathroom. Once I finished taking it, I laid it on the counter and walked back to the bedroom. We held hands and waited for the longest 3 minutes of our lives to pass. I wanted Levi to be the first to know, so he walked in to check. Two very faint lines were showing up...it was POSITIVE! He came out and said, "Well it is really faint, but I think we are pregnant." We read back over the instructions which said, if both lines show up at all, you are pregnant. There is no such thing as a false positive. It only picks up on the pregnancy hormone, which is only present when you are pregnant. We laughed and cried, thanked God for this new little miracle, and spent the rest of the morning cuddling. I am so glad it was during the holidays and that we were both off of work. Like I mentioned before, the test we had was a couple of years old and was actually out of date. So, just to be sure we took another one the next morning and it too was positive.
The next couple of days were spent thinking about how our life was about to change and how we would tell family. There is always that part of you that wants to be cautious, but at the same time you are so excited that you just have to tell someone. We chose to wait until New Year's Eve to tell our parents. We thought that would be a really neat way for them to start 2009. Since they are not here with us, we told Levi's parents first and his mother just couldn't believe it. Just a few days earlier, she had told me that Levi's Grandmother Christine had a dream that we were expecting. So Levi said to her, remember Grandmother's dream...and she said "Oh yeah, the one where you were expecting!" And he said yes, well it came true. She was speechless but so excited. We had already made dinner plans with my mom and when she got to our house, we hit her with "you will never guess who is expecting a baby in Levi's family." There had been three announcements made within just a couple of months from his first cousins. She did her best to deplete all of the possible candidates, when I finally said "It's US." She immediately started crying and gave us both a hug. Both of our Dads were really excited too. We had everyone convinced that it was going to be a couple of years before we started trying, so it was a bit of a surprise to everyone.
It definitely was a surprise to us too! Our plan, which is never as good as what God has planned, was to be pregnant by April. Looking back I longed so much for September to get here that I don't think I could have waited until December or January. We call her our little love bug! I praise God for Avery and all the joy she has brought to my life. I love being her mom and feel that there is no great calling in the world than that of raising children. I am so humbled that God has allowed me to experience the amazing journey of motherhood. I know that there will be trials, but the triumphs will be incredible and worth every minute.

In closing, I would like to say thank you to my Mom and Grandmothers who have so tremendously influenced the person I am today. Thank you for all of the time and countless hours you have invested in my life. I have realized over the past year with Avery just how wonderful you are! Also, thank you Patti, Christine and Ava Jean for being such a wonderful Mom and Grandmothers to Levi. He is one amazing man, who loves God, me, and Avery with all his heart. While there are many days that I am exhausted it is so wonderful to be a mom this Mother's Day!