It's a...

Little precious Girl! My wife and I are having a daughter on April 30th, 2009! That's fun to say. Her name is Emma Josephine Smith. I have felt her kick twice so far. Victoria has felt her PLENTY more than that. I tell Emma to kick her mommy any time that she is stressed out or upset. She is a good minder already! She woke Victoria up this morning by kicking her over and over. She was trying to tell her that she was ready to get up and play.

We are in San Antonio right now for yet another interview for residency for Victoria. It's fun to travel but I can't wait to get home and start putting stuff in her room and getting things started with preparing for her arrival in a few months. We have lots of awesome things already so we can't wait to get started with it. Other than our baby Emma, things are going well. I'm sitting in a La Quinta trying to keep myself occupied while Victoria is at a dinner with residents from UT San Antonio. Tomorrow is our 2 year Anniversary so that should be a good time spent on the Riverwalk!

~Jody

Hearts & Garages

So this past week has been fun for me.  It started off with an exciting time in the garage on Monday night.  I decided it was time to clean it up!  I figured since there was a small path from the back door to the garage door out to the cars in the driveway (not in the garage), that we needed more room in there.  I think that it is deep down because of the fact that the crib we bought on Craigslist was in the middle of the garage in pieces and that there was no room to put the guest room furniture in there.  Babies make you all organized and responsible, at least they get me to clean my garage so I can start to transition from having a 3 bedroom with one as an office to a 1 bedroom, 1 office and one toy/changing/baby clothes and not an actual room that a baby sleeps in room.

So yeah, I installed a pegboard that organized the garage very nicely as well as two more big plastic shelves that stored lots and lots.  I FINALLY threw away the entertainment center that I bought my sophomore year of college in my apartment.  It was just housing random tools and garage things and leaning and falling apart.  I was proud of it though.  I bought it let's see...6 years ago, it's been through 5-6 moves and I bought it for $70 from Wal-Mart.  I thought it was time to set it free and let the trash people take it.  So needless to say, the crib is nicely leaning against the wall in the garage, there is room for the bed from the guest room and the dresser and the floor is clean and BOTH cars are in it as well!  I'm so happy.

So that was Monday and Tuesday and then also on Tuesday as well as today, I had some fun with visits to the cardiologist.  I've had random chest pain and history of heart junk in my family and my heart rate used to be super fast for some reason.  Everything on Tuesday turned out fine.  I had to give blood that morning and today I had to leave work and go get an echocardiogram.  The tech said that I have a heart murmur but that was kind of normal.  The doctor will check all the numbers and things that the tech recorded and he'll get back to me about them.  I'm pretty sure everything is fine, just random pain from something in my chest region.

Oh, and Victoria is doing fine.  The sickness has been pretty constant.  As you can probably imagine, if there is no food in her tummy, there is no smile on her face!  That's when the nausea is the worst.  So I've had the joy of getting bedtime snacks almost every night after we're all tucked in and the lights are out.  I usually here a timid "..baby...i'm hungy..." (there is no 'r' in hungry on purpose...that's how it sounds).  So I've been fighting my flesh to say something harsh like "you know you get da' gum hungry every dang night, why don't you think to get something for yourself before you come in the bedroom?"  But, then I remember that she's super tired...it's just a vicious cycle that I am not used to.  Anywho, my love just walked in the door from Ben Taub Surgery ICU so I'm going to go say hello to her.  Peace!

~Jody

And the winner is...

yeah...sorry for the build up, but we still don't know what we're having.  Boy or girl...we have no idea.  We really didn't think we would since this was only our 13 week visit, but last time our doctor really led us to believe that it was a possibility.  Though today he tried and tried to find out, and he even said maybe a ****** (I'm not telling in case it really is what he thought, I don't want to ruin the surprise until we know for sure) he said we have to wait another 3 and a half weeks when we go back for our next visit.  So I think we are just going to have to keep the boy and girl stuff we bought on sale a few weeks ago and the stuff we don't need, we'll just try to sell on Craigslist or something.  Well, it's late and I have to get up in 5 hours to go to work.  Keep Victoria in your prayers.  She has been really sick and wasn't able to go to work/school a couple of days this week.  I hope she has a relaxing day off tomorrow!

1.5!!!

One hour and a half is how long it took me to get home today from teaching cello lessons at Second Baptist Church.  Traffic was unbelievable.  Normally it takes me 30 minutes to get there with no traffic, 45 minutes to get there after I get off work from Chick-fil-A around 3, and then about an hour to get home at 6.  Not today.  I sat in every kind of traffic you can imagine.  Not to mention I had to go potty THE WHOLE TIME!!!

Once I got home though, I washed my car, watered the garden and just sat in front of the computer and worked on music for church on Sunday.  I'm pretty tired and I can feel every sting of pain being emitted from my legs.  Not to be a drama king or anything. . . :) I think that's all I'm going to write today.  I am going to try and relax with my wife.  We'll see how that goes without me falling asleep.  Keep her in your prayers; she had to come home from work today because she was feeling ill because of the little blessing stretching her tummy.  I'll chat with you later.

Fear = BUY BUY BUY!!!!

So I am convinced that, out of fear, Victoria and I went on a random shopping spree!  As some of you know, Ross and Marshall's are two of the greatest stores EVER, but if you see something you like, you just have to buy it, otherwise, it won't be there when you decide to come back to get it.  We did the opposite the other day and went back last night and couldn't find what we found earlier.  It was the coolest little girl mobile that you've ever seen.  As you may also know, being just 10 weeks along yesterday, that means that we have NO idea if this thing growing inside Victoria is a boy or girl...however...

We figured that we'll find out soon enough and bought it...along with about 6-7 other little girl items that all matched for the nursery.  This of course got me freaked out that it was for sure a little girl, when I really am leaning towards a boy as of now.  So after that trip (which how little the bill was would shock you!) we went next door to Target because we remembered that there were some boy things that we liked.  Upon arriving at the baby section we found the COOLEST little boy crib set (bumper, sheet, and comforter) and it was blue and had sailboats and fish which happened to be what we were looking for.  And drumroll please....was the biggest find of the night!  Regularly that would have been $70 but of course, the bargain hunters that Victoria and I am, we got it for $17!!!!  So now I am in a predicament.  Either we get a boy and we carry on the great Smith family name and get to use our bargain of the century, or we get to use all the girly stuff that was still on a great sale, but has more things because it all matches.  Sigh!

Either way, as long as there is a healthy little baby that we put in that room, I will be happy!  (And we'll put them in the coolest nursery that the World has EVER seen one way or another!)

~Jody

Babies Babies!

BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!  So I have lots of friends who are pregnant and my sister-in-law just had their baby a couple of weeks ago and now Victoria and I are finally announcing our very own pregnancy!  We are going to be 10 weeks on Thursday!!!  Well, it's funny how the father says that 'we' are 10 weeks when really he had one job and now his job description changes drastically to encourager-chef-nutritionist-sleep nazi!  

My wife is nauseous a lot and only feels a little better when she has food in her stomach YET I suppose it doesn't taste like good food unless the father makes it for the mother.  Oh well, just another 7 months to go!  I'll post as thing continue to grow!!!  (Victoria)

MUCH needed update...not so much needed subject

Well, hello everyone!  I am sorry for not posting since the middle of last year!  I am very excited to be back to publishing stories of my life.

So my beautiful wife and I have been dealing with a lot lately.  We have lost a piece of our future.  We lost something that we never had.  How can we replace such a precious gift that only gave us hope of things to come?  About a week ago, only 5 days after we found out we were expecting a baby, we then found out we lost it.  Again, you would think you couldn't get attached to something in 5 short days.  I used to think that once I saw my child, I would love her.  Even when I saw the outline of his face on the ultrasound, I might think I see my nose, thus sealing the bond between us.  But now, after never having seen my child on that screen in the doctor's office, I miss that gift.  That sweet child will never know its earthly father's embrace.  It will never hear its mother's sweet voice.  But there is hope!  It also never had to see sin.  It never had to experience ridicule or scorn.  I truly believe that my baby is in the arm's of Christ!  From the moment of its conception, God wanted it back.  It was too sweet and loving to give up to this cruel world.  God knew that through Him, my wife and I could handle this loss.

We have learned so much through this trial.  We have learned complete dependency upon God.  We have learned to trust and to be completely vulnerable with each other.  Of course the "why God" questions and the "what is different about us than everyone else" questions have come up, but I am glad to say they were fleeting.  Few and far between were the jealous looks of people at work who had children or who had precious life growing inside of them.  I have been thrust into having hope for the future by God.  My hope lies in Him alone.  I reach to Him for mystrength so comfort can come to my wife through my arms and through my words and deeds.

"Thank you God.  Thank you for life.  Thank you for provision.  Thank you for hope!"