Our Future Valentine.

Last Sunday at church we sang a simple song that has become a popular one for our worship service. Its a chorus that we sing over and over changing the name of what we call God throughout the song. The names are Holy, Righteous, Awesome, Faithful, Healer, Savior and All That. When it was time to sing Faithful, I was unable to sing for the tears that filled my eyes. The chorus goes like this --

I call you faithful

Your name is faithful

You are so faithful to me

I call you faithful

Your name is faithful,

Faithful you are

And faithful you'll be

God has showed his Faithfulness to us in a whole new way over the past several months. Here is how --

If you have followed the blog or know us well then you know about our miscarriage that occurred in January of this year. After that month, Cory and I took a couple of months to truly meditate and understand the purpose of this event in our lives. We definitely grew as a couple and individually as we talked about what God has taught us. I feel that I was stretched to a new level of understanding God and myself. Honestly, as I reflect on those months of my life I would not have changed one thing. Even though it was probably the hardest months of my life, God was orchestrating the events and I felt completely in the middle of His will. And there is not sweeter place than the palm of his hand.

Fast forward about 4 months and we find ourselves at the end of May. I woke up early on a Saturday morning and just knew I had to take a pregnancy test. It was about 4:45 a.m. I took the test and within no time it was POSITIVE. I was speechless. Tears filled my eyes and my heart was beating out of my chest. I ran to the bedroom (test in hand) and woke Cory up. He sat up so quickly but so confused. I showed him and he was definitely speechless. We talked about it for a second and then feel back to sleep! :) I didn't. I layed there in bed from 4:45 till 8:00 -- WIDE AWAKE. I had a little worship service in my bed! Thanking God for being so faithful to us as I knew he would be but at times I was guilty of doubting it.

The following Monday I went to the doctor to have my blood work checked. The numbers were extremely better than last time. We had decided to wait until we had our first ultra sound to tell anyone. The hardest part was spending the next week in Florida with my family and not telling them. I just didn't want anyone to spend their vacation worrying about me. At 6 and a half weeks, we had the ultra sound and saw the heartbeat. WOW. It was 130 BPM. I could hardly believe it. Dr. P was nothing but encouraging. When she came in the room to do the ultrasound, before she could even get "hey" out I said "I'm so nervous I think I'm gonna be sick!" She was so wonderful in calming me down. The ultra sound said I was due on Valentine's Day exactly.

At this point the only person we had told was my dear friend and neighbor Erin (who also miscarried a baby when I did and is pregnant again due a couple of weeks before me!) And Cory told our niece Tilly while we were in Florida. She was only 10 months at the time. One afternoon everyone was outside and Cory was playing with her and he just randomly says "Tilly, we are going to have a baby!" I was across the room on the computer and I looked up at him so quickly. He looked at me like he was caught, shrugged his shoulders and said "She can't talk -- she won't tell anyone!" We were dying laughing.

So on July 4th, we decided to tell our families. My 16 year old cousin from St. Louis was in town for a soccer tournament right before the 4th of July. She helped me decorate some heart shaped boxes and we put a copy of the ultra sound in there with a Baby Ruth candy bar! We gave them to each our parents! They were of course thrown off as to why we were giving them a Valentine's present, but pleasantly surprised with the news. (O and by the way, they were all onto me during our trip to Florida and knew I was pregnant -- so much for hiding it! )

Yesterday, we had our appointment to hear the heartbeat! Dr. P was able to find it right away! She just looked and me and said "You made my job easy!" The heartbeat was 150 BPM. Even after seeing the baby at 6 1/2 weeks and hearing the heartbeat yesterday, I find it hard to believe. It just doesn't seem real. We could not be anymore excited about the idea of being parents and probably frightened all at the same time. I have many things to be grateful for throughout this process. A small thing that I am most grateful for is that by the time I go back to work I'll be very close to the end of my first trimester and hopefully be rid of this nausea and tiredness!!

"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him" I Samuel 1:27.

God has been faithful.

CEC.

R.I.P Honda Rhonda

On a hot summer night in July of 1998, I was at a pool party for a girl named Leah Rush. I remember the night well because there was a boy there that I liked. Ha! My parents were in charge of picking me and my friend Kim Coates up that night. I remember being bummed that the summer AFTER my sophomore year of high school my parents had to "pick me up." I was due to turn 16 about 3 weeks after that evening. Well, that night my parents picked me up in a 1996 Honda Accord - maroon. I remember I was SO surprised. This was going to be MY car! Kim and I were PUMPED! Kim was a year younger than me so me getting a car meant FREEDOM for not just me but also the two of us. I definitely felt like the luckiest girl in the world by being so surprised by my wonderful parents. Soon after turning 16, Kim and I named my car "Honda Rhonda." It stuck and anyone that even knew my name knew the name of Honda Rhonda as well.




This car took me through my last two years of high school, four years of college, three years of graduate school and two years of work. Yes -- that is a total of 11 years! Cory and I would always talk about how we should get a more reliable car but we just continued to keep it and drive it. About a year ago the A/C went out in it and my wonderful husband volunteered to drive it so I could drive our other car. We swore we would just drive it till the wheels fell off! It made the WORST noises -- noises that made you scrunch down in your seat and hope that no one could see you through the tinted windows! Well, about a month ago it bit the dust. It needed a lot of work. We weighed our odds and decided it wasn't worth putting all that money into it. So, off we went to car shop.



I had already told Cory that the only car that I had room in my heart for was another Accord. After much shopping and MUCH wheelin' and dealin' we now have a new member of our family.

Welcome Honda LaFonda.

After sealing the deal, we had to take Honda Rhonda back up to the car lot. She was dirty inside and out! Cory wanted to take her up there "as is" but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't drop her off until she looked her best. So, we took it the car wash and cleaned her up good! The picture in the collage above is of me dropping it off at the car lot.

Honda Rhonda saw me through the worst of times and the best of times. I hope she finds a good home. I'll miss her but I couldn't be anymore excited about welcoming Honda LaFonda!

Extreme Blog Makeover

TA DA!

Here it is -- My EXTREME Blog Makeover!

I was not able to figure out how to make a personalized background but I DID figure out how to make a personalized header. I downloaded the program Picasa by Google -- it's free. Then, that program allows you to make "collages" which is what I did. I am not tech-savy in any form or fashion so I was SO impressed with myself when I figured this out. As you might also notice, I technically changed the name of the blog to Cari's Crosswalk. I wanted to keep with the highway theme, but since Cory has been a non-participating blogger then I decided that I would just put my name on it. One more thing, I have always wanted to figure out how to get a three-column layout instead of a two-column layout -- I think that is my favorite part! I hope you enjoy the new look. If you have any questions about how I did anything please comment and I will be more than glad to help you!!

Now, I must get caught up on actually blogging.

Get your hard hat on....

My blog is under construction! I am determined to do some personalization instead of just a paste and cut background.............this could take a while!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!