On being pregnant

Last January, Aaron and I were asked to participate in a stake youth pioneer trek for three days during July. When the invitation was extended to us, I cried. Aaron was serving in the bishopric, working full time, working on his Master's Degree and taking Thai lessons two nights a week through the Air Force. I was serving in the Relief Society presidency and being a mom full-time. With the commitment to attend a monthly training for trek, I didn't know if we could manage everything on our plates. And, the biggest reason I was in tears was because attending trek meant leaving Eli for 3 days. My mom offered to fly to Maryland and watch Eli and several friends from church were willing to help out. I wished Eli was a little older and we could explain to him that we weren't abandoning him for three days, just participating in a service project.

Another big reason for my hesitation to attend trek was Aaron and I felt excited about the possibility of adding another child to our family. For health and safety reasons, pregnant woman aren't allowed to participate. 

When I expressed my concerns to Aaron, we decided that we would tell the stake leaders that we wouldn't be able to participate in the activity with the youth that summer.

After Aaron hung up the phone, he immediately regretted saying no and felt that we should sincerely pray about what was best. Truth is, we hadn't specifically prayer about it yet. The stake leaders complimented us by saying they thought long and hard about couples in the stake that would work well with the youth and be a good example of a faithful marriage. After a couple of days of thought and prayer, we agreed that we would move forward with attending all the trainings for trek and trust in Heavenly Father's plan for us (aka: if I got pregnant, we would kindly decline. I know pregnancy is a tough thing to really plan - some women get pregnant the second they think about it, and other times it can take years.) 

Aaron participated in trek as a youth and assured me we'd have a great time. I hated to say no at this opportunity if in fact I didn't get pregnant for a while. 

So we participated in the training each month from January - May. 

In June we began organizing lists of items we needed to borrow or purchase to take with us. 

My mom bought a plane ticket to fly out and be with Eli.

As everything started to fall into place for trek, I started having the same hesitations and doubts I was feeling as we started this journey. 

And then, the next morning, I woke up and threw up and realized I was nauseous. 

And pregnant!!

About three weeks before the trek, we informed the stake leaders that we wouldn't be attending. I always like to wait a while to announce a pregnancy so we didn't spread the news to everyone - we kindly expressed that for family reasons, we wouldn't be attending.

I personally learned a lot about moving forward in faith. I know Heavenly Father will lead us and direct us in all we do. Aaron and I enjoyed getting to know other couples in the stake as we attended the trek trainings each month and maybe some other time in our life we'll attend trek. For now, we're thrilled to welcome a new baby into our home in a few short weeks!! 

Creating life is such a miracle. There are days and nights that it feels like I'll be pregnant forever and then it seems like 9 months has flown by. 

Here are some memorable pics to share over the past 9 months:

Introducing Eli to his brother...

18 weeks

25 weeks

33 weeks

37 weeks

I've scheduled a c-section for Thursday, March 5 so unless my body decides to go into labor naturally, we'll meet our little baby on that day! I feel at peace with another c-section. I'm so grateful to live in a day where modern medicine makes it possible for me to have babies. 

It's the final count down! See you soon, baby boy!