Thankful!

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations". Psalm 100:4-5

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving (which was yesterday) I think it is a good idea to acknowledge all that we have to be thankful for. Okay, I won't be able to get it all, but at least I can reflect on some of the blessings over the past year!
I am thankful for...
1. My husband. Who is so thoughtful, attentive, sweet, caring, masculine (I think the sweet + manly combo is missing in a lot of men these days...), patient, forgiving, and loving. He is an amazing daddy to our daughter and I thank God everyday for him!
2. My healthy, happy daughter! I never thought I could feel this kind of love instantly, but the second I saw her my heart swelled! She is the most perfect gift I could have ever asked for! She is teaching me more about God's perfect love for us.
3. My family. After Jason and I were home alone with Harper for the first time, we said "wow, we really love our family, we couldn't have done this without them". The truth is, we could have. BUT thanks to the love and support of our family, Harper transitioned smoothly into our lives with very little trauma for her or us! Our parents have given us amazing models and I pray that we can live up to the amazingly high bar they have set!
4. Toby. Our sweet, sweet dog who has accepted Harper into our home with so much dignity. He was my first (albeit furry) baby. He is so gentle with Harper and wants to give her a bath so badly! After hearing reports about how other dogs react to such a dramatic change, I am thankful for Toby's kind and gentle spirit.
5. My job. And Jason's job for that matter. In these tough economic times we both have jobs. I am thankful I have a job that allowed me to work half time so I could be a good mom and a good therapist. I am thankful that financially I CAN work halftime, although it will be difficult. I am thankful that Harper will be only 5 minutes away from my office.
6. My friends (did I mention before that this is NOT in order?). I am so thankful for all my friends who have given me advice, support, and loved me even when I might have been forgetful or random or freaking out about something silly. You guys have helped me be a calm(er) mom and I believe this in turn helps Harper be so calm!

There are a million of other things that I am thankful for, but I have a baby that needs attention. SO thankful for that! :-)

Harper's First Halloween

Here are pictures of Harper's TWO costumes from Halloween!

Sleep Deprivation

:-) Being a mom is the most life changing, amazing thing I have ever done! Plus, Jason and I got very lucky and we have the perfect baby who only wakes up once at night! That being said however, we are still suffering from a little sleep deprivation. Here are just a few things that have occurred, most likely due to sleep deprivation!
1) One afternoon when it was just Harper and I home for lunch, I poured myself a glass of sweet tea...and then another. I'm not sure if I forgot I had just poured one or if I thought Jason was home. I drank both, I figured I needed the extra caffeine.
2) I was making beef stew. I dumped the entire package of beef into the pot, absorbent liner and all! I have a sweet husband, who scrubbed the burned pad off of the pot!
3) I put the milk in the pantry and the cereal box in the refrigerator. Fortunately, I figured this out right after I did it! (Have you noticed a lot of these involve food? Maybe I should be wary of cooking!)
4) I have called Harper the dog's name...maybe I shouldn't admit this, but it is true. I don't think she is scarred too badly.
5) I have put Harper's diapers on inside out and backwards...most of these have occurred at 2 am, but not all!
6) I have walked into a room and forgot why I was there (oh wait, I did that before I had her, too!)

I am sure there will be many more to come! I wouldn't trade a single second of sleep for this precious girl!

Two weeks old!!!

I can't believe Harper is two weeks old! It is strange because on one hand, I can't believe it has been two weeks already, and on the other hand, I can't remember life without Harper so it seems like she has always been here! Here are pictures of her at birth, at one week, and at two weeks!

Our beautiful blessing!

On September 24, 2010 Jason and I had our world changed forever! Harper Grace Martin was born at 4:40pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 2 ounces and was 21 inches long! There are no words that can ever express how MUCH love you have immediately for your child. Learning that you are going to have a child you know you love this being that you haven't even met, but seeing her and hearing her for the first time was AMAZING. I wish I could put into words exactly how I felt. We are so grateful and thankful for our sweet daughter and we praise God that He has chosen us to be her parents! I think the best way to sum up our feelings on becoming parents is to quote the last Psalm, Psalm 150.
"Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
Praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord." Psalm 150
We feel like shouting from the rooftops our joy and our praises to God! Enjoy these precious pictures of sweet Harper!

Thoughts on our long awaited arrival!

Don't worry- no one is here yet! I have just been asked about a million times "are you ready". Maybe now I'll direct them to our poor neglected blog. My answer? Honestly? No. Of course not. I think Jason would say the same thing. We have been blessed with amazing friends and family who have given us many of the things we need for our sweet girl, we have taken childbirth/parenting classes that have mentally prepared (and possibly scarred) us for what to expect prior/during/after her arrival, and we have been praying that we are spiritually ready. BUT (isn't there always a but?) we have no hospital bags packed, no place for her her to sleep when she first comes home (not put together anyway), not enough diapers, and no car seat installed. Don't panic. It will get done. But even if we had been ready for months, my answer to the "are you ready?" question would still be no. How would I even begin to fathom if I am ready or not? And somehow, I am okay with that. Which might be the bigger lesson. Me, who is so planned, so future thinking, so OCD about deadlines (yes, I was the student that had her papers written prior to the night before) is okay with not being ready. I am already learning that God uses parenthood to teach you to lean on HIM. I have a feeling that many, many times over the next (fill in the #) years Jason and I will be at a total loss and have nothing but God to cling to. In fact, I know it. He promises it. And its okay. For too long I have clung to myself and my plans and my plans have not always happened, but you know what did happen? God's plans for my life, the plans he's had forever for me, have always happened. And my life has been so much more blessed (not in a "I'm rich and successful" way, but in a 'I now know my God more deeply and can praise Him through storms and celebrations' way). My prayer for anyone reading this is that sometime in your life when (not if) you are left with nothing but the Lord to cling to that you will do just that, cling to him. Let him fill you to the measure until you are overflowing. He'd love to do that. He longs to do that.

4:00 am

I have a feeling I will see this time on the clock a lot more in the coming weeks. 4:00 am really doesn't bother me TOO much, though, since I usually wake up at 5:00am anyway. What really bothered me was that I actually woke up in the 3's...I am the kind of person that needs her 8 hours every night. However, I am pretty sure over the past year plus, and especially the past several months God has been slowly preparing me for parenthood and what little amount of sleep comes with it. Job in another state in Eastern time zone? check! Leaving the house before 6am every day? check! Being pregnant and not being able to go back to sleep? check! I don't say any of this to complain. Sometimes I actually appreciate the time. I have always been a morning person, so I'd much rather wake too early than have trouble falling asleep. When I was little I would wake up pretty early every morning and I loved it because even on school days I would have time to drink my hot chocolate (precursor to hot tea) and play before I had to get ready for school. In the summers when we'd go visit my grandparents I remember walking down the road from our house to theirs in the dark and I'd sit with my grandmother and we'd watch the sunrise through her big picture window. It is comforting to know that another day is here. Another chance to redeem yourself at life! Maybe it is the farmer genes in my blood. Maybe its the baby hormones. Maybe I am just a touch crazy. I don't mind 4:00 am. We'll see if I will be singing another tune after our sweet little sleep stealer comes!