Friday, September 18, 2009

Celebrating in Two's!

This week was a special week for us as we celebrated our second wedding anniversary on September 15th as well as the culmination of two healthy trimesters in our pregnancy! Monday marked the beginning of our last trimester, and we can't believe we only have three months to go! At times it seems like it's been such a long process and at others it seems to have flown by. We are thankful and amazed at the process of the creation of life and can't wait to meet our daughter soon!

We celebrated our anniversary with a quick trip to Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, where we celebrated our honeymoon as well as our first anniversary. We love it that it's so close and easily accessible from Lawrence! Below are a few pictures from our trip. We found some new parks to explore and did some mild hiking to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery.





Lake of the Ozarks is also where we take our student leadership team every Labor Day weekend for our annual Laborer's Retreat to kick off the new year. Our weekend together was a great time of connecting, learning, praying, casting vision, and of course lots of fun and laughing! On the Saturday afternoon of the trip we always have a special activity planned for the students that's usually a surprise. Last year it was a high ropes course, which definitely challenged all of us to overcome some fears, and this year it was spelunking in a cave. This was not a typical excursion into a cave, however. It included crawling through complete darkness and at times water and muddy clay on hands, knees, elbows, stomachs, etc. I, Kelley, did not participate, but heard all about it afterwards. They all agreed it was very intense, sometimes frustrating, but definitely worth it. Sounds like a good analogy for a spiritual journey of loving and serving God at KU!
Below is our group (all clean) before entering the cave. What a great group!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

It's A...Girl!


Many of you have already heard our BIG news, but we are expecting a baby girl in early December, and we couldn't be more thankful or thrilled! Her official due date is December 7, which is just three days before Kelley's birthday.
The above picture was taken last Saturday, and we are now 26 weeks along. I've attached a fun link that let's you see how big the baby is compared to typical foods. http://www.babycenter.com/slideshow-baby-size
This week she's about the length of a long cucumber and weighing in at over a pound!We give praise to God for a healthy and safe pregnancy so far! Tonight we have our first birthing class at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, about a five minute walk from our home. This is where we will deliver and they recently opened a new birthing center.

We are nearly two weeks into the fall semester and things are going very well. We've met new faces, reconnected with older students, and are seeking God's direction in making the most of this final semester before we welcome our daughter into the world!

Thank you for standing with us!


With love, Jason and Kelley