Miracles

We missed daylight savings time change. It was a few weeks earlier this year. But we didn't miss anything important, we just barely made it on time for breakfast. We're having a great week of lectures on the Holy Spirit right now. It's beautiful to see the student's and staff's lives change right before our eyes. Just two more weeks until they leave on outreach.

We were blessed to hear a man's story at church last Sunday. He just returned from Peru a few weeks ago, on a short mission trip. While there he experienced healing miracles! He's usually a shy, conservative, sit in the back row sort of guy. But he was thrown in the deep end when his host loudly announced in a public market they they were missionaries and wanted to say that God loved them and that God would prove He is real by healing people right now! At that point he could choose to run away, or step up to the opportunity. He took a step of faith and came forward to pray for the first woman whose face was half paralyzed from a stroke. He prayed for her and immediately her eyes and upper face lifted. He prayed again asking God to complete the healing and the lower half of her face also immediately came back to normal. This was the first of many instant healings he saw as he laid hands on the people and prayed for them in Jesus name. How awesome is that?

The bump is growing

Here we are at 24 weeks (baby and I). Some weeks my belly grows so fast and then it slows down again. Started to be more tired again, as I approach third trimester. We plan to get away from base for our anniversary weekend, one last "trip" before the baby comes. Actually we'll just be staying in town at a B&B. But it will be nice to have a whole cabin to ourselves, space to stretch out.

Since we both like change, we rearranged our furniture in our room yesterday. That's always fun. We're slowly gathering the parts to put up a couple of curtains. I'm hoping to make some cutesy curtains to go by where we plan to put the crib. Since we won't have a separate baby room, we'll decorate the corner of the room to be special.

Cooking is going well, I now have my systems in place. I know where to get the best deals on things and always keep an eye out for sales at Safeway.

We're already planning for the outreach phase of this school. We won't be going with the students on their two month outreach to St. Lawrence island. However, we will probably be hosting short term teams that want to do outreach in Alaska. And we may be able to go with them for one or two weeks. My leaders want to be careful of me travelling while pregnant, so I may not go at al except on short raod trips. BearHunter might join the roadtrip that's delivering some donated vehicles to the base from the lower 48...he's totally excited about that. He really wants to travel the Al-Can Highway.

-CallaLily

First Ultrasound

Here's the baby's face. We had our first ultrasound this last week. What a blast. Our rambunctious little one was squirming around so much it was hard to keep track of the heart rate and pictures the technician was trying to capture. We were able to see the face, spine, belly, heart chambers, tiny stomach, legs, feet, arms, umbilical cord and some of the hands. The computer measured everything and confirmed our due date of June 7 is right on. It was cool to see the baby kicking in action and moving around. We laughed and had a fun time. The technician gave us a 75% chance prediction on the gender. You'll have to personally email us to find out since some of our family members want to wait, so we won't be posting that data yet. It seems that since the ultrasound I have an increased awareness of all the squirming going on in there and feel more movement than I did before. BearHunter has had a number of opportunities to feel movement and kicks as well. I think we've got an athlete in this little bundle.

So all is well in baby land. We toured the birthing center at the hospital and are considering all the possible locations to give birth in the community. There are a few potentially "fun" ones. Perhaps a yurt, or a log cabin. Though outside of the hospital means finding a different midwife available for homebirths.

Now that WE know the gender, we're honing in on just the right name. Searching the Bible names, looking at meanings, praying that if God has a special name for the child to reveal it to us. It is more fun and easier to imagine the baby's life of after birth, knowing whether it's a boy or girl. It's no longer a nebulous future. But who will he/she look like? Hopefully like both of us. Bless you all, wish you could be here to share my joy. I know you're thinking of us. Thanks for posting your comments or emailing us personally. Love, CallaLily

Pictures in Alaska

Just a couple more pictures for you to see what it's like here. The sunsets are often bright and colorful. This picture I captured with a wire heart in the foreground, someone else's artwork left at the beach.

Then there's BearHunter at one of his projects, this time building the bunks for the new students. Now there are two girls using this bunk. They say it's the best bunk that's been made here so far. Way to go! BearHunter has been doing the lock down and unlock for the buildings as well as organize the snow shoveling teams. Though now that the head maintenance guy is back, BearHunter has not been required to continue with those responsibilities. Of course he still shovels snow on his rotation. And every other Saturday he's on the meal prep and cleanup, besides being on dish duty one day during the week.

On the other hand, I spend my time thinking/dreaming/planning/doing menus, food shopping and cooking. Food portions and budgets and leftover consume much of my thoughtlife! Now small talk with BearHunter is about the last and next meals. I am enjoying the job most days. And I'm learning not to be such a perfectionist when it comes to the clean up crews putting things away in their proper places, or following my written directions to the T. I find ways to adjust and make things work and not get "worked up" about the missing or rather misplaced items. So far I've done different meals each lunch and dinner. My only repeat has been chili and cornbread. Generally the food turns out well, occasionally a few minutes late, occasionally portions too small. But praise God no one has gotten food poisoning yet. And to top it off, I'm learning lots of new recipes.

Tuesday evening we go in for our first and perhaps only ultrasound. At our prenatal visit last week, the baby measurements taken indicate we're growing on target and there's probably only one baby in there. We'll let you know how the ultrasound turns out. Baby is still kicking regularly, though not all too frequently. BearHunter has been able to feel kicks on many occasions, so that's a special blessing. Feels and looks like my belly grows bigger everyday. We'll get a picture posted as soon as my camer is working again. Love y'all. -CallaLily

Kickin' It!

Ahah, baby's first kicks this last week. Very exciting moments... Both "mom" (me) and "dad" (BearHunter) got to feel our first kicks the same night, within minutes of eachother. I, mom, had been feeling small kicks internally for a while, but nothing with my hand on the outside yet. Then, on Tuesday night, when I went to bed the right side of my belly felt warm compared to the left side (baby lives on the right side). So I decided to let my hand rest there and feel for any other differences. Very soon, I felt a little tap on my hand just under my index finger (from my belly), and immediately after that two more soft taps under my other fingers. I could also feel the kick inside my belly. It was like my skin just barely lifted my finger up a bit. Soon afterwards there was another push under my palm.

Dad was out of the room at the time, locking up the buildings for the evening. He returned shortly and I told him of my experience. Of course I kept my hand resting there waiting to feel anything else. While we were chatting, I could feel internally that the baby was still moving around quite a bit. Hoping that there might be more kicks I suggested Dad come and rest his hand softly in the same spot. So happily he did. And wouldn't you know, as if on cue, baby kicks his fingers, too. Twice, even. I burst into laughter. It was so funny to feel the internal punch while on the outside Dad is feeling it with his hand at the same time. His eyes got big when it happened, and he seemed in almost disbelief. He wasn't sure if that was it at first because the feeling was so slight. But by the second thump, he knew he was feeling it with his hands. He said it was like he heard the kick rather than felt it because it was such a subtle movement.

Since that night, I haven't felt any more good kicks like that with my hand, but I do feel more definite kicks inside me. Often during meals I notice them, or when I lay down for bed. They're not strong enough to wake me up or bother me.

Daily it seems my belly gets bigger and tighter. The baby wad as I like to call it is getting taller and wider in my abdomen. My stomach is more noticeably sticking out under my shirts. Even the first pairs of maternity pants that I bought are feeling tighter. I'm trying to walk regularly for some exercise, but it's hard now that I'm busy being a cook. That's my new responsibility on the base.