Preparing for baby

The countdown has begun. We are getting closer and closer to the day that we will meet our precious baby girl. And we have yet to begin getting the room together or gathering the "stuff" which comes along with this new addition.
We do plan on beginning the process come August. I am having my first baby shower in Memphis, August 21st. And the next shower is in Kansas not until September. So I guess depending on what we get at these showers depends on how the room turns out. I am super excited about seeing all the cute and yes, lots of pink things. I am not a pink type of girl, but I have to say it is definitely growing on me.
One thing I have done is ordered the baby bedding. I had a hard time finding something I really liked, but my mom showed me this website and fell in love with this bedding.
I am going to add a green sage for an accent color. I can't wait until it comes in. I think once we start getting big items like this it will start to feel real!


We also finally registered at Babies R Us. There are still some things I would like to add to the registry, but at least we got it started. A couple of people have asked if we are going to register anywhere else and I don't think we are. We pretty much covered all the bases at Babies R Us.

So according to my ticker above my blog we have 84 days! So much to do, but excited about the process.

The number 3

This weekend I have enjoyed a relaxing time with my sweetie. We used this weekend to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. Josiah set up a prenatal massage for me, which was amazing. Then we went to a hotel and got ready for dinner. We found an upscale soul food restaurant in the heart of downtown. It had live jazz music and I was able to get some food close to my heart. Our dinner consisted of a starter of fried green tomatoes and fried okra. Then we had these amazing sweet potato cornbread rolls. I am definitely going to have to find a recipe for those, especially for the holidays. Then my dinner was fried chicken, baked macaroni and cheese and my favorite, collard greens! Yes I am very southern! Josiah had fried catfish, candied yams, and baked macaroni also. You may think that these dishes should be sold on paper plates, but it was nice to eat comfort food in an elegant environment. Then to top off the dinner of course Josiah had to get the bread pudding.

It was such a nice and relaxing weekend. We both needed it.
But of course our weekend wouldn't be complete without some drama. While we were eating our breakfast our hotel started to flood. It started with some water in the lower level where we were eating. Then in the hallway the water started come in fast. Then we heard that the parking lot was flooding. So Josiah went to go move our car, and he said if we were going to get out we needed to leave. As we were leaving we saw the full flooding damage. The street our hotel was on was completely under water. It was bizarre. So it cut our time short, but we got home fine.

Yesterday when I was relaxing for my massage I realized that three months from yesterday is our due date. We have three months to prepare for our little Avalynn's entrance into our world. Wow! I can't believe the countdown has really begun. We have so much to do. We haven't even registered, started the room, or done one thing toward preparing for her. If you know me, this is not like me. I usually have everything ready way in advance. But I think this pregnancy is teaching me to slow down. Hopefully we will get a start on some of it soon.

The number 3 is also significant because in a short amount of time the two of us will be the three of us. We will have a big change in our life. If we want to go out to eat we will have a car seat with us. If we want to go out of town we will have to plan how to travel with a baby. I am looking forward to having our new addition, but it will now be the three of us. Reality is really settling in. I am looking forward to this exciting adjustment in our life.

New Best Friend

When Josiah and I moved to Kansas from Tennessee I knew I would encounter the obstacle of finding and building friendships. We have been here for a year and three months and I still feel like I am brand new to the city. There are times that I wish I could hang out with a friend, and then I think about who I will call, and I end up doing a blank stare at the phone.

There have been people at work that I have been able to build relationships with, but life always gets in the way and moves that person away. Also considering everyone has their own agenda trying to organize a time to get together seems to be difficult.

There is a friend I can rely on. This may seem sad, but I can always depend on my trusty old friend, The Food Network. I always look forward to the time that I get alone with this friend. This friend teaches me things about myself, and always sends me to some exciting place I have never been. But lately this friend has had too many filler shows. This friendship like most I have encountered reached a bump in the road of becoming dull and a little boring.
Then I met someone new, a family member to The Food Network, The Cooking Channel. This friend and I have spent lots of quality time the past week. With Josiah gone mid week through the weekend on baseball duties, I have been calling on this friend a lot. This new relationship has been very exciting. I am learning so much. The one thing I have enjoyed about this relationship is the ever changing personalities. There has been something to keep my attention all through the day, unlike my other friend who will lose my attention mid day.

So if you are needing a new friend yourself, feel free to call on my new friend. Let me know what you think. What is your favorite aspect of this friendship?

A point in the right direction

The past year I have been dealing with what direction life is going to take me. And through this year I have had lots of peep holes into what my future will look like. Some peep holes show very encouraging progress and some have been a closing door. Not to say that these closing doors were not encouraging, but they took some getting use to.

One of the major turning points in my life has definitely been the new addition to our family. It has turned my perspective to long turn satisfactions and not selfish momentary fulfilment. I am excited about the upcoming changes our family is going through, although at times I get very overwhelmed.
Thankfully I have been surrounded by people who have been able to give me advice and helped point me in the direction I need to go. And sometimes that advice makes me mad, and sometimes that advice makes me silent and reflective. But I am learning it doesn't matter what I want to hear, it is what I need to hear 99.9% of the time.

One example is last week I was feeling very overwhelmed with all the new "things" a baby changes in your life. There is the financial, emotional,and spacial needs and fears which comes along once the time of the baby's arrival gets closer and closer. So I decided I would text my mom and somewhat vent to her, hoping to get some sympathy out of her. Did my mom cuddle me over the phone and tell me all the things I wanted to hear? No. She told me " you need to read Philippians 4:6-9." So I complained and just shook my head in frustration. But once I took a deep breath, I realized it was the perfect advice for my freak out session.

Another example is today Josiah and I were eating lunch out. We were chatting about our usual things, jobs, hobbies, life....when I decided to take the conversation to one specific topic. At the end of my say in this topic I said, "I feel the door is beginning to close, but I am still waiting for a better sign before I completely close the door on this situation." We sat in silence for a few moments and then Josiah said something that was exactly "the sign" I needed to hear. He went on to explain a flash of a vision he was just given. He described a cartoon drawing of me pushing this massive door closed with all my might, but there was still a tiny gap which prevented it from being closed. On the other side of the door was a hand who only had their index finger pushing on the door, which then made it close. This picture showed me that I was trying and trying with all my might to push this chapter in my life closed, but I was in a way waiting for the other person to help me close it. But all the other person had to do was use their index finger, no strength, to close the door. And this is how the situation really is. I am trying with all my strength and power to prove to someone what I can do, but they are not ready or willing to listen. Wow! I would say there is my sign I have been waiting for.

I have been waiting for flashing lights and honking horns to get my attention to these certain chapters in my life. But God has sent me people along the way with words of wisdom, and cartoon visions to point me in the right direction. I am thankful to all the many people who have prayed for me to find my place in this world. I ask that you continue to pray I be accepting to the words and directions which God is leading me to.

Thank heaven for little girls!

20 weeks 2 days

Josiah and I found out May 25th we will be parents to a little girl. We are very excited to finally be able to call our baby by her name and prepare for her. It was quite a surprise for us though. We were both convinced along with our family and friends that we would have a boy. But God knew what he was doing when he planned for us to have a girl.

Our family is super excited to have another "little princess" in the family. Her name will be Avalynn Adair Enyart. We picked the name Avalynn after my grandmother, Evelyn. I have always liked the name Ava and considering it is in the top 5 girl names I started to rethink the name. Adair is in honor of Josiah's lovely sister's, Danielle, middle name. Josiah and I have put a lot of thought in this name and I know that Avalynn will honored to be named after two special women in our lives.

Belly pics

15 weeks 5 days

14 weeks 5 days

11 weeks 5 days

Here are a few pics of my growing belly.

Lemonade of Life

When life throws you lemons make lemonade, or so they say. I guess this is what I am learning lately. Seems that lately I have been thrown lots of lemons, limes and maybe some oranges. Through this I have been trying new techniques of producing the right flavor of lemonade.

I am definitely beginning to become overwhelmed with life and it doesn't help that my hormones are making me feel weird. And sometimes it doesn't help that I am miles away from my family and that friends are few and far between. But I am grateful that I do have Josiah's family here. They help me come back down to earth and refocus at times.

I am still finding my place in this world and I am realizing it may take a lot longer than most people. And I will make fabulous lemonade by the end of my journey.