Yesterday, I came home from school at around 5:45pm and after pulling into my driveway, I ran into the house without even bringing my bag in because Bentley hadn’t gone potty since I took him out in the morning before school.  So, I burst into the house and my kitties, as always, came to say hello, and as I’m taking off my shoes, I hear a deep “hello” coming from behind the door.  I look and there is a tall figure standing there.  Out of shock, I screamed bloody murder as my pregnant body momentarily convulsed…IT WAS ISRAEL!!!  He was supposed to come home TODAY at around noon, but he decided to surprise me by changing his flight a day early!  Some surprise…I almost fainted!  It was nice– after I recovered.  He shared story after story about his experiences there with Chester and Shaun.  He definitely had a great time hanging out with them.   

He bought me a bouquet of stargazer lilies from Amsterdam and some nice “curiosos” (souvenirs) from S. Africa.  Israel keeps on insisting that the flowers are tulips because in Holland, “they were only selling tulips and roses”.  HAHAHA.  Israel, if you read this, google “stargazer lily” and what you’ll behold is the species of flowers that are at home.  I win the bet.  Flower identification was never his forte. 

Pregnancy is going much better…for some days.  I could use some help gaining weight and I’m still waiting in anticipation for the day when I get a craving.  Hopefully that will come in time.  This Friday I’ll be 20 weeks…half way there!   

I’m really enjoying reading all of the comments!  I really hope I can meet those of you who I haven’t met yet!  You’ll all just have to come over and visit– especially when the baby comes…we can have like a diaper-shift rotation or something!  Our close buddies Kerri and Daniel just had a baby 2 months ago, and they’ve been telling us what raising a baby early on is like.  ~ 10 diaper changes a day!!  I couldn’t believe it.  So, you can all come and share in our joy.   

Anyhow, Israel made it back from Spain safely this past Monday.  He’ll be off to S. Africa, though, this coming Wednesday for 3 weeks.  Then I’ll have to take care of our zoo by myself again!  I might have to hire Justin or something.  Anyway, I should get back to lesson planning and correcting papers.  Oh!  An update on the ultra-sound…we scheduled it for this Monday!  Let’s all pray that the baby will be in the right position to tell the sex…   

It’s my second official day of teaching.  For the past two weeks of school I had to get a long-term sub because I was not feeling too hot.  Anyhow, I’m happy to say that I’m now about the same weight as I was before I got pregnant!  I know, I know, what progress I’m making.  God has been good though.  I’m about to enter into my 16th week on Friday and my tummy is getting noticeably larger.  None of my pants/skirts fit.    The nasty-bile-saliva taste is almost gone–praise the Lord for that.  Israel is currently in Spain right now for some England Youth Conference…so it’s been quite busy taking care of our zoo.  Next week I’m going to my OB for my next check-up and I think I might be getting an ultra-sound then.  If so, there is a good chance that we will find out the gender of the baby!  That will be exciting.  Well, I need to get going now.  Wanted to let everyone know how we’re doing and we pray that each of you are doing well too… 

We’re back at home now. Judy’s still sick. For a while, I thought she was about to get better, but she was just kidding. We were at the mall because she wanted to walk. And while we were walking, she was about to … B. So I had to go up to some couple who was chewing gum and ask them for some. The guy looked at me like I was crazy and said no. After I told them that my wife was pregnant and pulled my loot cakes out to pay them, the lady said she had gum. And they didn’t take my money, so that was good.

My parents are getting a little too crazy. After ASI, we stopped by their place to visit them for the first time since we found about about Judy’s “Condition” (Dr. Michael Orlich). My mom called family members I never even knew we had, and they all came over to see us! Half of our “vacation” was spent me repeating over and over what I work in, and Judy trying to understand spanish. They got us so many kid’s clothes that we didn’t have enough room in our bags to bring other important stuff with us.

We supposedly got lucky. They were going to throw us a baby shower even though we’re still in our first trimester. I think my family just comes up with any excuse to party!

I should call Justin now. He said he needed help moving in to Ann Arbor. He’s pastoring in Detroit and working with CAMPUS.