*Friday Night*

looking forward to taking our generation church kids to this! :) I love when local churches come together...its going to be awesome...
:)

homebound...literally*

Another week of being bound to my home...I have been so sick this past week and it has been so draining. I think I have cried almost every day because I just want to get better. :( I am feeling a little better today, but honestly I am nervous that I will start feeling horrible again. The doctor said I have a really bad sinus infection and put me on an antibiotic. It has been the worst pain that I have felt in a long time...I think only because I haven't had any relief from it. I haven't felt like myself in like 3 weeks...but I know that I will be getting better. I feel bad for poor little Micah, feeling the stress of it all. Ive even lost weight due to having no appetite while being sick and throwing up at night. So, I hope he has been getting enough of what he needs...poor little thing has no idea whats going on. But thank God he is still kicking around :)
It's been such an emotional draining week as I have been pleading with God to take this away. But Ive realized who am I to tell him what to do...and that I need to praise him even through the midst of yuckies! I am thankful that I don't have a serious illness or a life threatening disease. I can't lose my hope over being sick for a week. Ive learned that I have to humble myself to his will even when I don't see the outcome. This weekend is the first teen girls conference our church is putting on and I was supposed to help with that. But being sick put me out and I wasn't able to do anything for it. But I am finally okay with that and I am just so excited for what God is going to do this weekend in that conference. Shelden took me over to the church yesterday because I just wanted to see all that they have done to decorate it and get it ready for the conference. It was amazing!!! I wanted to cry! I just heard investment as I walked through the building. God is so good! I can't wait to hear all about it from my group of 5th through 7th grade girls! :)
So only 4 more weeks until Micah's due date! We shall see when he comes...
just praying that I will be completely healthy for him when he decides to arrive... :)

still sick!*

I can't believe that I am sick again! At least it's not as bad as it was before when I didn't work for 4 days in a row....It is totally zapping my energy though especially with this little baby inside me. Only 5 more weeks until his due date! In between napping and trying to get better, I have been getting my hospital bag ready and washing his little itty bitty outfits. I can't believe that he will be here before we know it but we are so excited. Our lives will change quite a bit but I am excited to add him to our lives, to raise him in an incredible church and introduce him to life. Getting the hospital bag ready has been a reality check. I really don't want to think about the labor and birth except for the fact that I will get to meet him face to face. Our Lamaze class has been very informational and has helped with preparing for the little guy to come but the videos they show about the stages of labor do not make me very excited about labor. I know that I have to go through it in order to get him out but God did you really have to make it that bad? We met a woman who told us that she went through a painless childbirth...that would be really nice! I think I'll pray into that. She said that she had her baby in laughter and it was a way God blessed her in that season of her life. She was encouraging and I am glad that I got to meet her and her husband. They prayed for us and our new season of life coming...we were so blessed to meet them. :)

We are counting down....yaaaayyyy!!!!! 5 more weeks!!!

us at church..getting a little goofy with the belly :)

poor Micah...he is going to have some strange parents ;)

Freedom*

Our church does this weekend called Powerwash. It is like a time of refreshing/healing and meeting with God. It's like taking a look at your life and seeing where you need to let God take over. Being on the apprentice team at church we have already gone through it and God had healed me of my insecurity of "not being good enough" since then I stepped in faith and have not dealt with that for the past year. woop woop! We were a part of the prayer team for this weekends Powerwash...little did I know what God had in store for me. The first night there is focus on laying things down at the cross, and re-iterating the depth of what God did by having Jesus die for us. While we were watching a clip of The Passion, God said to me..I didn't have Jesus die on the cross for you to live under the fear of man. uhh.....God I wasn't expecting you to speak to me then. So I thought that is so true, Jesus didn't die for me to live just a mediocre, standstill routine type of life. He died for me to be set free from that kind of life. He came so that I could live life abundantly ya? Lately, I have been praying that God would take away my "fear of man" and that I would just walk in that freedom. But it was still a lingering struggle. But...this weekend, I went up to get prayer and just felt a refreshing come over me. I knew that God had released that fear and insecurity from me!!! yay!!! FREEDOM!!!! I no longer will walk in that insecurity of caring what people think. It no longer plagues me and I can physically feel the difference! Just like that feeling of "not being good enough" was gone, this too is gone!!!
It may sound crazy but I am a living testimony of God's healing power! woop woop!!!!

Also today we went to my nephews tee-ball game! Those kids are so stinkin' cute! It made me think about how in a little more than a couple of years my son will be out playing sports. :) Since the kids are younger,they don't keep score and just let everyone bat and run around the bases. The coaches stand next to the batters and place the ball on the tee for them. I kept watching the coaches as they would help the little players put their arms and legs and bat in the right position so they would get a good hit. But every time the players went to hit the ball, they dropped their arm or moved their body back to the original wrong position that felt comfortable to them and wouldn't hit the ball, or wouldn't hit it very well. It was super cute but then it made me think...
Why won't they just stay in the position that the coaches put them in? The coaches know what is best for them but to the little kids, it just wasn't comfortable to them. Just like how my Daddy, corrects me and puts me in the right position but I move out of that position because it's more comfy the way I like it. Yet, he loves me enough to place me back into the same position that is uncomfortable again and again and again until I finally trust him enough in my uncomfortability (if that's a word) and just swing, just go for it. It feels good when I hit the ball right...It feels good when I am able to accomplish what He wants me to accomplish because I trusted Him. Basically God just nailed it into my head and my heart that he wants me to walk in FREEDOM and that is where he has placed me. No more walking in insecurity.

"it is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us FREE,

STAND firm then

and do not let yourselves be burdened again

by a yoke of slavery."

Galatians 5:1

Day Off*

Finally I am better and able to work and get back to normal life. This little cough is trying to hang on for dear life but I am slowly defeating it. So today I was off from work and not sick...yay! and I got to hangout with one my best friends...I have been missing fellowship lately because of being sick or super busy. I found myself really excited to finally have some girl time. Thank God for good girlfriends!
Because we are good friends we get to talkin' about things you don't really talk about...and all I have to say is that every married woman should read "Intimate Issues" by Linda Dillow and Lorraine Pintus. That's some good stuff right there. I thought it might be cheesy but hunny let me tell you....it gets down to what is up in your intimate life with your man! There is a lot of healing and resetting of your mind on the perspective of "sexiness" within marriage and how its different than what the world is offering. I could go on and on about it but really take my word for it..just read it!!!

2 boxes down!*

Well, this will be my third day out of work because I had to call out sick :( How horrible is that! And now Daddy Shelden is sick too...we made doctor appointments today, together. We actually have not had a whole day together in quite a long time...kind of lame that it only happened because we are sick but we do enjoy being together. So the doctor was able to give Shelden an antibiotic but because I am pregnant all he said to me was "Michelle, you will have to suck it up!" wow! I paid a $30 dollar copay to hear that! I knew that I wasn't going to get any medication but I just wanted to make sure there was nothing more serious going on in my body. 
So hear we are...2 boxes of kleenex down, working on my 3rd box!
  looking forward to a speedy recovery...hopefully!
 

so many blessings*

Our trip to Encounter was awesome! The weather cooperated, so that was really nice! It was supposed to be really rainy and stormy which is not fun to drive 40 something teens in a caravan. But it ended up just being really cold outside and we saw some rain but not enough to have horrible road conditions.
God spoke some really cool things in my life...being pregnant and out of energy, I have to sit during worship most of the time, which I am not used to because I like to dance around and get into worship. But God has been using those times where I have to sit and breathe. The first night we were there he spoke to me that he loved me and that he wants to become real to me. WOW! I do want God to be real to me...I want to naturally think of him as here with me as Shelden is in the same room as me. I do not want to see God as a distant being in the heavens that loves me.
The second night the speaker who was hilarious, talked about holiness, which was cool because that is something that I have been thinking alot about lately. One thing that he said that I really liked was that God didn't send his son to die for a "that'll do" lifestyle. God wants our WHOLE heart! So he lead into what we are holding back from God, what is it that we are not trusting God with? I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head because I don't have a problem with smoking or drinking, or gossiping, or dating or cursing, you know all that stuff that you struggle with at the beginning of your walk with God...but then I sat and prayed and God revealed to me that I am not trusting him with friendships. YIKES!!! ugghh...God you really had to go there! For whatever reason, I have always had a problem with having really good girlfriends. I never had a close, healthy relationship with a girlfriend until after highschool when I went to the Joshua Program at Hume Lake. Even still I have a hard time keeping up with the girlfriends I love dearly and reaching out to make new friends. There is something that has been wounded in that area of my heart that God wants to heal with girlfriends.
Then the last day the speaker told a story about David Livingstone, how his heart was so passionately for Africa, that when he died there, the natives cut out his heart and buried it in Africa before David's people could take away his body back home. The speaker correlated it to where are our hearts buried? He wanted us to seek God about where we need to bury our hearts. At first I didn't really connect with what he was saying exactly but I sat and sought out God on it and he told me that I need to "bury my life in being a mom" WHOA! I just started to cry as I realized the importance of being Micah's mom. As I prayed more I just felt this strong sense that Micah is going to change so many lives, whether thats through being a pastor or missionary, I am not sure but Micah is going to do big things. And I don't just say that because he will be our son but I really believe God is going to use him in mighty ways. And it's my job to raise him up in the Lord, to seek out God when he is being a brat, and to remember constantly what God has promised for him.

Here is the best part: :)
we come home from the trip...and as of right now we are living with my parents...my parents being the amazing people that they are set up Micah's room! They took out everything from the office room that they had all set up and put in his crib, bassinet, toys, clothes and blankets. When I saw it, I just started to cry again! I felt so blessed! My mom thought we didn't like it at first because we were just sitting there in awe not saying anything but once she saw my tears she knew that what they did was such a blessing! It was so cool to see how God works, and how he loves us so much. After hearing his voice about being a mom and then coming home to a room all ready for our son. Good stuff!!!! I am telling you, serving God has been such a pleasure, even in the midst of hardtimes and heartache, God's blessings are amazing.

 being us on the car ride to Encounter

his lil crib! my mom and dad are the best!



all his clothes so far...

blankies

and that is momma at 32 weeks and sickie :(

so that means i am 8 months.

only 8 more weeks to go and he will be here!