Big Changes & Bigger Blessings

Speaking of changes, the leaves have changed and withered, yay! A lovely centerpiece I made for freeee! Gathered some pretty leaves, pinecones, and buds from the yard. I made the one you see above last year, loved it too!

Sometimes I write a blog post to document where the Lord has us. This is one of those, it's not short!

It's that time of year when I'm thinking about Christmas gifts, holiday recipes, winter coats, Chick-Fil-A's chocolate chip peppermint milkshake, peppermint mochas, and the TRUE meaning of Christmas. We've started celebrating Christmas a little early since Jude will most likely make his arrival in December. We had such a great time last night going to see the Rockettes at The Grand Ole Opry with Blake's Mom and Lonas. It was refreshing to see so many Christmas lights! We also look forward to spending Thanksgiving with our good friends Tina and Cory this year. I am very sad that I won't be able to travel to Charleston, SC with the rest of my family but I have to do what's best for baby which is no long car trips!

This November is very different. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, I guess it's just what you call life. On a very positive note, this Christmas we will receive one of the biggest presents, a little baby boy! We are overjoyed when we think about all of the little moments and movements that we will witness. Baby's first Christmas, first bath, and first snow maybe? Not to mention all of the changes that will come with a little Herron in the house! Although we are so excited about that, we've had to endure a few challenges recently.

Recently, I lost my job due to the loss of my boss and his wife, and lack of work. Not only the job that I loved, but the coworkers that I enjoyed seeing on a daily basis, the pride of having work, and my little routine of driving to Hendersonville each day. Many of you know that my boss and his wife passed away in a plane crash in September. I was primarily in charge of the marketing so when you don't have a doctor to market and won't have one until after you return from maternity leave, you get laid off. I've tried not to be angry and just appreciate the time I've had to clean, prepare our house for selling, prepare our nursery, and rest.

I've had very mixed feelings but ultimately I can trust that God is always in control and HE KNOWS what is going on. He has definitely provided and we are so grateful!  Thank you for your big hugs, understanding, and encouragement; WE really appreciate it! Between trying to raise a baby boy, selling our house, and our plans to move to Florida between May-July of 2013 I'm not sure how it will all work out but today is a good day. It's called, ONE DAY AT A TIME.


Another change; the cozy home that we've thoroughly enjoyed is now FOR SALE. :( We're praying that we will be able to stay in our house until we move to Florida but we know that may not be a possibility. We shall see! Just in case you know someone who is interested, here are some pictures and a link to the stats.

 

Now you know what our house looks like...creepy!!!

More changes; gift giving, baking, and coats. You know about love languages right? Well, gift giving is up on the top of the list for me! We most likely won't be able to purchase many Christmas gifts this year and the holiday recipes will be limited this season. Well, maybe not. I'm pretty committed to baking... and eating, especially during the holidays! Who knows, I may even wrap a few items we already own and put them under the tree; we could all use a lesson on thankfulness! Coats are different too. The winter coats don't button the way they used to but hey, I still enjoy showing off my bump! 

36 weeks
I am grateful that I actually SOLD a winter coat since Miami doesn't include snow, frost, or a heat setting on the thermostat. Yay! Even though this winter will not be "the same" it can still be amazing! I will still pull out my record player and play my favorite Christmas music including Amy Grant, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, and Nat King Cole. Amy Grant's song, "Tender Tennessee Christmas" will have a whole new significance to me since we're moving to Florida.

We don't have a tree up yet, this is from last year. AFTER Thanksgiving, yes.

Next year, I'll be singing, "Where are you Christmas? I can not find you..." by Faith Hill haha since Florida will be so warm! 

There's so much to be thankful for and excited about. At the same time, I feel the Lord tugging on my heart saying, "trust me." Small minded, I sit and think to myself, "ok, we have to sell our house, prepare to move to Florida, we got rid of our dog, and are ready to introduce a new baby... into this mess!?" All the while, God has provided and blessed us. I had to document a few of the blessings so that I wouldn't forget and so that you can know how GOOD the Lord is. Here's a starter list!

Blessings:

• My husband is amazing. Talk about a humble servant, wow! It just so happens that he's amazingly talented, handsome, and wise too! A recent story of Blake's goodness: We were driving home and passing Kroger when I mentioned that we needed/ I was craving more milk. Blake was driving and stated that we could pick some up another time. Learning to be more agreeable and respectful, I just sat with my sad face and looked out the window while pictures of chocolate milk, milk and cereal, milk and cookies, cluttered my brain. Oh the agony. Not another word was said about milk but on the inside, I was loosing it! The next morning, Lolly woke us up knocking on our door knob as usual (chink, chink, chink, meoooeeiiiooow) and Blake took the opportunity to drive over to Kroger around 6:30 AM to purchase not one, but two types of milk. Oh, I just love him.
• Blake was able to find a second job that he happens to LOVE; Same Ash! It's like a bigger and better version of Guitar Center where he sells everything to do with music! There's a Sam Ash in the city we're moving to in Florida so we're hoping he may be able to transfer there too!
• Random financial gifts from members of our church. AMAZING.
• We have great insurance
• I've been able to babysit, help Kelsey with fun teacher stuff, do more photography, baking, help with my mom's business, and even help with some tasks at our church for some income! Praises!
• We had a total of three baby showers... incredible and abnormal! We still have gift cards to use which are a huge help! You're welcome to go see some pictures from all the shower blogs I posted. Amazing Lord.
• Sears Outlet: For three months on Tuesdays they offered a FREE piece of clothing as long as you were a rewards member which is basically like a Kroger Plus card. I was able to get maternity clothes and baby clothes for free!! My sister who lives in town and coworkers would even help me out and get a free maternity or baby item for me, how sweet. I also received multiple gift cards to maternity stores and extra clothes from my sister so I didn't have to buy hardly any maternity clothes. They don't even have a maternity section, it's like hide and go seek! Thank you Jesus!

• Speaking of Kroger, they still think that the previous owners live in our house soooo we get special coupons in their name and ours... amazing! Praise Jesus!
• We found a wonderful family to take our precious dog, Luna! They even dressed her up for Halloween! We wish we could have kept her forever but South Florida with all the reptiles and heat is not particularly dog friendly. 



tear* :(


• I will get my braces off before baby is here on December 4th (most likely) and they were FREE because Dr. Cohen is amazing.
• We received mostly gift cards for my birthday so we're able to still go on date nights before baby and even after baby arrives maybe!



Saw the new James Bond movie, "Skyfall" on Tuesday and it was GREAT! We went all out and even brought candy with us, got some popcorn, and a frozen Coke. Talk about fancy! 

•  I have had a WONDERFUL pregnancy. The reason I don't blog about my pregnancy much is because there's no update, I'm still feeling wonderful by the grace of God! I realize this isn't normal. The only update would be that baby is getting bigger, yay! I can still sleep through the night, wear my wedding rings, sing, dance, play, you name it, and I'm 37 weeks. My only symptom is swelling which, at this point, is normal. We can't wait to meet him! I'm so ready to use my diaper bag woo hoo!



37 weeks and sportin' one of my FREE maternity sweaters from Sears.

• Our friends and family are incredible. What a blessing it is to know that our families believe in the one true savior and Lord Jesus. We are so humbled by the encouragement, gifts, love, and support coming from both sides. Even though our Florida news may not have been popular at first, we've never doubted that our families love us. Also, I can't tell you how blessed we are to have around twelve couples in our small group that we live life with. That's huge!

even though this is a year old and pre-babies, it's still sweet :)

• The Old Testament. Thank you Lord for the Old Testament! I took an OT class in high school that was only offered for one year at our school; I learned SO MUCH and learned how much I don't know. However, recently my good friend Emily has been teaching Kelsey and I more about the OT and covenant. It's SO beautiful! It's especially a timely blessing because Kelsey and I will be moving to an area of the country that is considered "unchurched." You can gather from that one word that the majority of the new friends we meet in Florida will not be familiar with the term "Sunday School" or any OT characters. THE LORD HAS BEEN PREPARING US! How cool! I'm so glad HE KNOWS what he's doing, aren't you?

Praising him for each day.