Today I felt very Kiwi. I got up and walked up the Quarry, I cleaned the house, did the washing...including hanging it out to dry (and I called it washing! Which before I lived here I always said "laundry") and I made brownies from scratch! Not just any brownies, but ones that were secretly healthy. They had spinach and carrot in them!



Evidently you have to wait until they are entirely cool to be able to not taste the secret surprises inside. Sam's family liked them, my mother in law made fun of me and said I would lose all the nutrients out of them, and Sam's Nana, who is here for the weekend, had two!!

I think I might just be ready to be a Kiwi MOM!!

Good thing since by Christmas I will be a MOMMY!!! Yep you read that right! We had the SURPRISE of our lives a few weeks ago. Such a surprise that I burst into tears as I realized what was happening and went straight out and bought another pregnancy test because "Surely that can't be right. We are not having a child in this first crazy year of marriage. We were doing everything to prevent that! And what the heck I don't feel pregnant. I am not even sick!!" Well come to find out my mom had great pregnancy with no morning sickness at all...mystery solved. I haven't had one day of nausea at all and half the time still think, "Is there really a baby in there?"

That second test was positive as well as the Doctor's. We are 12 weeks pregnant and have the sonogram on Thursday morning. To say our life and hearts have been full of emotions, overwhelmed feelings and excitement and terror is an understatement! But as the days have passed I have begun to get more and more excited. Sam has been wonderful in my freak out pregnancy emotions and reminded me that to be a mom is my dream, so God must have thought that right now was the right time, no matter what we were doing.

Since the biggest news of our life I have thought lots about God and what He is doing. I've come to no conclusions at all except this....He knows. He knows. Period. That is one thing I know for sure...He knows all that is happening in our life. I said to Sam last night that I feel like right now we are the two most unlikely candidates God could have chosen to house this little one for nine months and then raise it. God must see something I clearly don't. In many ways though, I have chilled out about all the change and lack of "things" in our life currently. I know stress is awful for your body and mental health and now it doesn't just affect me anymore.

We put all our plans that were in motion on hold after we found out the news, which was the Saturday after I started work. We had to rethink what our year plans were all of a sudden, then Sam went into knee surgery. He is recovering well and as soon as he feels a bit better he will drive up to Auckland and get a car up there (they are tons cheaper and better cars all around up there). Then we will move into our own little place where our family of 2 will quickly turn into a family of 3, barring any other funny things that the Lord has up his sleeve...but seeing twins isn't in our families we might be safe. Then again, nothing that seemed like it was normal or what was going to happen has so until Thursday I am still banking on the fact that anything is possible.

My family and Sam's are THRILLED as you can imagine. My mom has already bought clothes for me and is determined that I will stay cute and pregnant in NZ :) And Sam's mom bought the baby a little rattle, Auntie Rosie just started working in a kid boutique and came home with a cute little onsie in the shape of an ice cream treat! And Sam's Nana came for a visit stocked with clothes and a blanket. My mom continually signs things "grammie" and Sam's Nana and mom are trying to figure out what to be called. And James was running around the house saying, "Uncle James sounds WAY COOLER than Auntie Rosie!"

I think the little one will be well loved in two hemispheres. Especially since I think my parents will come out for Christmas....at least Sam and I are hoping so :) This Christmas will be like none that I ever imagined or expected!

As of right now we are due October 30th, but that may change after the sonogram this week. I will keep you all posted and Sam has promised to take pictures of my growing belly over the next 6 months. He took one the week we found out so we can compare all along the way!!

Thanks for journeying continually with us in our never ending changing lives. I told Sam last week, "After this year I think we can conquer anything together as a family."