Family of three :)

Yes finally I can announce that Alan and I are expecting our first child next May! I've been wanting to write in here for a while but I didn't want to say anything until the news was broadcast to all our family and friends. We've known for about 3 weeks now. We told my parents when they were over for a visit celebrating (in part) their 45th wedding anniversary. I racked my brain as to the best way to tell them and still have it be a surprise. For Charlotte, Christine did the whole surprise thing where she bought everyone a present and inside the presents we had little handpainted baby bottles and pacifiers with Baby Mills on them which I thought was adorable but I really wanted to do something different that represented me.

Roaming through Tesco's I decided that what defines me the most is probably my love for entertaining and given I was making dinner for my parents and their friends the Dicks as well as Alans parents that night I decided to serve the grandparents to be their desserts in winnie the pooh bowls with matching spoons and hopefully they would catch on. Well Alan and I were giggling in the kitchen as they were expounding on one subject over another at the dinner table and Alan went into the dining room and asked for everyone's attention where he then thanked them all for coming and said he just wanted to congratulate mom and dad on their anniversary. He said Mary's going to serve the dessert now and so I started handing out the bowls with the homemade triffle Alans dad had made and I only had to set the bowl down in front of Alans mom when Lynn Dicks (who was sitting next to Margaret) started screaming "NO WAY!!" I just smiled and handed out the rest of the bowls to mom and dad and Alans dad. Mom got up immediately to hug me and she kept saying she knew I was pregnant. She was crying. Margaret was also crying and just shaking her head that she couldn't believe it. Alans dad and my dad just sat there, in complete shock I guess. Finally someone had to explain it to to them I guess because my dad just burst into laughter like jolly old st. nicholas or something. At least that's what he reminded me of! lol

After dinner we skyped Christine and Russ and the kids and also Lee Anne to tell them the good news and we called Linda and Christine (Alans sisters) and they were all really pleased. We wanted to wait to make it more public though until we went for an appointment with the fertility doctor that next Wednesday and also for a scan which happened yesterday. The fertility doctor was very pleased for us because we wouldn't be needing his services after all (it was a God thing we know) and the scan went great with us able to see the baby in the ultrasound and see the little heartbeat going like crazy. He or she measured to be 6 weeks and 3 days so that puts me around May 26th I think for a due date but that will be confirmed when we go to the antenatal clinic.

Alan and I are truly amazed at Gods faithfulness to us. We were praying for a child and Alan said God promised him a child but I wasn't too sure that I had the ability to have one given I'd never been pregnant before. Apparently the hycosy procedure used on me may have helped to unstick my fallopian tubes so that I could conceive because we did only two days after the procedure was completed.

Now the exciting part. As of yesterday we're effectively nomads. Mihai and Simona returned from vacation to take over renting our house here in England so we've moved in with Alans parents for a week and a half. We then go to Germany where we'll be hosted by a sweet family from Georgia for a week before heading to orientation in Yorkshire. We then are back for two days before flying to Georgia on the 1st of November until December 30th. Our plans were to go home, raise our remaining support, see family, celebrate my 40th birthday, Alans 47th, my dads birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas and then when we returned stay about one more week in England before moving to Germany on mission.

Being pregnant "may" change things however. At this point we're leaving it all in Gods hands but so far we have been unable to qualify to get health insurance in Germany and it is a requirement that you have it before you are authorized to settle there. We're trusting God knows completely what he is doing so we're not stressing, we're just believing that He's either going to provide a way or He's going to give us another option until He does provide a way.

No matter what we're focusing on Jesus and we're so excited about our future. Homeless, broke and some uncertainty in sight - but what we do know is Jesus loves us, has always been faithful to us, has proven himself over and over and over again and he can be trusted with it all.

God is good and we are blessed!