Oops!

I really did not want to know if we were having a boy or a girl. Let me emphasis the I part of this equation. This comes into play as I unfold the events leading to our now knowledge of Sprout. We had our one and only sonogram yesterday. I had my whole plan of asking the technician if he would write it down, I would hide it in a safe place and in a few weeks we would open up and find out if we so desired. The best of both worlds, perfect right? All was perfect until we close the doors.

I politely ask the man how long he has been doing this. "32 years" was his response. Excellent! I don't have a newbie so the chances of wrong information have drastically declined. He starts to go through the parts of Sprout (as can be seen below):

                                                             

Sweet baby!

All is looking great! I am super pumped especially since my first image of my baby, that sadly he didn't capture, was Sprout rapidly punching, boxer style. We continue to oogle over little Sprout, talking, joking. I hadn't said anything yet about keeping Sprout's gender a secret. For some reason I assumed he would ask when we got to that body part, which he probably would have had Dustin not said the following statement at the EXACT right time, "I am just looking for the turtle". The technician's response?

 "It's right...here."

Yep, plain as day (one of the advantages of being 22 weeks for your first sono) Judah Arik Morrow will be here late July/early August and we could not be MORE excited. Here is what Denise and I made last night so I could wear it to school today (more her than me, she is wayyyyy more crafty):

It says "Hey Jude" under the 'stache.

What's for Dinner?

Having Spring Break off offered 9 entire days of time to organize and realize I do not know how to cook. I spent a day organizing my pantry and kitchen. I love it. I love that at 9 p.m. this evening I made delicious brownies from scratch. I made a pretty amazing chocolate cake last week too. I can bake just about anything I want and 9 times out of 10, it is always tasty. But, that is baking.

Cooking a meal offers far more challenges than I could EVER imagine. I blame my mom, or should it be my dad? Either way my mom didn't use many spices and everything was simple. I like simple, simple is easy, simple is functional, simple is not what my husband likes. As I posted in my last blog, we are working towards me staying home. Part of being a full time mommy means I have to know how to make chocolate chip cookies (which I do!) and be able to have a home cooked meal when D gets home most days. He enjoys cooking and I know he will be missing it if I completely take over. He will mostly miss it because, well, I don't do that great of a job at it.

Let me explain. I can make sure the food doesn't burn, is the right consistency, and is edible. I can't make it look pretty, and I definitely can't make it taste as good as D or anyone else can. If it is a casserole (requires baking in the oven) I can pass the taste test with flying colors. If it requires the stove top, seasonings, no recipe, and throwing things together, I panic. The other night I made breaded pork chops and sweet potatoes. Not too difficult, except that the pork chops tasted better with ketchup because of lack of flavor and the sweet potatoes were ok. D and the kids ate it, with ketchup. No one wanted seconds, and Ziggy (our dog) ate the scraps. You would think being pregnant and hormonal this would hurt my feelings, but it made me realize, I have LOTS of work to do before I am the one responsible for all meals my family eating.

So, my goal is to practice. If my family doesn't want to be eating cereal, breakfast, take out and sandwiches for the next ____ years...I better get busy!

Help Wanted: Full time mommy

I have fallen in love with 3 beautiful children that are not my own. Not only are they not mine, I have to return them to their "rightful owners" in a few short weeks. This experience has left me with a heart heavy in a way I have not felt in years. As the days draw to a close it has become obvious to Dustin and I both that we are happiest with a house full of children. I can't imagine having just one! I know, crazy right? But, when you have had 3 for the past 9 months, one seems so quiet, so easy, so normal.

Which leads me to the topic of this blog. We are evaluating our income, outcome, space, life, to decide how and when I will leave my teaching career and be a full time mommy. Not a mommy of one, but a mommy of many. We want to foster full time, which means, one of us will have to stay home. What is the difference from now you ask? Simple, we will be able to take in more and more often than if we were both working. There is so much that must be done in the first month of a placement it is extremely difficult to do it around a work schedule. Depending on how many kids you take in at a time, you are looking at more time. As an added perk, if your placement gets to go home, you can take a new one freely. The way it is right now, we can only take placements over the summers. We got lucky with our first placement in that they are a sibling group and we had do everything at one time. But, if we only get one at a time, then that is where scheduling gets difficult.

We are waiting on timing. If I have it my way I would not  return for the next school year, but we still aren't sure about God's timing. I could list the ever growing number of things God has asked us to do in His time and every time we were blessed beyond measure and understanding. We don't move until He says to. We often think about when we first moved back to Springtown. Dustin had a job, I did not, we didn't have a place to live, but we moved in faith and with the knowledge that He doesn't ask you to trust and then leave you hanging on a limb. We soon were both employed, had a wonderful place to live and we have continued to see God's blessing on our lives. We are precisely at this place again. Waiting on Him to say jump, and then without fear take a leap into yet another HUGE change in our life.