I'm getting excited!!!

This evening I was thinking about our little boy and thinking about the goodies he will get to use of IGN's when he arrives. We have all the 'baby necessities' thanks to big sister and those who hooked her up when she was on the way:) Here at Bethany a family has offered us a double stroller and I am PUMPED! It will make life much easier being able to roll them both around instead of carrying one in a sling or something and strolling the other. (Although I'm sure that will happen a few times.) I am realizing what an amazing privilege it is having TWO little ones in our house and I'm getting so excited. At first I was all nerves wondering what it would be like and knowing that it would be a challenge but the nervousness is becoming excitement as I realize that he's 14 weeks away from being here with us! I know it will be hard and I'm trying (if that is possible!) to prepare for it but more than anything God is confirming in my heart over and over again what a blessing my family is. I mean I can say that they are a blessing all day long but the Lord is stirring my heart for my family like He does a person for a people group or a nation. I think many mothers and women feel this way especially if the longing of their hearts was always to be a mom. It was never a 'passion' of mine to have a family and to be a stay at home mom so it has taken me longer than the average girl to get to this place. Don't get me wrong I have adored JM and my little angel but I never felt like this was my 'life's calling' and that what I was doing was bring glory to God and inviting the Kingdom of Heaven. (I hope I'm making sense.) But God is doing a new thing in my heart and showing me that where I am is where I have been called and serving and inspiring my family is the desire of my heart. Sometimes its easy to go through the days looking forward to nap times and feeling guilty because my house is lacking in cleanliness and beauty but all I have to say is that "its all gonna burn anyway" (quote from Caroline-thanks!) so why not put my time and energy into what is eternal and that is the spiritual climate of my house and the lives that are in it. No, I'm not going to let my house go to pot but if my girl (and soon my boy) need extra time with me, I'm going to let the dishes pile up for the day or let the kitchen floor have some extra crumbs on it. I LOVE my family and I am passionate about them and their spiritual well-being. I long to be the wife and mom that God is calling me to be. There are no pressures of this world that can tell me what we NEED to be a happy, healthy family, there is only the TRUTH of God and the revelation of the Spirit that will sustain us and give us what we need. I always wanted to be a worship leader somewhere in my heart and now I realize more than ever that I am, I have the honor of joining with John Mark and leading our family before the throne of God every day. I am blessed and humbled that God saw me fit to place these lives in my hands.

I didn't plan on getting off on this little tangent, but whatever, it was obviously wanting to get out:) I think I'm just excited about this new precious life under our roof and tonight I even filled out a baby registry just for fun to get more excited about him. He is a miracle and just as God used IGN to open my eyes to so much, He is already using this little guy to make me more and more aware of His goodness. I am thankful.

The boy is a healthy one!

In the past 24 hours God has very obviously answered 2 of my prayer requests. I'll start with last night. Last night I was praying with IGN before bed and her room felt so cold. It has been this way all through the fall and now that its winter it is so much worse. The window by her rocker has been drafty and each morning when I walk in her room its like 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house- sad! So last night night as I prayed with her I asked the Lord to make her room warm... why i didn't pray for this sooner? I have no idea. So around 10pm she cried a wierd little cry so I went her room to make sure she was ok and I rocked her for a minute. It was so cold in there that I was contemplating putting up her pack-n-play in our room for the night until we could get a good space heater (they kind of scare me). I decided that right then I was going to investigate the window. So with the girl in my arms (I eventually put her on the floor), I took the screen off the window and there was SNOW on the inside window sill!! Ok, so I realized the window was never locked shut and it opened little by little over the past few months. So I got the window locked shut and its like a new room! So God didn't 'make it warmer' but once I gave the concern to Him, He opened my eyes to the problem. I was just blessed by His desire to meet me immediately. So yay for a warm night sleep for my girl!

Next is my prayers for my little boy. About 5 weeks ago I had and ultra sound appointment and there were some cysts on the organ in the brain that produces spinal fluid. I was told that it is somewhat common (like 1 in 20) normal children had the condition in utero. But they felt the need to do a more detailed ultra sound to make sure there were no 'markers' for any kind of chromosomal abnormalities. Well my little boy is perfect and he didn't have ANY of the markers they were looking for! The perinatologist said that there is almost no chance that our boy would would have an issue without at least one marker, so we're good! I was confident going in there that the Lord heard our prayers and protected and directed every bit of his development. We got a few more pictures of this cute little guy and I'm going to try to scan them and post them soon. Thank you all for your prayers for our baby boy, we appreciate it so much!!!

Caleb?

I am thankful to be having a little boy join our nysewander-world in 15 weeks... wow that seems soon. I think JM and I have decided to name him Caleb (however I still like the name Aaron [exalted, strong]). We both have liked this name (Caleb) since before we ever dreamed of kiddos and now we may get to use it:) Caleb is Hebrew for faithful and I love that. One thing we are not yet sure of is what we want to give him for a middle name. I know we have 15 whole weeks to decide, so there is no rush, but I thought I would check with other bloggers out there to see what their thoughts and suggestions are. I like the names Matthew (Gift of God) and Daniel (God is my judge) but we just aren't sure yet.

I know this having two kids thing will be an adventure and I pray daily that I'm up for the challenge. I can't wait to meet this little guy and see what he's like and how he is going to change our little growing family. I worry about my little girl, who has been very clingy lately, and how she is going to handle sharing me. She's not too keen on sharing me with other kids for 2 minutes so I hope she's prepared to share me for a life time. I will definitely need grace and the eyes of God to see her needs and to know what behaviors are legitimate feelings of neglect or just new sibling jealousy. Actually, what would be 'ideal' is for her to embrace this new role as 'big sis' and become my little helper. ("I will call her, mini me.") But I'm trying to be realistic and think of all the scenarios possible and you know what, even once I think I've considered them all, I'm sure she will react in a way that I never would have thought of. That's life:)

News Flash: I'm already booking reservations at Casa de Nysewander for anyone who wants to come visit us after little guy is born to change diapers, cook, clean and to play with IGN for a few days... or a month. I mean, don't all rush out here at once! Heehee!

News Flash #2: Its supposed to crazy snow here tomorrow! Like 6-10 inches! (KTB, get your ticket ready!)

Happy December to everyone and I hope Nov. was a good one:) Let me know your thoughts on baby names and leave the dates of your spring visit to Minnesota for the baby arrival:) Blessings!

Happy Birthday MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many of you may know a woman named Virginia Louise Mulinix Crisp, I happen to know her very well! She's my mom and in my opinion the best out there:) I haven't been one for 'lists' in past blogs but today feels like a good time to start:

10 reasons Gini Crisp is amazing:

1. Any room is brighter with her in it. (I don't know how this works but it is a freakish phenomenon!)

2. She is always taking care of others.

3. She loves the Lord and is a great example of how to do that in a world that tries to pull you the other direction.

4. She focuses on the good in people. Most people these days are all about judging those around them (myself included) instead of seeing and enjoying the positive qualities in others. I don't know how she does this.

5. She is a D*** good cook! Holy Moly what I would give for some Gini cooking right about now... oh wait, I'll get it this weekend!!!!! Yipeeeee!

6. She doesn't take life too seriously. She has the gift of handling life with grace and assurance in Christ without worrying so much about what tomorrow may bring.

7. She is positive. When I feel like I'm staring down a dark tunnel she can show me where there is light.

8. She is a listener and encourager. I don't know one person can leave a conversation with her and not feel like they have been heard and cared for.

9. She is generous. My mom would give anyone the shirt off her back if they needed it. She is always looking out for opportunities to be a blessing for someone even in the moments where others would just want to relax and stay at home. She's so sweet!

10. She taught 3 crazy kids that there is nothing (outside of our relationship with the Lord) more important than family. I am so thankful that our family is close and that my mom taught my bro and sis and I that we need each other. I love this time of year too because I get to enjoy them all and all of the traditions we had growing up that makes the holidays so great!

So those are just a few of MANY things about my mom that amaze me.

I love you, mom and I hope you have a happy day!!!!

PS- on a serious note, I had results from little fella's ultra sound come back and he has some choroid plexus cysts in his brain tissue. The Dr. said that it is a fairly common thing and that they are usually gone by week 32 of pregnancy. So no BIG deal but I would still like to ask for a special prayer for our little guy that everything develops properly and that he is healthy in every way. I have to go have another ultrasound done with a perinatologist to make sure there is no reason for concern and she will be able to explain things better. The perinatologist appointment makes me worry more than the info about the cysts because I've always thought of perinatologists as doctors for very sick (in utero)babies so hopefully this is just a precaution. I don't know, please pray for him/us. Thank you all!

The Baby Poll Results

The results are in. I would say that the results of people we polled were about 97% guessing that we were having a boy, and 3% said girl. It turns out that the masses get what the masses want. We have had our ultrasound that confirmed that we are having a boy coming sometime in March. We had thought that we were going to be surprised this time around, but the suspense was just too much for both of us. Then we were going to find out and had planned on keeping it a secret from everyone else (I know we are weird, what can I say?) After we came back from the doctor people started asking us what we were having. We would say, well I think we are still going to go with the whole surprise thing. Kind of a white lie of sorts. Anyway, it seemed that everyone that asked after we had found out, could tell that we were lying, and according to the poll we took, knew that it was a boy as well. Bekah and I on the other hand were not so confident. We had pretty much convinced ourselves that a sister was coming IGN's way.

When the news hit that it was a boy we really should have had the video camera rolling, yall would have gotten a kick out of it. Complete shock. What are we going to do? We don't know how to do boys! Girls I can handle, but a mini JM? Scary. It seems the job of parenting a girl is to protect. For some reason when I think about raising a son, its like teaching and training and being a role model. Of course you have to do all of those things to your daughter, but its just different. At least it seems different now. Who am I kidding they can't be that different right?

Boy or Girl?

We are doing a poll...
Do you think we're having a girly-girl or manly-man?

IT'S A ...

Ha Ha!! Just kidding! (And thats not our baby... I stole it from a website, its just for effect.) We went to our first doctor appointment here in MN and it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. The nurse that we met with was SO nice and one of the ladies in the office knew JM from Bethany when Mark was a pastor there- crazy! SO it was a good experience and this afternoon we had the ultrasound and let me say that this is one cute baby in my tummy. We have little pics of the face and hands and stuff... adorable! I think I might see if Richard will hook a sister up w/ some 3D/4D ultrasound action when we're home for the holidays:) We decided on the whole 'element of surprise' with this one, so I guess when we see the cute little one we'll know if we have a he baby or a she baby. I feel unsure of this one. With IGN I KNEW she was a girl and with this one I feel like its could be a girl but when I talk to the baby I feel like I'm talking to a he baby. I don't know, all I know is that this little bundle of fun is ACTIVE. Right now, as I type I'm having my insides rearranged for me:) Crazy! Blessings to all!

Oh, my little one

Well, the other day I was realizing that I'm pregnant (I forget often) and I haven't given the little one a shout out, so I figured I needed to have a preggers update blog. So if you don't know, I am now 16 weeks and I feel pretty good. I'm still a little tired but that could be from running around after IGN:) I'm thankfully still in all my old clothes because I'm trying to stay away from maternity styles until it is absolutely necessary! I have a tummy but thanks to low rise jeans I haven't really been affected. I can feel the little butter bean moving around when I'm still in the evening or if I'm taking it easy during the day.
I'm definitely a mix of nervous and excitement about having a second because I know that it will be more than twice the work. I think more than anything, I pray that the Lord keeps me flexible and gives me the grace to meet the needs of little one while also being aware that I have a precious gift in IGN and she has needs also. I'm thankful that IGN is still very obedient and LOVES babies so as long as those two things continue I know that she will be a great helper and will loving being a big sis.
Another new thing that JM and I are considering is waiting until the baby arrives to find out the sex. We have considered having more but also think that two might be perfect for us so we thought we would do this one a little different. With IGN we had a nursery to decorate and ALL the stuff to buy and now that we are pretty well stocked and we don't have a nursery, we thought that a surprise might be fun. I guess we'll see, I mean, I haven't even found a doctor yet! I know, thats horrible because I'm due for a check up so I need to get this ball rolling... i want RICHARD!!!! But he's not here...sad. I just need to pray that the Lord puts us with the perfect person for me and out little one. I know it will work out great:) Well, long post, so peace out!
I miss so many of y'all so much!


Check this out from chapel last night: She thought we were there for her entertainment only:)If you listen close you can hear her squealing over the music. More videos to come!