Alright, one last crack at this.....

So I'm hitting a pretty good record at the moment of writing on this thing every six months.  And I know every time I end it with "I'll try harder!" "I'll get better updating" " Next one will have more pictures!" Well, this time it may actually happen since the best and biggest adventure of our life is about to begin!


I purposely named this blog "Blessed Be:" for several reasons, but the biggest one is that Matt and I are incredibly blessed by the Lord.   Blessings come in all shapes and sizes and they aren't necessarily "good" things-there are times that something that is painful or difficult and it can be a blessing. We can find the Lord and His goodness through our heartbreak and struggle.


Happily, we are not seeing the Lord and His blessings through sadness and difficult circumstances. He once again is blessing us with goodness and faithfulness.  That's right folks, there is a baby a coming! Now, between Matt and me, he is the one who is ecstatic and so excited for it all. Me, not so much.


This is a situation where I see that we are fortunate, blessed, and incredibly lucky. We know other couples who have tried to get pregnant for years; they used all the fertility treatments available and tried and tried and tried everything they could to have a baby. For some, it worked after a while and they have bouncing babies in their lives.  For some, it didn't take but they became parents through adoption and are also terribly happy in their lives. I think the Lord knew I would lose my resolve if we had to try for years and go through lots of turmoil to have baby M, aka, Critter.


I was never one that felt I HAD to pass on my genes. I always knew I wanted to have kids, but I didn't care that they came FROM me. Since I was a teenager I have wanted to adopt, so that was my preferred method of parenthood. Matt hadn't really thought about adoption until we went through pre-marital counseling and it's been something that we've had to keep on the table of discussion ever since.  A few years ago we started to really amp up the discussions because we had said that between years 4 and 6 of marriage we would start thinking about kids. If adoption was our route we needed to get on the ball because, as may people know, it can take a while.  We were also still in Cyprus at the time so we had some logistics to think about, for both adoption and biological kids.


So after much discussion, between us and some others on the topic, we decided to try to have one biological child to kick things off.  Kind of a "let's see where this goes" sort of situation.  This took a little longer than I thought it would but you know what, moving internationally, looking for cars, house, and a job, can be kind of stressful.  Just adjusting to being back was stressful. According to some research, stress can play a big factor in the baby making realm. However, I myself was CRAZY stressed when Critter happened so I dunno. I always say that if the Lord wants you pregnant there isn't ANYTHING that can stop it from happening.


Anyhew, it's been a few months since we've known about it all. We're coming up to 25 weeks, which for those who aren't sure how many months that calculates at, is 6 months. Yes. 6 out of 9 (10) months.  So we're at a point where if we were to find out what the gender is we'd already know, which we don't. Hence the nickname of Critter (partly).  People get mad when you call your baby "it" for some reason.  Critter is my term of endearment for the baby and most people are on board with it-Matt's ok with it and actually calls the baby it as well. 


So with all these new changes that have happened and are coming, I will be updating a bit more. I figure this is going to be a great outlet for me to be honest and real about what is going on. It's never been a secret that pregnancy hasn't been something that I wanted to experience. And it's also no secret that I don't really like babies. So this is proving to be an interesting endeavor.


Speaking of endeavors, we have a few other major changes that have occurred in our home.  In typical Lynsey fashion, I will bullet point what's been going on.

• The horses arrived late September and settled in quickly and beautifully.  They loved the grass, when we would let them eat it.  I think Rusty and Cheyenne remember being here before and are reveling in the humidity and greenery again.  Rusty has also loved going back to our old stomping grounds of Greenwell state park.
• We FINALLY got a puppy!!! His name is Samson and he ridiculously cute! Having another Aussie has been challenging at times but awesome-Joey is loving having a wild buddy to run and play with.  It'll be so fun to see how he grows and how he loves Critter-we already know he loves kids and babies so score!
• I bought a new horse. He is also amazing and the sweetest! He reminds me of Harley in a lot of ways which makes me terribly happy and sad at the same time. With Critter on the way we (really I, Matt was supportive of whatever path I decided to take with my new horse) decided that getting something young, unstarted, and totally fresh may be the best way to go.  And Rui is all of those things.  He is coming 2 in May which means I have 1.5-2 years before I plan to start him which gives me plenty of time with Critter before I HAVE to get on him. He's been the best baby so far and is the quickest learner.  He comes from great Lusitano bloodlines and I have high hopes he will be my long term dressage horse. He will definitely be the focus of many posts in the future, much like Harley was.
• Sis had her baby, Vivian, in October and it's been wild watching them be parents and love this little girl. My parents are LOVING being grandparents and I'm excited that our kids will be very close in age. 
• Matt's brother and sister in law are 6 weeks ahead of us in pregnancy so twins having babies close in age will be great fun as well!

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more posts that are guaranteed to be very thought provoking. They'll more likely be rantings. This is me we're talking about