Merry Christmas!

Behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy.

Matthew 2:9-10

We are wishing all of you a wonderful christmas today. We are overwhelmed with our father's love as we are surrounded by our families and able to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

2011 mccleskey family christmas card

telling the world...

so, after telling our families at the beach, we made them swear to secrecy for at least another month. we wanted to wait until our 12 week appointment, before we spread the word to any extended family, friends, etc... once we had our 12 week appointment that you can read about here, we began working like little elves on our revealing project. we made a stop motion video and sent it out on a dvd that had a note that said:

once the receiver read the note and put the dvd in the player, this is what they saw:

it was so much fun getting the calls throughout the week as different people received the news. Every time our phone rang, we would run to the phone, wondering who found out. we had the best time celebrating with each person as they called with such excitement.

rewinding again...

we were so lucky to be with both of our families to share the initial news of baby mccleskey. in the spring, the mccleskey family invited the wise family to a wonderful beach trip in hilton head... when we found out in september that we were prego, we knew that the october weekend at the beach would be the most perfect time to share- so we waited to tell. it was so hard in the beginning, but throughout the 4 weeks, drew and i were able to have such a precious secret together. we really were blessed by the time that we had to dream and pray for this baby before any of the world knew. when we got to the beach, we had told both families that we were in charge of the friday night dinner. as we sat down to eat, drew opened the table up for toasts, explaining that we were so blessed with such great families that are able to spend time together. as we went around the table, we ended on me. with a hidden camera in the background, taping the entire dinner, i told them how thankful we were for our families because they were so great... but that it was about to become even better because we were adding someone new to the family. at that point, drew threw the brothers "uncle" hats that we had gotten made and I showed a picture of our first ultrasound at 8 weeks. the families were shocked/excited/overwhelmed/etc... i loved seeing all the different reactions. it was beautiful. from there, we talked and talked about the past 4 weeks and what life may look like in the future. the rest of the weekend was such a celebration that drew and i will cherish forever. we are so beyond lucky to have such wonderful families.

the christmas story

i saw this yesterday and i cannot get enough of it...

eventful days...

(above: my newest christmas craft- thanks to the craft night ladies of gainesville)

*actual post date: dec. 4, 2011

In two days, we are pretty sure that we are going to find out the gender of this sweet little babe. I say "pretty" sure because I will only be 16 weeks and it will be up to the doctor if they let us have an ultrasound or not. They normally do a gender check, along with a lot of tests at the 20 week mark... but we are hoping to do some convincing for the gender to be revealed sooner, rather than later. we c.a.n.n.o.t. wait. we will not reveal to the rest of the world until some time in january. we are thinking we will wait to tell our families at christmas... such fun. speaking of such fun, we got our christmas tree today. we took luna with us (she was not a fan of the trees being slammed on the ground- actually, she was terrified- HA!). we have loved having the smell of the fresh pine in our home... while we have played christmas movies on our laptop all day. there is still a lot of decorating that needs to be done, but we are glad that the process has started. i am hoping it will be finished by the end of the week so that we can enjoy it for a couple weeks before we go out of town for the holidays.

it's real...

*actual post date: november 8th

today was our 12 week appointment. we had been anticipating this day for quite some time. i always heard that it would feel like light-years between doctor's appointments during pregnancy, and it is so true! we were so excited to go to the doctor to hear the babe's heartbeat and make sure that the first trimester was healthy and complete. it was so full of emotion as we thanked the lord for covering us with his power and sovereign grace before knowing the outcome of the visit. the way that our god has created pregnancy is truly a beautiful thing. there is such surrender and lack of control that brings you to the lord's feet throughout this process.

as we went to the room to wait for the dr, we saw one of the doctors that is involved in younglife. it was really fun to feel so connected to this town as we are embarking a new adventure in gainesville. anyways, he got the little fetal doppler (a handheld device that can read the heartbeat) and started searching for the sounds of the baby. after a couple minutes of nothing, i reminded him that it took them a while to find it the first time. drew and i just looked at each other and waited for him to tell us the next step. We then were told we would need an ultrasound to check on everything. As we were sent to the waiting room for over an hour, a flood of thoughts and emotions cover us as we sat. the lord reminded me that he called us to follow him regardless of our circumstances, but that it would be okay to be totally heartbroken as well. Throughout this hour, we were constantly reminded by one another to trust jesus… and we were comforted. Even still,at one point we just had to focus on watching HGTV, because our emotions were too close to the edge. When we finally got to get the ultrasound, we quickly saw the miracle of this baby inside of me. The growth and development in 4 weeks is absolutely incredible. We were so excited to hear the heartbeat and to see that all was healthy.

As soon as the lady left the room, drew and I thanked jesus for the sweet gift he has given us. We are so blessed to be a part of his process of creation. We left the doctor and went to Five Guys to celebrate (drew’s choice). Here is a video of the little peanut growing:

and the projects begin...

this summer, i got a sewing machine and found that i love sewing things... it is such a great feeling to create something that can be touched, viewed, and used! so, ever since i have thought about baby mccleskey, i have been so excited thinking about things i could sew for him/her. a

couple weeks after finding out the news, i went to my friend mandy's house and learned to applique.

these are some of the outfits that i made...

of course, we have no idea if this baby will be a boy or a girl, but it is still fun to create outfits for both. whichever one we do not have, i will have extra baby shower gifts to give!

here are some more items i have made since then... (some out of drew's old tshirts)

i still need to learn to make a button hole (all the bibs are unfinished). in seeing how much fun this is to create stuff for the babe, i think there is no hope for us to wait to find out the gender. i am already dying to find out!

*actual post date: october 31, 2011

rewinding to the day we found out...

so, keeping this story as short as possible, i told drew i was taking a pregnancy test on a saturday morning. when i saw that there were 2 faint lines, i immediately started freaking out as quietly as possible in the bathroom. i went back and forth, "do i run in and tell him right now, or do i wait and do something to surprise him? AHHHH...." so, with 2 minutes of think time, i returned to the bedroom and covered my face (because it was beaming with smiles) and asked drew to run to the grocery store for some last minute items that i needed for our lunch. as soon as he walked out the door, i scurried around the house to put things together. there was a plan that i had devised, which did not fall into place accordingly, but still worked perfectly.

in a bag labeled made with love, was the positive pregnancy test...

the door had this sign...

and there was a note on the outside of our oven that said "our first" and this was on the inside...

i went looking for the video camera to capture drew's reaction on tape, and as i was on the search, guess who walked right in the dining room to see all of the news? yes, you are right... drew. i came to find him with the grocery bags dropped, eyes so wide, and his voice repeating "are you serious?!"

then, of course, we celebrated and talked 100 miles per minute. it was neat to hear drew's perspective on coming home to find the news in a room alone. he felt like it was such a personal and precious time for him to take in the news first, just like i was given that time when i first saw the pregnancy test.

from there, we prayed and thanked the lord for such a gift, went on a walk talking about the next months of our lives, and just drank in the initial moments of such great news.

*Actual post date: October 30,2011

the heartbeat...

during this entire pregnancy process, drew and i have felt beyond blessed with the way that the Lord has chosen to lay out our story. from the day that we found out from a home pregnancy test, we were blown away by His sweetness and grace to allow us to delight in His new creation/our desire. approaching the first doctor's visit, we were nervous in our own flesh, but comforted when we rested in the Lord. knowing that we have zero control, but this child lays within the hands of our Father, gives such peace. the total surrendering portion of this journey has been such a sweet time for us to grow and be challenged in all areas of life. so, back to the doctor visit...

once we stepped into the back waiting room, we were immediately brought to the room that does the ultrasound. we were not expecting to see this sweet little baby so early in the visit, but it was wonderful. at first, she was unable to find the little peanut, which made us hold our breath in anticipation, but then... we first saw this tiny nugget on the screen and heard one of the greatest sounds we had ever heard. Here is a snapshot of what is sounded like:



drew and i were overjoyed to experience such a miracle and know that it is all just beginning...
at this point, i was 8 weeks pregnant and we were heading to the beach with both of our families in 2 days. we were so excited to share the news with them all together, even though we would not tell the rest of the world until 4 more weeks.

*This was actually posted on october 12th

we are entering the blog world...

at the same time as baby mccleskey is preparing to enter the regular world...
that's right, there is a baby in this belly. and i am attempting to start a blog.

there's no time to play catch up to life thus far, because too much is happening in the now for that... since september 17th, our world as a family has been forever changed. drew and i have dreamed of being parents since long before we knew each other... and now it seems that what we always hoped for has become a reality. so far during this pregnancy journey, the feeling of this being true and real has been far and few between. it feels so surreal and distant. it has been 4 weeks since we found out that the Lord was knitting together a little baby that he would so graciously give to us. in two days, we go back to the doctor for the 1st visit since our initial pregnancy confirmation appointment. on wednesday, we will get to have an ultrasound, blood work, tests, etc... we have been anticipating this day since we found out that Jesus was planning for us to have a child.

*this post was actually written on October 9th, but i did not know that "publish" would not share it with the world... so i never clicked it. ha-like i said, i am new at this blogging thing.