What an amazing 3 years it has been! Three years ago today I stood in front of my friends and family to pledge my love to the man of my dreams. I remember at this exact time I was standing in the bridal room at the church looking out the window talking to Josh on the phone watching him and his groomsmen get their pictures taken. He couldn't see me, but, I could see him. I was sooo excited for this day! I had waited a long time to marry my prince and there he stood waiting for me. It was such a precious day and the best day of my life. In the 3 short years we've been married we've been through so much. This is the first anniversary that we have not been out with Echoing Angels and NOT in Topeka, KS. That's where we spent the first 2 anniversarys because of EA gigs. LOL...not necessarily the place that most girls dream of going for their anniversary, but, still have a lot of fun memories of those days. Tonight Josh is taking me to The Melting Pot to celebrate our anniversary. That is our favorite restraunt so any occasion we can go there to celebrate we do. We've decided not to exchange gifts this year because we are awaiting the best gift we could ever ask for...our little girl. Now if she would just cooperate and come we would appreciate it! I think Lacey has gotten to comfy in her mommy's tummy. But, we are anxiously awaiting her arrival. Anyway, I am so thankful that the Lord brought Josh into my life. I am such a blessed girl! God knew exactly who the right person was for me and Josh was it! I love you baby! I'm so thankful for you and for your heart and your unconditional love! I'm so excited to spend the rest of my life with you! I love you baby! You're my everything!

I was reading Cami's BLOG update yesterday and God spoke to me. Cami is very pregnant, waiting on the arrival of her baby any day now. She and Josh are SOOOO excited to meet Lacey and the anticipation is mounting.

This is how we should be with God. So pregnant with His vision and so full of His greatness that we can't wait to see what He is about to do! That we wait in eager expectation and stand is wondrous anticipation at the fulfillment of His promises and prophecies. Just as a mother and father wait for the birth of their child, so we wait with that same intensity on our savior, and then rejoice when the blessings are poured out!

I started looking in the scripture to see if there was a verse about this so to confirm what I was hearing and here is what I found.

Romans 8:19
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

Want to know what is SOOO totally cool about this verse? It is the beginning verse to one of the songs on the album and I didn't even know it until I read it! Its actually what that whole song is about and it never hit me until today. That song now has new meaning for me, it now speaks to where I am. It is one of my favorites anyway. If this album doesn't go anywhere, it won't matter, because it has already fulfilled it's purpose by speaking to me. It is confirmation for me, that was I hearing God and not my own voice today. (The song is Love So Beautiful, by the way)

So here we are, waiting on God for the revelation, so pregnant and full of anticipation that we are about to burst at the seems. We are expectant, we know God will fulfill His promise in His time....

Psalm 5:3
In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.

It is just a few days left until New Year's Eve and I still can not decide what I want to do. The guys are going to be in Virginia and I would love to go and Jon really wants me to go. However, there are two little boys that I can not stand the thoughts of being without. Allison and Megan are riding up with the guys and have said they would help me if I decide to go, but a 5 hour drive with a 3 year old and a 4 month old may not be such a good idea. If Jon and I were going by ourselves then that might be another story, but we will be traveling with several people and I would not want me and the boys to be a burden on anyone. On the other hand, I think it would be a lot of fun and I can not remember the last time Jon and I got to spend a New Year's together. Before Jayce was born I traveled a lot with the band, but since his birth my traveling days have become numbered. So..... a decision has yet to be made.

So Lacey's due date is this Friday...New Years Eve. We are sooo ready for her to come. Especially me. LOL...it's crazy how uncomfortable one can be the last weeks of pregnancy. Don't get me wrong...I'm extremely thankful for this little miracle. But, boy, I'll be happy to have my body back to where I'm not uncomfortable all the time. However, as of this past Thursday, our doctor told us that we were still not dialating. Ugh. So, please pray with us that she comes soon. So the countdown continues.

On Friday, I took Emily out for a girls morning out. Her birthday was on Dec. 26th so we celebrated a little bit early. We went to the Waffle House for breakfast and then to the nail spa to get pampered. It was such a fun day being girls and getting our nails done. We've decided that this needs to happen more regularly. I told her that every girl needs to have pretty nails on their birthday! I'm just so thankful for her and her friendship.

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas weekend with your family. Josh and I did. Our families are small enough that we spend them together. Only people missing were my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who were with her family in Utah. But, we had a wonderful time together eating, opening presents and watching Christmas movies. For those that are not in Georgia, we even had a WHITE Christmas! Yes, we got snow. The first time that Georgia has seen snow on Christmas in like 128 years. So that was pretty fun. The only downside to this weekend is that I was a bit under the weather. Yes, I got a cold. I went my whole entire pregnancy without getting sick and the week that I'm supposed to deliver I get a bad cold. I'm starting to feel a little better today. But, look forward to the day that I feel human again.

Josh is back at work this week. But, as he has been telling everyone he's "on call" with me just in case Lacey comes. LOL. He's so cute! I am grateful though that his shop is only like 7 minutes from our house. So he's not that far away. I've planned on doing some cleaning up from Christmas but have been told by Josh that I need to relax this week. But, I tend to be a littel stubborn, so we'll see. Maybe I'll compromise and do some cleaning but relax some too. :-)

I recently read a book by Francine Rivers (big fan of hers) about Mary, the mother of Jesus. The book was fantastic. Its Christmas time and the Mary is a hot topic at most churches these days. But one new lesson stood out to me as I read this book, something I had not thought about before. Mary waited a LONG time to see the fulfillment of her vision, of the Holy Spirit vision given to her on the night of Jesus' conception. 33 years! Holy cow. Can you imagine? God himself speaks to you and your husband about your son saving the world and being the chosen one, and you have wait 30 years for the vision to even start!? And back then, people were married at 14 and had kids at 16 and were in their life trade by then too. Mary's son, not married, a carpenter, with seemingly nothing else going for him. All her other friend's sons were probably husbands and fathers. I really can't imagine the impatience Mary must have felt. Really God?! Seriously....didn't you say he was going to save the world....get on with it! That would have been me...totally true. And after about 20 years, she probably questioned the vision. Did I hear that right? What exactly did you say? Maybe I was dreaming? But at last, Jesus' ministry begins at 30 years old and he becomes what was foretold.

Maybe you got a vision from the Lord a long time ago as we have about Trey's ministry, that hasn't been fulfilled yet. Maybe you are questioning the original word God gave you so long ago. When we were at Liberty Hill, there was a dear woman on the prayer team that could open the thrown of God when she prayed. She seemed to have a direct line up there. When I became very restless a couple years ago because I wasn't seeing the pieces of the vision fall into place, she came up to me one day and said she was praying for me and what God told her to tell me was "Take heart!" She said that she had no idea what that meant but she wanted to tell me. I went home and this is what I found,
Psalm 27:14
Wait for the LORD; be strong and "take heart" and wait for the LORD

And so I wait....

Stay tuned for Great Expectations Part 2

As I am sitting here typing, I am thinking about all of the time I get to spend with my family over the next few days. Tomorrow begins our Christmas festivities. Jon is playing at a church for their Christmas Eve service and then it is off to my in-laws for lots of games, food, fun, and presents. We will then go home and finish our final preparations for the boys' Christmas. I can not wait to see the look on Jayce's face Christmas morning. He just turned three last month, so he is slowly, but surely understanding what "Claus" is all about. Christmas day will open presents at home and then we will travel to my oldest sister's house for my side of the family's Christmas. There again will be a ton of food, lots of hugs and kisses, and presents. I am one of five girls and we try to get together at least once a month with our parents, but rarely do all of my nieces and nephews get to get together- since there are only 11 of them!! Times like these are very special for us.

Oh my goodness am I tired. It's 930 in the morning and I could go back to bed. But I can't. I am at work, finishing my long work stretch. I haven't had a day off since 2 weekends ago and I am feeling it. It is incredibly busy too. People always want to squeeze in surgeries before their deductable starts over in January. But in addition to all the elective surgeries, people seem to be sicker this time of year. So my days have been filled with some very stressful situations....not everybody is making it home for Christmas, sadly. But today is my last day for a week so I am hanging in there. Not a single gift is wrapped, all piled up in my dining room. I even started shopping early this year, but it turns out it didn't help much in relieving the stress. Tomorrow is full already with wrapping, cleaning, and cooking. Somewhere in there I would like to see trey and the kids. I asked our wonderful babysitter Natalie if she would come over this evening as my personal assistant. She agreed and loves to wrap so I am SO happy to have her help. Trey offered to help wrap, buuuuttt..... he's terrible at it! So I reassigned him to some cleaning and to putting toys together. He also has to finish some shopping , no doubt for me. :). Ok, I have to get back to the OR, break time is over.