A lot has happened in our lives since last summer. We suffered the loss of our first baby in late August. It was a difficult time, especially for me, but it has given me great peace and hope to know that my life, and the life of my loved ones are, and always have been, and always will be in the hands of our merciful God. They belong to Him first. We look forward to meeting our little one in heaven one day.
Our sorrow turned joy, when weeks later we found out that we were pregnant again. God has give us another child. I am now almost 35 weeks pregnant. I've wrestled between the fear of losing this little one for this entire pregnancy, and trusting God; that He does have good in mind for me, and loves me and our child, so I don't need to be afraid. We're excited to, Lord willing, hold our baby in our arms in the next 5-7 weeks.
My pregnancy has gone well. Physically, I've been very blessed, as my main difficulty has probably been heartburn. The last few months, I've also been having trouble with gestational hypertension (high blood pressure that develops in the last weeks of pregnancy). As of right now, I'm going for weekly prenatal visits, ultrasounds, NonStressTests, and blood work to make sure the baby and I are okay and stay that way up until delivery. My last appointments showed that my blood pressure has gone down, which is a huge praise and answer to prayer. If it goes up again, there's the possibility that we would have to induce labour at 37 weeks, but we're praying that is not the case. As of right now, I'm feeling healthy, and all tests show that baby is doing great! God is so good!
Last October Jesse and I moved from our old apartment to a basement suite on the southeast end of Vancouver, very close to the Vancouver-Burnaby border. It's great to have more space (we have two bedrooms now, as well as in-house laundry) and it's a great neighbourhood with lots of families around, and we are close to most places that we would need to be close to (including the library, which I really appreciate).
Jesse and I are very thankful for our church family. We're still a part of the worship team, and have been working on powerpoint and bulletin for the services as well. There have been days where I haven't been physically up for leading worship during the service, but Jesse has taken steps outside of his comfort zone and led singing by himself. I'm so proud of him, and thankful for this growth in his life. We'll probably take a break (myself especially) after the baby is born; but are grateful to be able to serve right now. I'm also grateful for all the moms in the congregation and their advice, and interest they've taken in my pregnancy and our baby.
While we are grateful for our church family, Jesse and I are both finding it difficult to really connect with people, and neither of us have made any really close friends with anyone since moving to Vancouver. This is one of our prayer requests for us at this time. Everyone from church is so spread out all over the area and is so busy, that it's difficult to get together on a regular basis throughout the week.
I think that's a lot of the big stuff for right now. :) We'll be sure to post pictures (sometime) after our little one is born.
Blessings on you all, and may you walk closer with Christ each day.
Abby Groenewold
No comments:
Post a Comment