My first Mother's Day...

I had a great day yesterday. I woke up to a beautiful card from Alex. It made me cry. He is such a sweet husband and is going to be the best Daddy. I get tired so easily right now and he took care of me all weekend. I love him for it.

Our Sunday started out with us having a flat tire on the way to church. :) Luckily, it had stopped raining for a little minute and we made it into a gas station parking lot. I was calling family, trying to let them know why we were late and finally reached my brother, Drew. He swung by the gas station and picked me up. I have Journey Kids this month, so I needed to get to church ASAP. Alex stayed at the gas station and put enough air in the tire to get him to church. We were just praying that when we came out of church, it wasn't flat again. We would normally spend the afternoon with Alex's Mom, but she was on her way home from a fabulous cruise, so I had plans of us having brunch somewhere, just the two of us. Since we needed to put a new tire on my car, plans changed. Cary and Sara followed us to the tire place and then took us to lunch. I was okay with this for two reasons. #1: Cary and Sara are two of our most favorite people in the world...our best friends, really. #2: Momma was hungry! We went to American Pie for pizza. This was our first time to eat there and it was yummy. I had spicy veggie pizza...DE-LISH! When we sat down, the waitress told us that all mothers receive a free strawberry shortcake for dessert and I literally squealed with excitement! It's the small things really. I was just so excited that I'm one of 'them' now...I'm a Mother. :) After lunch, we headed back to get our car. Alex went ahead and had them put on four new tires, so pimpin' gold is drivin' like a dream right now. (LOL) Not sure how much longer we'll have her, since the baby is on the way. We're talking about trading her in for an SUV before November. Does anyone else name your car or is it just me? I always name my vehicles and they are always female.

Sunday evening, my family came over to our house to celebrate all of the Mommas in the family. We also celebrated my sister, Jayna and my niece, Jessica. They're our May babies. :) We had strawberry shortcake for Jayna and a huge cookie cake for Jessie. I don't have pics from the day yet...Sara was our photographer. I'll add some pics, once I receive them.

I received several Mother's Day cards in the mail from friends and family...even a blog friend sent me one. How sweet is that? It really was a beautiful day, despite the rain. I hope you had a beautiful day, as well.

Have a blessed week, you guys!

Love,
Jill

Praying, Waiting, Crying, Trying...

It's hard to believe that this Mother's Day, I'm a Mother. I've been thinking about this post all week. I was excited about it and dreading it at the same time. Excited because after 3 years of praying, waiting, crying, trying, God has answered our prayers and has given us our miracle baby. Alex and I thank God on a DAILY basis for this life inside of me. Today, I sat in the room that will be the nursery and cried. I praised Him for what He has given me and yet my heart was heavy for those of you that are still praying, waiting, crying, trying. My own Mother has always been such an encouragement on Mother's Day. She would always buy me a mom-to-be card and write an encouraging note/scripture inside...assuring me that my day would come. I remember reading those cards and just crying. I wanted to believe it would happen, but found it hard to even imagine when or how it ever could. The pain is dreadful. I've experienced heartache in my life, but it was nothing compared to that of infertility. You feel broken. Like there's something wrong with you. Defective. Unless you've been there, it would be hard for you to understand what I'm talking about. I dreaded going to church, restaurants...really I dreaded anything on that day that required me getting out of bed. I just wanted to sleep through it. Everything on that day is a constant reminder of what you don't have, what you can't have...a baby.

I write this post, not to be a downer. I write it to those that are still praying, waiting, crying, trying...girls, know that God is right there beside you. Know that there is no one better to run to with tears streaming down your face, tomorrow, than Him. He will wrap you up and ease that dreadful pain. And He will do even better than that...when you least expect it, He will give you your miracle. If you can't hang on to that and believe it, know that I'm believing it for you.

Mom, thanks for always believing it for me, when I didn't have the heart or strength to believe it for myself. You've always given unconditional love and support and for that I am thankful. I love you so much!!

Happy Mother's Day