Our Pregnancy: Q&A

We've taken steps to make sure that everyone who we know reads this Blog has found out before we posted it, so this should come as no surprise:  Our first child has been created and sits heathy in Emily's belly.  If that was a surprise, we apologize that you didn't get to hear it from us or another human with whom you could celebrate.  But, that having been said, we thought it would be prudent to answer here the common questions (and a few comments) we get regarding the pregnancy.  It's highly likely that you are thinking some of the same thoughts, so we hope this post can satisfy some of your curiosity.

1. Wow! That Was Fast! (also in the variation, "You didn't waste any time, did you?")

Yes, that was fast.  According to our doctor's estimation, we "wasted" about two weeks.

We did have birth control measures in place, but only planned on using them for a few months.  We were excited to begin having children- we just wanted to avoid moving while pregnant in the event that Dave does find a job soon (on which we welcome your prayers.)  So we weren't exactly disappointed to learn of this little miracle.

In addition to this, Dave had asked friends to pray during the engagement that God would give them a legacy of many children and generations after them who loved and feared God.  While we were trying to control things and sort of delay that blessing, we do see the pregnancy as an act of God answering prayer.  This does encourage us with the thought of what the Lord may do through our children.  We are now praying that God will answer our prayers fully and cause this child to love Him greatly.

2. How Is Emily?


Emily is, for the most part, well.  We have our fill of the regular sickness, but nothing is out of the ordinary.  We also welcome your prayers on Emily's health and a safe pregnancy.

3. Do You Want a Boy or Girl?


Emily has no real preference for either, and we both agree that we want sons and daughters.  Dave also notes, "I would like to have a boy first, so that I could teach him how to protect his younger bothers and sisters, but I would also rather have a little version of Emily running around than a little version of me."  So we really don't care, as long as we get some of each.

3.5 Do You Want to Know Which it Is?


Yes.  As Soon As Possible.

4. Have You Picked Out Any Names?


We have a few in mind, but nothing concrete.  There are also many good names in each of our families.  Our goal is to pick a name that we both like to say, has strong meaning, and has good cultural associations.  Dave believes that his job is to name them something strong and then cause that name to come true for them.  He recalls his own parents naming him David and then treating him as their beloved (the meaning of David) son.

We aren't sure, but we are thinking of keeping the name a secret and then naming the baby officially after it is born.  This may sound strange, but we are one of the few cultures that doesn't do this.  Then again, we're also  one of the few cultures who considers knowing the gender beforehand to be a real possibility.

5. Are you Excited?


Yes!

6. How Did You Find Out?  Tell Me the Story!


In early November, we thought something may be up, so we took a test.  It showed negative, so we thought little of the signs we were seeing.  After a little research, we learned that the signs we saw could be explained easily by all the lifestyle changes we had recently undergone, so a week later we decided that we would take the second test (they come in twos) the next day to make sure.

The next morning we took the test and Emily went to fix breakfast while Dave stood in the bathroom to watch for the results.  Dave was speechless when Emily came back, so she looked.  Sure enough, it was positive.  There is nothing in the world with which to compare that moment.

Still confused (the information we had gathered had really convinced us we were not pregnant) we decided to go to the doctor for a real test.  Dave left a message at the seminary clinic, which was due to open in an hour, and sat down to read while Emily showered.  While she was showering, he got the bright idea to run to the store and get her flowers.

While at the flower aisle in the Kroger, he got a call from the clinic, telling him that home pregnancy tests are just as accurate as the ones at the Doctor's Office, and that there are never false positives.  They talked a bit about what to do and who to call, and then hung up.   He doesn't remember how he responded when an unaware Kroger employee immediately asked him how he was doing.

After stocking up on flowers and pre-natal vitamins, he went home, gave her the flowers, and told her.  We cried and prayed together for a while, and then began making doctor's appointments.  We told our parents and some very close friends, and asked them not to tell anyone until we went to the doctor one time.  Then Dave revealed to Emily that he had also secured the night off work and was taking her into Morton's for dinner.

7. What was the Sonogram like?


It was like nothing else in the world.  You can see its little arms wiggle just like a baby's and hear its heart chug along like a railroad engine.  It helped us understand why Pro-Like groups try to give free sonograms to women- you would have to be very hard hearted to call it a parasite or anything non-human after seeing it.  We just saw it yesterday and it was definitely a life-changing day.

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We hope you can share in our joy while walking through this with us.  We may have all the financial glory of an out-of-work Preacher working as a waiter, but we feel like the richest people in the world.  God has been very, very good to us.

Wedding Photos

We invite you to see many of our wedding photos through our Facebook photo album, even if you aren't a Facebook user.  We'll post a few down here, but you can see about a hundred of the most memorable ones here.

You are also welcome to sift through all 1,200 or so of them on Chris Pike's site.  Prepare to take a looooong time to look through them all.

And remember, if you would like a print, don't purchase it from the website.  Just contact us or Emily's parents and we will send you the files.  We have purchased rights to all the pictures, so there's no need to pay the royalties again through the website.

Honeymoon Part 3 | Emily Sees Lake Louisa

Dave's Uncle Randy was kind enough to bring his Jet-Ski over so that we could ride around the lake Dave grew up on.  So for the last day away from life and Louisville, we saw Lake Louisa and the connected Crooked River.

The swamp on one side of Dave's childhood home is full of springs, and that water feeds into Lake Louisa, which is on the other side.  The water then flows through Crooked River to a series of lakes and rivers called the Florida Chain of Lakes.  It actually flows all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.  Though the water in Lake Louisa is tea-colored from all the cypress trees, it is actually one of the cleanest in Florida because of the springs.

After a nice dinner at Dave's sister's home, we slept and flew home to Louisville.  There life awaited us in the form of a clogged toilet and massive pile of wedding presents.  It sure didn't take long for the stresses of life to find their way back into our lives, but they are much sweeter when you go through them together.  We can still remember enjoying the trip so throughly and yet longing to be home doing what we are doing now: living life together.  And now here we are, making each other's dreams come true.

Honeymoon Part 3 | Emily Sees Some of Dave's Childhood

The son of a Peat Miner in Central Florida, Dave spent much of his childhood amongst two of Florida's great staples: Disney and Wetlands.  So we spent the next two days touring the mine, Disney's property, and some of the lake/swamp area of Florida.  We started with the peat mine, where Dave's father has been hard at work for nearly thirty years.  Here Dave got to re-live his summer days of operating the front-end loaded and show Emily a little of how it's done.  Emily also got to tour the operation and learn that, yes, one man's dirt and refuse is another man's treasure.  And that second man will indeed pay a lot of money for it.

We then toured Disney's property.  Although we didn't have time to justify spending 80 bucks each on tickets to the parks, there was plenty to see on the grounds alone.  The most fun part was the marketplace known as Downtown Disney.

On the way home Emily got to see another Florida staple- orange groves:

Honeymoon Part 3 | Clermont, FL

Some beloved friends, Raymond and Meghan Johnson, had served us to humbly throughout our wedding week and continued to do so by watching our apartment and even taking us to the airport that Monday.  We flew to Orlando, FL, and Dave's family picked us up and took us to his hometown of Clermont.  Once there, Dave's parents honored us with a party for all those who weren't able to travel to Mississippi for the wedding.

This is most of Dave's side of the family, minus a few who couldn't make it:

And this is Myra Barnes, Dave's Grandmother, with the two of us:

Honeymoon Part 2.5 | Driving to Louisville

We hoped that we could visit Ellis Island and perhaps the Statue of Liberty once we got off the boat.  Then we could get most of the driving done that evening and arrive in Louisville the next day.  The thoughts of immigration to a so-called promised land had Dave thinking of the Christian life and eager to show Emily what in the world he meant.  We didn't imagine we'd be off the boat until around noon, so an hour or so on Ellis Island would have us right on schedule.

But then the boat was done with us at by 8:30 and the people at Ellis Island said we should be prepared to wait several hours in line.  Thus, plans changed and we drove all the way home in one day.  This was nice, as we got to spend two nights in our own home and even attend church with some friends.  We also got to attend our home church in Sunday evening and then boarded a plane Monday morning for Dave's hometown, Clermont, FL.

The drive that day may have been the most beautiful part of the trip.  Clouds followed us all the way, and the leaves were in peak turn.  The clouds only  brought out the colors of the leaves, and we marveled in what God had made over and over again.

Honeymoon Part 2 | Boston, Massachusetts

After another day at sea, our final port of call was Boston, Massachusetts.  Boston is called the walking city for a reason, and we definitely participated.  Just paying two dollars for a bus ticket got us inside the subway station, which got us all the way across town.  We then walked back, seeing all of the Freedom Trail and enjoying a nice lobster/hamburger lunch along the way.  It's a beautiful city, with the added benefit that living there is good for your health.  I'd hate to get a blister in that city, though.

Emily took a picture of me eating my lunch.  After she took it the camera never stopped taking the picture, so I looked at it for a minute and eventually it stopped.  This is what came out of the whole thing:

On the way out of the city we were treated to the best sunset of the week.  While Emily read, Dave went up and took this picture, making for the first time we spent a half-hour apart in about a week.  We had never been in the same city that long before this!

We would then spend another day at sea and arrive safely back in New Jersey.  What a great cruise it was.

Honeymoon Part 2 | Halifax, Nova Scotia

Our second Canadian port of call was Halifax, Nova Scotia.  We landed at Pier 22, right next to the famous Pier 21.  Acting as somewhat of an Ellis Island for Canada, Pier 21 now has a museam remembering those who emmigrated there in the early and mid 20th Century.  We watched a great movie there and then searched the records for Dave's Canadian ancestors.  But the fact that thier name was a transliteration from the Cryillic Alphabet and that we only know the English way of saying it or spelling it, combined with the fact that we didn't know what country they came from (many immigrants came through countries other than thier home country) meant that we did not find them.  Of course, they may have just come through another port. 

Afterwards we walked the town and found whatever beautiful church was in the area, as was becoming our tradition.  The area's churches were beautiful and we eventually found the first Protestant church in Canada.  That was very interesting to us, as it may have been the first group of Believers in the whole country.  After the humbling immigration video we were expecting a run-down group of persecuted believers, but instead we found a glorious building with a seat for the queen!  Quite the opposite.  Since the church was at one time the site of some great missionary activity, we left a note for one of our missionary friends who is visiting the area now.  We are praying that he can bring revival to areas where the Gospel has come and gone or bring it for the first time to many of the frontier places in Canada. 

We found a great piece of maple candy.  We can still remember how great it tasted!

And when we got back, we had a monkey waiting for us:

Honeymoon Part 2 | Saint John, New Brunswick

Our third Port of Call was Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.  Once we arrived we met a friendly park guide, who I had previously talked to on the phone.  Somehow she remembered my name and everything about me, which is a sign of a very good hospitality worker.  She pointed us to a beautiful church that still has Boston's Coat of Arms from the Revolutionary Way days, a courthouse that has the only self-supporting spiral staircase in the world, and a place called The Reversing Falls. 

It was after this that Emily took her first step onto Canadian Soil.  Now Costa Rica is the only country Dave has been to and Emily hasn't.  (Meanwhile, Emily can't count the number of countries she has been to.)

We soon found our way to the church: 

Boston's Coat of Arms:

The locals were very friendly, and very proud of thier city.  After we saw the church, someone pointed us to the courthouse.  Fortunately, that was exactly what we were looking for.:

From there we walked to the other side of the city and saw the Reversing Falls.  Despite what the locals tell you, it really is better termed the "Reversing Rapids."  It basically amounts to a freshwater river that flows through the side of a salt water bay, where there happens to be the largest tide in the world.  Because of this, the water right at the border of these two flows violently in during high tide and violent out during low tide.  EIther direction would be fun to raft through. We walked to it, trekked over the bridge across it, and had a snack at the reasturant overlooking it.

On the way back, Emily was very excited to see some otters in the bay:

Honeymoon Part 2 | Bar Harbor, Maine

Our second port of call was Bar Harbor, Maine, where Acadia National Park sits.  Sadly, the national park was mostly closed for the season (we had just missed it!) but we did get to see some beautiful seascapes and walk a nice town.  All in all, it was probably the least eventful stop of the trip, but it was still a lovely place to walk around and Dave appreciated the faith displayed by the windows in the town's church.   

This last window quotes ". . . and the sea shall give up it's dead."  A very meaningful verse for this port town.