Nick & Lisa

     Maggie is sleeping in her own bed in her own room and has been since Saturday night. Lisa is getting much better rest at night. That is all a good thing.

     It was really wierd at first, and if we were both honest I think we’d say that Saturday and Sunday nights we didn’t sleep all that soundly. But, Lisa more than I, we did get more sleep than we have been getting. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that sweet, beautiful baby girl is a grunter. All the time she grunts. And it is for that reason we decided to make the move to letting her start sleeping in her room rather than in her cradle in ours. With only a week left at home for Lisa when we made the switch, we wanted to make sure everyone was acclimated to the new setup and I must say it has been great.

     There are a few hurdles to overcome, the biggest just being her sleeping longer through the night because it’s when she is only partially awake that she makes noises. Otherwise the girl sleeps like me – like a stone. The other is the fact that, like most babies I hear talked about, she doesn’t like the process of going to sleep. The child cannot stand to miss anything. Even when she’s awake, if she’s not positioned to where she can see a lot of what’s going on it gets ugly. But we’re all growing through this in different ways and as we grow, though the process isn’t always easy, I’ve found that it’s often better for everyone in the end.

     As hard as it is for me to believe, it has been one month since Lisa and I welcomed our beautiful baby girl into the world. This has undoubtedly been the most amazing, wonderful, and crazy month of our lives. The blessing that is our baby is girl is just unexplainable. All my life my mom told me, “that I would never understand until I had kids of my own”, and now I completely understand what she was talking about. Just today I was looking through the photos of Maggie we’ve taken over the last four weeks and I’ve just been amazed by all the changes that have happened already.

     She is really starting to take on her own features. When a baby is first born there is the requisite, “she has your nose”, “she has Lisa’s hair”. And while there are definited traits we can point out in her that she distinctly got from Lisa and I, she’s really starting to lose the “new baby” look. Not only that, she’s starting to get a little personality. Granted alot of that is concentrated on food and sleep (ah, she makes me proud) right now, but you really can get a glimpse of her personality. There are so many “best feelings”, but one of them has to be when you are just talking to her, usually about absolutely nothing, and she just starts cooing and grunting and even smiling. And she is a little grunter, too. Right now it’s really cute except when she grunts like a man, but me and Lisa were both commenting just a few days ago that we really hope she grows out of the grunting because it’s just not at all ladylike. But we did have the most traumatic experience so far today – her four week check-up. Poor baby had to get blood taken and it took pricking both heels and the “mean” nurses gave our beautiful baby girl a shot!

     Of course I do fear the child will before Lisa and I can do anything to stop it. Then again, the spoiling may in fact in the end be partially my fault, but at least I will have family to blame. Our baby girl has some of the cutest toys, clothes, and stuff that just make me go, “AWWW!” And her family loves her so very much. We actually had to leave her with my mom for a day last week when Lisa had to go into school. I have never seen my mom happier. Seeing her with Maggie and then thinking of how much Maggie means to me makes me realize that my mom never did lay down a rule or make a decision to ever cause me a bit of harm or single hurt feeling. But she loved me, without limit just like I love Maggie. But Lisa’s half of the family are no less excited when they get to see Maggie. I think Deborah has bought Maggie more clothes that Lisa and I, and of course she picks out cuter outfits than we do. And if nothing else the younger girls can’t hold her enough – well, to be fair none of us can get enough of that.

     Maggie girl, I’m going to take part of these newsletters just to talk to you. Right now you are a little too young for me to actually tell you this, but I have to believe you know how loved you are by me, your mom, and your family. Baby girl, you have absolutely changed my life. Next to your mother, you are the single best thing that has ever happened to me. My love for your mom is incredible, but I never knew how much I could love until you came into our lives – I never knew how much life there was to live until you came into my life. You given me a new focus and drive to change all the things I’ve needed to change for so long. Not just for me and even your mom, but because I want you to have everything you’ll ever need. And I want to be there every step along the way that God gives and not a step less because of my selfishness. It’s because of you and your mom that I’m changing the way I eat, that I’m starting to excercise, drive slower, and get serious about the things that really matter and focus, my faith and my family and friends, and less on whats not. I love you baby girl, so very, very much.

     One last thing before I go, is a current list of the rather goofy nicknames that I can remeber calling you this month – yeah I know I’m silly: Maggie Girl, Magpie, Beautiful Girl, Squirt, Sweetheart, Sweetness (If I can think of some others, I’ll add them)

     Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope all was well with your holiday adventures this year and for those of you traveling, please come back safe. God bless everyone!

Maggie says, “Merry Christmas!”

     And I’m not talking about Lisa this time, I’m talking about my beautiful baby girl. Margaret Ruth made her grand entrance into the world at 8:47 AM CST on December 13th, 2004, she weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz, and she stole our hearts. Even if she would give our hearts back, I don’t think I’d ask – she’s the most incredible thing in the world. I really wish I had loftier, more immaculate words to describe her and how she makes me, Lisa, and the rest of our family but there are no words that can describe. I love you baby girl.

     It’s hard to believe, but we are done counting months or weeks – we are now counting days unitl Maggie’s due date. It’s seemed so stinkin’ far away for so long now it’s like we’re in shock almost at the fact that her due date is this Sunday! But even with the feeling of utter shock, for lack of any better term, we couldn’t be more excited. Things in the house are basically ready for her. There are a few more cosmetic things we could to polish things off, but other than that we’ve got a house waiting for a baby. Not to mention the family waiting for the baby, and not just Lisa and I. It seems like everytime we call a family member or close friend they are expecting us to say we are on our way to the hospital. Lisa and I only hope.

     There are so many things that Lisa and I both wanted to do that just slipped by us so fast. It really has, probably more than anytime in either of our lives, been a huge time of change this year. We’ve moved churches, twice, in the last year, I’ve had a major job change, sort of twice, and of course the baby. It’s just been a whirlwind and every time we think we are going to get to catch up, we realize how much there is left to do, and such is life. We didn’t keep the journal that we had both hoped, and the belly pictures to laugh at later didn’t get taken, and there are probably a dozen other things that we missed. But I think we got the biggest thing right and we are closer now than ever. In everything we do in life there is fluff and there is substance and it’s often times hard to know the difference. It’s also sometimes hard to get rid of fluff when it’s been a part of things for so long, but when it’s gone you hardly miss it because the real substance of life more than fills in the gaps. That’s what we’ve done over the last year – we’ve said goodbye and walked away from what doesn’t matter, or what was fleating and grasped onto the people in our life, who despite no blood relation, are family and the things in life that are substance.

     In one of our rounds of shopping over the last few weeks we finally found a baby book we really liked, and while reading through it we remembered all those things that we didn’t do. But at the same time the book made me realize something, that what’s come up until now is the smallest percentage of the blessing that is coming in our life. I can’t wait to sit with Lisa, recall those memories and fill in those pages. But the real excitement will be here in a matter of days and as exciting as the last 39 weeks have been, we’re heading into a lifetime of yes some hard times and struggles, but also of joy, love, and blessing. I’ve heard over and over that God entrusts children to the parents and that we have a resposibility to raise them right, and I know that’s true. But looking at my life a year ago and thinking about where we are now, I wonder if God doesn’t think of it in a little different of way, also thinking of the parent and what the child does for them.

     I’ve never even see my child, never touched her face, or held her in my arms but because of her mine and Lisa’s life will forever be better because of her.

     We have Maggie pictures!!! Well, we have ultrasound pictures, but for now those will defintately do!

     Not too shabby, eh? We went and Lisa did the sugar test yesterday and should find out those results today, though with all other things considered the doctor didn’t think Lisa had anything to worry about. She’s proceeding right along with everything on schedule. From here on out she’ll see the doctor every two weeks, until I think about a month before the due date, when she’ll go every week. I just can not believe she is so far along, we are both so excited – it’s just surreal how close it is and even that it’s happening to us!

     Greetings and hello. I know it’s been along time since the last post, but life has been busy around our household. We’ve moved my mom and Lisa has started school since the post, and not to mention everything trying to get the house ready for the baby. I don’t know quite how, but I just manage to put the website a little low on the priority list.

     But while we’re here we might as well catch you up on all that’s been happening. First and foremost, Maggie is GROWING! I’ve even felt her kick! If that’s not the most incredible feeling in the world, I don’t know what is!!! Lisa is growing right along with Maggie, she makes such a cute pregnant lady. Sadly there aren’t any new Maggie pics because the tech lady had just brought a new patient back. Maybe next time.

     Really our biggest focus right now is Maggie, and trying to get everything ready for her much anticipated arrival. Things got a little chaotic with mom moving and me finally having to move all my stored things to our house. It’s good because I’m finally going through all that old stuff, but bad because we could really use the time to work on the room, or, suffer the thought, spend some time together. We’ll make it though, and the yard sale that we are having to get rid of all that stuff won’t hurt either.

     On a different notes, there are some friends and family we’d like to congratulate. Becca, a friend from my Steadfast days, and her boyfriend Mike are about to be planning a wedding. Huge congrats to them on jumping headlong into the adventure of a lifetime. We’d also like to send a congratulations out to my cousin Jonathon and his wife all the way out in Texas, they just welcomed their first child into the world on Tuesday. We love you all and again, congratulations!

     Well, that’s the quick version. Look for more updates to the site and journal in the very near future. Don’t forget that the site has a Guestbook and Contact form so you can always stay in touch, we’d love to hear from you all!

     Some may be interested, some not. For those who are, I’m hoping to have ultrasound pics up in about two weeks. Yes, I know we got it done last Friday and no this isn’t me procrastinating. Basically Maggie wasn’t real thrilled about being poked and prodded and wouldn’t cooperate for pictures. (I think it was what Lisa ate the night before – tomatoes and other healthy stuff, yuck! This girl is gonna take after her dad!) So the super-nice ultrasound lady told Lisa to sneak back next time she’s in (two weeks) when Maggie will look a little less like Skeletor, and hopefully feel like being prodded.

     Her full name will be Maragaret Ruth named after Lisa’s mom and my mom, respectively, and we’ll call her Maggie. It took us a minute to get our thoughts reshuffled because Lisa and I both really thought it would be a boy. Of course, me being a guy I was all, “It’s a boy, blah blah blah.” But when I thought about holding that little girl in my arms, I melted. Or as Miguel said when he first heard, “Man your life is over!” As for Lisa, she is utterly enthralled in redesigning the baby room now that we’re planning for a girl.

     As we both figured, now that we know what we are having it’s even more real, which makes it that much scarier. But more than scared, we’re super-excited. We’ve both always wanted this and now our dreams really are coming true.