We’re having a baby!!

Two weeks ago Josh and I found out we were expecting our first baby. This came as quite a surprise to both of us being that our well laid plans were to wait for at least a year!  I had been feeling a little different a few days before and Josh was convinced i was pregnant but i kept telling him i wasn’t. I thought if i said it enough i could also convince myself that i was correct… only it didn’t quite work out that way. I gave in one morning and took a pregnancy test. It turned positive quite quickly. After one more that day and another one 3 days later all coming out positive I gave in and admitted to myself that this was acutally happening. Its been an interesting time of processing for me. I am loving married life and Josh and I are having a blast getting to know each other and starting out in ministry together and I can’t imagine life being any other way because life with Josh is such an amazing blessing. I struggled with feeling frustrated at first and then realized Josh and I were the only ones I could possibly be frustrated at in this situation! And it really isn’t something to be frustrated at in the first place!  But seeing Josh’s reaction to the news he was already quite sure of was such a gift to me. He smiled at me so lovingly and just held me and told me how excited he was and how he can’t wait to be parents together.  He always has had a way of making the things I am unsure and scared of seem so possible and managable.

Over the past two weeks it has been such a roller coaster of being so excited to be a mom and feeling terrified of the unknowns of pregnancy. But through it all God has been so faithful to show me glimpses of the blessing that babies are and I am so thankful to Him for that. I am only 6 weeks along but the attachment that i feel to the little one in me is quite incredible and I really did not expect it that quickly. Immediately when you find out life changes…the food you eat, the rest you need, the vitamins. All these are things you do when the baby is born also but in the mean time you are caring for a life inside you that you have never met.

I find myself so protective of this little life in me already. Its quite amazing really. I have no idea if it is a boy or girl but inspite of not being able to know that quite yet I am praying for him/her constantly. I pray that the Lord will keep him/her safe as they grow. I pray for wisdom once the baby is born and suddenly Josh and I are responsible to show God’s love to our child and instill in them a desire to serve God and reach hurting people in a broken world. Such a huge responsibility but when i think about being able to raise my children with Josh as their earthly father and God as their Heavenly Father I can’t think of a greater joy in my life!

We’ll keep you posted! Love to all!

 

Evergreen Community Church!

As of yesterday Josh is officially the new youth pastor at Evergreen Community Church in Bothell! His first office day was today! We are so blessed and thankful to the Lord for providing this opportunity for us to be in ministry at an amazing church with so many friendly people who love and want to serve God alongside us!
A few weeks ago my cousin’s girlfriend mentioned to my mom that her friend’s church was looking for a youth pastor and he should check into it. It turns out my mom’s old youth pastor and his wife attend that church so she e-mailed him and mentioned Josh. The next day he replied to my mom telling her to have Josh call the pastor as soon as possible! A few interviews later and a night hanging out with the youth students and we were made official! Its been amazing to look back and see God’s hand in all of this process! It just serves to remind us that even though we may think we know what God has planned and what might be good for us or right for us but ultimately He knows best and if we are willing to be obedient and patient He has great plans for all our lives!
The students are so excited and Josh and I are too! Camp is next month so we’ll be thrown in to things immediately and what an awesome opportunity to get to know the students! The commute is about 20-25 min from our house which is wonderful!
If you remember to please be praying for us as we begin this new journey! Please specifically be praying for the students that their hearts would be receptive to what God has to say through Josh. And also be praying for people we can use in leadership in the youth group. We have a great opportunity to build up a leadership team and we definitely want to have wisdom in that choosing process.
We’ll keep you updated! Thank you so much for all your support!

 

Mt. Rainier here he comes!!

So tomorrow morning my adventurous husband is taking off for an expedition to summit Mt. Rainier with 4 other people! The trip was made available to him a few weeks ago and he began hard core training as soon as he found out! This has been on his “to do” list for many years so we’re both pretty excited at the opportunity! Please be praying for safety for the entire group and maybe an extra little measure of safety for Josh! We’ve only been married a little over a month and so far I am LOVING being married to Josh and want him to return home as he left!!

 

One month in and LOVIN it!

As of last saturday we have been married for 1 month! Its hard to believe that its gone by that fast! Thank you to all who came to the wedding to support us and shower us with love! It was such a special day and we truly enjoyed every minute of it! After the wedding we headed down to Palm Springs to stay in a beautiful house for 2 weeks! That was an incredible gift from Nancy and Jeff to us! We enjoyed disneyland, magic mountain, golfing, hiking and relaxing by our private pool and hot tub!!!  We decided two weeks was the perfect amount of time to go on a honeymoon! By the time we were headed home we were ready for real life to start!

As if we hadn’t been blessed enough with our wedding and all that that involved we came home late Saturday night to find that our house had been completely redecorated by Josh’s family and some of his roommates! Our kitchen cabinets were painted with new hardware, there was beautiful tile floor in our bathroom, and new shower stall and they had set up home for us! It was the best gift we could have received for our wedding!

Since we’ve been home we’ve been settling in to life. I started working at the Duvall Starbucks which has been so great! Everyone welcomed me in there and its been fun to see familiar faces coming in the store and in the drive through! The drive thru has been a new experince for me but its been a fun challenge as well!

Josh continues to climb trees during the week for work! Its a tough job and he comes home exhausted but its been a blessing to have that income! Plus it ensures that i hold up my end of our wedding vows by giving him one massage a week!!  

 

I woke up this morning Texas on my mind…

A little over a month ago I was catching up with a college friend who is a youth pastor. He and his wife live in Woodlands Texas area. He asked about me and Josh and wedding plans and we chatted a bit on-line. He asked what Josh was doing for work and I told him Josh was currently looking for a youth pastor position since the church he was at was struggling financially and couldn’t afford to keep all their staff. He told me he would keep his ears open and let us know if he heard anything. Not quite 2 weeks later Josh received a phone call from a pastor in Texas who had heard about Josh through our friend. He told Josh to send him his resume and he would pass it on to another pastor he knew looking for a youth pastor. Long story short Josh has had a few great conversations with this church in Houston Texas. So as we are in the midst of planning  a wedding and preparing to start a life together we are also diligently praying about God’s will in this ministry opportunity. No matter where we end up both Josh and I desire to be in God’s will, serving where He has intended for us to be. Its an exciting time but also nerve wracking as there are many unknowns and we are disciplining ourselves to trust God DAILY and leave the unknowns to Him until He chooses to reveal them to us. Please pray if you think about us that we would have wisdom in this situation and if this is God’s will that He would begin preparing our hearts as well as the people who we have yet to meet and minister with/to. I am excited to see what God’s plan looks like for the beginning of our marriage!  Yeehaw!

 

planning, planning, planning

So wedding plans are now in full swing and things are going quite well so far! We’ve picked the location, we have the bridesmaid dresses, we just settled on our photographer, and I unexpectedly found my dress at the 2nd place we looked!! Josh has been amazing through all of this! He gives his opinion when he wants and has been such a support to me. Anytime I start to feel pressure and feel the beginnings of being overwhelmed he is always there to calm me down and find a solution! I am so blessed to become his wife! When we work so well together on things like planning a wedding I get so excited to think about our future together knowing that when challenges come we will be able to go through those together and that means the world to me!

 

We’re Engaged!!!

December 23rd started like any other day… I opened at Starbucks and as I finished my shift I got a text message from Josh, who supposedly was going snowshoeing, saying that the trip was cancelled and he wanted to take me to dinner.  After work I met Jess in Bothell to get pedicures! I called Josh on my way home and he told me we were going to grab dinner and go to Gasworks Park to see the Christmas Ships. I had never heard of the Christmas ships but it sounded fun. When I got home I was really tired and fell asleep.  Josh was supposed to be at my house between 6:30 and 7. I woke up at 6:30 and took a shower and hopped back into bed still sleepy. Trying to motivate myself I got back up and dried my hair and again crawled back into bed. All I could think about was wanting to be cozy! Josh called and told me he would be a little late because there was a tree over the woodinville duvall road and he’d have to find a different way. “Can’t we just stay at my parents house tonight and be cozy and watch a movie?” I asked. “Scott said the Christmas ships are really cool so we should just go and we’ll come back right after” Josh said to me sounding quite convinced that this idea would be fun. With a little more hemming and hawing from me we finished the conversation and I realized I needed to change my attitude and go with the plan because Josh wanted to. With a few motivating words from my mom I went into the bathroom and finished getting ready and got bundled up to brave the snow!  Josh showed up said hi to my parents and we took off. We stopped at Olive Garden in Totem Lake which is the restaurant we had lunch at the day we started dating 13 months ago. We finished a nice dinner together and made our way down to Gasworks Park. We parked and as I was putting all my warm layers on Josh got some hand warmers ready for me! :) Starbucks had a little hot chocolate stand set up at the park and we both got little samples of hot chocolate! yummy!! Snow covered the ground so we maneuvered our way to a good place to watch the Christmas ships. All the boats looked so pretty decorated with christmas lights and there was snow on the rooftops of all the houses with the city scape of Seattle in the background! It was BEAUTIFUL! The Argosy cruise boat showed up and the music began…beautiful lights…no comment about the music…(let’s just say we laughed a lot)!

 

 As we stood and listened to the music Josh stood behind me with his arms around me. “You know I love you right?” he said, breaking the silence. “Yes.” I replied. “Then what are ya doin next week?” He joked as he often does. “Ha Ha.” I sarcastically said to him, knowing that this was an ongoing joke(of sorts) between us and not thinking anything was out of the ordinary. He took my hand and turned me around and got down on his knee all in one motion and before I could even process what was happening he said “Jaimie, will you marry me?”  “Josh…What?! Really?!” I said.  Shocked and excited all I could think of was I wanted to hug him!  I kept trying to pull him up to give him and hug and he wouldn’t stand up. “I just want to hug you!” I said as I leaned down to him. “But you didn’t answer me”, Josh said. With a BIG smile on my face i said, ”Oh yes! Yes I will!!”

We stood there for a little while and Josh told me about the day he had…steaking out the proposal site with Dana, meeting my dad for lunch and asking him for my hand, getting the ring from Tyler. (Thanks everyone!) In between sentences we both looked at the ring together in awe…It is gorgeous and exactly what we both had hoped for and loved!

   We walked back to the truck and we a few happy tears we hugged and sat together for a few minutes revisiting what had just taken place!  A few phone calls and a 25 min drive in the truck later we made it back to my house to show my parents.

I told Josh I wanted to walk into the house and just see if my parents noticed but I really had to go to the bathroom so as soon as my mom opened the door I ran up the stairs and Josh talked with my parents about the Christmas ships. As I started walking down the stairs I wasn’t sure what to do with my hand that now showed off  beautiful sparkling ring. So what did I do?! Put my left hand in my back pocket as i walked down the stairs only to be met with 3 faces of great anticipation. “Oh”, I said and pulled my hand out of my pocket to break the suspense. “Woohoo!!” My mom said with a little jump and my dad beamed and gave us both a hug!

It was an amazing night and so worth the suspense of not knowing when it was going to happen. I gave Josh such a hard time trying to figure out when and how it was going to happen but he is quite sneaky and totally had me fooled! All I have to say is I am just glad he didn’t give into my pathetic excuse of being tired earlier in the evening!