Christmas 2008

Christmas has been full of family this year. A few months ago, I thought we would be spending Christmas in our apartment in Massachusetts unable to make the trip home for the holidays. But since we were able to move back to Winston-Salem, we have been blessed to have much time with all of our family this year. It has been a year since we've been to Justin's hometown and at least a year since we've seen some family members. We are pretty worn out and it still feels surreal that we're even here, but it's beginning to feel like home again.

More updates to come. Baby Lewis is expected to arrive in a few short weeks!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

it's beginning to look a lot like...

A NURSERY!






Today, we put the crib together. It was just as I imagined it would be. Both of us staring at the instructions, the hardware, the pieces, and thinking..."where does this go?" But we did it. We only had to redo two parts. And we didn't kill each other. :-) Oh and I wanted you to see the art painted by my stepmom's friend, Shirley. Isn't it so cute?! She's going to do more once we get all the furniture in place.

Home

(Previously titled: "18 hours of wind and rain")

It took much longer than expected to reach our destination,Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Symptoms of freezing rain followed us for half of the journey as trees leaned over the road and mocked our attempt to navigate the roads safely.  Kevin and I were trying to be smart and leave earlier than Holly in the Penske truck, but a 45 minute detour in Fishkill, New York, caused us to slow our pace and meet up the the Holly and the pre-Beahms for lunch, which provided time for us to exchange incredulous stories from the road. 

Though the temperatures rose as we moved South on Hwy 81, the rain was relentless - save for an hour or so.  Somewhere in hour seventeen we saw the beautiful words, "Welcome to North Carolina."  Finally, we breathed a sigh of relief and made our final stride toward home.

Kevin made the trip enjoyable with good conversation as we worked out the complexities of why dirty words are actually dirty (or not). Of course, he also provided the soundtrack; one unexpected song came from Old Crow Medicine Show, called "Wagon Wheel" and it captured the theme of the journey well:

Headed down south to the land of the pines
I'm thumbin' my way into North Caroline
Lookin' down the road and I pray to God I see head lights
I made down the coast in seventeen hours (17! I wish!)
pickin' a bouquet of dog wood flowers and I'm
hopin' like Raleigh I can see my baby tonight

The song humorously illustrated our desperate desire to land in our driveway, unload the inflatable mattress and pass out.  Oddly enough by the time our heads did hit pillows, we couldn't stop laughing about just how peculiar and frustrating the day had been.  Sometime around 3 am we fell asleep and then awoke the next morning to unpack the truck with the help of local friends.

"Home" might be the best and worst word for us in the coming months.  We are indeed "home" but we feel like we can't REALLY unpack because we're trusting God to call us to a job somewhere (maybe here).  Yet as long as we're here, we look forward to time with family and friends and of course preparing a home for our little girl. (pictures of the nursery are forthcoming!)

This morning we went to church where a visiting pastor encouraged us to remember how God uses broken people for his purposes.  As we celebrate the "coming" (aka "Advent") we see beauty through brokenness and humility.  I look forward to witnessing how our great God will reveal his plan for us and how our little expectant family can expect to see Him lead us wherever He might.

[Holly has more updates about our house and baby showers, but for now, we're checking in from "home."]

showered

On Thursday, I was given my first baby shower.  It was so fun to share a sweet time with some girlfriends and celebrate our baby girl's impending arrival.  Thanks Becky and Erin for hosting!  Y'all are the best.

what's in a name?

We've yet to decide on a name. We have lots of ideas and have received many suggestions. We have two books full of names and I have babynames.com bookmarked in order to check it regularly. Since we don't have an official name, people have taken to calling her different things that they like.

Claire Huxtable, Belky, Lynn Jr., Millicent, Mildred, Hilda, Penelope, Gracie, Jerusha, Delilah...

Don't worry, we do have the ones we like and dislike somewhat narrowed down. But I think we may be one of those couples that waits until we see her before giving her a name. In the meantime, we're open to your suggestions. However, we do have some "criteria" if you will.

1. You must know she's a girl upon hearing her name. Thus, no androgynous names.
2. It needs to sound good when spoken with a southern twang.
3. No weird spellings. We don't want her to always have to tell people how to say/spell her name in school.
4. It should have a good nickname, however, we don't want to name her and then never call her by her real name. Too many of our friends say, "Why didn't my parents just name me _____ if they wanted to call me that?"
5. The initials should not make anything weird. _ _ L
6. The first name will be the name she is called. No going by the middle name.
7. It should be unique, but not too unique.

Okay, now that you know the rules, have fun and suggest some good ones. The winner gets to change her diaper.