Sunshine after the Storms

As you all know 2015 didn't start all that great for us.  It seemed like we were dealt one blow after another for 6 months.  Things weren't all bad of course, but we couldn't seem to shake the black cloud that had been hanging over us.  A friend told me "The storms make you stronger and the blessings that flow from them shine even brighter.".  I've carried that with me all year knowing that everything is made perfect in His timing.  While I couldn't see it at the time I had faith that He knew what He was doing.  

And boy did He.
We're so excited to welcome Baby #2 in February!!!

The timing of this pregnancy couldn't have been more perfect.  I get to be pregnant with my sister-in-law and two of my good friends.  Our business has boomed and we've been swamped over the last few weeks with no signs of letting up.  If I had been as pregnant as I would have been with a September due date, there's no way I could have gotten it all done.  In February, when we were going through the miscarriage all I could think about was the negative side, I couldn't see that there was something better planned.  If I had not lost that baby Patrick would still be at a job he hated.  He would have never switched jobs with the insurance changes and that sort of thing during the pregnancy.  He's just too practical.  After the loss he started looking more intently for a new job and he started on May 4th.  This job has been such a blessing.  He's working 4 days a week making as much as he was working 7 days at the other job.  He will eventually go to a swing shift but for now he's been off every weekend.  We've had the best summer as a family.  It was just what we needed before we added to our family.  I look at Barrett all the time and he's at such a sweet funny age that I know I would have missed so much of if I'd had a baby to care for.  I found out I was pregnant and our new insurance kicked in the week I turned 7 weeks, talk about perfect timing.  

I found out I was pregnant the day before Father's day.  The weekend before that we went to the Garth Brooks concert with a bunch of friends and had the best time.   I had a complete ugly cry moment when he played "Unanswered Prayers".  I was sobbing and then I was laughing because I was crying and I couldn't stop.  I was like what is wrong with me.  Patrick was mortified.  My friend Carla was like you have got to get it together.  I just laughed because I knew it was ridiculous but I could not stop. This should have probably been a clue that something was up but it never crossed my mind.  I got a positive test the day before Father's day but I really wanted to wait until Father's day to tell Patrick so I didn't tell anyone.  That we went swimming at Jeremy and Jessica's house and I pretended to drink and was paranoid that everyone knew.  They didn't.  Then I had a little bit of an outburst when the boys wouldn't nap and they needed a nap and Patrick wasn't helping me like I thought he should.  I was like "WE"RE LEAVING!"  and made a big scene.  We left and Barrett slept in the car for a while and we went back.  We all just laughed. 

We planned on waiting until after our first ultrasound before we were going to tell anyone.  HA!  We told Hope and John immediately because we'd been on this roller coaster together and she was pregnant so I knew she'd be excited!  We did good for about a week.  Then we had a girls night where they were serving sangria.  I had to tell Brittany so she could help me hide it.  The next night Patrick and Jeremy went to a concert together and Patrick spilled it to him.  He said it was because we're planning to go to Disney next year and he needed to know that we'd now be also taking a baby.  Turns out it was because they were throwing me a surprise party and he needed to know I couldn't drink.  So then I told Jessica.  The next week my friends Amy texted me to see if I could make her boys "Big brother" shirts.  So I had to tell her I was pregnant too.  Then my friend Anna texted me and was so sweet because I could tell she didn't want to tell me she was pregnant.  I've vented to her a lot about the sadness of the miscarriage so she didn't want to hurt my feelings.  So I had to tell her that I was pregnant too.  So we're up to about 10 people and we still haven't told our parents or family.  We went to the lake for the 4th of July and that week I was having a lot of sciatic pain and could barely walk.  Everyone noticed I wasn't drinking but the only person that would say anything was my cousins wife.  So I told her.  If anyone else had asked I would have told them too.  Then we had my surprise party and I just knew it was going to get spilled then.  About half the people knew and the other half (that was our family) didn't.  Brittany and Jessica got me a cup that you couldn't see what I was drinking so no one could tell that I wasn't drinking.  We had our first ultrasound the next Friday and everything looked good so we told out families.  Mine just laughed because they had all figured it out anyway.  Patrick's parents were surprised.  We've laughed and called it the worst kept secret.  We had out 12 week appointment Friday and got to hear the baby's heartbeart.  We're so excited to be on the journey again.  I plan to do weekly updates like I did with Barrett.  Looking forward to having this all to look back on.