The Nursery: Finished

I am excited to say that our nursery is done and looking great! I have loved looking in there everyday and smiling to myself thinking 'soon our baby will actually be in here'. I often go in, sit in our glider and write in the journal I have been writing in to our baby throughout this pregnancy. I have also enjoyed reading my pregnancy books and reading out loud to Baby Lee in that same glider in these last days and weeks. I love our nursery and can't wait to show Baby Lee his/her room. We continue to thank God for the MANY people who have helped us fill the nursery! Our God is faithful and has provided everything we need and then some! I did include a picture of a tie fleece blanket that Ryan and I made for our baby. One of the gifts that Ryan gave me for Christmas was to go to Hobby Lobby and pick out anything I wanted. I got the idea to pick out some fleece so we could make a blanket for our little one (we made some blankets for our nephews last Christmas). We prayed for our baby when working on the ties-praising God for him/her and all the blessings that have come in this pregnancy. We also prayed for a healthy delivery and a future of following Jesus. It was a very special time with our Savior! Baby Lee: we love you so very much and can't wait to meet you!

Christmas 2010: Edington Family Edition

The day after Christmas we drove to Kansas to spend a few days with my family. On Sunday evening we had Christmas at my sister's house with my Mom, Clint (my Mom's boyfriend), Joseph, Angela and Daniel (my Sister's boyfriend). We enjoyed a great meal (all cooked by Daniel) and opened gifts. Then on Monday night we had Christmas with my Dad. We ate at House of Ma (the favorite and always preferred Chinese restaurant in Emporia) and opened gifts at my Dad's house. This was the first time we had been to my Dad's house so Ryan enjoyed getting to see and hear all about my Dad's hobby of collecting Indian Artifacts. That was actually my favorite part of the evening, seeing the love of my life get to know more about my Dad. I will be completely honest, my parents divorce is still very hard for me, which seems to always crawl up around the holidays.

Ryan had to return to Denver on Tuesday to work at Chic Fil A so his time with my family was short this year. (we were thankful that he had more time with them at Thanksgiving). I stayed all week to work on the Tabor campus. It was a busy week, always is with my family-lots of people to see and things to do. I love that about going home! :) Wednesday evening Clint took my Mom, my Sister and me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in Kansas City. We had dinner at Olive Garden (Clint's first time) and enjoyed wonderful conversation. Thursday evening my Mom, Joseph and I had dinner with Sara Jo, Lydia Jane, Jennifer, Emrie and Debra in Salina! I was so happy to see them-my goodness Lydia Jane has grown so much since I saw her in September! She is absolutely beautiful! They are such wonderful, generous friends to me and I thank God for every moment I get to spend with them! I am hoping that someday soon Lee, Sara Jo and Lydia will live near us!

With being in my last months of pregnancy I didn't want to be away from Ryan a long time. So on Friday my Mom drove me to Colby to meet Ryan. It felt so good to be back with him and back at home. I don't want to be far from my doctor (or husband) these days because well, our baby could come anytime! My Mom and Sister really wanted me to go into labor when I was with them but God allowed me to come back to my husband and home.

Christmas 2010: Lee Family Edition

Ryan and I traveled to Iowa this year to spend Christmas Day with the Lee family! We sure love spending time with them! Our nephews Vance and Ransom are just adorable and so much fun to play with! We also enjoyed watching movies, eating amazing food, relaxing in front of the fireplace, bowling, reading, sledding (Ryan, Amanda and Vance) and skyping with Lucas, our brother-in-law who is serving in Afghanistan. We look forward to more time with them when Baby Lee comes!

Christmas 2010: Ryan and Me Edition

Ryan, Baby Lee and I had our Christmas on Monday evening December 20. We went out to dinner at one of our favorite places-Olive Garden. To cut back on the total bill we always share a meal, which we are starting to realize seems strange to many people. But we believe this is a great way to be a good steward of the resources God has given us. To us, it just makes sense.

Then we came home to read the Christmas Story from God's Word and open gifts. I love that in our little family tradition we read the true meaning of Christmas before ever getting to gifts. As we continue making family traditions unique to us, we will not forget our Savior Jesus whose birth is the most important part of Christmas! Being pregnant this year put a new light on Christmas that I hadn't ever thought about before. I found myself relating with Mary, the mother of our Savior, thinking specifically what it would have been like to get up on a donkey at the end of pregnancy, travel a long distance, then actually give birth in a barn. It is truly incredible that she obeyed God and trusted Him, not just by accepting His will to be a virgin mother at the beginning of her pregnancy but to go all through it and endure even the last hours and minutes til our Savior was born. I admire her more than I ever have before. I want my faith to look like hers!

Some of my favorite gifts from Ryan include: Just Like You-a book we found in Family Christian Stores when we first found out we were pregnant, I was so touched that Ryan remembered how much I had loved this book. Homemade Clock-Ryan printed one of our maternity pictures that Angela Kleinsasser took (check out my Facebook page if you haven't seen them), pasted it to a foam board, bought the hands of a clock and put it all together. I absolutely love it! Choosing to See-an amazing, must read book by Mary Beth Chapman. I am not a fast reader but I read it in a week. I simply could NOT put it down! I highly recommend it to everyone-you will be changed!

Showers of Blessings Part 2

Have I written yet how good God is? Have I shared in any of my blogs how God has provided for this precious baby? I sure hope that by now you all know how good and amazing my God is! He has blessed us so much through this pregnancy and my entire being is praising Him! Allow me to share another way He has provided.....

On Sunday December 19, our Chinese Church (Denver Chinese Evangelical Free Church, where we have been serving for a year now) threw us a baby shower. It was so much fun! I will tell you, there was a lot going on at our church that particular Sunday. We celebrated the faithful service of our interim Pastor Li (he has finished his term at our church and returned to Washington DC), we had our Christmas potluck and then had the baby shower. With so many of our church leaders going different directions that day, we were so blessed that they wanted to throw a party celebrating our precious baby.

How I wish you could have been a fly on the wall at this shower! It was much different than the others we've had, which is perfect since a completely different culture planned it! They had Ryan and I (yes Ryan was also an honored guest) play a game. Let me see if I can set the stage. Ryan was blindfolded, cotton balls were placed on the floor and Ryan was given a kitchen serving spoon and a plastic bowl. The object of the game was for him to get as many cotton balls into the bowl as possible. My role: directing him to where they were so he could scoop them up (yes still blindfolded). So picture this, Ryan is on his hands and knees and listening as intently as he can to my instructions so he could win the game. It was hilarious! Especially after the game was over and all the wives and moms in the room said "Wow, Ryan did awesome (he got all of the cotton balls), most of the other men don't listen to us as good as Ryan listens to you." Needless to say I was so proud of my MAN.

Other reasons why this shower was unique: we didn't sit down the entire time, I cut and served all the cake, guests just brought their gifts to us to open, there was TONS of noise the whole time and Ryan was the photographer. Please understand that I am not complaining, I loved every minute of it! I am just trying to help you picture this baby shower in the midst of another culture. We had so much fun and we were blessed once again with an abundance of gifts. Enjoy some of our favorite pictures!!