This past week we celebrated my 24th birthday...so hard to believe I'm officially into my mid-20's! Kory and I both "happened" to have the day off (thank you, Lord!), so we were able to spend the whole day together. At first we were trying to think of something really cool and fun we could go do for the day, but then we realized....having a day at home just the two of us is getting pretty rare these days. And we know it will be even more rare in just a couple of months with our little one coming! We are learning to treasure these times we can spend alone together before our family grows. Although we are very excited to have another person in our little family to spend time together with soon, too!
After a lazy morning at home we headed out for some shopping in the afternoon (I had some gift cards to use), and then we had our monthly doctor's appointment for Baby Kaye. We were excited to find that the baby is growing right on target and that my belly measures exactly what it should for 29 weeks. The heartbeat was 145 beats per minute which, according to the heart rate myth, means the baby is supposed to be a girl? Our doctor quickly dismissed the validity of this notion, but still...it's fun to guess. :) I'm supposed to start counting movements each day to make sure the baby moves at least 10 times in a period of 6 hours, and in the last few days of doing this counting the baby has had no problem achieving this amount! Especially in his/her most active time of mid-to-late morning. I guess the baby will slow down more and more as he/she gets bigger, though, so it'll be good to keep tabs. We also are now going to start having our doctor's appointments every 2 weeks now...which means the end is near!
The evening of my birthday we then went out to dinner with Elizabeth and Joel at Texas Roadhouse (one of my favorites). What a blessing to have them close by to celebrate with us! We enjoyed delicious food, wonderful fellowship, and a great Roadhouse-style birthday "Yee-haw!" from the staff and other patrons. What a wonderful birthday...what I realize will be my last one before being a mommy! So crazy.
Yesterday in church Kory and I were officially received as new members into our church family. What a joy! It just feels so good to be a member of a solid, rich, Christ-centered body of believers, and we continue to get more involved and are more blessed by the people of the church. I played guitar and sang again yesterday morning in worship, and we enjoyed another really quality Sunday School class on parenting (using Paul and Tedd Tripp resources--so good!). We are also having more opportunities to fellowship one-on-one with various brothers and sisters, and it is just so good to be encouraged and lifted up by one another as the Lord intended. Last Sunday we had another church-wide prayer meeting at a family's home, and the house was again packed to its maximum capacity with people of all ages. We prayed and sang hymns together for over an hour, and the fellowship before and after was also sweet.
Signing off now to go attempt to bake my first loaf of bread (honey wheat)...here goes nothing!
Love from the Kayes--
BK
Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
New Yoga Moves = Relief
Much has happened this past week in the ever-exciting (and ever-changing, it seems) life of the Kaye family.
First of all, we've had many guests in our home! Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting a Grover friend, Paul, who was passing through on a Christmas break road trip. It was great to see a familiar face and spend time with an old friend, and we showed him what a good time Reading can be (...I hope!). We played some Ticket to Ride (new favorite game), drove by Kate Plus 8's house (Paul's a big fan), went to see Sherlock Holmes (although it was pretty good, I was disappointed by how action-y it was instead of cerebral...and even more disappointed with the overall darkness of the film), got some Coldstone ice cream, and worshipped together Sunday morning at our church (where I played guitar on the worship team for the first time....what a blessing!).
Sunday afternoon we then hosted an older gentleman whom Kory has gotten to know during his mornings at Chick-fil-A. This man comes in regularly for a breakfast sandwich, and Kory has developed a friendship with him and learned of his rather lonely situation. So we decided to have him over for dinner and fellowship, and it turned out to be a really neat time. We discovered that he really opens up and talks a lot when he has someone to listen, and we ended up having some rather lengthy spiritual discussions (he is a Seventh Day Adventist). One of our conversations revolved around the end times and the second coming of Christ (that is a big focus for Seventh Day Adventists), and when we opened the Bible to do our family devotional after that conversation the Scripture passage we "happened" to be on was Mark 13, which is where Jesus talks about the end times. I love how the Lord works! That led to some more good conversation afterwards as well, as we discussed what the Scripture we'd read had to say, which was really neat. All in all, we were really blessed to have him over, and we hope to make it a somewhat regular occurrence.
Then on Tuesday our dear friend Tim (a fellow Grover alum, as well as a former co-worker at the Ranch with me) stopped by for some lunch on his way passing through on his own little road trip up the east coast. I think he was rather entertained by the kids (they love a fresh audience!), and of course I put on dancing music for Jackson in particular to show off his sweet moves (picture a 3-year-old doing Michael Jackson moves to Kirk Franklin gospel music...pure awesomeness).
Speaking of the kids...this week also brought some unexpected news from their mother regarding our current situation. Basically, she is not going to be able to afford to have her kids continue to come to our home anymore (though she isn't paying that much as it is), and she'll be moving them into a reduced-pricing daycare situation. She had tears in her eyes as she told me the news, since she absolutely loves her kids coming here and spending every day with us. She told me she definitely wants Kory and me to continue to be in their lives, and we can set up times to babysit them from time to time. It's so sad to think that we won't be caring for these precious children anymore, but I completely understand her situation. I wish we could work something out, but I'm afraid I can't continue to watch them for 50 hours each week and only earn the $20 for each child per week that she'll apparently be paying at the daycare.
Which brings me to the next issue at hand, which is my not having a job anymore after the next week or two (whenever her paperwork goes through and she can switch them to daycare). It is definitely a difficult task to find someone to hire you for just a couple of months (since I only have that long until my due date). I feel so helpless that I probably can't even just go over and apply to Target for a part time job. There are a couple of possibilities that have popped up on our radar in the last day or so, one of which I'm really hopeful for, so we will see how things pan out. It's so easy for me to slip into worrying, which is SO ridiculous...how quickly I forget the Lord's faithfulness in providing for our family so consistently since we've been married! We are trusting that the Lord has a marvelous plan that is for our good and His glory, and I just have to keep reminding myself of Truth in the midst of the creeping doubts that seep into my thoughts at times.
This week I have been experiencing some more lower back pain right in my tail bone (which makes sense, since I'm carrying about 20 extra pounds on the front of me!), which has been slowing me down quite a bit, especially in the standing up/sitting down process. But praise the Lord, as the title of this entry indicates, I have learned some new yoga moves in the last 24 hours which have brought incredible relief and comfort to my pain. We spent time with our friends Rebecca and Will last night (she is also pregnant--only a few days ahead of me), and she was showing me exercises and stretches that a physical therapist had shown her for her intense back pain that she's been having as well. What a wonderful time we had with the two of them...I was so encouraged and upbeat after our time together, contrasting my somewhat disheartened state earlier this week with all of the (needless) worrying about my job situation. Thank You, Lord, for using our dear brother and sister in Christ to uplift my spirits!
Please keep our family in our prayers as we seek to trust Him fully and rely on His sufficient provision in our lives. He is SO gracious and kind to us!
Love from the Kayes,
BK
First of all, we've had many guests in our home! Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting a Grover friend, Paul, who was passing through on a Christmas break road trip. It was great to see a familiar face and spend time with an old friend, and we showed him what a good time Reading can be (...I hope!). We played some Ticket to Ride (new favorite game), drove by Kate Plus 8's house (Paul's a big fan), went to see Sherlock Holmes (although it was pretty good, I was disappointed by how action-y it was instead of cerebral...and even more disappointed with the overall darkness of the film), got some Coldstone ice cream, and worshipped together Sunday morning at our church (where I played guitar on the worship team for the first time....what a blessing!).
Sunday afternoon we then hosted an older gentleman whom Kory has gotten to know during his mornings at Chick-fil-A. This man comes in regularly for a breakfast sandwich, and Kory has developed a friendship with him and learned of his rather lonely situation. So we decided to have him over for dinner and fellowship, and it turned out to be a really neat time. We discovered that he really opens up and talks a lot when he has someone to listen, and we ended up having some rather lengthy spiritual discussions (he is a Seventh Day Adventist). One of our conversations revolved around the end times and the second coming of Christ (that is a big focus for Seventh Day Adventists), and when we opened the Bible to do our family devotional after that conversation the Scripture passage we "happened" to be on was Mark 13, which is where Jesus talks about the end times. I love how the Lord works! That led to some more good conversation afterwards as well, as we discussed what the Scripture we'd read had to say, which was really neat. All in all, we were really blessed to have him over, and we hope to make it a somewhat regular occurrence.
Then on Tuesday our dear friend Tim (a fellow Grover alum, as well as a former co-worker at the Ranch with me) stopped by for some lunch on his way passing through on his own little road trip up the east coast. I think he was rather entertained by the kids (they love a fresh audience!), and of course I put on dancing music for Jackson in particular to show off his sweet moves (picture a 3-year-old doing Michael Jackson moves to Kirk Franklin gospel music...pure awesomeness).
Speaking of the kids...this week also brought some unexpected news from their mother regarding our current situation. Basically, she is not going to be able to afford to have her kids continue to come to our home anymore (though she isn't paying that much as it is), and she'll be moving them into a reduced-pricing daycare situation. She had tears in her eyes as she told me the news, since she absolutely loves her kids coming here and spending every day with us. She told me she definitely wants Kory and me to continue to be in their lives, and we can set up times to babysit them from time to time. It's so sad to think that we won't be caring for these precious children anymore, but I completely understand her situation. I wish we could work something out, but I'm afraid I can't continue to watch them for 50 hours each week and only earn the $20 for each child per week that she'll apparently be paying at the daycare.
Which brings me to the next issue at hand, which is my not having a job anymore after the next week or two (whenever her paperwork goes through and she can switch them to daycare). It is definitely a difficult task to find someone to hire you for just a couple of months (since I only have that long until my due date). I feel so helpless that I probably can't even just go over and apply to Target for a part time job. There are a couple of possibilities that have popped up on our radar in the last day or so, one of which I'm really hopeful for, so we will see how things pan out. It's so easy for me to slip into worrying, which is SO ridiculous...how quickly I forget the Lord's faithfulness in providing for our family so consistently since we've been married! We are trusting that the Lord has a marvelous plan that is for our good and His glory, and I just have to keep reminding myself of Truth in the midst of the creeping doubts that seep into my thoughts at times.
This week I have been experiencing some more lower back pain right in my tail bone (which makes sense, since I'm carrying about 20 extra pounds on the front of me!), which has been slowing me down quite a bit, especially in the standing up/sitting down process. But praise the Lord, as the title of this entry indicates, I have learned some new yoga moves in the last 24 hours which have brought incredible relief and comfort to my pain. We spent time with our friends Rebecca and Will last night (she is also pregnant--only a few days ahead of me), and she was showing me exercises and stretches that a physical therapist had shown her for her intense back pain that she's been having as well. What a wonderful time we had with the two of them...I was so encouraged and upbeat after our time together, contrasting my somewhat disheartened state earlier this week with all of the (needless) worrying about my job situation. Thank You, Lord, for using our dear brother and sister in Christ to uplift my spirits!
Please keep our family in our prayers as we seek to trust Him fully and rely on His sufficient provision in our lives. He is SO gracious and kind to us!
Love from the Kayes,
BK
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Family Visits, a New Year...Third Trimester!
It's good to be back at home here in Reading after much visiting and traveling over Christmas and New Year's. My parents came out to visit us all from Christmas Eve through the weekend, and it was SO good to see them! It was my first Christmas away from "home" (where I grew up), which was a little different, but I thoroughly enjoyed Kory's and my first year together as a new little family. We had our own time together on Christmas morning of reading Scripture, praying together, and opening gifts from each other at our home before we headed over to Elizabeth and Joel's where my parents were also staying. What a blessed day of fellowship and celebration of our Savior's birth! It's so crazy to think that next year at Christmas we will have a little 8-month-old!
On the Sunday after Christmas Kory and I headed out to Columbus, OH, together for a joint trip for both business and visiting his family. He had been accepted to serve on the Grand Opening team for a new Chick-fil-A opening out there, so he essentially got paid to spend a week with his family (oh yeah...and to work about 43 hours that week, too). It was a great deal, though, because all of our travel expenses were paid for! Kory's immediate family was visiting in Columbus, as well, from Phoenix, AZ. What a wonderful week we had with them--playing lots of cards and games, eating tons of food, and of course laughing a LOT. We were also around a lot of little ones, which made us all the more excited for Baby Kaye to come!
We had a bit of an adventure coming back from Columbus on Sunday evening. First we hit some scary, snowy weather in southwestern PA which made the roads a bit slippery and our visibility obscured. Although I grew up in western PA and have driven in this kind of weather my whole life, we're both more on edge these days about driving in bad weather since we have a little one to protect. We prayed and inched along the roads, and before we knew it the weather and roads were completely clear--thank the Lord!
Then when we were about an hour away from home (so close!) one of our tires went flat, forcing us to pull over off the turnpike. We called for a tow truck, and after waiting for a little while we discovered that we actually had a spare tire in the back (totally my fault--I had mistakenly told Kory we didn't have one). Kory immediately ventured out into the cold and went to work to change it. He was about 3/4 of the way done when the tow truck finally showed up. Since my incredibly skilled husband had already pretty much remedied the situation, the tow truck guy very kindly filled all our tires with air, and we went on our way. We ended up getting home about 2-3 hours later than we had originally planned, but we were just thankful to be home safe and sound!
So now we are in the year 2010....Year of Baby Kaye, as I've been jokingly calling it. As I think back to the past year and reflect on how much life has changed (leaving the Ranch, getting married, moving to a new town, finding out we were pregnant), I know looking ahead to this coming year that there will be major changes as well--namely, having a baby! Talk about our world being turned upside down. My constant comfort in the midst of all the change continues to be the unchanging Rock of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am in awe that such a mighty, holy God would stoop to lift me out of the muck and mire of my sin (of which I continue to be more and more aware each day!) and give my feet a firm place to stand in Christ (Psalm 40:2). So no matter what transpires for us circumstantially, we can take comfort in remembering our eternal security and hope in Christ which cannot be shaken and our Abba Father's great love from which we cannot be separated. We are held in His mighty grip from which no one can pluck us. Thinking upon such Truths bolsters me to stand strong in the midst of whatever change or whirlwind the Lord leads me through!
It's good to be back with Jackson and Sydney after not having them for a week and a half. It's so neat, too, to hear them start articulating basic aspects of the Gospel that I've been trying to teach them. When I ask them why Jesus came, it's awesome to hear them say "He had to save us because we were dead." I then have to prompt them to remember what this kind of being dead means--dead in sin. But we're getting there! When I ask who sins, they usually say something like "Me!....And daddy...and you....and everyone!" When I start to feel like there isn't much purpose in my constant changing of diapers, heating up food, and monitoring play time, I am reminded of the eternal and ultimate value of teaching them these Truths and what a huge responsibility it is to do so. I am humbled at the thought of the role we will have with our own little one to teach and raise him/her to know the Lord, the Gospel, and the Truth of Scripture. I think of how imperfect and inadequate I am at teaching Jackson and Sydney now, and I am just so thankful that the Lord is the Sovereign One at work in these kids' (and our coming little one's) hearts.
In other news, I went to my first music team rehearsal last night at church. How refreshing to play my guitar and sing with other musicians in worship to our Lord again! I will actually be playing in church this coming Sunday, since one of their usual guitarists will be away. Then we will see where I can fit in--possibly continuing on guitar so that one of the guitarists can switch to bass. It had been a few months since I had picked up my guitar, and it's a little different now that I have such a baby bump sticking out! In fact, when I started playing, the vibration from my strumming was felt by our little one inside, and he/she started kicking away! I wonder if we have a little future musician in there who was already kicking to the beat....or maybe he/she was just saying "Mommy, what in the world is going on out there??" Haha.
I can't believe how quickly our due date is approaching. Now officially into my third trimester! I definitely have mixed feelings of excitement and slight anxiety at the thought of labor. I am looking forward to taking our 5-week child birth class starting in February, which I'm sure will help me feel more prepared and ready for the experience. I think a lot about Genesis 3 and how it is part of the Curse that it is such an ordeal...but I also know that it is the most normal thing in the world, and the Lord designed our bodies so amazingly for this process to occur. We are planning for a natural birth, too, which can be a little bit intimidating. But after all of our research and discussion, we believe it will be the most rewarding way to do it--as temporarily painful as it may be! I am excited for the bonding experience it will be for our family, too...for all 3 of us. Kory coaching and comforting me, speaking Truth to me through it all....and the raw thrill we will have when we make it over the peak and behold our little one. I cannot wait for that moment!
Signing off now to go cook dinner and to await my darling husband's arrival home. Then Joel and Elizabeth are coming over for a game night! How blessed I truly am. :)
Much love--
BK
On the Sunday after Christmas Kory and I headed out to Columbus, OH, together for a joint trip for both business and visiting his family. He had been accepted to serve on the Grand Opening team for a new Chick-fil-A opening out there, so he essentially got paid to spend a week with his family (oh yeah...and to work about 43 hours that week, too). It was a great deal, though, because all of our travel expenses were paid for! Kory's immediate family was visiting in Columbus, as well, from Phoenix, AZ. What a wonderful week we had with them--playing lots of cards and games, eating tons of food, and of course laughing a LOT. We were also around a lot of little ones, which made us all the more excited for Baby Kaye to come!
We had a bit of an adventure coming back from Columbus on Sunday evening. First we hit some scary, snowy weather in southwestern PA which made the roads a bit slippery and our visibility obscured. Although I grew up in western PA and have driven in this kind of weather my whole life, we're both more on edge these days about driving in bad weather since we have a little one to protect. We prayed and inched along the roads, and before we knew it the weather and roads were completely clear--thank the Lord!
Then when we were about an hour away from home (so close!) one of our tires went flat, forcing us to pull over off the turnpike. We called for a tow truck, and after waiting for a little while we discovered that we actually had a spare tire in the back (totally my fault--I had mistakenly told Kory we didn't have one). Kory immediately ventured out into the cold and went to work to change it. He was about 3/4 of the way done when the tow truck finally showed up. Since my incredibly skilled husband had already pretty much remedied the situation, the tow truck guy very kindly filled all our tires with air, and we went on our way. We ended up getting home about 2-3 hours later than we had originally planned, but we were just thankful to be home safe and sound!
So now we are in the year 2010....Year of Baby Kaye, as I've been jokingly calling it. As I think back to the past year and reflect on how much life has changed (leaving the Ranch, getting married, moving to a new town, finding out we were pregnant), I know looking ahead to this coming year that there will be major changes as well--namely, having a baby! Talk about our world being turned upside down. My constant comfort in the midst of all the change continues to be the unchanging Rock of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am in awe that such a mighty, holy God would stoop to lift me out of the muck and mire of my sin (of which I continue to be more and more aware each day!) and give my feet a firm place to stand in Christ (Psalm 40:2). So no matter what transpires for us circumstantially, we can take comfort in remembering our eternal security and hope in Christ which cannot be shaken and our Abba Father's great love from which we cannot be separated. We are held in His mighty grip from which no one can pluck us. Thinking upon such Truths bolsters me to stand strong in the midst of whatever change or whirlwind the Lord leads me through!
It's good to be back with Jackson and Sydney after not having them for a week and a half. It's so neat, too, to hear them start articulating basic aspects of the Gospel that I've been trying to teach them. When I ask them why Jesus came, it's awesome to hear them say "He had to save us because we were dead." I then have to prompt them to remember what this kind of being dead means--dead in sin. But we're getting there! When I ask who sins, they usually say something like "Me!....And daddy...and you....and everyone!" When I start to feel like there isn't much purpose in my constant changing of diapers, heating up food, and monitoring play time, I am reminded of the eternal and ultimate value of teaching them these Truths and what a huge responsibility it is to do so. I am humbled at the thought of the role we will have with our own little one to teach and raise him/her to know the Lord, the Gospel, and the Truth of Scripture. I think of how imperfect and inadequate I am at teaching Jackson and Sydney now, and I am just so thankful that the Lord is the Sovereign One at work in these kids' (and our coming little one's) hearts.
In other news, I went to my first music team rehearsal last night at church. How refreshing to play my guitar and sing with other musicians in worship to our Lord again! I will actually be playing in church this coming Sunday, since one of their usual guitarists will be away. Then we will see where I can fit in--possibly continuing on guitar so that one of the guitarists can switch to bass. It had been a few months since I had picked up my guitar, and it's a little different now that I have such a baby bump sticking out! In fact, when I started playing, the vibration from my strumming was felt by our little one inside, and he/she started kicking away! I wonder if we have a little future musician in there who was already kicking to the beat....or maybe he/she was just saying "Mommy, what in the world is going on out there??" Haha.
I can't believe how quickly our due date is approaching. Now officially into my third trimester! I definitely have mixed feelings of excitement and slight anxiety at the thought of labor. I am looking forward to taking our 5-week child birth class starting in February, which I'm sure will help me feel more prepared and ready for the experience. I think a lot about Genesis 3 and how it is part of the Curse that it is such an ordeal...but I also know that it is the most normal thing in the world, and the Lord designed our bodies so amazingly for this process to occur. We are planning for a natural birth, too, which can be a little bit intimidating. But after all of our research and discussion, we believe it will be the most rewarding way to do it--as temporarily painful as it may be! I am excited for the bonding experience it will be for our family, too...for all 3 of us. Kory coaching and comforting me, speaking Truth to me through it all....and the raw thrill we will have when we make it over the peak and behold our little one. I cannot wait for that moment!
Signing off now to go cook dinner and to await my darling husband's arrival home. Then Joel and Elizabeth are coming over for a game night! How blessed I truly am. :)
Much love--
BK
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