HERM'S a KICKIN'

Well, tonight during an excellent Tim Burton movie, Alice in Wonderland, Ashley perks up and tells me, "I just felt the baby move a lot." For the very first obvious time, Ashley felt, whome we are calling HERM (mix of him and her cause we are not finding out the sex), kick, move, shove, fist bump, whatever in her belly. She was so excited, I got so excited (I wanted to stand up and let the whole theater know about it). It was a big day for us. Lord, please keep them both healthy, well, and close to you. Thank you so much!!

We're gonna have a baby!!

Well, its week seven and I thought I'd go public with the news. We're parents!

Ashley and I are so excited to announce this news to everyone. There are days that go by and days that are remembered. I want to share a few of the ones I will forever remember.

Test day.

Ashley walks up to me and says, with a serious face, "I think I am pregnant." I smiled huge, like the Jim Carey version of The Grinch. From ear to ear. I have never heard better news, well, I can compare it to her "yes" from Dec of 08. But this was amazing. And of course I say, are you sure? So we read up on things and bought a test, well, a few of them. Hers was very much positive and mine was not. Yep, I took a "control" test to be sure. :) In that moment we found out we were parents. I know there are a ton of opinions about whether or not you become parents just after taking a pregnancy test, and I have to say, God is good, and I felt like a father. Immediately. Something does happen and there is a child in her growing. Anyone who does not think this needs to loosen up in trying to control things. Something beautiful happens to your wife, and you feel a weight, but not a burden, not a negative thing, a good thing in your heart that changes you. I am feeling that still today as we go thru each day together.

Announcing days.

So what are our next steps... Do we tell people, yeah, then who? I will keep names out of this so there are no hurt feelings, but we told our community group leaders and some close neighbor friends... both with two babies of their own. They were so excited. We felt a little better being able to talk about it with someone, but it still didn't feel quite right. We prayed about telling our families over Christmas because we did not want to steal Jesus' thunder. That's really impossible, this just shows him even more. So, during our trip to Eastern KY we told the Sartaine's. They were so pumped. Then to my folks on Christmas day. Then the whole family on Saturday. All so very excited for us. Hugs all around.

This week.

So that was last week, and this week the sickness and fatigue have suppressed, but still on Ashley (heck, she's building a baby in her stomach). She is doing awesome. What a woman. Still herself, wanting to run, bike and stay on top of things, but this is a pretty big deal and she is starting to understand that fact. She will be able to do most of this (after talking to others and reading babycentral.com), but I have asked her to be cautious and be sure of things before she does it. She goes to the practitioner on Tuesday, so I'll be sending my list of questions with her. (Typically the man does not go to this, its just blood and paperwork) The big visit is later in the month. We hear the heartbeat and I'll be asking more questions then. :) Next steps for us is to contact our church about parenting steps. where we need to be and how they can support us.

Thankful days.

Some really big things have been going on in our financial decisions, I wont go into details, but good things that we are both very thankful for and of course things that will need to be adjusted.

All this for the good of our growing relationship with each other and now little Baby Hilton. Praise God!

Stay posted and I'll try to get to updates as I can.

CH