a quick instagram update

what we have been up to these days..

studying mark via audio with rikk watts

drinking lots of (decaf) coffee

spending time with lovely friends

taking care of these two frenemies

keeping romance alive by spending valentines at ikea

taking part in the linsanity. mike likes to live out his nba dreams playing jlin on nba2k11

i started working and mike has been busy finding us a home which is not an easy task in the washington metro area. we are still very much in the waiting game -- waiting for mike's green card and a pastoral position, but doing well, despite my occassional kristin bell like meltdowns due to my pregnancy hormones. if you don't know what i am talking about, check it out here: http://youtu.be/t5jw3T3Jy70.

coming out of a funk

now that mike has updated you on how we are doing, i would like to let you know that...we are having a baby boy! we couldn't be more thrilled. after our miscarriage i couldn't help worrying everyday of the first trimester, but now i am at 21 weeks and everything seems to be going well.

the first trimester was rough. i was cranky (to put it lightly), nauseous, and exhausted every moment of everyday...not fun. can we all say, poor mike? i didn't feel like taking any pictures during this time, but mike insisted we document this stage. i can't believe i am posting these...but here goes..

this is how i ate most of my meals while i was at my parents' house -  in the basement, with my ugly blue robe that mike has come to hate, behind locked doors with ear plugs in my nose. i couldn't stand the smell of anything cooking, especially korean food, which happens to be my favorite. let me tell you, eating with your nose plugged is very difficult, even if it is just white rice and water. it's very hard to breathe and chew at the same time.

I hang my head in shame. Mike insisted in taking a picture of my outfit. Yes, I know, what was I thinking. I did go out in public dressed like this, but when you are throwing up, and feeling fat, who cares what you wear out, right?

Thank God I'm past that stage. Second trimester has been much better. For those of you who are wondering how the belly bump is progressing, here you go. I only wear the blue robe when I'm getting ready for bed, and I am actually wearing clothing and not sweats with sneakers.

Sporting jcrew's heart me sweater that may just have reached its maximum stretching capacity.

question for our readers, any thoughts on a name for our little boy? so far mike has come up with casper, cox cable, pickles, skelator, mario, luigi..and his current favorite, garfield...sigh...help me please.

the craziest nine months ever... part 3

craziest nine months continued...

we didn't mention this in any of our sabbatical updates because it was too early, but the truth is, just before we left vancouver for virginia, we found out that min was pregnant! talk about an unexpected surprise! though we were thrilled, this would force us to re-evaluate our sabbatical. should we stay in vancouver? what are we going to do about pre-natal appointments in the states without health insurance? if both of us don't have jobs, what are we going to do about income? YIKES!

we decided to stay the course, however. although we weren't able to do a majority of the things we wanted to because of min's morning sickness and discomfort, we were still able to have a lot of fun. again, i won't post the pictures (because min promises to do so), but let's just say there were definitely a lot of moments of levity in an otherwise pretty miserable three months of the first trimester (ie. ear plugs in the nostrils to block out smells, fashion dyslexia and a morbid fascination with a growing gut).

about three weeks into the sabbatical, we paused to make some decisions. the original plan was to stay in virginia for a month, go on a cruise with the parents, then to california for a month and then decide where we wanted to start our next chapter. the pregnancy changed all of that. we did some more marriage counseling which was actually really helpful for us. we identified the inability in our marriage to honestly say what we needed or wanted. i think both of us being first borns and accommodators, we didn't really know how to just say "help" or "i need you to ..." or "i would like...". so with the pregnancy, min was able to say, "i think i would like to be near my family for this first pregnancy and birth." - that was all it took. she was worried that we were overwhelmingly making this decision based on her needs, but i was actually pretty excited at the prospect of living and doing ministry in the east coast. and if pastoral ministry was where i was headed, min having a stable support network around her was only going to help. so that was that.

we changed our plans and decided to go on the cruise with both our parents as originally planned, then go to vancouver to pack up our stuff and tie up loose ends, then go to california solely to spend time with my folks and a few friends in LA, no scouting out ministry opportunities or schools.

the cruise, you can read about. vancouver was great. it was a blessing to be able to see many of our friends and celebrate with our communities there. one highlight was having one last breakfast with our accountability groups.

our church, living hope fellowship, prayed for us on sunday and then took us out for a big celebration at the local pizza joint. we felt loved and blessed and knew that we were not so much leaving as being sent. thanks to all our living hope friends!!

lastly, we took major steps towards selling my condo. i can't believe i first moved in there in 2005. it's been great, 405! we've been through multiple subletters, floods, being locked out at midnight, having my car towed from the front and listening to the smoke detector go off every time i cooked. good, good times. it's been a tremendous blessing and i will miss the last place i lived as a bachelor and the first place we in together as a married couple.

after leaving vancouver we headed to temecula, california. california was pretty chill. we mostly spent time with my folks and my aunt and uncle. christmas and new year's were low key affairs, but again, it's been a busy enough year.

thanks to our inter-varsity friends, awaiting us in temecula was another awesome gift certificate, this time to one of the local wineries. we had a fantastic lunch there and picked up some nice bottles of wine to bring back with us.

now we're back in virginia. the pod has been unpacked (thanks to the generosity of min's folks who allowed us to store our junk in their dining room!), green card process is underway, the job hunt is on and min has a regular ob/gyn she can go to for her prenatal appointments. we believe that by march a lot of our big question marks regarding employment and housing will be answered. we can only pray that is the case, however.

a few weeks ago min was reminded by a friend that around this time had the first pregnancy gone through we would have given birth to a new baby. that made us really, really sad. at the same time, had the first pregnancy gone through, our story would be very different at this point. better? worse? who knows. we can't decide those things. all we know is that along the way we have done the best we can to honor and love each other, allow others to speak into our lives and put the full force of our weight onto an invisible God that we believe in and trust with all that we are.

we look forward to this next stage of our journey that will hopefully involve a new baby, a new home, a new place to do ministry and a new community to journey with. we have no idea how long this next stage will last, but i know with every fibre of my being that the last nine months have been some of the most important in my life.