Blessed with pregnancy

The last post (the quiz) was an experiment to see if blogger would let me back - I haven't been able to publish anything for months!!!! I'm not sure how photos will go but I'll try them later.
For now, I have some catching up to do!

For starters, after over a year of praying for another pregnancy, we have our little miracle!!
On New Year's day, I gave each of our family a gift and, unbeknownst to the others, I bought myself a pregnancy test. You see, in Toowoomba, God showed me with what I can only describe as spiritual eyes, a belly on ME that was very much pregnant. I could barely believe it- I kept looking down and saying, "Are you sure God, really? Really? Are you showing me what's in there? Really?" Anyway, I kept this revelation to myself "pondering it in my heart" - afterall, I've been through two phantom pregnancies so who would believe me? Then on Christmas day, I asked Ally to put her hand on my tummy and smiled at her; she smiled and said that it could be wind; I agreed, smiling and decided to wait to test until New Year's morning. When the day finally came, I had a feeling of utmost relief when I saw the double stripe! I was also a little suspicious if the test was completely accurate (I think I was still trying to protect myself from the rollercoaster of disappointment). Added to this was an immediate curiosity about who was growing inside of me and a sense of deep-hearted praise for my heavenly Father... and then I had to smile - I used the computer to calulate my estimated due date - 9/9/09!! How cool!
I told Gary by showing him the test in the front of my new 2009 diary. At first, he didn't understand what the stripes meant but when I explained what was going on he said a smiley "Wow" and gradually increased in mischievousness throughout the morning eg giving some ridiculous (and some possible) name suggestions, declaring that we'd have to save for a new car now and that we'll really have to clear the spare room!
Gary decided he wanted to keep the news to ourselves for a while (not even telling Chloe and Declan) which was so hard. I did ask permission to tell Saminda, though, cause she knew I was waiting on results from a test this time. She was overjoyed and declared that she'd be here for me no matter what and forever. It was really hard not to tell anyone, and some guessed because of my utter exhaustion; I slept all day for 3 or 4 days at one point and I kept having a couple of sleeps each day over the holidays - the beauty of having Gary at home with the kids. Of course, now that school has gone back, I have to fit in with that, although Chloe starts on the bus toay and even wants to walk down the driveway herself (I imagined I'd be meeting her at the gate!! I think I'll still keep an eye open for her maybe from the bedroom window - maybe with a lens in front of my face:) - we'll see). Chloe said this morning that it doesn't matter anymore if I'm still asleep at pick up time cause I'll have some extra time; she'll be picked up at the front gate by Mark Bryant (bus driver, school chaplain and church friend) at 8:15am and dropped off again at 3:20pm - that's earlier than the time I usually leave school. Mind you, I'm going to miss the mums' comaraderi and connection time, and catching up with Gary after school, before heading home... we'll see how we go, I guess.

When we told Chloe and Declan after my doctor visit to confirm it, Declan didn't really understand but Chloe thought Gary was up to his usual joking way and said, "No we're not?!" It took a bit of convincing that we weren't joking and when she finally cottoned on; she was smiling and a bit shocked. Since then, the questions have been coming regularly and Declan has asked if there's really a baby growing inside my tummy, so I guess he's processing it in his own time and way.