I finally did it!

The thought of a blog has periodically popped up in my head for the past year. I've left it as a thought buried in the back of my mind, but it never fails to work its way up to my frontal lobes. I've been putting it off for a while because I was not sure what I would blog about. Not to mention the thought of all you English majors getting seemingly annoyed at all my grammatical errors. After months of pondering, I have decided that now would be the best time to start this blog. After all, I've come to the conclusion that nobody is being forced to read it and if it indeed starts to turn into something mundane, people can simply click out of this window and proceed with their lives. So here we go.....

My hope for this blog is not only to keep family and friends up to date with what is going on in our neck of the woods, but to offer words on faith, bitter honesty on life, love, and hopefully with some encouragement tossed in along the way.

As you know, I married my best friend a little over a year ago and life with Makia could not be any better. He is the husband that one could only dream of having, and I somehow managed to be the one that was blessed to become his wife. Our house is full of laughter each and every day as Makia and I are quite the characters. If our home was full of cameras, I think you all would be shocked by the level of goofiness that is obtained by us. The house has lately seemed extremely quiet and empty since Makia left on his deployment. Because we have so much fun together and simply enjoy every moment we share, it is that much more difficult every time he has to depart. This time however, it is much more difficult because we will be apart for roughly 200 days. Not to mention the following life changing events that will be occurring during these 200 days. They are as follows:

• I will be carrying/birthing our first child in February
• Makia will get to pin on Major
• We will more likely get served with papers for our next assignment (hopefully it's San Antonio)
• All the major holidays will be spent apart
• Makia will be assisting in finding Osama Bin Laden which will then prompt him to start writing his tell all novel

That last bullet point is just a joke as anyone that knows Makia understands his strong dislike of writing. So even if he were to assist in finding Bin Laden, we wouldn't be getting a book out of him.

It was May 10th when we got the horrible news that Makia would be doing a 179 day tour to Afghanistan flying the adventurous MC-12. After the numbness of the news wore off, our first thought was that I couldn't possibly get pregnant before he left. He would miss the birth of our first child and we couldn't have that happen. Little did we know that God had different plans for us. Our concern had already come to fruition on May 2nd.

The time passed quickly and then came June 10th. I was growing suspicious that something was going on with my body because Mother Nature had not come to pay her monthly visit.

Come the next day, I decided to take a home pregnancy test and sure enough it came out positive. The second we got the news, we were overjoyed and worries of Makia not being here for the birth dissipated. That part no longer mattered to us. We just felt blessed that God had entrusted us to be parents and we have strong faith in His will for us. A few months prior, I had been told that I would not be able to get pregnant for a while since I has been diagnosed with Graves disease and my thyroid was off kilter. Boy were those doctors wrong!!! The next set of news we received was from my endocrinologist. He said that we would be lucky for the baby to make it past the first trimester. I was considered a high risk pregnancy and because my thyroid was still out of balance odds of a miscarriage were high. It always helps to have a husband that has strong faith in Christ because at times like these, I can look at him and he is my earthly reminder that no matter what happens, Gods plan and purposes always prevail. After that day, I had no worries because I knew that it was not about what I wanted, but about what He wants for me.

I am now in my second trimester and Baby Epie has beat the odds. Makia got to see the ultrasound before he left on his mission and the baby created quite a show for him! The baby was kicking and dancing all around. The nurse could not get an accurate count of toes because he/she would not be still. At this point, I could care less if the baby has 6 or 7 toes. All I care about is loving and holding the baby when he/she makes its appearance into the world. I feel so blessed to be at this stage in my life and I count the days until Makia gets home to meet his little one!