Dear Baby Frook... 2-4-2016

Well, baby! We are 19 weeks today, just one week away from being at the halfway point. Kind of crazy that I could meet you in just 21 weeks! Depending on when you decide to make your appearance ;)

You are already such a blessing to Daddy and I and we love you so much! According to my app you weigh 8 1/2 ounces and are 6 inches long, not counting your little legs. You are definitely growing. I think I might finally be getting the hang of this pregnancy stuff. I've been worrying a lot less and I seem to be feeling better everyday. Hopefully it continues! A new thing (well, it started about a week ago) is that now you can hear us. I am enjoying singing to you and knowing that you will recognize my voice when you enter the world. 

I've picked out a song just for you, "your song", because it holds the truth that I most desperately want you to know and I'm already praying that God will show it to you as you grow. I love singing it to you everyday and I think it will have to become part of our bedtime routine. We'll have to get Daddy to join in too!

~ Jesus is Alive ~

Who died, but came alive again? 

Who came to rescue you and win?

Who came to make all things brand new 

Who did it all for love of you? 

Who did this all for love of you? 

So sing and dance and leap and run 

His name is Jesus, little one. 

Sing and dance and leap and run. 

His name is Jesus, little one 

Ooohhh, ooooohh

Ooohhh, ooooohhhh

Sing and dance and leap and run. 

His name is Jesus, little one.

{Rain for Roots - Big Stories for Little Ones, featuring Ellie Holcomb}

Another exciting thing is that soon we will get to see you for the first time and finally find out if we should call you Abram or Eleanor! We can't wait to be able to use your name, it will be so special! And Mommy will finally be able to go crazy registering/getting gender specific baby stuff ;) That could be dangerous... 

What a joy you are, little one... 
Love, Mommy

Catching up

               2015 came and went without much activity on this little space, which I'm okay with. My life has kind of been a whirlwind and I don't think it will let up anytime soon!

So, here are some of the things that have happened. 

~ We officially started building our house! After quite a few delays because of the slow building department and the weather we are all set to get our foundation poured (as long as the weather stays nice long enough!). It might seem like we haven't gotten very far, I mean isn't the foundation the first step? Well, I have learned that a lot happens before you can pour and when the weather isn't cooperating, it takes a very long time to reach this point. Here is what has gotten done -

1. The lot was cleared and a lot of dirt brought in to raise our house up to the required level for drainage and stuff like that.
2. The area was formed so the concrete stays in the right place! 
3. Footers (a 20 inch deep, 12 inch wide trench around the outside of the house for where the walls will sit) were dug and re-dug and then re-dug after rain messed them up. 
4. All the underground plumbing for septic and hot and cold water was put in. I can now put plumber on my resume ;)
5. The shower was formed, plastic put down, and rebar was put in the footers.

We passed our inspection Monday, woohoo! So hopefully the slab will be poured this week.

~ I am 18 weeks and 5 days pregnant with the greatest blessing of our lives! I have had two appointments with our midwives and so far everything is going great. I've heard the little ones heartbeat both times and have officially passed morning sickness. The next huge step is our ultrasound! Which is scheduled for February 10th, just one week from tomorrow. Nathan and I can't wait to see Baby Frook and also as long as the baby cooperates find out if it is a little Eleanor or Abram, so excited! My gut feeling is girl, but I think 90% of that feeling comes from the fact that both Nathan and I really want one. Either way it will be amazing and exactly what we want!

I have started to feel the baby move which is amazing. I felt like I started feeling it around 16 weeks but it would be so random and only one little thing each time that I wasn't really ready to confidently say that I had. This past week it has definitely become more noticeable and usually I'll feel a couple little jabs in a row. It will be kind of nice once it is less random, but I am enjoying what I can feel for the moment. 

One thing I will say is that I really haven't had the pregnancy "glow" and most ladies I've said that to have agreed that they never did. My body just doesn't ever feel normal and I've had a lot of stretching out pain/discomfort, which doesn't really help my peace of mind. I feel like I am getting more used to the feeling and dumping all my worries on my midwife last appointment helped to reassure me that all these feelings are normal and has helped me worry less. So thankfully, the past week or so it has been easier. 

~ We have a new little niece in the family! Little Aubrey made her appearance January 27th and she is just the sweetest thing ever. We love having another little girl in the family!

~ At the end of this month Nathan and I are actually leaving our little apartment and moving in with his parents until our house is done. It might seem a little funny, but it really makes sense for us right now and we are both excited for the change.

It also means that I will be quitting my receptionist job in a week or so and I am definitely ready to close this chapter of my life. My mom did a little too good of a job raising me to be content at home =P (a great thing for wife and mommy-hood if you plan to be at home, which has always been our long term plan) and I am ready to be a stay at home wife and soon, mommy! 

So we are in the midst of packing everything up, kind of a big job! Although I think we've got a pretty good start on it. The hard part is finding time to move our furniture and other things we won't be needing to our storage unit when every weekend is already jammed pack with working on our house. It will all work out though =)

Well, I feel like those are all the big things at the moment. Maybe I will work on writing more often, I do still enjoy it! And it will be great for documenting my pregnancy and our new little baby. 

Until next time,

Jessica

Hopespoken and processing

                             

Almost a year ago, my sister Jaquelyn snagged us a couple of tickets for Hopespoken, a Christian women's conference about sharing our hope in Christ. For the entire weekend of the conference last year, our IG feeds exploded with picture after picture of this beautiful conference, it literally looked like the most fun thing in the entire world! 

In reality I almost didn't get to go. Because Nathan and I would be married by the time I would go, he was just going to get my ticket after work the day that they came out. I had no clue that they would be gone so quickly and I didn't see a problem with waiting. Well, at midnight, when Jaquelyn was getting hers, she decided she might as well get mine just so she could be sure we could go together. It is a good thing she did! By 10am (probably earlier) that morning they were sold out =O 

It seemed like Hopespoken would never get here. We were looking forward to it for so long! But, it did, and it is actually over as of Sunday. To be honest I have a lot of mixed emotions about this past weekend. It was full of excitement, nervousness, new people, noise, speakers, and exhaustion. I have been processing in myself and verbally to Nathan and family since we got back, so I wanted to record some of those things here :) This post will be all the things that I loved while at Hopespoken; maybe eventually I'll post about the things that I didn't really agree with. 

So, what I really enjoyed! 

1. We survived the flight there and back! It was only the third and fourth flights of my life and my first ones without Nathan, so I was pretty nervous. At least Jaquelyn was there! The only hiccup was, when we were at Tampa airport their machine did not want to take my boarding pass, even though all the info was right. Thankfully they just let me through! 

2. We were able to meet the most wonderful people! Some that we had purposefully set out to meet since we follow them on IG, and others that we had never heard about before. 

Two of those women were the sweetest ever, and it was just so crazy wonderful to meet them. They were actually on the shuttle we took from the airport, but in the very back so we didn't really have any contact. When they were dropped off Jaquelyn and I had a hunch they were there for the conference since they were staying in the same hotel, but we were going across the street, so again, no contact. It just so happened that that night at dinner, they came and sat down next to us. After a few minutes we both kind of realized that we had been on the same shuttle! We hung out with them the whole weekend, and it was so great. They are sisters as well, the oldest and second oldest like Jaquelyn and I, and both their names start with J! Jenni and Julie. We were the J posse the whole weekend ;) 

I also had the pleasure of meeting some ladies who I have "stalked" =P on IG pretty much as long as I have had an account. The wonderful Stephanie Holden, her daughters - Elizabeth, Lydia, and Lauren - and her newest granddaughter, Hazel! It was so wonderful to meet all of them. I was only able to get a picture with Stephanie and Lydia though :)

Also a sweet lady named Rachel (sadly no picture...), plus a few others as well!

3. Saturday night we had things called share groups. Basically there were groups with different categories and you could choose to go to one so you could meet other ladies in your season of life. I guess last year they only had a few categories which left a lot of ladies out. Thankfully they seemed to catch the mistake and had lots of options this year! I went to the married without children group, and there were about 10 other ladies. Goodness, it was so fun and encouraging! Rachel and Lydia were there, and all the other women were just so sweet! We talked about our husbands, our stories, hard parts about marriage, date nights, the wonderful things about marriage, future children, and just got to know each other. I ended up crying when I started talking about Nathan, I missed him so much! Thankfully they didn't mind ;)

4. Ruth Simons and Stephanie Holden's sessions. Ruth's was on finding your identity in Christ, who He is and what He has done, rather than self-esteem in yourself. Recently I've been thinking about the dangers in self-esteem since it was brought up in our parenting class, so it was refreshing to hear her speak. 

Stephanie's session was called "the story of Grace upon Grace". She shared some of her recent story with her newest granddaughter and youngest daughter moving, etc. and also read through and shared on Romans 12. It was wonderful for her to spend so long in an entire passage of scripture and she is just the sweetest, most gracious woman who is so content in what God has called her to. 

5. The market. The market was so fun and I was able to meet a sweet lady I follow on IG. Love all the handmade things! I bought a cute tassle necklace and also some cards.

6. The fact that the music team that led had a guy playing the cello - that was pretty cool!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend - there are ton up on Hopespoken.org that are way better than mine as well. The room was dark almost the whole weekend, which was great for the mood and also extremely pretty, but horrible for Iphone pics ;)

Well, that's all for this post! Not sure when another part will be coming, I still have a long way to go before I finish it. 

Until next time...

Jessica

6 Months and a little more...

On the twentieth of this month, Nathan and I celebrated our 6 month-iversary. Like I always say, I can't believe it's already been this long and I can't believe it's only been this long. 

It definitely wasn't my ideal way to celebrate, because Nathan was off and I was working... But! I am glad that he had the day to rest and relax, and he did so much stuff around the house for me =) 

In honor of our 6 months, I'd thought I would share some of my marriage thoughts with all of you.

1. Marriage: it brings out the best in us and the worst, but the best part I could think of is that I have someone who knows me better than I even know myself, has promised to love me forever no matter what, and daily shows me what that means. I am not perfect (shocker! =P) and I let my sinful, fleshly self, control my actions and moods way more than I want to admit. But, Nathan loves me selflessly and forgives me even when I'm a huge stinker. And by God's grace I do the same with him. 

2. Forgiveness and dealing with anger/conflicts quickly is vital. When God says not to let the sun go down on our anger, (Ephesians 4:26), He is telling us to resolve it as quickly as possible with the one we are angry with. In marriage, anger and conflict happen, because we are humans with an old sin nature. Maybe my anger is well merited, most of the time it's not, but either way I am called to initiate healing. Sadly, there are times I wait until Nathan initiates it, but I am so glad he does. We can only do that because of our new nature in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit! When you can deal with issues and then forgive each other quickly, life is so much sweeter and your selfless love grows.

3. Nathan IS the most perfect soul mate, provider, protector, husband for me! The longer we are married, the more in awe we are at how perfect we are for each other and the more thankful we are that God brought us together in His marvelous way. Seriously guys, I cannot think of any other person that would be silly with me, talk with me, live with me, and much more, the same way Nathan does. I know some people may argue with me that there isn't THE one, it's just whoever I choose to love, etc... But I don't know, I feel like Nathan is an argument against that! Don't get me wrong though, I also know that even as we grow older and change, he will still be THE one for me, and I will love him and choose him forever and ever. 

4. Marriage is sanctifying. It is definitely smoothing away our rough edges slowly but surely. =)

5. Marriage has to be intentional. We have to be intentional about spending time with each other, we have to be intentional about putting each other first, we have to be intentional with putting Christ first, we have to be intentional with loving each other better every day. And I think that's part of what makes it so sweet.

6. A Covenant marriage is AWESOME! Nathan brings me so much joy, fun, and love... He is with me through all the wonderful ups and the hard downs, he is my best friend, his arms are my favorite place, and getting to go to sleep with him each night and wake up with him every morning is beyond incredible (even when I'm grumpy ;) - I couldn't imagine my life without him. 

I love you Nathan Brian, and I always will!

Until next time...
Jessica

Reading through the Bible - Leviticus

For me, when I hear "Leviticus" it immediately brings to mind blood, sacrifices, laws upon laws, etc. It is so easy to simply skim through and think, well these things don't apply to me because of Jesus, so why should I spend a lot of time on them? 

BUT, this time I wanted it to be different. I wanted to be intentional in digging deeper and asking the Holy Spirit to teach me through this book. So, as I have waded my way through the first 7 chapters (yes, I am pitifully behind if you are following the She Reads Truth plan that I am...) I have been awestruck at all God has been showing me! And I wanted to pass on some of the things =)

The first three chapters are about burnt offerings, grain offerings, and peace offerings. In other words, all non-sin offerings.

Listen to the following verses:

Leviticus 1:17b - "It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma

to the Lord."

Leviticus 2:2b - "a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord."

Leviticus 3:5b - "it is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord."

Sense a theme? After every single instruction for these sacrifices it says that it is a "Pleasing aroma to the Lord" That immediately brought to mind the verse in Romans and also a few in 2 Corinthians. 

Romans 12:1 - "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual worship."

2nd Corinthians 2:14-17 - "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death,

to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity,

as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ."

Under the New Covenant, through Jesus' sacrifice, I am no longer bound by these sacrifices or called to follow these instructions, BUT as a child of the one true God, I am called and equipped to live my life as a living sacrifice and an aroma to God and others around me of Christ. Interestingly, this phrase is not found in the next 4 chapters as God gives instructions for sin offerings. For me, it reminded me that living as a sacrifice and aroma is NOT how I am saved or how I gain forgiveness, it is the result of coming to God through the one Way, Jesus, who alone can save.

When I read the below verses, my mind instantly went to the Holy Spirit -

Leviticus 6:12-13 -The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out.

The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange

the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings.

 Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

From somewhere in my mind fire connected with the Holy Spirit and I couldn't help picture how in the same way I am not to quench the Holy Spirit in my life.

1st Thessalonians 5:12-28 - "We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. Brothers, pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."                          

(Sorry, I couldn't help but put all of that in ;)

Since I wasn't too sure if connecting  the Holy Spirit with fire was actually biblical, I went searching and found these quotes. (Warning: I do not know much about these bible teachers, so if you start to research them or read more of their writings, do not take this as an endorsement for all of their beliefs. Diligently search scripture for yourself in order to make sure what they say is true. For me, these quotes matched up with scripture and I didn't find any glaring untruths, so I am willing to share them because of the light they shed on this particular topic.)

"...it is perfectly Scriptural to speak of one who is filled with the Holy Spirit as being "on fire for God." It certainly was in order when the Emmaus disciples spoke of their hearts burning when Jesus spoke with them. Luke 24:32, "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?" John Wesley used to say, "I just set myself on fire and folks come to watch me as I burn."
Fire is chosen to symbolize the Holy Spirit, no doubt, because of what it does. Fire burns out the dross. Fire gives light. Fire gives warmth. Oh, to be on fire for God! May the fire fall for us as it did in Elijah's day! May people who hear us have burning hearts! May we be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire! May the Word of God burn in our hearts like unto fire!" Pastor Jack Hyles

"At Pentecost, the Bible says that tongues as of fire appeared over the heads of each of those who gathered together (Acts 2:3).  The Holy Spirit comes as fire to work something deep into the substance of our lives that will shape things around us, rather than us taking on the shape of the world. As fire, He works in a dual way: to probe the inner recesses of our life and to refine us as gold or silver is refined in the fire; and to temper our personalities by causing there to be the penetration of fire into our system.The purifying fire burns out the Adversary. When the three Hebrew children were thrown into the furnace, not only were their lives spared, but also their clothes didn't burn. But the ropes holding them in bondage burned. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit being “a spirit of judgment and burning” (Isa. 4:4). Judgment has to do with deliverance, in the way the judges of Israel led people out of bondage. The Holy Spirit, coming like fire, burns away any binding grip that the Enemy has imposed on us." Jack Hayeford

As the fire in the altar was to be continually burning, so must I continually ask and allow the Holy Spirit to work in my daily life. It also brings to mind continual confession. The altar was used in huge part for sin offerings, and it was to be continually ready for that. In my own life, am I continually confessing sin? Is my heart always ready to recognize and take care of sin? (1st John 1:9, John 13 - a picture of daily confession.)

Right now I am about to dive into chapter 13 of Leviticus, and there is so much more I would like to share! But I think that should wait for another time =) I have really enjoyed reading Matthew Henry's commentaries (free online) for each chapter, and it has helped me so much in digging deeper with this book!

Until next time...
Jessica 

Our Reception!

Well, here it is everyone! The last installment of wedding posts - kind of bittersweet, you know? But, it is exciting to finally have all of these beautiful pictures posted! I cannot say enough how wonderful it was to have Melissa from A&M Photography taking our photos. She's kind of become the Sowers/Tubbs/Frook family photographer, and I look forward to her documenting lots of milestones for Nathan and I!

I am so pleased with how everything turned out for our reception. Both of our families worked hard to make my vision a reality and I think it was a big hit!

The main "attraction" (other than the bride and groom of course ;) was our waffle bar! People could choose to grab an already done waffle or try their hand at one of three waffle irons. Then there were lots of topping to choose from - jams, chocolate, powdered sugar, syrup, whipped cream...

For our cake we did brownies. I am definitely a brownie person, I would choose it over cake any day! For the couples cake, I made three heart shaped brownies from some cake pans I got at Joanns, stacked them on top of each other and dusted them with powdered sugar. Our cake toppers were penguins! Nathan has loved penguins for forever and that means I love them too. They have kind of been our thing for as long as we've been together, so it just made sense. When I was looking for some, I found the cutest ones ever on etsy, but with a price tag of $125, they were WAY out of my budget! I have dabbled with clay over the years and some might say I was pretty good at it, so I decided to go ahead and give it a try! Not sure everyone was super confident they would turn out, but in the end I'm pretty sure they were one of my favorite parts of our whole wedding!

For favors, we had a candy bar with little bags for people to fill up. I spent the 9 months before our wedding scouring goodwill for all the different containers and even recruited Nathan's sisters! I love the ones we found and the old fashioned vibe it brought.

Alright, so now for how all this went down ;) my cousin, Daniel, graciously agreed to me our MC and he was wonderful! After we all walked down the aisle we waited for about 10 min. so that the food could be brought out and just so we could have a breather. Sarah fixed my hair some and took out my veil and then it was time for our entrance. We went ahead and made the rounds, saying hi to everyone and thanking them for joining in our celebration, and then it was time for our first dance.

We danced to "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perry. Yes, yes, I know it is technically a twilight song, but I have never seen the movies, I've just heard it, practically everywhere and I literally felt that exact way while Nathan and I were long distance courting. It brings me to tears every time I listen to it! It was perfect. 

And yes, I sang it to him ;) 

Then we cut the cake while my cousins helped Nathan's Mom set up the wedding party's table.

We all got a chance to eat and fellowship before the speeches were made. 

Jaquelyn and Hayden were our Matron of Honor and Best man - they both did a great job sharing and it was so wonderful to hear from them! They have meant a lot in our lives, especially mine.

After the speeches and a little more milling about, we were ready to blow that place ;) 
Of course the groomsmen, plus certain brides cousins took it upon themselves to decorate our car. It was pretty funny because Nathan and his whole family are AVID Gator fans and Seminoles have NO part in anything ;) Well played, well played.

Sadly it was raining so hard I think it all washed off after a few minutes. 
For our send off, everyone was able to grab a bag of sprinkles!

I had thought of that idea because I didn't really want bubbles, but I wanted something that would be biodegradable. I thought I was so original until I Pinterest'ed the idea ;) 

One of my favorite things about the send off pictures is zooming in and seeing all of the different faces. I think Daniels, Stevens, (Both cousins) were some of the best. They look so happy for us -Blush Face-

It made for some pretty cool pictures, but who knew sprinkles could get so many places! See my hair up there? Well there were even more sprinkles in every place imaginable, including every little fold in my dress, of which there were many! We still had sprinkles on our floor when we got back from the honeymoon. And who knew sprinkles stain! =O I obviously wasn't thinking too clearly when I was planning this... Oh well! All those stains on my dress are just memories. ;)

Then all that was left was to ride off into the sunset, er... Rainstorm. It was fabulous and perfect and lovely and fun all rolled into one package!

Thanks for sticking around as I made my way through all these posts! It was wonderful remembering all the details and emotions of our big day. We also have a video which I would love to share, except I need to figure out how to edit it down to just moments, unless you really want to watch the entire hour or so =P So whether or not I will share will depend on if I figure all of that out. 

Until next time...

Jessica