In Alaska!

So my younger brother (separated by 2 years) is getting married tomorrow to a lovely woman named Serena.  Those two adore each other, and are absolutely sickening  adorable by how glued they are to each other when in the same place.  =)  Though we got little warning this wedding was taking place (they decided about three weeks ago to get married tomorrow), I'm not sure Daniel could glow any more if he tried.  Let's just say there is some major twitterpation happening.

The colors of the wedding are purple and black.  Serena's sister Susanna is the maid of honor, while Daniel's friend Wiley is the best man.  Skyla and Cambria, Jenny's (our sister) girls, are the flower girls.  I've been put in charge of making sure Skype on my computer works so that our parents, who were unable to make it here from Arizona on such short notice, will be able to view the ceremony.  Harvey Fiskeau, the pastor of a church that we used to go to when living in Nome, has flown down here to officiate.

The ceremony is being held at Thousand Logs church in Palmer, and the inside of it looks like the inside of a log cabin...very neat.  We hung bows and such the other day, and are returning to the space today to get decorations in place for the reception area downstairs.  Daniel is nervous and giddy, as any groom should be. Hard to believe my little brother is going to be a groom!

Oy vey...

....wit da poodles already!!

Morning sickness my eye - this is more like "all day, whenever" sickness...and sleep isn't even sacred.  Argh.  Dahmon bought me some wrist bands that have a plastic knob that apply pressure to some pressure points in my wrist that help the nausea go down...thank God!  Healing pressure points are wonderful things.

You know what has me in awe right now?  According to websites, our baby is about the size of a grape (we'll know more when we go in for the ultrasound on the 8th).  I didn't even know it was growing within me until last Monday, and already its little nervous system, circulatory system, and every other system is well under way.  If the one nurse is right and I'm at 9 weeks, then this baby's heart is already beating!  How unreal to imagine that the heart of another is beating within my uterus and one cannot even tell from looking at me yet that I'm even with child.  

It is absolutely mindblowing to think about how God orchestrates a birth.  I don't know how to feed and nourish an in utero child, but God has created my body such that it does exactly what it needs to do exactly when it needs to do it in order for this child to grown and be born healthy.  Its DNA looks completely different than mine, it is a completely different person than me, and yet I get to be a part of its creation.  God allows me to be a part of the creation of one of his precious children - how cool!!

I'm just continually in awe right now about how I don't need to tell my body what to do (wouldn't even know where to begin), but it does exactly what it needs to.  I can't even speak to my child yet, but its cells are doing exactly what they need to in order to create the systems that need to be in place.  Nothing but God and DNA are telling our mutual bodies what to do in order to function together symbiotically.

Okay, I'm ill (being married means sharing germs with your spouse, and Dahmon was super sick last week - my turn) and super tired from being sick and pregnant, and I don't think this post is capturing what I really mean.  Oh well.  Time for a nap.

We're expecting!!

*deep breath*

On Monday, I peed on a stick and an extra little pink line appeared.  My eyes got big, I went upstairs to the bedroom and showed Dahmon.  Dr's appointment was made for that afternoon, which confirmed - we are expecting our first child in March/April of next year!

The nurses I've been talking to have been disagreeing about how far along the baby is - either 4-6 weeks or 9 weeks.  The only thing for sure is that the baby would be visible to the naked eye at this point, the heart is beating, and I've definitely been feeling some symptoms - though I think since I run a lot the symptoms are lesser than they could have been.  (Note: the nurse said that I can keep running (yay!) so long as I pay attention to my body and the baby and listen when they say slow down.  No more pushing for time).

Parents on both sides are ecstatic.  Angela Fronsoe (friend from college, maid of honor at our wedding) was screaming for a full minute when told.  We've received many well wishes and congrats on Facebook (my status was OVbunEN, Dahmon was much more straightforward and just said that we are pregnant).  We're excited....and terrified!


We're living in a 3 - bedroom house in Minneapolis with Jessy and Alex, two girls we know from school and work respectively.  Our bedroom is basically the entire upstairs of the building, so we'll rearrange furniture so the baby can have one half of the room while we get the other half - for the first year / few months it will be just fine.

Oh baby!