Ultrasound Update!

We had an incredible ultrasound today! I have to say our doctor's office has become like family to us. They have been with us through the good, the bad, and the ugly & still greet us with a smile when we walk through the door. You know you call WAY too much when everyone in the office knows you by name! I have been good though...I haven't called to ask a question in THREE week!! That is good for me:)

First and foremost, Copelyn is still a GIRL! We took the chance and told everyone we were having a girl after 16 weeks knowing there would be a slight chance they could be wrong. We were relieved when Copelyn gave us a clear shot and we could tell for sure she was a girl! Good thing because her room is already pink, she already has monogrammed clothes, and her bedding is pink! We would have been in trouble!

Copelyn was perfect! She had ten fingers, ten toes, and the cutest little nose. She also had long legs & quite the little butt! She wouldn't be my child though if she didn't have some kind of butt! Sorry Copelyn it just runs in our family! All of her organs looked perfect! It amazes me every time I see her! I am so thankful God intricately designed her to make her unique in his image. I think he did a great job!

We got a lot of images today but I didn't have time to scan them so here is some taken with my phone! I will post more later!

And here is our spoiled puppy! She has a reality check coming in the next few months when she realizes she isn't an only child anymore! Oh good lord!

20 weeks!

I can't promise I will be a faithful blogger every week but I will try! Week 20 has been busy. Like I said before I NEVER SIT DOWN! Right now my rotation is in Nutritional Support at a big hospital in the Atlanta Area. I am in the ICU a lot and it is just emotionally/physically demanding each and every day. I am pretty sure that today I walked at least 6 miles up stairs and around the hospital. Copelyn doesn't move much on days like today. I think she is probably just trying to sleep through it all. I can't say I really blame her!!

Scott has been working very hard to get the nursery painted. We put the bead board up for our first baby back in January so that has been done for quite some time. Now it just needs to be painted off white! I insisted that the walls be a light green or yellow but Daddy said NO WAY! He had to have pink! And honestly I am too exhausted to even put up a fight so I just gave in. Pink it is! Here is a picture of a corner of her room:) The rest was too messy to take a picture of at the moment.

And all of her bedding came in! Most of it is in boxes but I opened up some of it just to get a peak!

And of course her very first outfit I bought! It is nothing special but I just love the ruffle butt pants!

All week at the hospital people have been asking me "how far along I am!?" I love when they do this because this gives me the opportunity to brag on my Copelyn! And share my story. I am sure half these people don't want to know everything that we have gone through since February but I don't really care! haha I just feel like God uses me with our story so I will keep telling it!

Yesterday, we visited some friends at the hospital. One of them had just had their sweet baby girl! As we were leaving the hospital and paying our parking ticket the lady asked if we would be coming back? I don't know what came over me but I yelled, "YES in 20 weeks!." She said, "Wow, you are really excited!" I am very excited! I just can't wait until February! I am so thankful for the miracle God has created!

Tomorrow we have an ultrasound at 2:30pm. Just like any other ultrasound I am fearful. I have spent a lot of time praying over this the past week. I don't want to be scared to go see our baby on the ultrasound! I want to be excited and happy! I know so many of you are praying for us and trust me we feel it! Please pray though tonight and tomorrow for our baby and that she is healthy! Also, pray I can enjoy an ultrasound for once and not close my eyes.

I hope you all have a good week! I will update tomorrow or Friday with Copelyn's ultrasound!

James 1:2-4 Dear brothers and sisters when troubles come your way consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, Your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Here is a 20 week belly picture!

19 weeks

Well we are almost half way there! Yay! We have been quite the busy bees lately. I feel like I never sit down anymore which could be a good thing for my bootie in the long run. This past weekend I convinced Scott, my mother in law, my father in law, and my dad to go on a hike to Amicola Falls. This hike is so beautiful! If you get a chance you should go! It starts with a 650 stair climb to the top where you then pick up the trails. We chose the 8 mile trail. It was so funny because the WHOLE time the men complained and the women on the other hand did not utter a word! The three men even stopped these two old ladies and asked them for food. haha. Men can be babies!

Copelyn and I are doing just great! She started kicking me last night. It made me so excited! She did it once a few times so then I laid on my back to see if I could get her to do again. Come to find out little Copelyn doesn't like to do things that she doesn't want to do. Hmmmm....maybe she has her daddy in her a bit!? It was the best feeling ever! Then this morning she did it again. I get up at 4:45am every day to go exercise. (which she may pay me back for once she is here) I was listening to my worship music loud this morning and all of a sudden she started moving again! Ahh I just love it!

I have started to get into nesting mode. I have decided I will clean out every closet in this house! We have gotten all of Copelyn's furniture and most of her basic bedding which I am so excited about. We are going to start painting the walls tomorrow! We decided on light pink walls much to my discretion. But sweet daddy just had to have PINK, PINK, and more PINK in his baby girls nursery. I couldn't fight him much on that. Here is a picture of her bedding:

I have decided to monogram pretty much everything of Copelyn's! I don't think she will ever have trouble remembering her name or her initials for that matter. I guess that is the southern girl in me.

On another note, I wanted to speak on fear and God. On our hike Saturday I was reminded of a conversation I had not too long ago with a very wise Godly woman in my life. I had called her and asked her if she thought everything would be okay with the baby. I was so fearful of something happening again that I needed SOMEONE to just tell me YES. The reality is I was ignoring God with this issue. I didn't really want to ask him if everything was going to be okay. Don't get me wrong I prayed for our baby every single day and asked for him to protect my child and make the heart beat strong. I guess you could say I was embarrassed to go to him and just say, "Look...I am fearful...I am weak...and I truly am doubting if everything will be okay. Will you please just calm my heart and calm my fears?" I thankfully have someone in my life who loves me enough to not just tell me YES. Instead, she told me that she was NOT God so of course she could not guarantee me or anyone for that matter that everything in life will be okay. The one thing she could guarantee was that fear DOES NOT come from God. It comes from Satan.

I learned that day that I couldn't let fear control me. If I did not pray it out of me I was going to teach my child fear when she was born. I did not want my child to fear. For me, this all started with the miscarriage. So then now that I was pregnant again I feared something could happen in the pregnancy. Then if this continued I would fear once the baby got here that something would happen. You get it...it would be this awful cycle. I would end up having fear for my child for the rest of her life.

Even though I have not perfected this I have chosen to give this issue to God. I am so thankful he loves me and knows I am not perfect. He will shape me daily and I know eventually I will break free of this fear. Praise Jesus!

Here is my belly at 19 weeks:)

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd;I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Gender Reveal Party

When we found out we were pregnant on June 7 we held back every bit of excited emotion. We told ourselves we would not allow our hearts to grow attached until 12 weeks. Well, this is kind of hard to do when God's miracle is growing inside of you. Instead of buying baby clothes or anything baby for that matter...We prayed. We always pray but we knew that all the fear in our hearts could only be handled by one person and that is Jesus. He calmed our hearts and reminded us daily that he designed this little one inside of me.

Then we hit 12 weeks and I thought all the fear would go away. Ha! No not at all. I was waiting for the moment it would all just click and I would jump for joy for the blessing God had given us.

Then around 13 weeks when I was working in the NICU I had one of the doctor's tell me..."Lauren at some point you have to give God COMPLETE control. You need to talk to your baby and tell it that you are so excited!" So I did this.

And we then decided to have a gender reveal party! Some people thought we were crazy but we thought we were cool! haha. Our idea behind it all was to have over all of our family & close friends who prayed with us and were there for us during such a rough time. We wanted to give them thanks in someway. And what better way then to have them over, cook tons of food for them, and tell them the gender of our peanut!

So if you know me at all I am a bit of an Extremist as my sweet mom would say! (I get this from her) When we do something we usually go ALL out. So this all started with designing our invitations.

Then came the center of it all...The cake! We are blessed to have two very special friends who offered to have the cake made for us. It was more than I could have ever imagined. I told her the kind of design I wanted and she went from there!

And the best part was when the grandparents cut inside it was PINK!

Then of course the outside had to be decorated! My wonderful mother made all the bows!!

I tried to create a great menu with food everyone would like! We did Barbeque Chicken Sandwiches, Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Pasta Salad, Sausage Balls, Pigs in a Blanket, Buffalo Chicken Dip, Guacamole, Mexicorn Dip, and Islander Cheese Spread. Thankfully, I had some help from great friends with some of the food!

Here are some of our guests! Unfortunately I did not get a picture of nearly half of them!

Then of course there is Copelyn! If you can't tell she is in my belly!

So all in all, our party was so much fun! We learned very quickly yesterday though that our house is not big enough to hold over 50 people for a party! Next party we have we will make sure to have the backyard done so we can fit more people! We feel so incredibly blessed for all the prayers, love, support, and guidance we have received over these past months. God provided abundantly in every way possible! Praise Him!

It's a....

Well after a week of holding it in, the cake has finally been cut! And we can announce that our sweet baby is a GIRL! Ahh it feels so good to say it out loud! This post is going to be for how we found out and then I will post later about our gender reveal party!

Last Friday (September 2) Scott & I went to get an ultrasound from this place in Cumming, Georgia. Our appointment was at 4pm and it seemed like the hours just dragged along throughout the day. We brought my dad to this appointment as well because he had been wanting to see an ultrasound. We all showed up & I was wearing yellow...Scott was wearing blue...and my dad was wearing pink! Honestly, none of us planned it that way. As I laid on the ultrasound table I did my normal routine...I closed my eyes tight and waited for someone to tell me the baby was fine. Once I heard those words I opened my eyes and watched our active little peanut on the screen. The ultrasound lady was making small talk and asking us what we were hoping for. Scott immediately said "Boy" and then he followed it with I just know that is what it is. She kind of smirked. About 5 minutes later, Copelyn decided to cooperate and turn so we could see what she was. The lady said, "Well Sir, I am afraid you are wrong. Looks like your baby is a girl." I was ecstatic and shed a few tears. And then I turned to Scott & he had a grin from ear to ear.

This past week has been kind of hard trying to hide it from everyone but I have to say I wouldn't have had it any other way. The party turned out wonderful and now we can celebrate and scream to the heavens...WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!

Copelyn Reese Urbizo will be making her entrance around February 14, 2012. Daddy has already set a few rules into place for the sweet little one. She can't date until at least 35. She can't talk to boys. She has to wear a one-piece to the pool. She has to love her daddy more than her mommy.:) haha

In all reality though, we feel so blessed. Our prayer is for a healthy, happy baby. We also pray for her future and that she has a relationship with her Lord & Savior each and everyday of her life. We pray that we can be wonderful parents to her and even though we know we won't always meet her expectations we pray she will love us unconditionally as we do life together.

We ask that you continue to pray for us and our little one! Thank you all! Yay!

Authentic Friendships

As I walked into my rotation this morning (kind of dreading the day) I received an email from a very close friend. Don't get me wrong I truly love my preceptor and rotation right now but I have been dreading the day I had to step foot into the adult ICU since my first year of pharmacy school. I honestly couldn't figure out for the longest time why it bothered me so much. The smallest, tiniest babies in the NICU didn't bother me at all but when it came to the big people it just got under my skin. I finally narrowed it down in prayer one night. I have a very hard time because I am not totally sure that all the adults have salvation whereas the babies I know for sure are going on to be with Jesus if it is their time to go.

So when I got this email this morning I was racing through my mind with negative thoughts. And then I was reminded how blessed I am with great friendship and even on days when I doubt my ability to face my fears & push through them I have people behind me praying for me that love me! Authentic Friends are so very important. Rick Warren does a good job of explaining this below. I hope you are encouraged.

Authentic Friendships
by Rick Warren

But if we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other. Then the blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from every sin. If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:7-8 NCV)

In Christian fellowship people should experience authenticity.

Authentic fellowship is not superficial, surface-level chit-chat. It’s genuine, heart-to-heart, sometimes gut-level, sharing.

It happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives. They share their hurts, reveal their feelings, confess their failures, disclose their doubts, admit their fears, acknowledge their weaknesses, and ask for help and prayer.

Authenticity is the exact opposite of what you find in many churches. Instead of an atmosphere of honesty and humility, there is pretending, role-playing, politicking and superficial politeness, but shallow conversation.

People wear masks, keep their guards up, and act as if everything is rosy in their lives. These attitudes are the death of real friendship.

It’s only as we become open about our lives that we experience authentic fellowship. The Bible says, “If we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other.… If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves” (1 John 1:7–8, NCV).

The world thinks intimacy occurs in the dark, but God says it happens in the light. We tend to use darkness to hide our hurts, faults, fears, failures and flaws. But in the light, we bring them all out into the open and admit who we really are.

Of course, being authentic requires both courage and humility. It means facing our fear of exposure, rejection and being hurt again.

Why would anyone take such a risk?

Because it’s the only way to grow spiritually and be emotionally healthy. The Bible says, “Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed” ( James 5:16a, Msg).

Wisdom for Mom's Part 1

Title: Play Wisdom for Moms 1 - Living Proof with Beth Moore

Link: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/living-proof-with-beth-moore/player/wisdom-for-moms-1-104123.html

A few weeks ago my Mother in Law sent all of her daughter in laws & daughter the sermon series titled How Wisdom Looks on a Wife. After listening to the whole series I decided to explore more into Beth Moore's sermons. It was totally a God thing that I stumbled across the Wisdom for Moms series. My prayer ever since I became pregnant was that I would be the best mother & example for our child. Then I found myself asking God...how do I do this? I know I will never be perfect. But I have found if I read my bible, live a life that leads by example for my children, and always put God & my husband first I will be a great mother to my sweet baby. I just thought I would share this wonderful sermon with all of you mom's and soon to be mom's.

It's the Little & Big Prayers...

God answers so many of my prayers both big and small.

For the past 4 years since I left Auburn I have prayed I would find someone who loved to exercise and would want to run/do the elliptical with me! I get pretty bored very easily and it is so nice to have someone to talk to. I was pretty spoiled at Auburn because I had two wonderful women who loved to run and we pretty much ran every day! Well, 4 years later God FINALLY answered this prayer! yay! For the past two weeks, I have been meeting my new friend Katie at 5am every morning to workout! I just feel so blessed!

Then there is the small prayer about finding a curtain for our living room! haha. I know silly, right!? Well after 5 months of searching hard we finally found one we actually both like! yay! And it was on sale! Even better!

Then there is the big prayers and the big blessings like our little baby being healthy. We had an ultrasound yesterday to find out the gender of our sweet little one. We tried so hard to go through with our original plan of having the ultrasound lady write it on a piece of paper & put it in an envelope to give to the cake people. We were going to wait until September 11 for our gender party to find out BUT when you are there in the moment it is just too exciting to pass up the news. So...we know what we are having!! But we will be keeping it a secret from everyone until we cut that yummy cake! Our baby is an active, running machine! It is precious! I was going to include some pictures from the ultrasound but Scott didn't want to compromise our party! haha! So instead I am posting my belly at almost 17 weeks! And I will be back to write again on September 11 with pictures of the baby!

Out of the Darkness

Up until June 7, 2011 I labelled myself daily as someone who had a miscarriage. I wore it on my heart, my sleeve, and I swear sometimes it was even written on my forehead. When I found out I was pregnant those feelings did not necessarily change. I worried DAILY...what if it happens again!? It haunted me in my prayers, my dreams, my conversations, and my marriage. Goodness the pain never stopped. It was like a knife sticking in my heart constantly and I couldn't get the wound to heal. It hasn't been an easy road these past 16 weeks. I have been such a hypocrite and I have had to ask for forgiveness daily for not trusting God fully, for fearing the future, and for trying to control the whole situation. When my friends come to me with prayer requests or their struggles my answer always comes back to trusting God with their lives, burdens, and struggles & here I was preaching this to friends & I couldn't even do it in my own life.

Then there was the complete other side of things. I struggled with a completely different ballgame. Since February 4 I have had about 6 friends miscarry as well as about 10 other people email me from my blog postings about their miscarriages. Oh it hurt my heart. It was like God gave me my own little "miscarriage" club. It never was fun. The conversations were full of tears, doubt, pain, and anger. Then when I became pregnant again I didn't know what to do. I wanted to still love on these women and help them through this time in their lives. I wanted to remain sensitive because I knew what they were going through. I knew they would be so happy for me but also deep in their hearts & souls they would feel a sting. And then they would revisit the same questions I revisited so many times...When will it happen to me?

This is hard stuff. But one thing that remained constant the whole time was God. Even on days when I felt like I had no one I could pray and know that God was for me. I always went back to the image of the cross of selflessness. That God loved me so incredibly much that he gave his son to die on the cross for me and for my sins. He loves me that much and I get to spend eternity with him! Ahh that gives me chills!

I was reminded last night of a song from a friends blog. I posted this song a while ago but I just think it is so great and it speaks right to this time in my life. Enjoy!

"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn." Psalm 18: 32-36