ultra cute ultrasounds

Here’s some ultrasounds to show all the world our cute little BOY! We couldn’t be more thrilled to have such a healthy report on the baby. Getting to see him on the screen during the ultrasound just made us both that much more excited to meet him:) And, being the planners that we are,  the name of this little one was pre-determined before even getting married; the story goes like this..

I had our children named without really thinking there would be any opposition because obviously the names I had chosen were the perfect names, I’d written them out and everything. What girl hasn’t at some point fantasized a little (or a lot) on what her children’s names could be? Okay, maybe a little bit too much thinking on my part, yes..but all these happy thoughts came to a hault once I found out  not only did Freddie strongly dislike the girl name I chose, but was not too fond of the boy name either!? WHAT? He has an Opinion???? Seriously, all my efforts searching high and low for names that were 1. classic 2. sentimental (family) 3. a name I didn’t know anyone with..therefore didn’t have any bad experiences with..and Freddie, the man I knew I would marry disliked them both? All drama aside I was more than a little saddened.

Therefore the conversation began about carrying on the tradition of FCG… and of course Freddie’s response to me asking how tied he was to carrying it on was, “Well, I don’t know why we wouldn’t”. In Freddie’s family, there are 3 Frederick Charles’..Big Fred (grandfather), Fred II (dad..and soon to be gramps) and Freddie (F3 to his family)..So after several more conversations a compromise was made (mind you, prior to being married). We decided that rather than confusing every conversation with a Fred in it by adding another Freddie to the mix, we would call F4 by his middle name..Charlie. And although he may resent us later in life for always having to correct his teacher on the first day of school, we’ll all know who we’re refering to.

As for any future male children, we’ll cross that bridge when and if we get to it…

enjoy, andrea

from top left: profile close up of head, same, proof that it’s a boy, scratching his chin

nice profiles

from top left: profile with arm under his chin, view of his face, one foot, both feet

changes happening

In the wirlwind of events this fall… both happy and not, I’ve done some perspective drawing within my own life. The conclusion? I need to be more thankful everyday for everything. Freddie’s prayer at dinner is always so whole-heartedly thankful and in my amen I’m finding myself questioning whether I truly agree. So this post is not only serving to catch up our ever-growing audience of Henderson Lane followers ;), but to also begin a new tradition of listing the things I’m thankful for while living in Miami.

Beginning in August I started a new part-time job at church in the preschool (The Growing Place) at the overwhelming thought of no visitors coming and Thanksgiving being the next time we would get back to Houston…although I was newly pregnant, getting sick everyday wasn’t really enough to fill my long days. As school began I convinced myself that this job was a great idea, that I would be so glad I’d done something with the remaining months before becoming a mom, etc…..Little did I know what was coming for me. Not only was the switch from no work, all play more difficult than expected I was hit with the news that my Nana was not doing well at all in her battle with cancer, Freddie’s job needed to know what our goals were and we were planning 2 trips. So, being the bottle-it-up person that I am, I shoved all the stresses and possible stresses into myself and moved on as though it was fine. Needless to say, the past few weeks have been some of the hardest as far as stress level is concerned. Mostly in dealing with Nana’s subsequent death and the continuous changes going on here. Freddie’s job has been a very big topic lately due to his contract being up in 2 months. However, being that we’re 5 months pregnant and the job market has seen better decades, we’re hoping to stay here until after Charlie comes to pursue a location change. We’ve been praying a lot about where God wants us to be rather than bargaining with Him about where we want to go. We’ve yet to get an answer other than wait, so we’re in a very interesting place of not really knowing where He has in mind for us…and in all of this I would love to pick up the phone and tell Nana all my problems just so I can hear her say everything will be ok…just like she always has. But I know the truth. The truth is that I know it will be ok, I just need to stop trying to fix.. and be content. Thus, this is my new pursuit and hope…to be thankful for Miami, for it’s people and culture and challenges everyday.

So, today I’m thankful for:

autumn weather not meaning snow, the people who embrace their love of nature/recreation and parks so much so that there aren’t any parking spots left at the the dog park, and finally Publix grocery stores being 5 minutes away in almost every direction.

andrea

Pictures of our adventures this fall..

21 week bump

Sunset outside Mara’s apt

Virginia formation, Alumni and Current bands

watching the game

Alumni Band weekend at VT

Wonder Works

massive wave pool

Tom & Amy Barnes

At Typhoon Lagoon with the Barnes’

Fam shot

Captain’s dinner

laying out at Cacao

overlooking the 4th floor lobby

Onboard the Majesty of the Seas leaving Miami