It has been a seriously emotional week—partially because there really have been a lot of ups and downs and stressful moments, and partly because I’m not handling the down portions all that well, thanks to my very loud friends called hormones. Fortunately, the up moments have been very, very high and lovely.

At this moment, I’m feeling pretty settled and stable (it may last for only the next 5 minutes, but I’ll take it). Dan and I are hosting our first real gathering at our new home this weekend, so there is plenty that still needs to be done, but the major moving pieces from this week have finally calmed themselves. I’m so glad for that, and here are some other things I’m grateful for this week.

Cultivating Gratitude

A healthy ultrasound of our tiny baby. Aside from one pretty minor complication on my end (the baby is completely healthy), everything looked perfect. I won’t share the details here, but I’d love for you to join me in prayer for a healthy delivery when the time comes. Seeing that tiny baby on the screen and learning the gender (I’ll share next week!) created a deeper emotional connection than I thought possible, and even in the intense love I feel, I’m reminded of how reassuring it is that God loves my child infinitely more than I ever could.

A new and working site design. It was looking shaky for a while there, as I exported all my old content but couldn’t seem to redirect to the new site, and I ended up having to delete everything from my old site. I’m so glad the migration came together in the end, and I didn’t lose any content. I love the look of this new site, and I’m sure I’ll be tinkering with it in the coming weeks.

A three-day weekend. I’m planning to sleep a lot . . . which for me, means sleeping until 7:30 am, because I can’t not be a morning person.

Pulled pork nachos and flourless chocolate cake. Dan and I had dinner at White Chocolate on Tuesday, where I served last summer while I was between jobs. I’ve been dreaming of these nachos ever since I left the restaurant, so naturally, we had to open the gender-reveal note over a giant plate of them.

My dear friend Nicole. When I realized I had our gender-reveal scratch-off lottery tickets sent to my old address, she swooped into action and designed new ones for me (she’s an incredibly talented graphic designer). She even ordered the scratch-off stickers and assembled each one. She’s a gem.

The sunshine that’s coming this weekend. I’m totally planning to sit outside for the vast majority of my waking hours.

Sharing Love

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