Ross at the Wedding

First Hotel Stay

Dancing with Grammie

Fun with Daddy

First cousin pic: Ross, Malachi, Layla, Idolie, Eloise

All tuckered out....

Mrs. Stephen Whitley!

Stephen got hitched! Welcome to the family, Kristen! We had a BLAST at the last Whitley Wedding and are so excited about our 4th and final sister-in-law.

It was a beautiful backyard wedding that Jonathan had the privilege of officiating. The reception began with a toast that brought tears to my eyes and ended with Stephen being tossed into the pool. I'm so pleased to have 4 fantastic sisters-in-law added to the family in the past 5 years. Hats off to Stephen and Kristen for re-planning an extraordinary wedding in 2 weeks due to the oil spill! What an amazing couple.

Tummy Time & More

The Everything Elephant

It's been fun seeing Ross start to take interest in his toys. So far he's punched the snail on his bouncy seat a few times and held the Pooh blankie once. But then I introduced the Everything Elephant.... We call it that because it has so many stimulating aspects--lots of activities for a little guy. Ross sat with the elephant on the couch and crinkled his ears, chewed on his rings, and stared A LOT, just taking it all in. It is our current "go to" toy and I'm glad to have one!

Airplane

So this is the cutest thing ever. Jonathan has started flying Ross around like an airplane and the little guy just loves it! He has the best smile and tends to squeal when he's happy. Watching my guys enjoying each other's company made for the perfect afternoon....

Sleepy Time

Lately Ross has been wanting to stay up when his eyes are visibly super tired. We discovered holding him and singing to him while rocking in the rocking chair is sometimes the only thing that finally helps him drift to sleep. Here we are rocking and if you look closely you can see that Ross has a fistful of my hair. He's been holding onto it lately when I carry him around, almost like a horse's mane. I think it helps him balance. :) The only challenge is getting him to let go of it after he's asleep in order to put him to bed.

Mmmm...Cobbler (and Donald Reed)

The other day we were at some friends' house who have a cherry tree. They picked a bunch for us to take home and when we got here around 9pm, Jonathan started asking questions about ingredient substitutions for cobbler. I tended to Ross for awhile and the next thng I knew, there was a cherry cobbler in the oven! He pitted all the cherries, used wheat flour for cornstarch and honey for sugar. We feasted on it around 10:30 and it was delicious! Jonathan said, "Just call me Donald Reed."

2 Months

Little Ross was 2 months old on May 26th! The time with him is going by fast and it's been so fun seeing his personality come to life. He grabbed and held onto his first toy the other night. He had been hanging onto my shirts and his burp cloths but this is the first toy he's held. It's a little Winnie the Pooh rattle/blankie.

On his 2 month birthday, Ross also hit a napping milestone. He slept for a significant amount of time without being held. I couldn't believe all I was able to accomplish (between the times I kept checking on him).

But the biggest event on May 26th is that Ross received a new cousin! Philip and Allison welcomed their second daughter into the world: Eloise Ray Whitley! We are excited to meet her next month and are amazed Ross has 4 cousins less than a year apart from him.

We do have one retraction from a previous blog. Jonathan informed me that he thinks he was wrong about Ross rolling over...that it probably happened because he was sitting next to him on the bed creating a decline. :) We'll wait for the real rollover to show up some day!

First Mother's Day

Here is a photo of my sweet baby boy and me celebrating our first Mother's Day. We had a fantastic day--we went to church, then went to lunch at Stadium Grill where we had eaten just a couple days before Ross was born to satisfy my burger craving! Jonathan and Ross gave me a Cardinals shirt with snaps in the front for easy nursing. So thoughtful.

On this day I had to recall the several previous Mother's Days that were filled with grief and the endless wonder, "would I ever get to be a mom?" I remember last year, waking up with dread and pushing myself to get ready for church, hoping no one would make a big deal out of the particular day it was. I got in my car to find it wouldn't start and I thought about just crawling back into bed. Instead, I called the senior pastor's wife, Marilyn, who gladly came and picked me up and who sat by me throughout the service. Her compassion and encouragement was just what I needed that day and I remember experiencing the love of Christ through her and truly having a worshipful experience at church.

Praise God for his great mercy and faithfulness! This year I held my little baby in my arms on Mother's Day and thought about what a gracious and loving Savior is the Lord!

Little Tenor

Ross has been exercising his vocal chords lately.

We think he may turn out to be a tenor like his daddy.

Animal House

Since the birth of our son, we have realized how inconvenient 2 long-haired cats can be. Hog and Tubby have become more high maintenance and get too close to the baby and his things for our comfort. So we're trying something new: basement cats. So far they've enjoyed the exploration of new territory and we've enjoyed the lack of cat hair on our furniture. Downstairs cats works for the Whitleys.

Interestingly, we have some upstairs pets as well. Since we moved in, Jonathan has had to chase 2 birds out of the top, unfinished floor of our house. Recently, a mother bird must have slipped by him. Baby birds have hatched in a nest in our future nursery. Ross and I listen to them chirp all day while we nurse and nap. Upstairs birds are proven entertainment for the Whitleys.

Then of course there's the little monkey on the main floor.... It's getting to be an adventure in here.

The many faces of Ross...

Size One

Ross has graduated from newborn diapers to size one! I can't believe it happened so fast. But I guess when you start out at 9 pounds, 1 ounce....

As of today our little guy weighs 10 pounds, 7 ounces. He gained almost a pound in the past week! Our friend, Nikki, who helped with the birth, weighed him this morning with her husband's fish scale. :)

Cutie Pie in his pajamas

These socks dropped when the laundry was carried from our room. I love that our laundry now includes tiny little baby clothes. So precious!

Yes, I dressed us alike on purpose. This photo shows Ross' first injury. It is a small bruise on his arm that I'm pretty sure I caused with the car seat--I first noticed it when we got home from a church event. :/

Jonathan is reading to Ross for the first time.

Daddy's hairdo of choice for Ross: the mohawk

It is unbelievable to me that our little guy has already had his one month birthday! To celebrate, we stamped and framed his hand and foot with a kit given to us by Grandpa. Jonathan and I have been enjoying seeing the changes in Ross over the last 4 1/2 weeks and have documented some of his early milestones:

Day 1: Ross was able to hold up his head from the start! His neck is very strong and he loves looking around at everything. He was also nursing from the first 5 minutes of his life, so that goes under "day 1" as well.

Day 4: Ross lost the rest of his umbilical cord. Granted, it popped off while we were changing him and it appeared that the little scabby stump got caught on his onesie....

Week 1: Ross began smiling. We also trimmed his fingernails this week since they were already long when he was born.

Week 2: We gave Ross his first bath--this was a little traumatic since I didn't set the bathtub up right and couldn't locate our water temperature ducky so I erred on the side of too cool rather than too hot. His second bath went much better. During week 2 Ross also laughed for the first time and began trying to support his weight when we put him in a standing position. Jonathan saw him roll from his tummy to his back on 3 occasions.

Week 3: Ross started tracking and following our movements. This is the week he decided his bouncy seat and swing are both good things.

Week 4: Ross outgrew his newborn onesies and teddy bear footsie pajamas. He is apparently getting taller and now weighs 9 pounds, 8 ounces.

USA Baby

When my sister and I were growing up there was this baby store commercial on tv in Kansas City that we just thought was hilarious. We would stuff our shirts with pillows and dance around singing the jingle like the pregnant women in the commercial. So when I started showing I began singing that jingle for my sister to make her laugh (one of my favorite things).

The morning before Ross' birth (about 7 hours into labor) I realized this would be my last chance to make a record of myself performing the jingle for my sister so I took advantage of some time between contractions. For all you Bradley Method students, notice I am in early first stage labor at this point--still smiling and excited about the upcoming birth...and not realizing that those back labor pains that were at the time 6 to 15 minutes apart were about to get more intense and closer together!

Here's a link to one of the original commercials from USA Baby: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItuFyRGcyHQ

I hope you enjoy my version! Andra and I cry with laughter when we watch it. :)

Jonathan's Article

My sweet husband wrote an article for the weekly church newsletter that I want to share:

“Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD. - Isaiah 54:1

By the time you read this I may be a new father holding a new little baby – and if not, then very soon. As we are preparing and considering parenthood, I am often reminded of our road to parenthood. In fact nearly a year ago, Tara and I thought we would never have biological children of our own. Our journey to parenthood did not begin nine months ago; it actually began almost four years ago.

We were just finishing seminary and beginning to think and pray about having children. We felt like we were ready and were excited about the prospect of being parents. We had heard that on the average it takes 3-6 months to get pregnant and so we decided to start trying in the summer of 2006 hoping to be pregnant by Christmas. Well Christmas came and went and still, not pregnant. We were beginning to get concerned and our minds flooded with questions: “What’s wrong with us?” “Why is God keeping this from us?” “What do we need to do that we’re not doing?” “Why is this happening?”

Trying to sort through all the doubts and questions in our minds, we still continued to hope for a baby. We began seeing doctors and having tests done as well. As far as they could tell there was nothing wrong with either of us – they had no logical explanation for Tara’s barrenness and neither did we.

In the summer of 2008 we moved from Charlotte, NC to Middlebury, IN. I was between pastorates and so we took a time of Sabbatical for rest, renewal, and rejuvenation. During this time we continued to hope for a child of our own but as each day passed we grew frustrated and at times even angry with God. During that summer the Lord blessed two of my sisters-in-law with children, which brought up a whole new level of mixed emotions within us. Feeling desperate we unsuccessfully resorted to some medical treatments for Tara, which we ended because they only made her sick and more frustrated. By Christmas 2008 we were at a loss for understanding what the Lord was doing in us; in a word, we were broken.

The beginning of 2009 brought about many “new” things for us. We moved to a new town, I started a new job, we were living in a new place, and we were shopping in a new grocery store. Surely now the Lord would bless us with a child of our own. As 2009 picked up steam we continued to hope and pray for this little blessing. Tara’s birthday was nearing and she had always hoped to have at least one child or be pregnant by this particular birthday (her 30th!). The big day came and then it went and still Tara was barren, but surprisingly, we were not frustrated.

After nearly three years of emotional ups and downs, of “I might be pregnant this time!”, of “Why Lord?” we began to have a peace. Not a here today gone tomorrow peace, but a true spiritual peace that comes only from God by His Spirit – a peace that surpasses all understanding. This is the kind of peace that comes from complete and utter surrender and not only a surrender of our wills, but a surrender of our dreams, hopes, desires. It is the type of surrender that makes you feel vulnerable and secure at the same time. We had come to a place where we did not “need” to have children of our own. We surrendered our hopes to the Lord and prayed, “Lord, we know you know our desire and we know that your plans are better than ours. So if you don’t want us to have biological children, then we’re okay with that.” This was very difficult for us. We even mourned and grieved the loss of biological children. And yet at the same time were filled with an unexplainable peace.

It is in these moments of complete and utter surrender that we can experience God’s greatest blessing. We are reminded that we are nothing without God; we cannot do anything apart from Him; and without the sacrifice of His son we have no hope for the future. The greatest blessing we can have and experience is a life of surrender to the One who will never leave or forsake us; it is daily living with a “not my will, but your will be done” attitude. Our greatest blessing is a restored relationship with the Creator of all things who so graciously sent His son to die in our place. For we must remember that we were once all a barren people with no hope for life, but now we have a reason to “burst into song and shout for joy.”

On July 28, 2009 Tara and I found out that God had blessed us with a child. In our surrender to God we found tremendous blessing and were also given a child of our own. This Easter season, may you find the greatest blessing of all as you surrender all of your life, your dreams, your hopes, and your future to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Happy Spring!

I'm so excited that spring is here! I really wanted a spring baby. Let's just hope he or she comes out before summer!

We are in the house and getting as settled as we can. We're living in just the downstairs so once again, several boxes are being stored rather than unpacked. But at least our stuff is under one roof with a minor exception of a couple things still in St. Louis at Jonathan's mom's.

The baby has dropped and looks/feels pretty low now! These photos are at 37 1/2 weeks and 39 1/2 weeks. Can you see a difference?

In addition to sewing curtains, unpacking and organizing, cleaning, and preparing foods to freeze and eat after the baby arrives, I have been into March Madness! The Whitleys always fill out a bracket and I go with the same picking method every year: I pick teams based on my relationship to the school/city/state (which avid college basketball fans think is insane). For example, I was born in Indiana so I pick IU. My husband's favorite team is Duke, so I pick them. My cousin, Jil, lives in California, so I'll pick a team or two from there, etc. This year, my picks actually led me to take the lead in the Whitley Challenge for a brief period last night! Who would've thought? I will say, I could be doing a bit better if I hadn't picked Notre Dame for my cousin, Don (their biggest fan). But it's really not about winning, just doing something fun with the family, right?

Foods I've been into lately:

- Chocolate milk

- ABJ (almond butter and jelly)

- Salad/veggie sticks

- Mangoes and bananas cut up together...mmmmm

- Annie's organic fruit snacks

- Back to Nature peanut butter sandwich cookies (better than Girl Scouts and without all the preservatives/chemicals)!

Things a pregnant woman never needs to hear/experience:

- "You haven't had that baby yet?"

- "Woah--you're big!"

- Grown men (who are not family) touching her belly--my count is 3 so far

- "Take the meds!"

- Raised eyebrows when you answer the epidural question with, "No, we're doing this naturally."

- "It's gonna hurt!"

- "Have you seen your mucus plug?"

- "When will they induce?"

- Stopping by the house without calling first (pregnant ladies need those naps!)

- Walking around the house looking in windows if we don't answer the door (Seriously, people???)

- Horror stories of pain and how things didn't go like you thought

- "You must be having a girl because your butt hasn't gotten bigger." (why are you looking at my butt???)

Things a pregnant woman loves to hear/experience:

- "You look radiant!"

- "You're just carrying that weight in your belly!"

- Holding the door or helping her to her car

- "We're praying for a quick and easy, complication-free birth!"

- Letting her go in front of you in line (30 extra pounds get heavy to lug around!)

- "Expectant Mother Parking"

I'm really thinking of creating a guide to pregnancy etiquette. There seems to be a lack of knowledge in this area according to my experience...but would anyone read it?

35 Weeks

We're getting closer to March and I'm noticing the baby in my ribs as well as a smaller lung capacity! Jonathan and I led the music at church on Sunday for the last time till May. It's gotten harder to sing and play my mandolin at the same time! The house is still coming along--we took a little time out to get some maternity photos taken. Jonathan graciously shaved off the beard he had been growing for longer than I've been growing this baby in order to make a clean-cut appearance! Here are a few of our favorite shots.