This is me, breathing a sigh of relief.

I have moved enough times in my life to get my fill... for life. Joey and I have lived in an apartment, a "warm up shack", a cabin, a one bedroom house, a house trailer, and now in a main level suite. Each time it gets more difficult to do this. Each time I wonder how we have acquired so much stuff...

...but this post isn't about that! It's about how grateful I am to finally be here. Living with my parents is already a huge blessing. This isn't just an extended vacation for us. We have our own space and aren't shy about admitting when we need some alone time. The boys are thrilled to have loved ones living so close. It's actually kind of difficult to convince them that they can't just run down there at any time of the day. A deadbolt they can't reach and a baby gate help with that little issue. :)

Setting up a home is one of my very favourite things to do. It is my goal to create little "pockets" of beauty all around the house. This house in particular has been a real joy to decorate. I promise I will post pictures as soon as the boxes stop multiplying and find dark holes to crawl into!

One of the biggest blessings to me is living so close to the church we will be attending. Yesterday I stepped out our front door with two boys in tow at 10:10 AM and made it to the church for (my very first!) mom's group at 10:15 AM. That trip would have taken me 45 minutes when we were living in the country! It was what kept me from getting involved in similar mom's groups. I now regret that decision after realizing how good it is to get out with other moms and kids and be SPIRITUALLY as well as emotionally built into. Friendship for mommies and littles is a very worthwhile thing to invest in!

God has been so very good to us in allowing us to make this decision for our family and providing so abundantly with willing hands to help make this as painless a process as possible. I hope that this will be a time of learning and growth for us and that we would grow closer to our Saviour as a family.

the ham that he is

"Daddy!" from Andrea Sawatzky on Vimeo.

Benjamin is such an animated little boy. For the most part he is not playing to the cameras (that's what Judah is into these days) and just being exactly as he is all day long. "Daddy" was not even home, but it's cute anyways. :)

when my heart is too full to write...

...I post pictures instead.

filling the quiver

I am pregnant again.

The whole world knows it by now. Baby is still very, very new (nine-weeks-new), but very, very alive. I know it's "traditional" to wait until something like 12 weeks to announce that one is pregnant, but we could not contain our happiness and simply had to share it with the ones we love. Also, it's not like I am any more pregnant at three months than I was at two. A baby is a baby is a baby - just conceived, nine months gestation, or just born. There is a tiny, grape-sized human being inside my womb!

Finding out we were pregnant was different this time than either of the others. We were undecided about when the "right" time to get pregnant again would be. Our long-term goals are to save money to go to Bible college, and somehow we just couldn't fit "have baby" on the list of things we want to accomplish. It's not that we didn't want another child, just that it's a serious thing worth some serious consideration. It's hard to plan out one's life - and experience has taught me that it is best to let God direct it, anyways.

I bought a pregnancy test because my cycle seemed to be quite irregular. Actually, it was my third test in as many months. I took it looking for confirmation that something was not working properly with my cycle... 

...except...

...this time it read a flaming POSITIVE! (There were no actual flames.)

Friends, I cried. I balled. I burst out in uncontrollable sputterings of JOY! I have not had that reaction with either of my boys - mostly because I was so extremely prepared for the end result of a + b = c. But this time? This time I was fully, unbelievably, inexplicably surprised.

When I think on the months to come, there are some things that scare me. I don't know what my prenatal care will be like in a new city with a new doctor and (sob) no midwife. I don't know what this pregnancy will be like - whether it will stretch an extra two weeks, or whether baby will want out like BAM. I will have to travel to a hospital an hour away to give birth, and that is a little disconcerting when I am on my third baby. I do not know how it will be to provide financially for three children. I do not know what it will be like to provide emotionally and physically for three children.

What I DO know is that none of this has surprised God. I know I can look to him, rest in Him, lean on Him for the strength to do all that He has called me to do. I know that I will have my family close by (aka living ONE FLOOR AWAY) and many, many friends (with many, many littles!) for support and encouragement. I know that the blessings of having children FAR outweighs the momentary, light afflictions one must endure before they are born.

All of this joy has been tempered by some very difficult news, however. A good friend of ours has just been informed that she has a large growth in one of her lungs. It's been affecting her health for quite some time. She is in the long process of going through tests to properly identify what she's dealing with. Please, please pray for this family. She has a husband and four girls from ages 8-14. I don't know all of the details and all I can ask you to do is pray for God's peace, for wisdom for the doctors, for the grace to understand why this is happening (especially for the girls). 

God gives and takes away, and yet in it all His name is blessed. He brings glory to Himself, and he works all things together for good - not necessarily the "good" that we desire, but the true good that only the all-knowing, all-powerful God knows, understands, and desires for His children. 

I just know that through all of this - new life, the upcoming move, a friend's sickness - that Christ's name will be praised. That is the best hope that I can have.

Disney lied to us.

Do you remember the cute little mice in "Cinderella" that were not pests at all, didn't make a jillion babies a year, and were open and friendly with humans? What were their names? Jaq, Gus, and Bruno.

Yeah. They don't exist.

After living with many different rodent friends and having the pleasure of catching somewhere around ten of them throughout our married lives, I was extremely pleased to move into a new house that was raccoon-, rodent-, ladybug-, spider-, and fly-free.

This house was a haven, a safe place. We had a year without any spider incidents, and the flies were reduced to the average lonely little housefly here and there.

But then... then there was this noise. This scratching. This unwelcome little intruder under the cupboards. We didn't see him (her? it?), but we didn't need to. Joey brought home a trap, pushed the vent over and baited the trap with irresistible peanut butter.

One day later, he opened it up, and, sure enough, a fat little field mouse had bought the lie.

That is not the most surprising part of this tale, however.

Joey reset the trap and closed up the vent. We sat down to watch the Avengers (which, as you all know, needs to be heavy on the volume to get the full experience) and forgot pretended to forget about the invading army.

It was only about half an hour later when we heard the "SNAP" followed by the sound of something in the throes of death. Joey opened it up, and, sure enough, another (less-fat) field mouse was slain.

Joey repeated this a third time. And, again, within half an hour we heard the telltale sounds.

YOU GUYS. THERE WERE THREE MICE IN MY HOUSE. (I am trying really hard not to think of how much they resembled the three mice in Cinderella. I feel like the bringer of death to children's fairy tales.)

As you might understand, I couldn't sleep that well that night. I dreamt about the cats I wished I had and the millions of mice scampering through our walls. The next morning, however, there were no signs of tampering with the traps, and there hasn't been any since. Joey  got under the trailer and figured out how they were getting in and put an end to it. He put out mouse poison and issued them a GAME OVER.

And now I am really, really hoping that this is the end of this saga.

RIP, Jaq, Gus, & Bruno.