Redeeming Grace Church – Guatemala 2014

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God is at work in Guatemala City, and this summer our church’s team will be joining Him there! Our church is headed to Guatemala City for a mission trip! Unfortunately, I will be unable to join them as the trip will be happening on my due date 😉 However, I believe that it is my turn to be the “sender” and to help them get there, so I have taken on many of the administrative aspects of the trip preparation, including fundraising.

There are ten people from Redeeming Grace Church preparing to serve the people of Guatemala City from August 2-9, 2014. They will be going with an organization called Good News in Action – a church planting group that has been serving in Central America for over 40 years. They will be going out each day to meet people in certain Guatemala City neighborhoods and inviting them to events, sharing the Gospel whenever possible, and loving the beautiful people of Guatemala.

As a team, we need to raise about $16,000 to cover our expenses. If you are willing and able to support the team financially, we have set up an online giving page that makes it easy! Donations are tax-deductible (as long as you give us your name), and one-hundred percent of donations received will go to missions!

Please pray about supporting this cause and help be a “sender” of RGC’s team!

Preparing a Place for Our Baby…Part Two

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In my last post, I showed pictures of the progress we’d made on the baby’s room.

We had a lot of work to do between refinishing the floors and painting every inch of the room, but it’s DONE! My mom flew out from California for a week to help us with the painting and other preparations, and we are so thankful for her time and effort. The end result is a drastic difference from what we started with – though that wasn’t hard to achieve 😉 We still have things to do, such as hanging decorations on the walls, but the majority of it is done and we have about three months to organize and prepare for her arrival.

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We were SO blessed at our baby shower and were especially thankful to receive her crib! What a relief it is to have it in our home, assembled and ready for her! It is beautiful and we are so excited to have it already. There are still things that we need to purchase, like the stroller/car seat, but having the crib now relieves a great burden.

I’m 28.5 weeks pregnant, so she can come as soon as 9 weeks from now, which is crazy. This pregnancy has flown by and I can’t believe we’re 9-12 weeks away from meeting her!

Preparing a Place for Our Baby…Part One

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When we bought our house in December 2012, we knew we had a lot of work to do. Thankfully, we received a great deal of help from friends and family and were able to finish a majority of the house in just a few months. We didn’t take the time/energy/money to do the rooms we weren’t going to be using, including the bedroom that will become our baby’s room.

This is what it looked like when we bought it:

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Lovely, right? It has affectionately been known to us as “the pink room” and I can’t wait for it to have a new name. 🙂 “______’s room” 🙂

The transformation began on April 19, 2014 when we were able to re-finish the hardwood floors in that room. We had done the rest of the house  over a year ago, but the pink room became the storage area for all of the furniture that went in the other rooms during the process and we couldn’t really do these floors. We didn’t think we’d be using this room for a while… 🙂

Now the floors look great and are protected by thick paper so that we can continue the renovation process!

Brennan removed the wallpaper border last night, and we’ll be patching/repairing the walls over the next couple of days. On Sunday a heavy coat of primer will be applied (thanks to some wonderful friends!) and then some fresh paint next week (thanks to my Mom who is coming all the way from California to help us prepare the room).

The preparation of her room is making this feel more and more real – in three months we’ll have a new family member!

First Pregnancy: 25 Weeks and Counting…

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IMG_0289-2This post is more vulnerable than I tend to be on here, but I know that my struggle isn’t uncommon among women, especially those who are pregnant, so I felt that it was worth sharing.

Last week we had our “maternity photos” taken by a talented friend of mine who was in town for a visit.

I had hesitated to have them done because I am incredibly self-conscious of my appearance right now; however, knowing myself, I realized that I would likely regret not having done this to document our first pregnancy. We decided that even if we didn’t share any of them, it was important to have them taken for our benefit and for our baby girl to see some day.

We had these done the day after my 24-week appointment – the one where I was told that I had gained “too much weight” the past month, therefore making me feel even worse about my weight and appearance. The number I saw on the scale was truly horrifying and one that I never thought that I would ever see. Not exactly what you want to hear before having portraits taken!

It doesn’t help that I was already overweight when I found out I was pregnant (I had actually just lost 11 pounds and was doing really well with losing weight…figures 🙂 ). I was already self-conscious and nervous about gaining weight during pregnancy because of this, so hearing that from the nurses just made me feel *great* about myself. 🙂

I’ve tried to remind myself of a few things over the past 25 weeks:

1 – I am growing a human being. This takes a toll on any pregnant woman’s body.

2 – I am supposed to gain weight, and as long as I am doing my best to be healthy, the number on the scale doesn’t matter (much easier said than believed).

3 – After delivery, breastfeeding and a good diet/exercise will melt the pounds away, and I will be able to work toward being at a healthy weight before the next pregnancy.

4 – My husband loves me no matter what and he still thinks that I am beautiful. He tells me that daily, even though I may not agree 🙂

5 – I have to stop playing the comparison game! It doesn’t matter what other pregnant women look like. It doesn’t matter that they might look “cuter” pregnant than I do. At the end of the day, what matters is that our baby is healthy and I am healthy.

I know that this will be a daily battle for the next few months, especially when comments like the one I received yesterday are received (“you look like you’re ready to go any day!”). But, the most important thing that I can do right now is to just continue eating well and taking care of the growing baby inside of me, no matter what the scale (or my mind) says. That’s all that matters.

 

 

Other than the above, I am still feeling GREAT and am so very thankful that pregnancy has been so kind to me thus far. I am having issues sleeping because of hip pain, but Brennan’s massage skills are really helping to calm down the irritated muscles and allowing me to sleep more soundly.

I will be 26 weeks on Sunday and can’t believe that we’re getting so close to meeting her already! My last day of work is less than three months from now…crazy.

No, we do not have a name. Even if we did, we have decided to not share the name until birth for multiple reasons. 🙂

She is kicking and moving around frequently now (ever since 22 weeks), though not strong enough for Brennan to be able to feel yet.

The floor in her room was refinished last weekend thanks to Brennan and our friend Dean! Next is a fresh coat (or coats) of paint in the next few weeks and then decorating.

This is getting real.

Product Review: Sargento Ultra Thin Cheese Slices

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I love cheese! It’s definitely on my top ten list of favorite foods.

So, when I was asked to try Sargento’s new Ultra Thin Cheese Slices (that are only 40-45 calories each!), I was ready!

What I liked most about these were the thin slices – we made quesadillas with them and the cheese melted so quickly and evenly! They are rich in flavor despite their size, so you don’t miss the extra calories.

Check them out the next time you need sliced cheese. They are reasonably priced, only 40-45 calories per slices, and they are DELICIOUS.

 

I received these products complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster.

Five Years Ago Today…

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Sometimes I wish that God would help us out a little in terms of recognizing moments that we should remember vividly forever. 🙂 A little nudge would be amazing.

My best example: when I met Brennan. That was a slightly important moment in my life, and I honestly don’t remember much about it.

It was five years ago today, Easter Sunday, sometime around noon. It was at East Shore Baptist Church. My life was about to change and I had NO idea.

I remember that I had been up since 4:00am and had just helped lead three worship services. I was exhausted. I remember that his mom said something about wanting me to meet someone, and me (the exhausted introvert) reluctantly following her. I remember inviting him to our newly formed “singles” class the following week and not saying much else.

Why is it that we can often remember the boring, unimportant details about such important moments, but not the details that really matter? Why can’t I remember what he was wearing, what he said, how he looked at me, etc.? In these moments, a little nudge from God would be SO helpful.

Mr. and Mrs. Brackbill!

In the past five years, so much has happened.

We were friends for three months, dated for six, were engaged
for nine, and have been married for three and a half.
Since our wedding, we have had three addresses.
We are expecting our first child, a daughter, in August 2014.

And, much like the song we danced to on our wedding day says, “…and I thought I loved you then.”
I never could have imagined how much love grows and deepens almost daily!

“What I can’t see is how I’m ever gonna love you more – but I’ve said that before…”

I may not remember very clearly how we met, but I am no less thankful for what joy the last five years have brought to my life.

I wasn’t looking for love that day, or even a date. But God, in His sovereignty and grace, redeemed that uneventful first meeting and turned it into a lifelong love.

“Like a river meets the sea, stronger than its ever been
We’ve come so far since that day, and I thought I loved you then”

 

Book Review: Fearless Hope by Serena B. Miller

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Despite the fact that I live less than thirty minutes from a large Amish community (Lancaster County, PA), I had never read any fiction about the Amish people until I was asked to review Fearless Hope by Serena B. Miller. If all of Ms. Miller’s books are as wonderful as this one, it certainly won’t be my last!

From the time I picked up the book to the time I finished it, it was nearly all that I could think about. I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters, the plot and the mysteries within it even when I wasn’t able to read the book. The characters were so well-developed that I felt like I knew them personally and, because of that, I became emotionally attached to them and their adventures and couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next. There are so many great lessons throughout the book, as well, and it gave me a lot to think about.

Here’s the synopsis from the back of the book:

When Hope Yoder loses her husband, she is left trying to support her two small children—and one on the way—any way she can. She ends up taking a job as a part-time housekeeper to the English man who has bought the farm that once belonged to her family. 

Logan Parker is a bestselling crime fiction writer from New York City who accompanies his fiancée on a trip to Holmes County, Ohio, but the trip takes a strange turn when he sees an Amish farmhouse for sale. Intrigued by a strong sense of familiarity, he enters the house and is overcome with a feeling of deep peace. He’s never been to Ohio before, but something in this house feels right, and he purchases the farm to use as a writer’s retreat. Something about the peacefulness of the house frees him the crippling writer’s block that threatens to ruin his career, and something about the quiet Amish woman who comes to clean his home makes him less and less excited about returning to New York and the woman he is supposed to marry. 

Slowly, Logan and Hope are drawn together, and when they discover that they share a strange past, they must decide how that affects their future. Will Hope overcome her fear of embracing love again?

If you love fiction, you will love this book. This one has it all: mystery, romance, history, loveable characters, and great moral lessons. It will be released on April 8th, so pre-order your copy today!

I received a copy of this book from Howard Books in exchange for my honest review. 

First Pregnancy: 21 Weeks and Counting…

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I realized that I haven’t been writing anything down about this pregnancy. So, since people have asked, I decided to do a quick blog post.

I am 21 weeks and 3 days pregnant today with our first child – a baby girl.

Despite all of the funny/ridiculous “gender prediction” things we read online that said we were having a boy, we found out last Monday that our baby is a girl, and I’m honestly still adjusting to that fact. I had always envisioned having boys, and maybe a girl later…but, I trust that God gives us the children He wants us to have, and in our case that is a firstborn girl. I think part of the shock comes from insecurity about raising a girl to be a godly woman in this world/culture, but we will take one day at a time and pray constantly for her (and for us to have the wisdom to guide her).

We do not have a name chosen, nor do we have any contenders at this point. However, we have decided to keep the name a secret until after she is born anyway, so that gives us over 4.5 months to decide. 🙂

This pregnancy has been so easy and I don’t take that for granted. Most days, unless I look down or look in the mirror, I forget that I’m pregnant. I had some indigestion around week 6, food aversions to salad/vegetables through week 18, and mild heartburn after eating tomato-based foods consistently (ice cream makes it go away, though! 😉 ). That’s really it. I’m learning to sleep on my left side and my hips have had some pain from that, but, again, I can’t complain: many women have incredibly difficult pregnancies and are miserable throughout the entire ten months.

I am starting to experience “pregnancy hormones” finally – mostly taking the form of being more emotional than usual (and I’m not very emotional to begin with, so that has been weird) and having less tolerance for people’s behavior. It has surprised me because I’m normally very easy-going and let things slide…but in the past couple of weeks, grumpy/annoying behavior (including terrible drivers) has driven me crazy. 🙂 Thankfully, Brennan is so understanding and knows me well enough to know that this is NOT my normal personality whenever I complain to him about things like this.

We haven’t really started working on her room yet, as there are specific steps that have to happen in order. The floor will be refinished on April 19th, and then my mom is coming out to help paint in May. By the day of the baby shower, the room will be ready for furniture/decorations! 🙂

I can’t believe that we’re already more than half-way done with our first pregnancy! It’s time to start reading up on caring for newborns, parenting, etc. so that we can be as prepared as we can be to raise our daughter well.

Tomorrow’s the big day!

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Boy or girl?

Tomorrow’s the day we find out what our little baby is!

Here are the results from the survey we posted on Facebook:
53.85% said girl, 46.15% said boy.

We had some fun with the silly prediction methods we found on the Internet as well. According to the “Ajax test” and the “nose width” test, it’s a boy. 

Lesa’s guess is still that it’s a girl, but she would be perfectly fine with being wrong. 😉 Brennan’s guess is still that it’s a boy. Results will be posted at some point this week!

Family, Memories, and Meatloaf…

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My great-aunt Dee passed away at some point this past weekend. I realize that I am fortunate to have known her as well as I did – she lived across the street from my parents’ house so we saw her often. She was always present at family gatherings, and much joy was had in her home. I know that many people don’t know their great-aunts and uncles; however, I knew most of mine well and cherished my time with them. I am so thankful for a family that loves the Lord because that brings hope in situations like this. I know she is reunited with her husband and her parents, and they’re having a great time in Heaven together.

Aunt Dee is my grandmother’s sister, and I believe that my grandmother met my grandfather as a result of Aunt Dee. Aunt Dee married Uncle Virgil, my grandfather’s brother, making all of their children “double cousins” as they like to say. Because of these two sisters marrying two brothers, our family has always been extra close, and I’m so grateful.

Aunt Dee was an incredible woman with so many talents and passions. Her full name was Descygne, which is French (I believe) for swan. Living up to her name, Aunt Dee was graceful and gentle like a swan. She was a great example to us all of what it means to be a loving, godly mother and wife, and I’m so thankful to have known her for thirty-one years.

I remember so many things about spending time with her – here are just a couple of memories: I remember that she was one of the first people in our family to have a computer and the Internet, and she would let us use it. I remember camping in her backyard with my cousins, staying up with Uncle Virgil singing and laughing for hours. I remember spending time with her talking about our family history and trying to glean as much knowledge from her as possible.

Aunt Dee made many priceless contributions to our family. Without her, our family wouldn’t know nearly as much about our family history and genealogy (including the fact that we are distantly related to the Earnhardt family!). Without her, we wouldn’t have our “reunion books” from each annual Madole Family Reunion, chronicling each year’s gathering with stories, pictures and relevant family updates – truly treasured possessions of us all. She recognized the importance of capturing these memories so that future generations would know their relatives. I’m also fairly sure she was responsible for our two Madole Family Cookbooks, which are not only filled with recipes contributed from many family members, but also with short stories about the recipes and why they are special/where they came from/where the person lived at the time of publication.

I had planned to make our family’s meatloaf recipe yesterday for dinner well before I heard the news of her passing. When I looked in our family cookbook to find the recipe, I noticed that my great-aunt is the one who contributed our now beloved meatloaf recipe to the cookbook so many years ago. It seemed fitting that we had planned to enjoy that beloved meal on that day, and we did so through tears.

My family in California had just gathered last week to enjoy meatloaf for my grandfather’s birthday (photo below), and Aunt Dee was happily present as always.

So now I share with you our favorite meatloaf recipe (in fact, the only one our family makes), in memory of my precious great-aunt Dee.

Everyday Meatloaf

2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 slightly beaten eggs
1/4 cup grated or chopped onion
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sage

  • Soak bread crumbs in milk.
  • Add meat, eggs, onion and seasonings and mix well
    (hands work best).
  • Form loaf into loaf pan
    (use a “meatloaf pan” if you have one – it drains the fat).
  • Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
  • After 30 minutes, add sauce to the meatloaf and return to oven for remaining 30 minutes. If you use a regular loaf pan, you may need to remove grease before applying sauce.

Awesome Sauce: The sauce is definitely the best part
*note: we recommend doubling the sauce 🙂
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dry mustard

  • Mix all ingredients together and apply to meatloaf after first 30 minutes.

Farewell, my dear Aunt Dee. I can’t wait to see you and our other loved ones someday on those streets of gold.