New York, New York

On Monday night around 11:30pm, Keith and I returned from our "Pre-Baby Vacation"!! It was a wonderful, busy, and footwear-challenging trip. Here's a breakdown of our adventure.

Wednesday April 18th: I only worked a half-day from home so I could finish packing and pull together some supper and snacks for the ride. Keith got off work just after lunch so we were able to get on the road earlier than we had hoped (although we had to stop at the superstore to pick up a cell-phone car adapter and a HUGE bag of gummy bears). I had heard something about not being allowed to bring certain food items across the border so I tried to pack an appropriate supper. I even avoided putting tomatoes on our sandwiches - just in case they were considered citrus fruits. I really should have stuck to the reason that they made the bread soggy.

We stopped for a bathroom/ice cream (i had crazy ice cream cravings) break in Cortland. Wow. This place had a car that was potentially going to explode at any given moment...thus the entire Cortland volunteer fire department was out in full force. It also had a McDonald's with music notes everywhere and a Roland piano that played itself. And a woman who kept telling her four-year-old to "Eat your nugget".

I knew we were staying in Pennsylvania on our first night - but I didn't know where... not until we passed the sign for Scranton! That's right - we staying just outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania! Our Econolodge was about 11 miles away from Poor Richard's Pub. For those of you who don't know - the television show "The Office" is set in Scranton. It was fun to go and watch the hockey game and eat wings at the pub. Keith even bought a Poor Richard's t-shirt that says "Ain't no party like a Scranton party cause a Scranton party don't stop!"

Thursday April 19th: We had packed, dined on our continental breakfast and were on the road before 10. We thought we'd get into our Jersey city hotel a couple of hours later but we had to stop for directions because our exit was closed due to the flooding that happened last week. This way we got to go through a cool tunnel :) Our Jersey City hotel was beside the Holland Tunnel which was pretty neat. We got settled there and headed to the Path station to catch the subway into New York City. Thursday was our Mid-town adventure. We must have walked 40 blocks - fortunately they're fairly small! We saw Times Square, the Rockefeller Centre, St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, part of an orchid show, and an exhibit on "Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting" :) Keith is a fantastic - and I mean fantastic trip planner! He even found us coupons to get deals on dinner - tonight we ate at Spanky's BBQ House. It was loud, red, had funny-tasting wings but really good chicken tenders! We didn't buy much on Thursday- just a Dwight Schrute bobble-head doll from the NBC store and a paschmena for me from a street vendor. We bought a couple of tickets to a comedy show from a guy on the street but it wasn't the only not-so-much fun part of our trip.

Friday April 20th: This morning I was scared to put my feet on the floor they were so sore the night before. But we managed to get into the city by 11am. Today was our museum day! We started by taking the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We spent 5 hours there and only saw 3 exhibits. It was fantastic!! We saw a tonne of authentic Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Matisse, Picasso and even a little Rembrandt :) We also found some great stuff at the gift store! When we had finished up we took a stroll through Central Park on our way down towards the Museum of Modern Art. I went through one of the two levels with Keith - but I spent my time on a bench resting while Keith ran through the other. The gift store was amazing here too! After a bit of a walk (about 20 blocks) we were at Planet Hollywood for dinner. We were tired and sore when we arrived and the idea standing for the 20 minute wait for a table was almost unbearable. Fortunately - my dear husband printed VIP seating coupons that got us the next available table :) We also got a great deal on dinner! We got home a bit earlier tonight and took the time to get a good sleep.

Saturday April 21st: Today was a half-day in New York's downtown! We took the path train to the World Trade Centre. I admit, I was a bit surprised at what we found there. I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't the construction site that we saw. I suppose not seeing what the area would have looked like prior to 9/11 made a difference. We took a quick stroll through Battery Park before hopping on the Staten Island Ferry for a photo op of Lady Liberty. We got on the road to Washington DC around 4 and made a supper stop in Philadelphia where we checked out "The Simple Way" house and neighbourhood. Keith is going to write a post about this community so I won't say too much. But I can say that the folks at "The Simple Way" aren't kidding when they say they moved to the projects. I was surprised to see how many kids were in the neighbourhood, but I was still pretty nervous being there so close to dark. We arrived at my cousin Randi and her fiance Dana's house around 11:30. After introductions (they had never met Keith) and a midnight chat we all went off to bed.

Sunday April 22nd: After a phenomenal breakfast of quiche, Stromboli, fresh fruit and sausages, we all headed into Washington, DC. Randi and Dana live just outside of Washington in Kensington, Maryland. They took us on a small tour of DC in the car (which our feet greatly appreciated) and then got out to see the White House. It's smaller than you think. It was interesting to learn that the barricades keep being moved back from the White House and some of the other buildings to keep tourists farther away. Our hosts had to go into work for a few hours so they left us on our own in the US Capital. We were happy the Smithsonian (or the "Mall") is actually a bunch of museums and gallerys. We spent most of the very hot and sunny afternoon in the National Gallery of Art - a good thing since we hadn't though to pack sunscreen. The gallery actually had more interesting pieces than we had anticipated and we got to see more work by our favourite artists. We even went over the the East building so Keith could run through the modern art exhibits. He's more of a Picasso, Warhol and Dali fan than I am. I kept a bench warm :) And you guessed it - these galleries had great gift shops too!

When we finished up at the galleries we realized that DC pretty much closes down at 5pm so we completely missed our hotdog vendor dinner opportunity. We had to settle for a sesame snap. We wanted to get a bit closer to the Capital building but we ended up taking to a Utopian community of people. Keith wants to write up a post about this experience too so I'll just tease you with that bit of info :)

We got back to the house for dinner after 7 and Randi grilled us up some tasty pork ribs, and veggies with all the trimmings. It was so good Keith ate leftovers for breakfast the next day! It was a wonderful visit with such gracious people! Unfortunately they have two very cute cats that made Keith pretty snuffly. We decided to cut our trip a bit short and instead of going back into Washington for a half-day we headed back home. It was great to sleep in our own bed a night earlier than planned :)

So that is a brief but seemingly lengthy summary of our pre-baby vacation! We finally have some pictures of me with a belly for you all (the dress makes me look bigger than I actually am - but it's so comfortable). Thanks for reading!!

Darcie

A New Little Soul

This evening at 5:53pm my sister was the vessel for a new little life.  My niece, Rowyn (spelling to be determined) was six pounds four ounces and 19 inches long.  She likes to be all stretched out.  I'm so excited for Riley and Colin and their baby girl.  Please pray this new little soul will come to know the fullness of hope and joy and life that is in Jesus Christ. She is already so blessed to be born unto wonderful parents and family and friends that loved her before she knew the world outside her mom. Congratulations Riley and Colin!

Darcie

A Delightful Weekend!

Yesterday and today I was able to do some of the things I most like to do with my spare time - and Keith helped make it possible. You see, ever since I started to work 5 days a week, I've lost my housework, grocery shopping, meal planning day.  This has unfortunate consequences on the rest of the weekend.  Typically on Fridays I would get all of the chores out of the way so that Saturday I could sleep in a bit, get up, do some baking or plan my Sunday school lesson and know that if company dropped in I wouldn't be ashamed of our dirty, untidy house or our empty fridge.  And then with the pregnancy - the energy level went through the floor for a while and getting the chores done was a task enough for the whole weekend.

But then there's my husband.  Every so often he'll surprise me with some unexpected act of kindness.  A few weeks ago I came home from work and was hurriedly ushered into our bedroom to take a nap while he finished up what he was doing in the kitchen without me spying. In those few moments between the front door and the bedroom I noticed that the house looked remarkably tidy, the grocery list on the fridge had disappeared and whatever he was doing in the kitchen smelled heavenly! 

And then on Thursday - I came home once again to a tidy apartment with no dishes in sight.  It was his tidying on Thursday that helped make this weekend so enjoyable.  Without that extra burden of cleaning - after I finished work yesterday I baked four loaves of bread. Keith loves homemade bread - and it's been months since I've had the chance to make it.  I also had my friend Diana over for tea and knitting and Wallace & Gromit last night without feeling like I had to spend time making the house presentable. 

Because of Keith's Thursday tidy-up - I had the housework done and my Sunday school lesson planned in less than two hours this morning - and had the afternoon to bake cookies, go for a walk, finish up the laundry and just relax in general. It has been a fantastic day. I'm so thankful for a husband who loves doing nice things for his wife!

Darcie

our little mover and shaker

So we're having a baby. It's official now. Darcie doesn't just have an extra kidney. We can now see little hands and feet, a little spine, a little heartbeat, and a little profile. I have to say, going to the second ultrasound was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I wasn't able to make the first ultrasound, but Darcie said it wasn't anything like the second. Then they were just measuring from the head to the rump, like getting a kid to stand against a wall to measure his or her height. This time it was like the full physical. They measured the size of the brain, the size of the spine, and the distance between different organs. It was incredible.

I've compared abortion to the holocaust before, but now I honestly don't think that goes far enough. Obviously we can't overstate the tragedy of that period of human history - one of the darkest and most unthinkable evils man could ever step into, but the Jewish people had lived, loved, and been loved, and had experienced the full range of what it means to be 'human.' They were able to cry out when they were murdered at the injustice of the tragedy. Unborn children can't do that. Their future is ripped from them even before they have a chance to know the love of a mother or a father, to love another or experience the joy of having a best friend. Thankfully, though, at this moment such crimes are as removed from me as the holocaust. While I can picture dimly the evil, I really can't imagine it actually happening. I'm too busy being excited about being a father.

When I saw the first ultrasound photos it was still pretty unreal. There was a big circle and a little circle. Apparently the big circle was the head. Now the little circle is trying to catch up with the big circle. Not only does our kid have a big head, but the ultrasound lady said "looks like baby's been snacking well!" She also said that our wee one is "a mover and a shaker." She was having a hard time getting good pictures because our baby was swimming all over the place. The ultrasound lady said that baby was using Darcie's bladder like a trampoline. No wonder she felt like going to the bathroom so much that morning. It's bad enough that they make you drink four glasses of water before having an ultrasound, without having a little person jumping up and down on your bladder! I also think our child might be a boxer, because those little fists were working in and out, taking mini-jabs at the walls his or her little room (which happened to be mommy's tummy).

One of the moments that struck me the most, though, was when, for only a couple of seconds, a tiny footprint was outlined on the video monitor. It was exactly like your or my footprint, only tiny. Perhaps baby was doing laps and was just pushing off from the wall, but for a moment I saw the cutest little foot I had ever seen. Only I and the ultrasound lady saw it. It was as though junior was saying "look me go, daddy!"

For now I can't see baby. There's not even much that Darcie and I can do to help our young one grow. Our child is in the hands of God, and we know that He is knitting our young one together in the womb, as the psalmist describes it in Psalm 139. Our Father sees our little one's unformed body, and I am coming to see how 'fearfully and wonderfully made' each one of us is. I'm glad that I'm not responsible for this part of it - our Father has worked this miracle many times before, and knows exactly what He is doing. I know, too, that each time he adds something special to create a unique little person to bring Him glory, like a magnificent piece of artwork bearing its creator's name, only this art goes beyond canvas into a magical new life beyond anything we can imagine.

As Darcie's tummy grows, and as I become more conscious of the reality of a new life and a new member of our family, my love for the baby grows, as does my wonder at my bride and my amazement at her beautiful body. Right now I can't lavish the love on my child directly, but my care and fatherly instincts go into protecting, caring for, and loving the tremendous wife God has given me and the marvelous gift she has within her.

I couldn't be more blessed.