Whirlwind!

Wow, so much has happened since the last few posts. :)

Our time in Tennessee become a more extended stay than first planned... for two of us at least. Matt mentioned to me on our way out the door to drive back to FL that his first big deadline since Asa's birth was quickly approaching. He asked if I wanted to stay in TN an extra week and a half (until my parents were already planning on coming down for Asa's baptism). I thought he was kidding or felt bad that I was crying when we left (but that's not new). As we drove down the highway and he explained what he was thinking, we decided to pull over and talk about it more. We sat in the Cracker Barrell parking lot off Campbell Station Rd and decided to call my parents and see what they thought. They welcomed us to turn on back around! :)

I had the delight of spending a total of 2 weeks with my parents, brothers, and their families. We got to spend both Tuesdays and Thursdays with Sam, my nephew. He is SOOO much fun, and it was the sweetest thing to see him bond with Asa. He even nick-named him "Asa-ba-basa" all on his own! :) We got to see Matt and Ariana and take Asa to meet Jane, and he got an extra Sunday at CSPC to meet more friends, like Lu, Nate, Ruth, and Lucy. We got to celebrate Mom's birthday, hang out with Mimi (my grandmother), go visit Lois and Bob again, and see Brad, Joy, and their kids more, too. SUCH a treat and blessing to spend so much time with all the fam.

The down-side of the trip was two-fold. First and foremost is that we were apart from Matt for the longest amount of time in our marriage. Yikes! But we talked every day and I sent him pictures and videos of Asa. Those were important because he grew like a weed and learned a LOT of new tricks in TN. That leads to our second down-side... Asa was kind of out of control in the milestone department which led to awful sleeping. I am so thankful I had the help of his grandparents! He was waking up every hour, wouldn't stay asleep in his crib, fussy while he was eating, incredibly distractable while he was eating. Whew! However, he learned to laugh, use and control his legs, roll from back to stomach, and capture the hearts of everyone he meets. ;)

It was a huge, amazing blessing to spend that much time back at home. I never would have imagined I'd get 2 weeks there now that we live in FL. The drive back to FL was interesting, but Asa did SO well again and we made it. :) Mom's car got a flat tire--the same tire position that had just been replaced due to a flat. Thankfully Dad spotted it when we stopped for me to burp Asa. :) Then Dad discovered that the tire place had not returned his full-size, perfect condition spare when they gave him his new tire in TN, they put the FLAT in the spare space and got rid of the perfect spare! So we had a flat tire and a flat "spare." God led us to a wonderful tire store where they bumped us to the front of the line. We were in and out in less than an hour, maybe even less than 30 minutes. Very much a God thing . We took a detour around lunch time because the interstate was almost at a stand-still, so our total road time was about 11 hours. Asa was great until the last hour or so. He was still great then ;), just loud and unhappy. He was OVER the carseat.

Then we were back in FL and prepping to host both our families for Asa's baptism! It was a huge blessing to have family here for such a special day. Thank you to everyone for coming! Asa also got to meet his Auntie Lakey and cousin Izzy for the first time that weekend.

Since then we've made some changes to Asa's schedule as he was still sleeping horribly. God has been faithful in holding us up even in the long, hard nights, but we are seeing HUGE HUGE improvements. Last night, for example, Asa slept from 8-12:15, ate, then slept until 5:15, ate, and then I woke him at 8 this morning so he and I could get ready for Bible study. SUCH a turn around from waking every hour and having to be held, and then crying even though he was being held all night. PRAISE THE LORD! We have predictable naps 3 times a day and a predictable, early evening bed time. Matt and I get to talk to each other and hang out! WOW! And I am getting sleep in chunks longer than 2 hours--WOW! We are really, really thankful for this turn around. :)

I will have another post soon as Asa turned 3 months old last week! But for now you are almost all caught up. :)