Bumpdate {17 Weeks}

How far along: 17 weeks today!

Size of baby: turnip, 5 inches

Total weight gain/loss: +8 pounds

Movement: Felt movement for the first time last night, Dec. 17. I was laying on my back on the floor and felt several little thumps!! :)

Sleep: Still good! I have always been a stomach sleeper so it's been an adjustment to start sleeping on my side. 

Cravings/Aversions: Still loving pickles, fruit, and savory things. I've had a strong aversion to chicken the last couple of weeks and still tend to pick salty things over sweets. Which is so weird for me. Unfortunately, it looks like I spoke a little too soon about my morning (all day!) sickness. From weeks 11-13 I felt great and then BAM!... nausea and vomiting struck again with frequent, sometimes severe light-headedness thrown in there to keep me on my toes. As long as I eat every two hours and keep chugging water I am good to go! Hopefully I have finally turned a corner because I have felt great these last two weeks- thank you, Lord! 

Gender: Levi Davis Brannan, sweet baby boy!

Exercise: I run every chance I'm feeling good and will log 35 miles this month. I've also been doing some brisk walking at a steep incline on the treadmill to mix things up. Just thankful to be active! 

Labor Signs/Symptoms: Nope

Best moment this week: My sister spent the night with us last night and got to come to our 17 week appointment this morning. Love that she got to hear Levi's heart beat... 150 bpm today! So very special.

What I am looking forward to: Colorado, my 28th birthday, and Christmas!! 

What I miss: Buttoning my pants? ;)

What I’m reading: Loving my pregnancy devotional! I have a list of books I plan to read over Christmas but Babywise is next on my list for the new year! :)

((Romans 11:36))

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. 

It's a boy!!

Ryan and I have been dying to know the gender since the moment we found out we were expecting. So naturally we scheduled an ultrasound to find out early. :) We went to WeeSee Imaging this week and it was such a sweet experience and the owner was so nice. She knew immediately that it was a boy and we were absolutely thrilled. We had an intuition from the start that this baby was a boy. I never even once thought it was a girl. So when she immediately told us, "It's a boy!" Ryan said, "I knew it!!" We are so over the moon excited to now be able to pray for this little boy, Levi, by name.

We had lunch today at Zoe's with my mom and Holley to reveal the gender of Baby Brannan. :)

Aunt Holley was right all along too-- baby boy!

Cupcakes from Sweet with blue icing in the middle :)

We had dinner at our house with the Brannan clan and celebrated with a cake!

Sweet boy!

We also celebrated Christmas with Poppy and Ryan's graduation from seminary. Such a full, fun day!

The cutest niece in the whole wide world :)

((Isaiah 43:1))

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

Bumpdate {13 Weeks}

Can’t believe I’m actually writing a bumpdate! Praise be to God! I always imagined these days and now that they are actually here it seems so surreal. I don’t plan to do an update every week, but will aim for at least once a month. I have always kept a prayer journal and have been keeping track of all the details of this pregnancy there… but I figured it would be fun to share some tidbits here too. So here goes:

No bump yet but I know it's coming! :)

How far along: 13W1D

Size of baby: peach

Total weight gain/loss: +4 pounds

Sleep: Sleep is great (and is oh so very precious to me). I usually get up a couple of times a night to use the restroom but fall right back to sleep. Hallelujah!

Cravings/Aversions: From weeks 6-11 I battled CONSTANT nausea. Fortunately, I can count on one hand how many times I actually threw up during those weeks, but needless to say, I have never eaten so many saltines or drank so much ginger ale in my life! For a non-soda drinker, I am almost positive that some of those 4 pounds came from all that ginger ale I downed! ;) I thought for sure I'd be the girl with all the indulgent cravings, but up to this point I have been the girl with all the aversions! From weeks 7-10 I tried to find things I could tolerate and ate them until I didn't want to see them ever again—I ate a Groucho’s Apollo 3 days in a row, then was on a soup kick for about 5 days in a row and have probably eaten at least 4 steaks during this pregnancy so far. I have been able to maintain my daily intake of 100 ounces of water (5 years strong!) and continue to eat as many fruits and veggies as possible… Apples, bananas and grapes- oh my! As cliche as it sounds, the only thing I have craved at this point is pickles. Jars on jars on jars of Vlasic Kosher Dill Spears!!! My coffee addiction has disappeared which has worked out great! I always wondered how I would survive without my morning coffee but being repulsed by the thought and smell of it has done the trick. I didn't even suffer any withdrawal headaches- PTL! My sweet tooth has also disappeared... wonder how long that will last?! My nausea has been minimal since week 11, and while I'm grateful to God for the physical signs of a growing life inside of me, I am SO thankful that I'm starting to feel normal again! 

Gender: Ryan and I have both *thought* boy from the beginning but we will be thrilled with either and are praying for a HEALTHY baby. 
Exercise: As a year-round runner, I run an average of 50 miles per month when I'm not training for a race. I was only able to run 15 miles in October due to my nausea so I opted for long walks with Finley instead. I'm finally back to running now that I'm starting to feel better and am on pace to run 40 miles or so in November. Lord willing, I plan to continue running as long as I am able through this pregnancy. 
Movement: Too early to feel any movement but we have SEEN him/her jump around during one of our ultrasounds- so neat! 

Labor Signs/Symptoms: Let’s pray I’m not writing anything here for several more months!

Best moment this week: Hearing baby's heartbeat (160 bpm) this morning at our 13 week appointment. It was 168 at 12 weeks and 152 at 8 weeks :)

What I am looking forward to: Finding out the gender!! We both can hardly wait.

What I’m reading: I have been blessed by a sweet little devotional journal called "Waiting in Wonder." I gave this book to Megan when she was pregnant with Isaac and couldn't wait for my turn to pray through this book. It outlines your baby's growth and development, includes a memory verse for mommy, and a special prayer for baby for every week of pregnancy. 

…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  
((Hebrews 10:22-23))

Celebrating Life

Today, on what would have been my Dad's 60th birthday, the Lord has given us a beautiful opportunity to celebrate life... My Dad's life AND this precious new life He is knitting together. Ryan and I gratefully and joyfully announce:

Baby Brannan is due May 28, 2015!

To God be the glory, great things He has done!

((Psalm 139:13-14))

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

  

Blessed Assurance {Romans 8 Retreat}

This past weekend a handful of us from our old Bible study group headed to Bluefield, WV to see our beloved Abbey. A couple of months ago we each received a beautiful invitation in the mail to attend a weekend retreat at her new home to study Romans 8. The entire weekend was a treat... right down to the pumpkin scones, homemade meals, endless laughs and parting gifts (a Scripture print of Romans 8:39!!).

Our first session was Friday night, the next two sessions were on Saturday, and our final session was Sunday morning. Abbey walked us through each section of Romans 8, declaring our blessed assurance in Christ at every turn. Paul's message in this chapter is about our sanctification and eternal security. He begins the chapter with joyous news: there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He ends the chapter with even better news: nothing can separate us from the love of God. Both so assuring in a world that desperately competes to steal our assurance.

We talked a lot over the weekend about the things that rob our hearts of assurance. Fear of the unknown, sickness, death, lies from Satan-- were just a few. In verse 18, Paul puts some perspective on our earthly fears when he says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

Paul is ASSURING us that our God is bigger than the troubles of this world, the hardships we face, and the suffering we endure. What's more, He uses suffering to make us more like Him and to point us toward our true home. We were not meant to bear the brokenness of sin. We were not made for this world.

But we aren't home yet. So in the meantime, God graciously gives us hope that He will be who He says He will be and He will do what He says He will do. Praise be to our God who gives us hope "as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" and who is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. 

To quote Abbey, "The scope of our hope is broader than the scope of our problem." God shows us through Paul and Jesus himself that our suffering is not just worth it, but nothing even compares to it in the end! 

Sinclair Ferguson reiterates this by saying, "The suffering we go through is divine preparation for glory. The very thing that seems to stand in the way of glory is the instrument God uses to bring us to glory." 

Paul and the apostles rejoiced when they suffered because it made them more like Christ. Abbey encouraged us this weekend to look at our situation through a Genesis 50:20 lens... "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." Though sometimes we may not see God’s plan through cancer, ISIS or heartbreak this side of heaven; we can most assuredly trust that He uses all things for His glory and our good.

As Paul wraps up chapter 8, he tells us with confidence that neither our fears nor our suffering can separate us from the love of God. He asks what can stand against us, "Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" (8:35). He then answers his question in verse 37 with a resounding "no."

NOTHING AND NO ONE can separate you from Christ.

THAT is blessed assurance. 

The Secret for the Seasons

August is here and that means one thing: we are inching our way towards fall! As per usual, we've had a busy and exciting summer discipling and bonding with our students. We've done all sorts of awesome things like: Journey camp, VBX, paint wars, a slumber party at our house with my 9th and 10th grade Sunday school girls, lake day with the high schoolers, island camping trip with the middle schoolers (this would be the one event I did not attend this summer because, well, CAMPING), day trip to Charleston, Ryan's weekly Bible study, my Bible study, and on top of all that… Ryan’s full-time seminary workload!

Nevertheless, Ryan has done a wonderful job balancing his many roles this summer and continues to amaze me as he leads and serves in so many different ways. We are both worn.slap.out but so grateful, honored, and humbled that THIS is the life and mission field God has called us to. We've got a back to school party coming up next week and that will round out summer 2014. Which brings me back to my first statement: fall is almost here. Which means summer WILL NOT last forever. (Insert praise hands emoji here.)

God, in His sovereignty, planned the calendar and seasons in perfect fashion. Just like the weather, His people change and come in and out of seasons of life. God has us in this particular season on purpose, for a purpose and knows just how much summer, fall, winter and spring we need. We cannot will ourselves into a different season (weather or otherwise) no matter how hard we try. But we CAN glorify Him today, exactly where He has us, and trust that the Creator of the universe is weaving our current season {of grieving, waiting, rejoicing or whatever it may be for you} into the beautiful tapestry of our lives. 

In my late teens and early twenties, I got really good at wishing and planning for the next season of my life. Never truly content with wherever I was at the time and always yearning for something just out of my reach. It was hard to understand at the time, but at 4 months shy of 28, I can look back with better spiritual vision and clearly see that the Lord was teaching me to be solely dependent on Him during those years.  

This summer, the Lord has reminded me all over again that there is something new to be learned in every season. He has all but written in the sky for me a very wise reminder from the apostle Paul: 

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  (Philippians 4:11-12)

Next to Jesus, Paul is my favorite Bible figure. This man experienced nearly every form of persecution possible, yet the words of his mouth and the meditation of his heart from a prison cell in Rome was: I have learned to be content.  

Paul seemingly mastered this concept as we see him write the same thing again in his pastoral epistle to Timothy, whom he mentored, saying “godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6) Paul didn’t need anything else. He didn’t know what his future held but he knew Who held his future… and he was content with that. The same is true for us. We may not know what is next to come, but we know Who will meet us there and THAT IS ENOUGH. 

The harder we chase after contentment in desires that are NOT of God (status, attention, affirmation, possessions, money, selfish motives, our own fleshly desires), the more discontent we will become. Ultimately, His sovereign grace aligns our heart’s desires with His and we find He is always what we are searching for anyway. 

So what do we do when we feel like our life is perpetually summer? Abide with Him. Be faithful in little so we can be faithful in much. All the while, the Vinedresser strengthens and prunes us so that, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:2) Pruning in this season means abundant fruit in the next. But not until we are attached to (and content with) the Vine.


Like the apostle Paul, we continually learn the “secret” to life is being content in Jesus alone-- not Jesus+something else. When we find our satisfaction in Christ, our love for Him deepens and blossoms as winter turns into spring and spring turns into summer... 

...Fall will come right on time, when He finds we are ready for it.

From our Charleston trip on Tuesday

((Isaiah 58:11))

“And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

Ordination

After many months of preparing, an interview with a hand-selected ordination council, and a beautiful ordination service last night at our church... Ryan is now officially Reverend Ryan Brannan! We are grateful that our families and our dear friends from church could be a part of the service and that many of his mentors in the faith could play a role in his ordination council. Some of which helped to spiritually shape him during his teen years and others which he still meets with regularly. It was a special, wonderful evening but Ryan will be the first to say: it was not about him. 

Last night was about Jesus. It was about the redeeming work the Lord alone has done in Ryan's life. It was about the passions God has rooted in him to lead spiritually as a husband, to minister to students, their families and to seek out the lost and share with them the Good News of Jesus Christ. It was about God's grace that has covered him through the peaks and the valleys and the grace that has restored him in every way to be the man God has ordained him to be.

I am so proud of my sweet husband and his commitment to God's call on his life. His enthusiasm for the Gospel and his willingness to go above and beyond inspires me on a daily basis. He blesses me with his constant thoughtfulness, encouragement, and attentiveness. The joy he has in his heart overflows into his life... and it is a contagious gift. 

I knew in the 9th grade that I would marry Ryan, but I never knew how God would bless our lives the way He has and would give us the opportunity to minister together as husband and wife. He is so faithful. Thank you, God, for this man, my husband. And thank you, Ryan, for loving Jesus more than you love me. 

Rev. Ryan Brannan. The love of my life.

((2 Corinthians 5:17-21))

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

It is so sweet to me that the Lord chose the first full week in our new home to be Holy Week. What a clear reminder to keep our eyes fixed on the Main Thing and to remind us that a house and all the pretty things that fill it are just that: things.

As I have reflected on Holy Week, the Lord has brought the faithfulness of Jesus to my mind several times. I often listen to Sinclair Ferguson's sermons online and searched through the archives this week to prepare my mind and heart for Easter. With Jesus in the Upper Room is a great one and explains Jesus' last meal with His disciples and tells of His unconditional love for them... until the very end of his life (John 13:1). The final hours of Jesus' life are so tragic, but so symbolic of His sinless, faithful life. I am amazed at His steadfastness until the bitter end. 

Jesus makes His triumphal entry into the city on Palm Sunday, eats the Last Supper with His disciples on Maundy Thursday, is crucified on Good Friday, and is resurrected to life on Easter Sunday. An empty tomb. The promise of all promises fulfilled. Our hope and eternity secured. It's a marvelous thing. The whole story of the Bible points to this scene. Old Testament believers prophesied of this moment and longed for this Savior, Jesus, who died and rose again.

This is the Savior, who on Thursday evening, the day before He knew He was going to die, "earnestly desired" to share the Passover meal with His disciples. He had eagerly anticipated eating with them to celebrate the great things God had done for His people. 

Jesus foretold His death and betrayal and was awaiting unjust suffering at the time of this meal. But He was JOYFUL to be with his friends nonetheless. At the table, Jesus has a unique consciousness that the betrayer is present at the supper (Luke 22:21). He had washed the very feet of Judas Iscariot, His friend, and then Judas left the room to betray him.

Jesus then foretells Peter's betrayal. What is happening here? Can you imagine your closest friends turning their back on you EVER much less all within the same hour?? But Jesus, in His perfect holiness, did not get angry with them or beg them to be loyal. He extended grace to each of them. And then He went to the Garden to pray. He was in such agony anticipating His death that He was sweating blood. And even still, He remained in close communion with His Father and prayed.

Betrayed by His disciples, forsaken by His Father, treated as a criminal, crucified by the men He came to save. Yet faithful still.   

Each of these things are powerful in their own right, but when you look at them in light of Jesus' final hours on Earth, it is simply astounding. Jesus knew what Good Friday held for Him and He chose to remain faithful, joyful, prayerful until He surrendered His spirit and proclaimed, "It is finished." (John 19:30)

We will never be able to comprehend what Jesus experienced in those last days and hours of His life. But we CAN follow His example. And, by His grace, we can remain faithful, joyful, and prayerful imitators of Christ no matter what awaits us in this life. 

Happy Easter!

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

:::

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!