norway love

my hubby is in sweden tonight playing a show and heads to norway on friday. he is playing at a festival and on sunday preaching. i am so proud of him. he just put out his first solo album and these two festivals with thousands of people happen to be his first shows! way to go baby!

4 wonderful years ago my sweet husband proposed on the top of a beautiful mountain overlooking the north sea. we had traveled there for him to play at a festival (the same festival he is playing at on saturday). it was 10pm at night, although it was at sunset. the view was amazing and so is the man that i said Yes! to that day!

he's been back a few times to norway a few times since then, but not to the spot where we decided to spend our lives together. but he's headed there this time. Besides me gaining a few pounds since then, we have gotten to do so many great things together- have two adorable children and are about to embark on another fun journey together in St. Louis. He's my travel buddy, my great adventure....

I miss you honey!

Baby's first bath and other cuteness

2 weeks

i think 2 weeks after the baby is born is when you finally feel like you can get your head above water....even if its just a little bit.
Abraham has been such a sweet sweet baby. Although he does have his days/nights mixed up a tad which makes for a very tired (and sometimes grumpy) momma. Maggie LOVES her brother and we have to block her kisses all day long. Her once tiny hands seem very mighty when she grabs his toes to kiss them. We are in a season of learning, thats what i tell myself. I am super excited about having two kids and will be a proud momma to whip out my double stroller (thanks grandma carole!) and go to the zoo!
Abraham has started smiling right on time! The time being when Maggie smiled, which was two weeks old. Doctors say that isnt possible but these pictures show otherwise. He laughs! (with no noise!) He reminds me of her so much, but also lately like my brother-which is so fun to see peek through!

Laughing


Looking like uncle josh


i'm cute


i've got dimples

fathers day remembered

in the midst of new baby bliss, i never got to write about mojo on father's day. His day was special, of course, because he had TWO children to adore him this year! And this past week has reminded me again and again what a WONDERFUL father he is! He has been off work this week to take care of Maggie and has highly surpassed me in keeping maggie entertained.
reasons why he gets best father of the year award:
1) he has gladly taken over the reigns for potty training (that alone wins him the award right?) he even read the chapter on potty training in our parenting book
2) he takes maggie on daily rides around the neighborhood in our new bike trailer
3) he doesnt mind taking maggie to her parent/toddler gym class where he is the only dad (and i think he might have more fun than maggie....)
4) he takes her to the YMCA pool almost every day and teaches her to jump off the side of the pool
5) he makes playdates with my friends cause he knows maggie will have fun
6) he takes her to storytime and then goes and gets coffee at starbucks (maggie gets water with a straw)
7) he snuggles on the couch with her at 6:30am and they watch cartoons while i get to sleep in
8 )he changes the occasionally diaper in the middle of the night when i arouse him and changes plenty during the day!
9) he has way more energy than i do!

here's to you honey. the perfect dad in every way. Maggie adores you and I know Abraham will too!

Abraham-what a beauty huh?

just like daddy

first kiss from sister

first hours with mama

Abraham Joseph is here and already brightening our lives!

Abraham was born last night at 8:14pm. 7lbs and 12 oz. (And i keep forgetting to ask how long he is!)
He is a sight to behold and looks just like Maggie did when she was born! We're so thankful for a healthy and beautiful SON! Maggie was able to see him right after I delivered. She immediately looked at him and said "hold you?"

Better pictures coming forth. We forgot the plug to download our camera photos to the computer. But for now, here are some cell pictures. He is awesome! Also, the blog about having perhaps "too" short of a labor...

due date + 5

{this is funny. so i am posting it. Sweet Baby Morginsky is here!!!! From the time I began this post on Friday at 2pm to the time I got to the end of the last paragraph, I went into full on labor at 2 -3 minutes apart in my contractions....thats quick! it is abruptly...}

so. i'm still pregnant. i thought for sure last night was the night. i had consistent contractions most of the night, but alas morning came and i'm still large and in charge. he was moving so much last night that i think he was trying to get out through my belly button! so i'm pretty sure he's ready too. good thing is, the contractions are still there, not as frequent but still as strong so somethings going on! my doc says she thinks he'll come this weekend, if not, we've picked next weds. to induce. the other day,my friend alice looked up when the next full moon is. we both laughed when she said the 18th cause it seemed crazy to us that i'd still be pregnant. well, thats the induction date, so who knows!

but last night's contractions were good "practice" for me in figuring out what mental imagery works for me. what i learned is, picturing a flower opening petal by petal does nothing but annoy me and picturing me riding a swell in the middle of the ocean is also pretty distracting. so we marked those of the list of "visuals."

and i also had an epiphany yesterday. i took to the treadmill and gave the "baby labor" playlist a run through. Mojo did a fabulous job-picking from Dylan, The Decemberists, Flaming Lips, Fernado, etc. They all hold my attention while allowing me to relax. Everyone needs a Mojo!
Anyway, on to the epiphany. While walking, I realized that going past your due date is like waiting for a marathon to start. Your prepared, mentally and physically, but your just waiting for the darn gun to go off so you can begin what you were meant for.Thats how this week has been. It's not been stressful or full of anxiety. its just the feeling of standing at a start line waiting for the gun to go off. It's amazing what the mind can do in those "minutes". And these days of waiting really are minutes in the big picture of this little guys life.

due date + 2

hey all. for those of you checking in....the bun is still in the oven.
although, my hormones were RAGING today so we'll see if he comes tonight! i already finished the book sweet Mojo bought for me last week to read while in labor. It is Thousand Splendid Suns (the kite runner follow up)....so so good but definitely not a book for pleasant reading, so it was a good thing I read it so fast. So now I am on to a spy thriller and there are like 5 in the series so i should be good for a while if the babe still isnt ready to come just yet.
We have filled our days with lots of reading and lots of pool time (it feels amazing to be in water) and someone told me today that she saw me yesterday and was wondering if I am having twins. I guess that means he's getting big in there and women "overdue" usually don't show up everyday at the pool in a tankini. but really, the water is the only place i'd like to be! keep checking back often, he'll be here sooner or later!

they dont call it labor for nothin'

****disclaimer****may be unsuitable for men or women who want to believe childbirth is easy*****

So i've been thinking about labor alot lately, obviously. one day away from the due date and the excitement is mounting! before i talk about labor let me say a few things about pregnancy. despite what my husband has been hearing lately about aches, pains, and the like...I LOVE being pregnant. I really think it suits me. I think it is an honor and a privilege to get to be a vessel in which God's hands do a miracle inside you. I love feeling little knees and hands. It is a blessing to get your ribs bruised by a future soccer player, or see a tiny bottom roll under your skin when you talk. It's weird and it reminds you that even with all our advances, we haven't found a better way to make a baby. Everything about it is perfect. It physically prepares you and is a sign of the impending lifetime sacrifices. As your body stretches (sometimes so much you think it will break)-its a physical sign of your life stretching to make room for new life. The aches and pains are only a glimpse of the worry and anxiety over sniffles and coughs that you'll have in the future. God prepares you in this season and its wonderful.

My mantra this week has been this: Labor is the easy part, parenting is the hard part.
This close to the end and its easy to focus on the labor instead of what quickly comes after. I remember the first time I was left alone with Maggie in the hospital (and I didnt even tell Mojo at the time)....my thought was, "oh, yeah, i'm the parent. I guess I should feed her."
But nonetheless, my thoughts have dwelled on labor and preparing for the event to come. And i have a few conclusions about it. First, I am pretty sure everybody that has "blogged" about their labor has had a somewhat pleasant experience. Or there is such joy in the outcome (your baby) that you never write about the experience without a touch of rose colored glasses. This is good except it leaves first time birthers at a disadvantage. Even in my natural birthing book, it glosses over alot. While reading it yesterday I laughed because i came to a sentence that said, " All these things are rare but within normal range."
I am pretty sure they could leave about the rare part, because i qualified for all of them. And when a woman reads that something is rare, she just brushes it off. For instance, its rare but normal for a body to take 12 to 24 hours of labor just to dilate to 4cm. CHECK. It's rare but normal to throw up during labor. CHECK. its rare but normal to get hot and cold flashes during labor. CHECK. its rare but normal to have tremors during transition (read: shake uncontrollably.). CHECK.
Even my child birth educator said things like, you may throw up but its really good for labor b/c it pushes the baby down further. What they dont tell you is, when you are throwing up while simultaneously having a contraction, it possibly is the worst feeling in the world and telling yourself, "this is going to make labor faster" doesnt quite make up for it.
And then when you finally (after 30 hours) get to transition and you start shaking uncontrollably and your fear is reflected in your husbands eyes-it doesnt help to think "pushing is just around the corner"-all your thinking is, "what if i never stop shaking"

Just like most things in life....The reality is, labor comes really easy for some. Like my sweet friend Alice who didnt even realize she had gotten to 10cm by the time she got to the hospital. and for some, it takes a little more work. And thats okay, but i think OBs and educators need to cut out language of what's "normal" or "average" cause the poor girl (me) who ends up on the high end of "within normal range" just feels in the midst of things that perhaps something is wrong....cause everything she read said what was an average labor but forgot to mention what happens when something isnt average.

So to all my friends that are pregnant or Lord willing, will be pregnant in the future:Read your books, prepare yourself, and then realize you may not be "normal."
So this time around, I have no expectations (as much as that is possible)-I believe that all my walking and eating spicy foods and drinking special teas isnt actually doing a darn thing. I believe that he'll come when the Lord has appointed the hour. I believe that i'll probably have a very long labor again and if perchance i don't, I'll blog about that too.
I believe that women in Africa have to work all day in the fields and then labor-all I have to do is the labor part-thats not so bad right? I believe that if Eve saw what her choice would do for women over the millenia she may have given pause to that apple. I believe that in the midst of labor its almost impossible to focus on the end so you just have to be present in the pain. I believe that God knew what he was doing in allowing women to give birth so to quote my educator "get out of the way of the uterus and let it do its job." And i believe my husband when he says, "one way or another he's coming out." hallelujah.

maggie learning from harriett

So, quickly after seeing Harriett drinking from the hose, Maggie jumped in with full gusto. Maggie loves water and continued her learning weekend by fun times in her new pool that Mimi bought her. Summer time here we come!!!!

cute husband & fun weekend

This past weekend was a welcome respite from all the packing and moving. Mojo was in a wedding so it forced us to put down the boxes and enjoy our friends and each other.
Then on Sunday some sweet friends threw me a shower. It was a good reminder that indeed a baby was coming soon! Maggie is adjusting to Mimi and Papa Joe's house and loving their backyard and all the new toys, the dog, and the kitty cats.
She is playing in the play room right now...she is becoming very good at playing pretend and even makes eating noises when she is playing with her little kitchen. she also is saying sentences now (short ones) like: Bye Daddy! Thank you Mimi! and her favorite that shes been saying for a while- "where did it go?"

"Our House is Gone"

On the way home from my parents house today Mojo was encouraging me that we should just go ahead and move in with them now and not wait two more weeks- our house is filled with boxes and isnt that fun to be in right now. (perhaps a tivoed Laker game had something to do with him wanting to hurry back to my parents?)...I am not ready to leave our house, I replied.
And he said, "Sharon, Our house is gone."

I was never that emotionally attached to this house, as glamorous and beautiful as I thought it was. I always knew this was just a stopping place along the way and we weren't going to be here for a very long time. But nonetheless, his statement made me sad.

Once we got home and he presented me with my Mother's Day gift of Versace Sunglasses (how cool is he?), he took the babe to church and I took my hormone filled body into the oatmeal, lavender bath. I began think about the memories of this house. How we've spent most of our marriage in this place, How I labored long and hard in that bath tub with Maggie, putting up our first Christmas tree in front of the huge front stainglassed window, bringing Maggie home and making a safe and cozy resting place for her, all the neighborhood group meetings, all the parties, the bottles of wine that we shared together over pizza and watching movies (a favorite Sunday night after church ritual).
I thought about our neighbors and missing them, the conversations and the frustrations. The weekly walks to bongo and Marche. Maggie's first steps along those paths. The playdates, the dinner parties, the friends that have graced the doorway and all the laughter that filled this place.

But he was right, our house is gone. Not b/c it's filled with boxes and there is no place to sit but because our time here is done. Our season in East Nashville is coming to a close. And thats what we have to say goodbye to (our church, our family, our friends, our neighbors). There will be other houses.... or for that matter, huts or flats or duplexes-who knows? But our calling makes our home.
St. Louis-be ready.

give it all away

Packing and moving makes me crazy. Mainly because it makes me want to just give all my sh** away and move to Africa. I have a hard time balancing what i really need and thinking i'll someday need that random potato peeler. I feel like once you begin to accumulate you just cant stop. I mean really, half our stuff is in storage right now anyway and we havent even known its gone. part of me just wants to pretend it doesnt exist so that I wont worry that I need it.
One of my favorite parts of living in China is that the chinese wear the same outfit for a week at a time usually. Let me tell you how freeing that is! I do wish it was culturally acceptable here cause i would quickly embrace that. i'm selling 70% of my clothes- we are having a garage sale saturday and if i keep feeling this way, I'm sure most of our belongings will be in our front yard. come buy so I can be free!

past the cute point

i feel like in every pregnancy there is a threshold you cross from being cute and pregnant to being just pregnant. I think months 5, 6, & 7 are months when pregnant woman shine above other women all over the world. They are glowing and happy and still feeling great. Months 8 &9, for me at least, is when you start to slow down, the aches set in, you dont sleep very well and so cant tie your shoes. after a while,especially for short people the only place to for babies to grow is straight OUT.
so i believe i've recently passed that point. my clues are when people i dont know very well start asking when my due date is, but really they want to know if i'm due in the next couple days.
and then of course, the comments about "youre bigger every time i see you!" i still dont know why a) people think thats okay to say and b) why its surprising...since thats the point, right?
to be fair, i do the same thing, cause a woman being pregnant is pretty cool and its kinda wierd when your friends all of the sudden have a big belly right? but considering how common pregnancy is (obviously), its a bit strange how much attention it gets-have you ever thought about that?
The largest clue lately, came from my 15 yr old boy neighbor. He said the other day, "why is your baby so fat?" "you mean, Maggie?" I said incredulously (i'm she's chubby, but would we say fat?) and he said, "No, the one in your belly." With a raised eyebrow i replied, "I guess because he's growing." And then to save him from a slap from a wife/girlfriend down the road, I said, " Just for future reference, you probably dont want to use the word fat in any sentence with a pregnant lady." He nodded but seemed confused... he'll learn.

so 4 or 5 more weeks. i can deal with that. here are some recent pictures of my clothed belly to redeem the budda belly pic. i figured if you arent staring at the clothes-less belly everyday it may come as a shock, so dont worry. no more naked belly pics.
Note:my legs are still skinny. its the only thing i've got left:)

morning curls

until we unpack...

We inadvertently packed away our camera charger. so that is why there has been a lack of pictures these days. so here are a few recent pics of Maggie taken via cell phone and computer. Maggie has taken to reading to her Eddie and baby doll. Our little book worm. We've read her that book soooo many times that she knows it by heart (and so do we) and so she'll flip pages and say things like, Head! Toes! Wiggle!. Genius I tell you.

Budda Belly

Rub for Good Luck!!!!

i'm definitely pregnant

if you didnt know i was pregnant by the increasingly large belly beneath my shirt this will clue you in.....
i made mojo go out at 9pm last night to get me a philly steak & cheese! if you know me at all you know that i rarely eat red meat, let alone from some random Kebab shop along Gallatin Road....but i tell you this, it was delicious. i'm seriously pregnant.

Urgency for hugs & kisses

Today i've been overcome with an urgency to get all the hugs and kisses I can from this little one. She is too precious for words. She sweetly says "thank you bubba" when I hand her things and asks "Hold you?" when she wants a hug. {she's currently smearing yogurt everywhere as she attempts to feed herself, so i am free to write}

As my walk slowly turns into a waddle and we are more and more aware of the coming of baby boy....i feel the need to fill all my time just watching her, holding her, talking to her. These days are precious, with it just us three. It must be special to be the first born, to get all the attention of two doting parents. Maggie has only had it for 19 months but i am pretty sure we've over done the doting.

Baby Morginsky is having a constant dance party in my belly so he makes me quite aware he's around and we cant wait for him to share our lives and to know him and touch him and watch him grow. But in turn, i want to make these last days and weeks a special time for Margaret, our baby.

busy busy

We've been quite busy these days preparing to sell our house. Now that its up on the market it has been constant tidying up, lots of vacuuming and even more praying.
We've tossed the idea up and down a gazillion times about just renting it out. But bottom line is, we feel called to seminary--- not to make a bunch more $$$$ (by keeping it and selling it later). The risk of renting while barely making an income isnt worth hindering our current calling. If we dont sell by the time we need to leave, of course at that point, we'll need to rent. And thats okay. But for now, we'll see where this path leads us. I love my house and I am willing to bet someone else out there does too.