Steven's Weekend

This past weekend was a busy one. We celebrated Steven's 32nd birthday on Friday, as well as Father's Day. Friday night, we had a birthday dinner party at Johnny Carino's in Rockwall for Steven. We ate, laughed, devoured cupcakes, and took more than a few attempts at a group picture. This was Steven's first birthday since we've been married, so I wanted to make sure that he felt special and he was celebrated. I think we did just that! Here are some pictures from that evening:

Tyson, Steven (with his burning candles) and Jason



I think was the most successful attempt at our group photo that was captured on our camera.




Dana and I




Chris, Ricky, and Steven



Steven's favorite birthday gift was little Tarley, our new min pin puppy. She is just adorable and we are loving her so far! This is just her Craigslist ad photo, but I am sure there will be more to come in the future!



Little Tarley Thompson

Although we spent this weekend indoors due to all three of us being sunburned, I wouldn't have traded the relaxing time spent with Steven and Chris for anything. Chris is away at church camp this week, but when he comes back on Saturday, we will have him for two weeks straight and I, for one, am really looking forward to it!

Steven, I love you and I hope you felt as loved and appreciated as you are to our family. I'm so glad I get to do life by your side. Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day, Honey! You are truly the best!

Losses and Gains

Since my last update, the Thompson family has experienced a few ups and downs.

The first most obvious one is that we are no longer expecting a baby. We found out on May 10 that I miscarried, and though we are still unsure of the medical reasoning behind it, we are learning (and trying to learn) to continue to trust the Lord through everything. This is our second, my third, miscarriage, so for me it was (and still is) a whirlwind of emotions that are difficult to sort out or understand on some days. I don't question "Why?" for the sake of knowing why God chose to allow it to happen. I know that I will know that either in the future if He chooses to reveal it to me or one day when I can ask Him face to face. But I still struggle with wondering "Why?" when it comes to the medical/scientific aspect of it. I have to consciously tell myself often not to worry about whether there is something wrong with me physically or not, what I could have done wrong to hurt the pregnancy, etc. We will be seeing a specialized doctor in the future to see if we can get some answers to those questions, but my natural tendency is to want the answers and solutions right now. So, the Lord is still teaching me to wait, have patience, trust Him.

Alot of people have asked how I am doing with it, and honestly it's sometimes hard to answer that question, because I feel like I don't know. Coincidentally, there is no prescribed way to mourn the loss of an unborn child. Even though I have experienced this loss twice before, this time was so much harder because I was almost 12 weeks along when I found out and I was so confident that I was in the clear. I also feel this silly obligation to make people think that everything is ok. Even though ultimately everything is ok in the sense that God has us in His hands and we are "moving on" (if there is such a thing?)...especially in the beginning, everything was not ok emotionally with me. I feel weird even saying that now, but it's true. Now that some time has passed, most of my days are very good and thankfully for Steven, my crying episodes and unexplained mood swings have all but come to an end. I still get sad every time I see a pregnant woman or a baby, or really a child in general, but I have a peace at the same time knowing that my time will come. I also have recently made a practice of reminding myself that this time in my life that I have right now is not only valuable, it's special and I will never be able to get it back. There will never be another time when I am young, without children and able to have the free time that I do because of my husband working hard to allow me to stay home. This has helped tremendously, along with the outpouring of love, support and prayers from our family and friends. We thought at first that we would not announce the pregnancy until after the first trimester (like we did with our last one, which I miscarried early on in October), but for this reason alone, I am so glad that we did. I just know that it would have been much harder to go through without the encouragement that so many wonderful people in our lives have given. We will be trying again for another baby, though the jury is still out on when that will be.

On a much lighter and more positive note, there have been some great things happening around here, too. Steven has continued to excel in his position at Willard Heat & Air in Forney. As I've said before, leaving the car business to work with them has been such a blessing for our family. Christopher finished up the seventh grade last week, and he is quite happy to stay in "summer mode" as I call it. Chris and I had our first summer hangout the other day while Steven was at work and it was a great time. I am really looking forward to the extra time I will get to spend with that kid this summer. He is amazing. He also has his last baseball game of the season tonight. We have had so much fun cheering him on this year! We also moved at the end of May from Dallas out to the "country"as I call it, and I could not be more happy about it! We are in Heartland now, which is a masterplanned community between Forney and Crandall. I could list about a million things I love about our home and neighborhood, but I will spare you the hysterics. Once all of our back-ordered new furniture arrives and we are completely settled in, you will have to come see for yourself!

I hope your summer has kicked off as nicely as ours has by now. Texas' is in full-swing, as we are all sunburning and sweating to death within minutes of being outside. Brings happiness to this Vegas desert girl's little heart!

Until next time, be blessed!

Catching up

Ok, so we are failing at keeping this thing up, for sure! I will attempt to catch you up on everything that has been happening in the Thompson house since the last update at the end of October. (Oops!)

In November, we had our first Thanksgiving together and Christopher turned 13. Chris, Grandma Kay and I went to the Museum at Fair Park and saw some cool exhibits with dinosaurs and other old stuffed critters. It was a good day! In December, we celebrated my (Ember) 21st birthday, enjoyed Christmas together, and hung out with Christopher for a week while he was out of school. January moved us to Dallas temporarily while we decide which house to go with in Forney, and also began a new chapter in our church. The name was changed from The Oaks Mesquite to New Community Church, and we have been so blessed by the true commitment of our church to "make all things new" in the city of Mesquite and the surrounding area. February blessed us with snow/ice storms and a Superbowl, as well as Steven starting a new job as a Comfort Specialist working for Willard Heat & Air Conditioning out of Forney. A big change in industries, but one of the best decisions we've ever made! He is loving it and absolutely thriving in his new position. I am one very proud wife! March was a busy month for us. We were blessed by the birth of Zoey Lane Hadaway, the daughter of our best friends on March 25th. She is beautiful in every way! Christopher started playing baseball, and we are loving going to all his games. We also found out on March 15th that we are expecting our first baby, which will be due Thanksgiving Day 2011 (which also happens to be Christopher's 14th birthday) on the 24th of November. We are SO excited about growing our family! We are still trying to guess whether it's a boy or a girl, but Mommy just has a gut feeling it's a boy. We won't be able to find out until the middle of June which it will be, but I am sure no matter what, we will all be happy and excited to welcome and love on this new bundle of joy headed our way.

Currently, we are hoping to finalize everything to move out to Forney within the next 30 days. It's a work in progress, but we are praying that everything goes smoothly. As of today, I am 9 weeks and 1 day along, and so looking forward to feeling the baby kick for the first time. Hearing the heartbeat during our ultrasound all but put me into a state of shock, but I think it will be much more real for us when we can see and feel the little one making his/her presence known. Steven, like I said earlier, is doing incredibly well at work and I am so proud I feel like throwing a party and having a parade every day when he comes home from work and tells me about his day. Christopher is rapidly approaching the end of his 7th grade year....I can hardly believe that he only has one more year until he is a high-schooler! He is growing like a weed and becoming more funny and witty every day. It's truly a joy to be around him!

Today is Good Friday and as we look forward to Easter Sunday to celebrate Christ's resurrection, I encourage you to take some time to reflect on the sacrifice that He made for us on the cross over 2000 years ago so that we could be free from sin and ALIVE in His love! If you haven't already made plans for your Easter morning, we would love to have you join our family at NCC. We have 2 services on Sunday morning, 8:30 & 10:30, and we will be offering free professional family portraits to everyone. Let me know if you will be there, and we will save you a seat next to the Thompson's. You can find out more information about our church and directions here.

New Beginnings

Well, here it is! The Thompson family blog is up and running.
Here you will be able to find updates about what is going on in our life together, as well as funny anecdotes throughout the days, weeks, months and years as we grow old together. We have family and friends spread out across the country, and since we can't always keep up with everyone, we figured this would be a great way to keep you all in the loop.

Here's what we've been up to lately:

- We met, fell madly in love, got engaged and got married in a whirlwind of wonderful events over the last several months.
- We went to my (Ember) hometown of Las Vegas last month and were married on September 24th, 2010. It was a ton of fun! Steven had never been to Vegas before, so we played tourist. We really enjoyed being with some of our family and friends the week of our wedding, but also missed those that could not be there with us.
- We are currently living in the apartment I was in before we met with our adorable buddy Tebow, and we are dreaming of possibilities of a home a bit further out from the city.
- Speaking of Tebow, for those of you who don't know...he is our Yorkie/Chihuahua puppy. At almost 8 months old, he just about rules the roost around here and certainly keeps things interesting. "Daddy" tries to pretend like he's annoying, but deep down, I know they are the best of friends! We get a laugh out of all his antics, and jokingly call him our little human because of his remarkable ability to use his 'arms' to manipulate his toys and us. Pictures of the three of us to come....
- Another great big awesome part of our family is Chris, my new bonus son. We have been enjoying going to his football games and spending weekends with him. He brings a lot of energy to our household, and we are both very, very proud of the great young man he is becoming. I feel so blessed to be a part of what God has planned for Chris' life!
- I am no longer working at Verizon, and should be starting a new job very soon. The schedule and commute for this position should be much more suitable for the both of us. Steven is still in management at Trophy Nissan. I have been tagging along at Trophy being his secretary lately, and I am so proud of how well he treats his customers. If anyone is in the market for a car, new or preowned, (even if it's not a Nissan), please let us know! We would love to help you get a great deal.
- We have really been enjoying growing with our church, The Oaks Mesquite. God has been speaking to us and we look forward to Sunday every week. This coming Sunday, they are having a Family Service for Halloween and our awesome pastors are going to be doing an illustrated sermon. I know it will be great! If you are in the area and candy interests you or your kids at all, stop by and come sit with us!
- Overall, we are loving the married life. Being a newlywed couple is fun, but only the best is yet to come.