I love that this post is immediately following my one about potentially having a girl. Haha!

On Thursday (the 20th) I had my 14 week checkup at the doctor. Everything looked good and the heartbeat was strong around 150bpm. Before leaving I asked her about scheduling the ultrasound (typically done between weeks 18 & 20). I was a bit surprised and disappointed when she responded saying she wanted me to wait until 21 weeks... and even more bummed when I heard that the hospital where I have to go to get my ultrasound won't do it before 22 weeks! I had really been hoping to find out the gender of our little one... and more importantly know that he or she was healthy... sometime in June. It was so hard to think I might not see our baby until halfway through July!

As I sat around bummed about this situation, it eventually dawned on me that I have friends who know an ultrasound tech and they were able to see her for a gender check around week 16. Had I been able to get my regular ultrasound at 18 or 19 weeks, I could have been patient... but knowing the long wait I was in for I decided to talk to one of my friends to see if I could possibly get in with this tech that they know.

Lo and behold I get a phone call on Friday morning saying that the tech was not only able to see me, but could get me in that day (just one day shy of 15 weeks at this point)! We were scheduled to meet with her at 3:45, so I spent my afternoon watching the clock with anticipation. So excited to see my little one!

Brent, Lydia, and I all went to the appointment - which was fantastic! The tech was so wonderful as she pointed out our little one's head, heart, tummy, and feet. At first the baby was squirming around a ton and kept crossing legs and putting hands between them, but eventually we got the view we were looking for. There it was... the "kickstand" as our tech put it... our baby is a BOY! We had fun getting different views of our son and eventually I asked the tech how sure she was about the gender. Her first response was that she never says 100% because she believes nothing is for sure until you are holding the baby. Then a bit later I asked her if we would get the 95% sure from her and she said, "Hmm... I think I'm actually going to go ahead and give you guys the 100%!" When a professional who has done this for 12 years gives you 100% certainty, I think that's trustworthy!

I left still feeling a bit in shock. I was afraid to really let myself believe we're having a son (I'm sure I would have reacted the same way to a girl... because I'm a skeptic like that), but as I sat in Red Lobster waiting for a table (our traditional celebration dinner after baby ultrasounds) I let it sink in and my heart melted at the thought of holding my little boy in November. Over dinner Brent and I discussed names a bit. We had already tentatively decided, but now it was time to set it in stone. We mostly tossed around various versions of the name Eli - Elijah, Elisha, Elias, Eli... in all cases planning to call him Eli. So in the end we decided that our baby boy will be named...


I've always been a fan of Biblical names and want our children to be named after worthy characters in the Bible. Eli was the high priest who raised the prophet Samuel. Additionally, I've always liked the idea of our children having middle names that reflect our ties to family. Lydia ended up with my middle name and Eli will have Brent's middle name - which has actually been passed down through Brent's father from his grandfather.

So there you have it. Come November, we will be the Pirolli family of four - Brent, Sarah, Lydia, and Eli!

Random fun fact - Lydia's first, and so far only, letter that she learned is "E" ... and we never really made efforts to teach that to her. Perhaps she knew she'd have a brother named Eli someday?

I know I've been pretty lax about writing about this pregnancy compared to my last. Maybe it is in part because it's my 2nd and I just don't think about it as much... or maybe it's because I've not had nearly the complications this time around that I had last time. Regardless, I really AM excited to be pregnant again and do think about this baby quite often! I just don't have the time to sit and write about what I have been thinking or feeling as easily as I could the 1st time around.

Green or yellow indicates a girl result (red or orange means boy). Again, I don't put a whole lot of faith in this test. We will still wait for our ultrasound in about a month before calling the baby by name and painting the nursery. I would love for Lydia to have a sister... and I would love to have a little boy... so I'm going to be happy either way. I'm just curious to see if the test turns out to be correct.

I've been meaning to take the time to write out the story of my Christian walk on my blog and just haven't gotten around to it. But here I am with a little bit of time on my hands (seems so hard to come by these days!) and I decided that now is just as good a time as any.

My journey has been a simple one. Or at least a straight-forward one. I don't have one of those major conversion stories about how I was a druggie and prostitute who ended up in jail at the end of my rope when God opened my eyes and changed my life forever. Nope. That's not me. And for a long time I felt like my story wasn't worth telling because it wasn't very dramatic. There aren't any crazy intense moments that reach a climax before I at last "see the light" and turn to the happily-ever-after that I've always wanted.

I was so incredibly blessed to grow up in a strong Christian household with parents who were (and are) REAL. They loved me and my brothers. They taught us to value ourselves, respect others, and learn about all that God created us to be. I am eternally thankful that God gave me such wonderful role models, and as a result of their love and prayers I remember sitting on my bed with my Daddy and accepting Jesus into my heart when I was just 5 or 6 years old. And somehow, no doubt only by God's grace, that decision stuck. Even as young as I was, it changed my life. I never looked back and I never questioned if I really "meant it" when I prayed that prayer. I knew that I did.

Unlike many who come to faith as children, I did not hit a rebellious stage as a teen or young adult. Like I said, the decision I made was real and it stuck. I remained active in youth group throughout my high school years and knew that God had a plan for my future that didn't involve all of the teenage drama. However there was one big defining moment for me as a teen. Crazy kid that I was, I remember standing in our kitchen one day and just crying out to God, "Test me! Try me! If faith is strengthened through trial, then bring it on!" Bad move. Ha! Seriously, if you ever ask God for a trial, He will deliver!

Over the course of the next year or so I faced a most unexpected challenge. Something I hadn't anticipated and certainly had never experienced. My expectations were that God would put me through the kind of trials that others would see... a death in the family, some sort of injury or life crisis, you know, the typical hardships that people endure. But God had something different in mind for me. Something I would have to get through more or less on my own. For the first time ever, I suddenly felt alone. God got quiet.

I can't explain why things suddenly felt this way, but confusion and doubt quickly flooded in. Where are you, God? What am I supposed to be doing? As I worked through this time in my life, I came to understand that God had taken my request for a trial and gave me the opportunity to stand on my own. Like a parent who lets go to allow a child to take her first steps. It's not that the parent has left or that they no longer love or care about the child, but they recognize the need for growth. God was helping me grow up.

I struggled for about a year, analyzing my beliefs, considering what God wanted for my life, and ensuring that this truly was the path I wanted to follow. I learned a lot in that time. For starters, I quickly learned that faith is not about feelings. When I no longer felt like God was near me, did that mean that He wasn't there? No. He was always there. I also grew confident that my faith was not just a result of mimicking my family... just following it because it's what I had been taught... but rather an honest decision that I made for myself. And I also learned more about loving others. I learned about stepping out of my comfort zone. Reaching others for Christ rather than sitting in my "holy huddle" of fellow believers. I learned that it's not just about knowing the Bible, but rather about caring for people.

After that period in my life, I felt rejuvenated and recommitted to what I had chosen on that day sitting in my room with my Dad. I definitely still struggle at times with finding the passion in my faith that I've seen in the past. My life feels crazy right now with raising babies and growing a family. Sometimes I feel like I'm failing at my mission. But being a mom is part of the mission that I have always wanted to have. I love my parents so much and am so grateful for the Christian example that they were. They helped me find the right path in life and keep with it. I hope and pray that I can do the same for my children. Even if the only lives I feel like I ever change are theirs, it will be worth it to me. I can only hope to one day be a part of their stories of falling in love with their Creator. That would make the perfect end to my story.

I keep trying to maintain a mental list of all the words Lydia knows now and I'm beginning to lose my grip on said list. So for my own memory's sake, I'm going to try to type up a list. Some of these are words that she regularly says without any prompting, others she understands and will use if we say them first or prompt her to say them, and still others are barely "words" at all but a good "mom translation" knows what she is trying to say.

So here we go... Lydia's 14 month vocabulary...

Woof
Meow
Hop Hop
Sssss (snake sound)
Roar
Moo
Oo Oo (monkey sound)
Shoes
Socks
Toes
Crash
Wash
Lala (Elmo)
Mama
Daddy
Nana (for either her Nana or a banana)
Grandpa/Papa (these ones are rare)
Stairs
Go
Up
Down
Night Night
Mmmm (when eating)
Mmmmuh! (giving or blowing kisses)
Kisses
No
Yes
Uh Oh
All Done
More
Bye Bye
Hi
Hello (in context of a phone)
Juice
Fish (most definitely her favorite animal currently)
Movie
Bless You (doesn't really sound anything like that but she says it after I sneeze!)

Additionally, she does signs for more, all done, eat, please, I love you, and help.

Ahhh I love it! She is at such a fun age!

So I've been trying really really hard this time around to not be a crazy, nervous, nutcase pregnant lady. While I have held firm to the knowledge that God is in control, I have to admit that I was super excited to be going to my first appointment with the OB today to hear the heartbeat. Other than being crazy tired, most of my other pregnancy symptoms dissipated by week 6. This left me with a nagging thought in the back of my mind that maybe something was wrong. Or maybe I just convinced myself (and 2 at home pregnancy tests) that I was pregnant when I really wasn't.

Regardless, I was thrilled when the doctor put the doppler on my tummy and almost immediately we heard the lovely thump-thump-thump of Peanut #2. I had so many little complications with my first pregnancy that by 10 weeks I'd already had 2 ultrasounds (and 2 more followed just a couple of weeks later). So it felt strange this time to not really have "proof" of anything going on. Very happy to have received my proof today. Doctor said the heartrate was around 150 and everything looked to be going as expected. Yay!

On a side note, Lydia was with us at the doctor's office and it was funny watching her face when the doppler got going. She kinda stared at my tummy with a confused expression. It will be interesting trying to explain to her in coming months what is going on!

"There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears." -Philippians 1:6 (The Message)

As I stood in church this weekend singing the song "God of This City" I couldn't help but expand the concept behind those lyrics to other areas. The song could just as well be about greater things to come in a country, in the world, in a local church, or even in an individual. Emotions welled up as I sang...

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God...
Greater things are yet to come,
Greater things are still to be done here...

Sometimes I get so stuck in the moment. I get stuck thinking that the day in and day out of life is all there is going to be. I'll never be anything special. I'll never achieve anything great. I'll never be who I want to be. But those are lies. The Bible tells us that we can be confident as Christians that God is going to continue to work on us... and we aren't going to be finished until the very end! There will ALWAYS be greater things yet to come because he who started the good work in us promised to carry it on to completion! It is an overwhelming and humbling realization. To know that God is working on me. Right now. In this very moment. He has not given up on me or decided that this is as good as I'm going to get. My life, my circumstances, my family, my church, my city, my country, my world... all of them are works in progress, being perfected by the Master Artist himself.

So stay tuned, blog world. Greater things are still to be done here.

Lydia had a very big weekend this past week! It all started on Thursday with her very first trip to the zoo!

She absolutely loved it. Lydia is very much an outdoors girl, so she enjoyed being out in the sun and wind. The weather was perfect! Temperature got up into the 80's with lovely sun and a cool breeze. Besides watching all of the people walking around, Lydia's favorite part was the aquarium. We walked in and she immediately sat up in her chair and started chanting, "Fish! Fish! Fish!" Such a cutie. :) I have a feeling we are going to love having a zoo membership this year.

Thursday night we got to hang out with family at Grandma and Papa's house for family dinner night. Spaghetti, bananas, and brownies made for a happy little girl. She showed off her walking skills and all of her animal noises and, unfortunately, got a nasty boo-boo too! Poor thing's legs just gave out while she was drumming on the folding chair and she smacked her face on it busting her lip. After a little loving and a wet washcloth, Lydia was back to her happy self and we all enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood to finish off the night.

Friday through Sunday Lydia and I took a trip down to Cinci to visit my family. Brent had to work so he didn't get to go with us, but us ladies had a lovely time! Nana and Grandpa had lots of Elmo toys at their house and also lots of balls for playing catch. Lydia just LOVES rolling balls back and forth with people. She also greatly improved her walking skills over the weekend... growing more and more confident each day. She also stood up on her own without holding on to anything for the first time. Not much longer and I suspect she will be doing more walking than crawling. Over the weekend she also decided to learn the word "no" and finds it so much fun to use. At first it just seemed like she just enjoyed saying it, but caught on to the meaning very quickly. "Lydia, do you want a drink?" "No!" "Do you want more applesauce?" "No!" Time to start working on teaching her "Yes" before she gets carried away!