A Look Back at 2010

Jason has told me I should start a blog so I guess I’m going to try. I hope you all enjoy knowing and reading about what God is doing in our life. I thought I would start on New Years Day reminiscing the wonderful events of 2010.

We started 2010 knowing about a tiny little baby growing inside my womb. We had kept this a secret from most people during the Christmas season but we were able to let the news out on January 10^th. We were thrilled about the opportunity to raise a child to love the Lord. We found out on March 6^th that we were having a little girl. This was a wonderful moment. We were able to have many special people with us when we found out we were having a girl.

On April 6^th Jason and I decided to be crazy and take 10 teenagers to Lancaster California. I was 22 weeks pregnant! We had an awesome time at the Youth conference at West Coast Baptist College!

As the year continued I continued to get bigger! At the end of May I had to stay goodbye to my K5 students. It was bitter sweet. I knew I would not be teaching again and I was sad to leave Northwood Academy. I loved being a teacher and having an impact on these students lives. However, I knew God had called me to be a Mommy and I was thrilled about the opportunity to stay home with my sweet baby girl.

The summer was nice being able to prepare for out little girl.

July 4^th was a sad day. I had to say goodbye to Jason for a whole week! I was not looking forward to him being gone for a week. He had not been out of town for almost a year. It was so nice always having him home!

Some of our good friends Jeramie and Susan were going through a rough time. Jeramie had been deployed to Afghanistan for 6 months so Susan decided to take the children to her mother’s in Illinois. On Monday July 5^th Jeramie’s mother’s house burnt down. Susan turned around and came home to help her mother-in-law. I offered to watch one of their children, Kevin. He was 10 months old. We had a fun week together. I loved having him around the house. It helped me to not miss Jason very much. The week started to pass very quickly and before I knew it Friday was here and Jason was coming home.

I had a doctor’s appointment that morning. I was excited because I would find out if I had started dilating. Well I went and I hadn’t started dilating. I then went and picked Kevin back up from a friend’s house. When we were about to leave I started feeling something strange but I ignored it. The day went on and I started to realize that my water had broken. I didn’t want to tell Jason until he was home but I ended up having to. I quickly packed a bag and Jason called someone to get Kevin and a dear friend Tammy drove me to the hospital. Well Jason actually beat me to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital and found out I had not dilated any! After walking and trying other options nothing was working. So they gave me Pitocin and it helped the process out and then I received my epidural. I was in labor all night. The doctor came in the next morning and said I was fully dilated and I started pushing. A little while later a beautiful baby girl was born!

Jenna Kelley Betts was born on July 10^th, 2010 at 8:31a.m. weighing in at 6 pounds and 8 ounces and 19 inches long. She was perfect!  She was 4 weeks early but absolutely perfect! God had given us such an amazing gift. We did have some minor complications. We did spend an extra day in the hospital due to her high jaundice levels. She did spend a day under phototherapy. That was heartbreaking for us but we are so thankful that was her only complication being 4 weeks early.

The funny thing about all this is my birthing class was on her birthday so we missed that. Also we still had another baby shower that was scheduled for July 11 at church. I sent Jason to the baby shower and he had a great time opening all the presents.

 

We were able to leave the hospital on Tuesday! It was so nice to come home! We have loved every minute being home with our sweet Jenna Kelley.

Jenna has been growing up so fast!

On November  1^st we decided to go to the International Conference on World Evangelism in Fairfax, Virginia. We loaded up Jenna and all her stuff and headed to the conference. We had a wonderful week learning about church planting. We met so many people that we will never forget. We learned more about trusting God and allowing Him to lead us.

On November 14^th we dedicated Jenna to the Lord. She is a gift from Him that was lent to us for a short time. We have decided to raise her to be a lady to who love the Lord and will be a helpmeet to her husband. We look forward to how God will use her when and as she grows up.

On November 18^th Jenna learned how to roll over from her back to her tummy! She did it during her nap so I missed it! I was very upset about that. For weeks I had watched her get so close. She was able to get all the way over but couldn’t get the arm out. Since then she has learned how to go from her tummy to her back but she doesn’t do it very much.

Christmas this year was wonderful. We had a little girl to share the experience with. Jenna absolutely loved opening presents. She was able to rip the paper off and she tried to eat all of it! She was so cute and all her grandparents and aunts and uncles spoiled her! She had a ton of Christmas presents. So many that Daddy and Mommy didn’t buy her anything! She did buy us a beautiful Willow Tree figurine that was of a Daddy, Mommy and baby. It was called “Our gift.” It was perfect because she is our gift from God.

On December 29^th Jenna’s first tooth popped through! It is her front bottom left tooth.

Jason and my 4 year anniversary was December 30^th. Jason decided he wanted to take me away over night! So we left our little Jenna who is only 5 months old with Jason’s parents. She did great and we had a blast! Jason took me to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Greenville. We ate dinner at The Melting Pot and then spent a wonderful evening alone. We actually did not even call to check on Jenna!

That was our amazing 2010! We look forward to what God has in store for the three of us in 2011!