God Is

"And the God of grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen."

1 Peter 5:10-11

Life has gone on amidst us waiting for the birth of our son and this week, some hard news from various sources in our inner circle. My heart aches for the loss experienced by close friends, as well as one of my youth. It is difficult to think of the joy that awaits Blane and I shortly when those whom we care about are suffering so. I'm sorry that I can't go into more detail, but would you take a moment anyway and pray for these who are hurting? God knows and He will hear your prayer.

God, You are sovereign in all things. I trust in that promise today.

Aim

*Photo from here

Family Friends

 A couple of weeks ago our dear family friends from Seattle were in town and we got together for dinner and some good family fellowship time. I love it when friends become so close that they are more like family. This family is like that to ours and we love them dearly.

 We went up for Carrie's (on the far right) wedding a few years ago and they all came down for Blane and my wedding last fall. Next summer we will trek up to Seattle again for Jayna's wedding (to my left). It's important to be there for significant events and Blane and I are looking forward to it!

It was so nice to spend time with all of them. Thanks for coming down John, Celia, Carrie, Jeff, Jayna, Jonathan, Lori and Matthew!

We love you!

Aim

Honey Boo Boo

 On Sunday, Pat was on fire as the High School Sunday School teacher. He even referenced Honey Boo Boo from the reality show Toddlers and Tiaras! The guy was unstoppable! Hahaha

Here are Pat and Blane encouraging one group to recite their memory verse-2 Timothy 3:16-17. Pat talked about the importance of knowing God's word and really hiding it in your heart-and your mind! It was a fun hour and at the end of it all, most of us had at least some portion of the verse engrained in our minds :)

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training. So that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

I <3 my High Schoolers!

Aim

Baby Watch Week

J's in town!

She drove in from her Mammoth vacation Sunday night and early yesterday morning she took me to my doctor's appointment. She heard the baby's heartbeat, the doctor told me that I am only 1 cm. dilated and we were on our way. Don't know if this little guy will be making his debut this week-he seems to be quite cozy in there.

Afterwards we went to grab breakfast and then we stopped in to say hi to Mom at her school and Meliss at her work. By 11am we were both exhausted and in need of a nap haha.

I love having my sister here :)

40 weeks! And counting...

Aim

A Crepe and A Blessing

Sometimes blessings come from the most unexpected places at the most unexpected times.

Last week, Quid and I went to brunch at a crepe place close by. I had seen La Petite Creperie on Yelp and was curious to try it out. 

The place itself is really cute-very French, on the smallish side, but quaint in a good way. The menu is actually quite large, but since we were at a creperie, we decided to go with crepes! Duh haha.

We decided on one savory crepe (chicken and mushrooms with some kind of cream sauce on a whole wheat crepe) and one sweet crepe (a lemon citron). They were both really yummy!

As we sat and ate and chatted, one of the workers walked up to our table and told us that "the lady who just left took care of your bill." WHAT?!? We were shocked. The crazy thing is that this "lady" that he was referring to was this woman whom both of us had noticed because she had a huge colorful tattoo on her leg and she was kind of gruff-looking. Definitely not someone whom we would've thought would have been so kind and gracious like that.

It was a reminder to us not to judge a book-or a person-by their cover. This gruff-looking, tattooed up woman certainly blessed our socks off, and for no reason either-she doesn't even know us!

I'm totally wanting to pay it forward now~simply because to be the recipient of something like this is so special. And besides, it's something Jesus would do-treat others as you would want to be treated :)

Merci!

Aimee

Five Simple Words

I've been reading Ephesians lately because that's the book we are going to be taking the youth through this school year. My oh my is there such goodness in this book! Today I was struck again by the simple conviction of the Holy Spirit. Read on with me~

"But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

Ephesians 4:7-16

These verses are so powerful and so rich. There is so much about unity in the body of Christ and how important it is. "So that the body of Christ may be built up...until we all reach unity in the faith...from Him the whole body, joined and held together..."

I've been in the church my entire life and sadly, I have seen many times where this unity in the body of Christ has not been the case. It doesn't just happen in church, but also at camps, in retreat planning, etc. etc. especially when you are in a leadership role.

This is why it is so important for us to be in God's word daily, to leave our messes-our ideas, thoughts on how things should be or shouldn't be, etc.-and to pick up God's cross and carry it with humility and grace into whatever situation.

"Speaking the truth in love"

And what happens when we are hurt or feel like something needs to be exposed or just that someone is acting foolishly or selfishly?!? Here it is, in all God's wisdom-simply, to "speak the truth in love." Are you shocked that it doesn't say, "go talk to your friend about how annoyed you are about it?" or "laugh about it behind that person's back or be secretly disgusted at that person for some reason?" I think this is one of the most difficult things to do...and it's only five words long! Hah. 

I'm trying. To keep the unity, to put aside my own feelings for the sake of Christ's gospel and peace, to speak the truth in love on a daily basis so that things aren't fake but are real and growing in every relationship that I have.

Let's not be infants people! It's just so not worth it ;D

Aim

Fore!

This is a photo Blane took while on the golf course at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach Monday. His two bosses from work took him on a little half-day "babymoon" and the three of them played a round at this  "best of" course in Orange County. The ate lunch, golfed, then ate dinner and Blane had a blast.

I am glad that he got to have this experience before the chaos of parenthood begins. Blane loves golf and the opportunity to play Pelican Hill was like the icing on the cake for him.

Thanks bosses for blessing my husband!

Aim

Hang Time

I've come to realize that my life is about to drastically change any moment now. So, I've been cherishing the moments that I've gotten with those in my life lately knowing that soon things will be different. 

Blane has been my top priority for the past nine months at least :). One of my cousins (who has four kids) shared with me the other month that one of the hardest times in her marriage was right after their first child was born. Suddenly they were both tired and stressed about being good parents and she said that communication became harder between the two of them. I am worried about this. Hey-maybe it'll be nothing and things will be fine, but I also know that I do not function well without sleep and I worry how that will affect my marriage and Blane. You can pray for that for me :).

So I've been cherishing the time that Blane and I have been able to spend together more lately. Even just the mundane things like cleaning the house together or doing laundry or talking at the end of the day.

I've also had many of my nearest and dearest who have wanted to share a meal or just hang out. The other day I had a nice lunch with my dear friend Den, who left work just to spend time with me. Court came over and helped me organize some of the baby's clothes. Dawn and I were able to connect over dinner one night and the same with Meliss too. 

Blane and I tagged along on an anniversary dinner celebration for my parents and Uncle Mark and Auntie Ruth last weekend. It was neat to talk and hear them reminisce about 35 and 34 years of marriage, respectively.

After youth group last Saturday night, Pat had his own "pregnancy craving" and so Blane, him and I drove down to the South Bay to have ramen at 11:30 at night. Not something any of us would normally do, but it was a spontaneous fun time with a good friend.

Next week my sister will be here all week long. I am looking forward to spending some quality time with her, hopefully before this little guy makes his debut :). 

Seven days and counting from today. Whew! Can you believe it? 

Me hardly either :)

Aim

Leave

Soon I will be going on Maternity leave. I am looking forward to it-to having the time to adjust to having this new little guy in our lives and to have a break from regular responsibilities so I can focus on just that.

I will miss my youth though. I mean, I know that I will see most of them and probably talk to a lot of them while I'm gone, but I will miss this...

This is a picture from a praise night that we had at church last Saturday night. I love seeing my youth worship. I love even more when they take the initiative to lead that time for themselves as well as others. 

"Sing to the Lord a new song, Sing to the Lord!"

We have so much to praise Him for. 

Have you gotten your worship on today? ;)

Aim

35.

Today my Mom and Dad celebrate their 35th year of marriage.

One of the greatest gifts they gave my sister and I is the example of love and commitment in marriage-something I know we both hope to carry into our own marriages.

Happy Anniversary you two. May God's continued blessings and anointing be upon you both as you dance into the next 35 years! 

Love you,

Aim

A Man Shower

Blane came home from work the other night all pumped up and excited. Earlier that day, his co-workers had surprised him with a mini-baby shower in his honor. The cherry on the cake was that everything was Miami Heat themed for baby!

The pic on the left was the one he sent me from work. It's a little blurry, but I had to show you because he's so excited :). Their caterer created this "Little Heat Fan" baby cake just for him. How cute is that?

Blane had recently been saying that we didn't have any "Sports stuff" for his son, haha. Everything that we've gotten is way more my style-chic or cutsey-and I know Blane was thinking "we need more manly boy things" haha. Well, he got his wish!

His co-workers not only gave him the baby cake, but also a real cake with a fondant-baby dressed in Lebron's jersey! On the back was our name and Blane absolutely flipped out when he saw it. He's known for having the best reactions to things and this day was no exception.

They also gave him cards, some gift cards, had baby decor and flowers around the room and a banner with his name spelled out. He brought it all home to show me :). I love that they celebrated with him and that it was a surprise to boot! 

Later that night he came home and we took apart the baby cake. These are all the goodies that were wrapped up inside. Blane laid them all out on the kitchen table and took this pic which he immediately posted to Facebook with the caption, "Now we are 100% ready for our little guy to enter the world. Thanks to my team at work for hooking it up!"

Of course, the first thing he told me was that we finally had a take home outfit for the baby from the hospital. -__- Umm...I've had a perfectly cute baby blue one complete with little hat and tiny socks all ready for weeks now! Fortunately, the onesie above is a size 18 mos. so he'll have to wait a bit to rock the Miami gear ;) *Phew!

Thankful for baby blessings!

Aim

False Labor

This week has been a study in human reaction and hilarium.

Yes, we are in our 38th week of pregnancy. We're way past the "premature" time and in the "safe zone" where the baby could come "any day now." 

The above information has caused those closest to us to become quite, shall I say, jumpy, in the past few days especially.

Case #1: The Anticipatory Auntie: I called my sister on Tuesday "just to say hi." She didn't answer-no big deal. Then I went to staff meeting at church. When I got out, I had two missed calls and a message from her demanding to know if I'd had the baby and if she'd missed the phone call.

Case #2: The Edge-of-my-Seat Dad to be: Oftentimes during the week I'll call Blane at work just to say hi or to check in. This week everytime I call instead of his usual, "hey babe" I'm getting a more urgent, "Hello?" He was at dinner with his boss tonight and his phone rang three times. He grew frantic that it was me and ran to the restroom. False alarm-it was one of our conference youth stalking him instead haha.

Case #3: Texting Misconceptions: Blane texted Grace this week about something totally unrelated to baby. Her response back to him was, "Oh shoot, I thought you were texting me that Aim had gone into labor." Then, I texted Linda the following picture yesterday and her response was, "When my text said 1 new picture I got excited and thought he came early!!! :D Ok...this is not as exciting of a pic, but still cute. :) hee hee!"

Case #4: The trying to act casual but really are so excited in-laws: I've seen Blane's parents every. day. this. week. Haha. They are really helpful (bringing by food, wanting to help clean the house, iron Blane's shirts, etc.) but I know really that they are just excited for the moment when baby comes and they don't want to miss out.

Case #5: My Mom: My dear Mom started her last year of teaching this week and she's been busy up the whazoo. Still, though, she has called every day and in our conversation somewhere she always says, "Are you dilated any yet??? Don't forget, I already have someone to cover my class the moment you go into labor!" :)

So everyone, today we hit the under two week mark. No, I have not felt any contractions, I don't think I'm dilated at all, and yes, I'm still growing and pregnant. You're lucky I stopped Blane from pulling an "August fools" (he just heard about THAT this past weekend) where he thought about falsely announcing to you all that the baby was here. -__- We ain't crying no wolf about this one!

Thanks for being excited along with us. We love you all!
Aim

Thoughtful Surprises

I <3 thoughtful gifts. In the past week or so, Blane and I have been the recipient of many. Had to share some of them :)

Dawn, who is my one and only friend from high school (so sad, I know :) handmade this beautiful quilt for the baby. I love the chevron and that it matches his nursery so perfectly! The colors mesh nicely with everything in the room. I'm so in awe of people like Dawn who have the skill and patience to sit and craft something so beautiful! 

Blane's dear Grandma Julie crocheted another baby blanket complete with ruffles that line the entire perimeter! She is so talented with the needle. Gma J told me that she started the blanket as soon as she found out we were expecting, hence the pink and blue color, as she didn't know then if it would be a boy or a girl. Once she found out it was a "he" she added the blue border beneath the ruffles. I love that he will have this momento from his great-grandma in the future!

Then this past weekend, one of my former youth-ers who is now in college casually handed me this~

 OMG! It's a toddler Olympic "Team GB" straight from London and the Olympics! :D He had been in London during the Olympics and thought of how much I LOVE the Olympics and picked up this for the baby. How sweet is that?!? Thank you Ben for your thoughtfulness!!!

I love snail mail and a few weeks ago my dear friend Christina sent me the card on the right. We don't get to see eachother as often as I'd like, but it's nice to know that she is thinking and praying for us! Leah sent the card on the left a few days ago. It's full of encouragement and a bible verse as we prepare for delivery. Thank you for that Le! So sweet and thoughtful of you and Sherwin :).

Sometimes it's the "little" things in life. Thank you all for your thoughtfulness!

Aim

Risen with Christ

This past weekend I was able to witness one of the biggest blessings of all this summer. Eight of "my" youth and two of the adults at our church were baptized at the beach and oh what a wonderful celebration it was!

"But you who were dead in your transgressions are now alive in Christ!"

Ephesians 2

Despite it being the busiest beach day of the year (parking was a beast, the main lot was closed several times, it took many people at least an hour to find a spot!) we forged ahead and did not let that stop us from celebrating God's gift of life in each of these young hearts.

 All the baptisms peeps with some of their family members~Sydney, Kurt, Max, Rebekah, Ryo, Katsuya, Jenna, Kathy, Kevin and Kurt.

I love my church family. I love that God is working even more :) 

Our God IS able!

Aim