Life and other things

1. Joshua has received a conditional offer of employment from IMPD (Indianapolis Metro Police Department). This means it's all contingent upon a slew of other hoops he needs to jump though: a polygraph, a background investigation, medical exam, psych exam (we're in trouble! lol), physical fitness entrance standards, and approval by: Civilian Police Merit Board, IMPD Pension Bord, Pubic Employees Retirement Fund (where he works now-maybe he can push his own paperwork through!), and the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board. And, of course, pending the availability of open funded positions (which they have frequently). So, it's a "soft yes" and the next step, the polygraph, isn't until April 9th. He's also going to reapply to the Fishers Police Department. He applied there last time and made it all the way through to the last step, but they went with applicants with previous law enforcement experience. We continue to pray for a stable, well-paying job for Joshua and this is truly his desire, but he wants to pursue God's desire for him and that's admirable.
2. A huge praise as the $5400 hospital bill from Isabella's stay LAST February was finally written off. I have been going back and forth with the hospital since May to request financial assistance or charity, and we received a letter last week with a zero balance and the words, "Your debt has been written off and forgiven." What praising we had because of that! The letter is on our fridge with the balance circled, that line highlighted, and a big, "THANK YOU, GOD!!!" written across the top.
3. Excitement at Joshua's upcoming baptism on March 28th. It hasn't been quite a year since he TRULY accepted Christ as his Savior and the difference has been evident from the first day. We now get up together repulsively early to do devotions and pray together. It has become a great start to our day and I really treasure the quiet (especially now that Bella is a blabbermouth!) and watching Joshua develop as the spiritual leader of our rapidly-growing family.
4. Which brings me to point 4-our little one! The official due date is May 7th because I'm electing for another c-section (unless the little bugger decides to go early). So, the birthdate is 5/7/9! I'll get a specific time closer to the date. It's been a good pregnancy, somewhat similiar to before in that I don't look very pregnant, even though I'm 7 1/2 months along. But it's different in that this one is more active and lower-I get a lot of kicks to the bladder. Joshua and I still can't nail names down-he has his favorites and I have mine and nothing really stands out. With Isabella, once we knew it was a girl, we had the name and there was no question. I still have a lot of things on my to-do list before the baby arrives and Joshu has been patient with all my demands for cleaning up and organizing because I'm nesting (but I demand the cleaning and organizing even when I'm not nesting!).
5. And let's not forget Isabella! I haven't taken a ton of pictures because her development has been mostly verbal. Where she could only say, "Dada" at her 15-month appointment when she should have had a six word vocabulary, she has made up for lost time! From the minute she wakes up, turns on her CD player in her room and knocks on the door for me to come get her until we tuck her into bed with "puppy" and "gippy" (blankie) she doesn't stop talking! Mom's desire that I have a girl just like me has come true! I can't even begin to count how many words she knows on her own, besides the ones she repeats. I learned this one day when complaining in the car about the new speed zone they've put in on Main St. From the back seat I hear, "Keemee?" which was Bella repeating my, "Are you kidding me?" When we were visiting Jeff and the kids in Chicago a few weeks ago he got a big kick out of her, "Gootogo!" (Good to go.) She requires a little translation from me for things like "peashop" (please help), "geeps" (grapes), "beebays" (blueberries) and "stahbis" (strawberries). But she is even more fun than ever, even if the terrible two's are making an early appearance! Here are just a few shots of her since Christmas, when I last posted.


Daddy and Bella share a sweater. We have designated Sunday evening as Family Night where we just sit around in the livingroom and play. Isabella LOVES Daddy and yells his name the minute she hears the downstairs door slam (even though 90% of the time it's just our neighbors going in and out).










This is what happens when I leave my diaper bag (and makeup case) on the floor. Isabella has a nice little Frankenteinian lipliner "scar" on her forehead. Beats the time she used my tweezers to dig the lipstick out of the tube!

Bahbahs! "Bubbles" to the rest of us, but something Bells is absolutely enamored of. We have a bubble machine in the tub and she gets the biggest kick out of it.









And some days are just like this!


















When Mom was here she got Bella started on using the potty sporadically. It was my desire to have her out of diapers by the time the next one comes along, but it's a work in progress. I LOVE this picture of her picking out which award sticker she'll get when she's done.







And post-ponytail hair. She is just now keeping ponytail holders (pretties, we call them) in her hair for more than two minutes.










And this is my big girl! She wants to sit in a regular chair to eat with a fork (a snack of cake, in this case). LOVE the little sprouts of hair sticking up in back.