Here's what's been going on with the Hensleys since...well since the last time I updated:
1. Joey's been working with a great friend he's know for 23 years for a company called Fundamentum Capital. This company partners businesses and churches with capital sources and assists in getting them loans or lines of credit. He's been working so hard for about 7 months now, and his first loan will go to closing here in two weeks. It's been stressful for me watching my husband work so hard with no income yet, but I have faith in God, who has provided for us always, that he won't lead my husband down a blind path that he feels at peace about. It's also been very difficult being the only source of income for our family for over a year now, but hopefully that will be changing soon.
2. We're still leading the college group at church; aka: College(ish). It's been such a blast getting to know such great kids and sharing our stories with them to help them along this crazy path they call life! Strangest thing? Seeing where I start to feel "older" with every week/month that goes by. For example, none of our college kids have seen the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies. Such a shame.
3. We're still living with Joey's parents, but will hopefully be moving to our home soon. It's been such a blessing to save money, although it doesn't feel like we've saved any at all since I'm making about what Joey and I were making together back in College Station and I'm the only one working. I still feel like we're living paycheck to paycheck. Thankfully we had a place to go for a time or we wouldn't have made it. It's incredible how two lay-offs back to back two years ago are still affecting us financially. We need our own space though, where we can feel like a young married couple again and can host more College(ish) events without honing in on anyone else's space. We keep praying that Joey's loans will close ASAP so that we can pay off our debt and have enough to put down/pay for closing costs before this coming spring.
4. Why the hurry to get in a home you ask? Well......
Joey and I have been trying for a baby for 3 years, with only 3 unexplained miscarriages to show for it. We've been diligent to continue with chiropractic care and prenatals for seven months, but got to the point where we were ready for more extensive testing from a Fertility Endocrinologist. We made an appointment with a fert. specialist on November 11, 2011, where we discussed next steps in diagnostics. For a whopping $5500 worth of bloodwork, we could have found out what was wrong with me. Most recently, I've been up and down with my walk with God, just wrestling with more questions than anything. I know God wasn't punishing me, but if children are a blessing, then why weren't we being blessed? If he opens and closes wombs, then why was our's closed? Did I have sin I needed to confess, as I've been told after a miscarriage before? A great friend from College Station gave me some great advice: leave it in God's hands completely, even down to allowing Joey to initiate intimate moments so that I'm not controlling our love life around my ovulation cycles.
The opportunity to have testing done at the fert. specialist felt right for me. I felt like God was saying, "now is your time." He was making a way for us to find answers, even down to an angel at church donating $1000 that we needed to meet our deductible so we could find out what was wrong! (I cried hard when I read that message). So there we were, Quest Diagnostic sheets in hand and waiting for day 3 of my cycle so we could have our bloodwork done. And we waited, and we waited.
I had been cramping all week before, and just assumed I was stressed and tired from traveling and the questions that were still on my heart, so I decided to take a pregnancy test, which would say no and then psycologically, everything would return to normal and I would start the next day. Afterall, it had been that way many times before. So at 2:00am on November 14, 2011 I was awaken by dogs barking and needed to use the restroom. I figured, meh, might as well take it now. At 2:00am I sat on the floor of my bathroom in shock, crying, and disbelief as I watched the pregnancy test go positive in 30 seconds, and very strong at that. All of our others had been so faint, this was unreal! Joey was as excited as he could be at 2:00am, but showed more emotion the next morning. :o)
We started bloodwork the following day, checking my HCG and Progesterone every three days. My progesterone dipped once, but came right back up after starting a topical cream. So far, everything's going well. We saw the heartbeat for the first time at our early appointment (6.5 weeks) since we have recurrent miscarriages, and we go back again this coming Wednesday (10.5 weeks). Only two more weeks to go until we've made it through the first trimester and our miscarriage rate goes down to 1%.
I still get teary eyed thinking about it....
I think that may be all that's going on with us at the moment. Prayers are always much appreciated if you happen to think about it.
