It's All So New

There has been SO MUCH happening since that last post!  We welcomed the cutest, funniest, most precious and most loved baby EVER to the world on June 10 at 11:17 am.  Audra Kayte Williams was 6 lbs and 7 oz, and was 19.5 inches long.  She was born at San Antonio Military Medical Center.  Her timing was SUCH a blessing from God.  When I think about it too hard, it still makes me want to cry.  I was so nervous that Nic would be working when she came (he wouldn't be able to leave his shift to come be with me if that were the case).  She decided to come on the weekend when Uncle Matt & Aunt Abi (Nic's sis & bro in law) were in San Antonio visiting... and the day right after Grandpa came.  It really was amazing.  I doubt you care as much about this as I do, but listen to this:  Matt & Abi came on Friday, and needed to leave on Sunday.  My dad wasn't able to make it in until late Saturday night.  Nic had off Saturday and Sunday off.  Audra came on SUNDAY-- the day when all the visitors were there and Nic didn't have to work!  A day sooner, and my dad wouldn't have been there.  A day later, and Matt & Abi wouldn't have been there and Nic would have to be working.  There were a few times after she was born when I was overcome with worry for her and her future (call it hormones if you must), but Nic was very reassuring saying that God was with us through her birth and He'll be with her through her whole life.  In addition to what I just told you,  I REALLY want to tell you all about the whole birthing process, but that will have to wait for another day.

 This is a picture of her birth announcement.  Wish I had an electronic version.

Like I said, she was born on a Sunday in San Antonio.  Nic graduated his Nurse Transition Program the following Friday.  We drove that same day (Friday) home to Lubbock.  The normally 6 hour drive took us 9 hours.  Babies are A LOT of work!  :)

We were home for about 2 weeks.  In that time, my parents flew back to Missouri, we had Audra's newborn pictures taken, Andy & Kateigh (Nic's brother & sis in law) came from L.A., Abi & Matt came from Ft. Worth, we spent a LOT of time at Lolli & Pops house (Nic's mom and dad's), had our house packed up for the move to Virginia (Nic's new assignment now that his Air Force nurse training was complete) and said our goodbyes.  We drove about 30 hours to Virginia and arrived on June 29 to our new home.  Our things arrived on July 4, and we've ever so slooooowwwwwlllllllyyyyy been unpacking.  My dad couldn't have said it better:  my time is 90% looking after Audra, 10% anything else I need to do.  Things are getting better each day.  We can tell she's starting to "generally accept life" (as I had read is one of the stages of infancy) and is less fussy than she was right out of the womb.

Really, things couldn't be better with our little sweetie pie.  She does everything she does WONDERFULLY.  She eats wonderfully, poops and pees wonderfully (and by that, I mean A LOT), even sleeps wonderfully.  I had been waking her for the first month to eat during the night... but the more I read that people are really split on whether this is necessary or not, I decided to stop and let her wake me.  Just for night time.  And since then, we've all be much better rested.  Last night, she couldn't keep her eyes open around 10:30, so we put her down.  She didn't wake up until around 8:00.  Isn't that AMAZING?!?  That's the longest she's slept so far.  And she ate like she'd never eaten before when I went in to feed her.  LoL.  But she wasn't upset or anything, or acting like I was a bad mommy for letting her go so long without eating.  So, as far as night feedings go, I'll let her wake up and tell me when she's ready (just like I do during the day).

Things here are slowly falling into place.  We're trying out a church, and we'll continue to try different churches until we see all that we're really interested in and feel like we've found a good match.  We're really looking for something similar to The Crossing in Columbia (Missouri).  We LOVED how the Young Professionals group did a lot outside of church and therefore became a really close-knit bunch.  We didn't find that in Lubbock and we both really wish we'd worked harder to have that instead of settling so quickly on a church.  So we're not going to stop until we find that group we're looking for here.

I'm eager to make some friends.  Haha that sounds so sad, or nerdy, or desperate... we just don't know anyone here.  Nic knows some guys from work, and one of them just moved in across the street from us.  I was able to meet his wife (who's from AUSTRAILIA!!), and their 3 kids (one of which is a 7 month old baby girl!), and I think we'll get together quite often.  We've met other neighbors and people from church, but everything's still so new that we just don't really feel comfortable yet with anything.  It'll be nice when the house is settled (pictures to come), and enough time has gone by that it's not awkward to get together with the new people we've just met.  I forget how much time it takes to make new friends and build those relationships.  But it'll happen. 

I'm so enjoying the beautiful trees, and the fact that there's SO MUCH to do around here.  Of course, I haven't done any of those fun things yet because I've been a feeding slave 90% of the time and been unpacking with the other 8% (2% is left for me to shower, use the bathroom, and eat).

(Note how small the cars are compared to these trees.)

I really can't wait to show you all pictures of things here.  Now that we're here, I'll try to be more diligent about updating.  I so appreciate you all reading.  I hope your summer is going well (for all my teacher friends, I'm sure it's going WAY too fast!) and I hope you're staying cool.  I love you all!

Stefanie