Big Little Changes...

In case any of you are wondering how our preparations for missions are going, well, this is your answer! They're not, haha!

Our missions trip has been temporarily put on hold. We found out about a month ago that we are expecting our first child! We are so thrilled to be so blessed by God, even though it wasn't in our plan!

The doctor says, "No traveling to malaria-riddled countries!" So we will be waiting to go to PNG, but are still in good contact with PBT, and maintaining some wonderful friendships there, particularly with Nathan Davenport and his family. They have been and continue to be such an enormous blessing to us!

Nicholas is interviewing for a full-time position at his job at Best-Buy today. We are praying that God will choose to bless us in this way, as it would give us otherwise unobtainable insurance and family benefits, not to mention more hours for Nicholas! Please join us in prayer for God's breakthrough financially and especially with insurance.

Part of what this means is that the name of this blog will be changing! We will now be called "Unexpectedly Expecting." (: Thank you, Sarah Hoobyar.

Joy has her first ultrasound on Feb. 3, as the doctor has been unable to pin down a due date as of yet. We are guessing that Joy is ending her first trimester, beginning her second, based on the way she feels, the dissipation of morning sickness, and energy and tummy size increasing. :) It looks like we will be having a late July or early August baby! Please pray that this goes well, and that we have a healthy baby boy or girl!

Joy is planning to stretch her last full-time semester at school into two part-time semesters, as she would like to be able to be home with the baby as much as possible. A schedule that is as fast-paced as a full-time semester so quickly after delivery may be detrimental to her health, in addition.

We will be looking for a place to live this summer, shortly after school gets out, as the baby will clearly not fit where we live now. (If you've seen it, you'll understand.) We are praying for an affordable house to rent in the suburbs, so that we can commute to the city if we need to, and also have a real house and a yard.

As an additional prayer request, we ask that you would keep our friends Jess and Micah in your prayers. They are leaving for a week in Haiti, working, evangelizing, and providing medical attention after the terrible happenings there. They will be there during the first week of February. They are an amazing couple, on fire for the Lord, and full of zeal for His house! The most important thing in the world to them is others' salvation. They are in need of $400 each, and need to raise it all in the next week. Please pray that God provides for their needs!

Thank you all so much for partnering with us this far, and we pray that you will continue to partner with us as we embark on the adventure that is parenthood! We are still planning on going to PNG with PBT, but it will be a few years, now, before we are able. Please continue to pray for us, as we are new to all of this parenting business and are trying to do it in a way that is God-honoring.

Much love to you all, and may God bless you!

Merry Christmas!

I would just like to say how amazing my husband is. (:

Last night, I was at work at the Disney Store, closing, when little did I know, my fantastic husband was busy all over town and all over the apartment making sure that my Christmas was beautiful. Let me explain.

Our apartment really REALLY needed some help--reorganizing, cleaning, that kind of thing. We also had no Christmas Tree yet! Horror of horrors! We also had NO EGGNOG! What is a Christmas without eggnog?! So. Last night, while I was at work, even though he hates cleaning, he cleaned and reorganized the entire apartment, bought a little five-foot tree, lights, and set it up, complete with two little birds at the top instead of a star. He then proceeded to put the first gift under the tree, for me, and I came home to a beautifully clean apartment and a little Christmas tree lit with little white twinkly lights in the corner. Fantastic!

Then! As if that wasn't enough. He knows it's tradition for my family to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" and drink eggnog and listen to Christmas music and decorate the tree, all at the same time, and so he got eggnog (and ginger ale for me, because I'm sick), and ornaments, and "It's A Wonderful Life" he put in the movie player, and then he turned on Christmas music! All today. The best. Nicholas hates eggnog, so I drank a little, and we decorated our first Christmas Tree together. (:

I'm so happy to be married to this man, Nicholas Randall Dertinger. (:

Seriously. So happy.

waiting....waiting...waiting...

So...quick little update...waiting for the school to approve our internship choice. Our paperwork for PBT is due tomorrow, so fingers crossed! If we don't have the approval by tomorrow morning, we'll go ahead and call Nathan Davenport, our missions rep, to explain what is going on, see if he can buy us an extra day or two.

Also, we are still searching for a church. We have, however, found one in Sugar Grove, IL, that seems like it may be a great fit for us! We are very interested, and would like to continue checking it out over the upcoming weeks. Sometimes work gets in the way, and we are attempting to properly balance it without being irresponsible on either end.

So excited for all the things it is possible for us to learn through this amazing process that God hands us, and called חיים.


Peace and blessings.

And the Application Process Goes On!

We are in the process of filling out all of our paperwork for PBT...still. (:

There is so much! But we are so excited, and we can't wait for everything to be completed, and we are hoping and praying and crossing our fingers for those acceptance letters that will make us jump a little inside. (:

Please continue to pray for us and with us, as Joy begins her new job at the Disney Store on Sunday. This is an exciting opportunity for her to spread the Word of God in a friendly, yet not so Gospel-friendly, atmosphere!

We also ask that you pray for our fridge. Weird? Maybe. But we still need you to do it! The past few days it has been leaking water all over the kitchen floor. The maintenance guy stopped by today to check it out, and he said that the electricity in that particular outlet was only working sometimes, meaning that the fridge only got to run sometimes. He replaced the bracket, said it should be fine after that, and to call if there were any more problems. We're hoping that the water that is on the floor right now is just leftovers from when it ran under the stove. We shall see in a few short days. (:

Thank you so much for your prayers and support and encouragement!

Godspeed.

And the semester goes on...

We are almost done!!!!! In just four short weeks, Nicholas will have his bachelor's in Communications Studies, and in another week after that, I will officially be a senior. We are so excited!

We pray that God will continue to keep us in His will, and we are still waiting. We will be finishing our applications soon, and sending them in, hoping and praying for the best!

This is just to let you know that we are still very much praying and desiring to go to Papua New Guinea, and trusting God that He will provide!

Thanks to you who are keeping up on all of this; it is truly an encouragement knowing that there are people praying for us!

News. (:

Today we learned that Joy has the option of getting her Ph.D. in Australia at what seems to be a very prestigious university, recommended by her professor. This means that it will be close to home (Papua New Guinea is just off the coast of Australia), and we will be able to perhaps spend furlough time there, while Joy is working on her Ph.D.!

Nicholas is ill from lack of sleep, it seems, and we would greatly appreciate your prayers. One of his jobs has given him a few days off to recuperate, and this weekend will be a good time of rest for him.

Please pray for his continued safety, health, and school as he finishes his last semester in undergrad!

Godspeed.

PRO-ACTIVE PRAYER!

Please join us as we pray pro-actively for one another Nov. 10-Nov. 11!

Pro-actively, meaning intense, making-a-point-of-it prayer. Please join us! Let us know who you are and if you have any prayer requests as well!

We are asking that people pray for our spiritual preparation especially. We can have all the funding and physical preparation in the whole world, but without being prepared spiritually, it's all meaningless.

Pray with us! Let us know who you are so we can pray for you!