Family Update & HONK!

I can’t believe it’s February already! And the birth of our new little one is literally just around the corner, with Sarah’s due date set for March 3. We are all so excited for her arrival! The St. Clair family just continues to grow!

Live has been pretty busy with all that is going on. Sarah is in full on “nesting” mode working on cleaning and organizing the house to get everything just right for the baby. Rennah and Nessa talk to her belly every day to check up on her. It’s so cute. Oh, and by the way, in case you haven’t heard the name of our new little girl, we are naming her Aislynn Hope. We are a fan of different names and ones with special meaning for us. Aislynn means “dream”, so combined with her middle name, she is our “Dream of Hope”. In memory of all God has done in our lives the last couple of years, we have a new hope for our future and are so thankful for the new lives we now live.

God has also blessed by opening up many great opportunities for me in both music and drama teaching! I am so excited to be helping to choreograph a production of Annie coming up here in March! I have been working with HPA (Homeschool Performing Arts) on their production and have had a blast doing it! Also, God has allowed me to teach with an organization called VSA which teaches the fine arts to students with special needs. I have been teaching their theater and drama classes.

The most recent (and REALLY exciting) opportunity that has opened up is a chance for me to put on my directors hat once again for a full blown musical production! I have just recently started rehearsals with another homeschool group (Living Books Homeschool Theater) for the production of Honk!: a musical tale of the Ugly Duckling. I am having so much fun with this new group of kids, none of whom have ever performed in a musical. So this is a first for them. I am excited to see all that God teaches them through this as they discover gifts and learn new talents. You can pray that God will unify us as a cast.

I am also still working full-time at Panera, so we are juggling a lot, but happier than ever! And so thankful for the church He has place us in and all the love and support we receive from them. Hope everyone is doing well! Stay in touch!

Still Alive!

No we have NOT fallen off the face of the earth . . . we are still alive and kickin’, just having a crazy life right now! And to clear up any confusion, we have not had our baby yet. We are still waiting patiently . . . sort of . . .

Both Sarah and I are very ready to have this new little one. Ever since our first “false alarm” with Sarah having contractions, we have been counting down the days . . . but with nothing really to count down to, it makes the waiting seem like forever! It don’t remember it being this insane with out first! I guess it’s just because we have wanted to have another baby for so long, now that we are this close, it is killing us!!

So Nessa’s official due date is this Friday (9-28) and we are praying that she will come before that. Who knows . . . by the time you read this we may already be in the hospital. But I can’t tell you the number of times I have been asked, “Did you have the baby yet?” And my first response wants to be . . . “Uh . . . DUH! I think you would have heard and you wouldn’t be seeing me right now if we had a baby!”

The past three days I have been on my death bed with the most awful sickness!!!! I had a fever, was throwing up, and achy and shaky all over!! So, I was not at school for the first two days . . . I am finally back today and someone actually congratulated me on the birth of my “seven pound baby”!!! Wow! They know details about a baby that hasn’t even been born, I thought!! Yes the rumor has spread many times so I think at this point, Nessa has been born 4 times! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! It’s driving us crazy! Like we aren’t going to call anyone and give an official word about her birth! Everyone just decides we had the baby and is happy for us! By the time Nessa is born, everyone will be like . . . “that’s old news”!!! Crazy!!!

So those of you on Facebook will probably find out when she is born before anyone else here on the blog because I plan to upload some mobile photos as soon as Nessa is born so everyone can have the official word from us!

God has been good to us. Ever since we got home, we have been going through some crazy things . . . and God is showing himself so faithful in providing for us. I admit, I thought it was kind of odd that Sarah wanted to register Nessa stuff at Target . . . I thought that was only for the first baby and it might be rude to do it with the second child. But any of you that have more than one child knows that you still need stuff for a second child and you can’t just recycle everything from the first baby.

In one day, God provided a new mattress and the crib sheet set that Sarah had registered for! It was so awesome!!!! Through three different sources . . . first came the crib sheets and bumbers . . . then Sarah and I wanted to go out and buy a new mattress just so we could get the crib ready . . . then that night, someone knocked on our door and gave us a new mattress! It was so exciting! Praise the LORD!

Now our house has never been cleaner or more organized! I keep asking my wife if she has run out of things to do . . . and she’s like, no I still have a list! She is definitely nesting! Even so come, little Nessa!

I will keep you posted and get some pictures up when she is born! Facebook people look for updates! Love you all!!

Target Baby Registry

Hey everyone! School is going well and I will tell more about that later . . .

Right now, Sarah wanted me to let everyone know that she has registered for some baby things that we needed at Target. So I am letting everyone know. We have had some people ask us if we need anything, and with the arrival of a new child, of course we do. So if anyone is wondering what we need and wanting to get us something, click on this link to go to our registry page:

Target Registry

Hope everyone is doing well! We love you all!

First Day of School!!!

Well, it’s obvious that I haven’t update our blog for a while. That’s only because of how CRAZY things have been around the house in preparation for Nessa’s arrival and the first day of school, which is officially tomorrow! I am so ready to get started with this school year. There are so many things that I am excited about for school this year . . .

1. The school musical (“Beauty and the Beast”) starting in October
2. All-School Christmas Concert (December 9)
3. Our new traveling music/drama High School team, “One A’Chord”
4. Two middle school choirs (instead of my normal one HUGE choir), this will help me with crowd control.
5. No more choir in the small modular room! We will be meeting at our church now!!!! LOTS MORE ROOM!!!
6. Chapel Worship team!
7. High School Choir Tour to Washington D.C.!!! In the Spring we will be able to learn several patriotic songs and tour our nation’s capital.
8. New school BAND program!!

Those are just a few of the exciting things happening at school this year!

In our personal life . . . the doctor says we could have our baby at any time . . . though Sarah is not due until September 28. We are hoping that little Nessa comes a little early. Rennah is so excited about having a new little sister and we have been spending a lot of time getting the girls room ready!

For now, I am going to bed excited about seeing all of my kids at school again and ready to see what God has in store for us this year! Please keep us in your prayers! We love you all!

Nessa Faith St. Clair

Here are the photos that I promised of our new little daughter! Nessa means “butterfly” (which has always been Sarah’s reminder that God loves her), or “pure one”. We really like the name ever since we heard it, and have had it picked out for quite a while now.

She is due September, 28, 2007. We can’t wait to meet her!

Click on the photos for a larger view.

Here’s her profile. Notice the little upper lip that sticks out. Just like Rennah!

She stayed curled up in a little ball for the first half of the ultrasound. Then, she finally stretched out so we could see her.

Here she is sucking her thumb! She is so cute!!!

Family Update

Well, we are back in town and Tulip Time is in full swing here in Holland. Traffic is crazy around here these days with all of the tourists that Tulip Time attracts. After this weekend, things should get back to normal.

Choir Tour went well. We had a great time with the students and safety on the road. The choir placed first in their division with the second highest rating that they could have received from the judges. Also, my student accompanist, Chad Adkins, won the award for the best pianist out of all 40 schools that competed.

But the big news for us right now is that we are having another girl! We had our ultrasound on Wednesday and as far as we can tell, we are going to have another girl. Rennah is very excited. I will upload our pictures later. Hope everyone is doing well.

A Healthy Baby!

Thank you for praying for our doctor’s visit yesterday. Everything went very well and the baby is healthy and strong. The doctor reminded us that even though Sarah has been very sick, it is all a good sign that things are going well with the baby.

We took Rennah along with us yesterday and she was absolutely fascinated by everything in the doctor’s office. She kept saying, “It’s so COOL!” about everything she saw. When we were walking back into our room she waved at all of the nurses and loudly called out, “Hello Doctors!” All of the ladies laughed and told us how cute she was.

When we listened to the babies heartbeat (which was 163 for those of you that are interested) Rennah’s eyes widened and she giggled at the blue jelly on Mommy’s tummy. (She even prayed something about the blue jelly last night when I tucked her into bed! I couldn’t quite understand what she said, but I could tell that the blue jelly left quite an impression on her!)

One of the nurses at the office was a mother of one of my students, so when she saw us she came up to say hello and Rennah grabbed for her stethoscope. She had been eyeing the doctor’s in the room and now here was another one. The nurse let Rennah use it and Rennah ran around the office trying to hear all of the nurses heartbeats!

Needless to say, Rennah was quite the hit with the nurses and Sarah and I just laughed at her. All together, it was a good visit. Sarah was relieved to find out that things were fine with the baby and she can continue on with that knowledge.

The doctor told us that our official due date is September 28. Very close to Sarah’s birthday, so we may have two birthdays on the same day! That would be cool.

Well, thanks for reading. If you do read this blog, please leave a comment. I am curious to know who has followed us in our blog move. Let us know that you are out there! You don’t have to register with Word Press to comment, just leave your name and website or e-mail.

We love you all!

Doctor Day!

My poor wife has suffered long for this new little one growing inside of her. It breaks my heart to see her so sick and sometimes makes us wonder if this whole process is even worth it . . . it is about that time that our lovely Rennah walks in and we take one look at her and sigh. OF COURSE it is worth it! Rennah is SUCH a blessing to our lives! I am grateful more and more each day for her and what she adds to our family.

Anway, we are headed to the doctor this afternoon for Sarah’s first check-up since we found out she is pregnant. We are hoping that the doctor will be able to prescribe some medicine to help her with her “morning” sickness. Maybe we can start the wonderful journey back to a healthier Sarah Dawn.

Rennah continues to be amazed at the idea of a baby growing in Mommy’s tummy. In fact, every day, she checks her own belly and tells us that it is growing bigger! For some reason, she thinks that the baby is in her tummy too. Oh well, she at least understands the concept because she likes to talk to Mommy’s tummy and tell the baby hello.

Every night before she goes to sleep, I pray with her and she always has to pray after me! It is SO CUTE! And her prayers usually go something like this:

“Dear Jesus . . . t’ank you for dis day . . . and . . . help Mommy to get better . . . and da baby to get strong . . . and help me to go to Cubbies (AWANA at church! SHE LOVES IT!) . . . and help Daddy to go to work at da school . . . in Jesus name . . . AMEN!”

It is so sweet to hear that every night! What a blessing she is! Well, I will let you all know tomorrow how things go at the doctor today. Thanks again for your prayers and concerns.

Just another typical Monday . . .

Why is it that Mondays are SO hard?!! I have been trying to figure this out for a long time. I think that if we just did away with all Mondays, life would be so much better. Because by the time Tuesday rolls around, things are just going better! It’s weird, I know, but it’s my life.

Anway, this Monday is going okay so far . . . I guess. I am just tired from the weekend, or something. Our High School Ensemble, “One Accord” sang at our church on Sunday and they did really well. I was proud of them and thankful that they can use their gifts for ministry.

Big news over the weekend: our heater broke . . . AGAIN! So we are staying huddled around our small space heaters trying to stay warm until someone can come and look at it, hopefully by tonight. So, now I have a cold and lots of congestion because of the cooler air. The weather is supposed to get colder by tonight, so pray that we can get the heater fixed.

Sarah is doing better than last week. In the past two days, she has only thrown up twice, so she has been able to keep some food down which is building up her strength again. We have our first doctor’s appointment on Wednesday this week! It will be good to get her to the doctor for a check-up and hear the baby’s heartbeat. Keep praying for sustained strength and health.

Our church has been great it helping to provide meals and help for us during this time, so we are greatly appreciative of them.

Other than that, life is pretty good . . . except for this being a Monday. I am unusually tired lately . . . I think it is still just my body adjusting to NOT having the stress of Seussical. I think we should have taken a week of vacation after the show to recover. Oh well, I will just have to plan that for next year.

Hope all of you are well. Leave a comment and let us know how you are and how we can pray for you. Love you guys!