Amy {and baby E}

Today is Amy's 27th Birthday.  Happy Birthday, dear Amy.  Everyone who knows you knows theres a beauty inside and out that makes you special.  We love you!

blurry Mark being a dork and making us laugh, as usual

Amy is 33 weeks pregnant with a sweet baby girl.  Amy was helping Mark outside today.  He's been installing fence sections to completely fence in our back yard.  This is going to be amazing!  Frequently we have random dogs and random strangers walking right through our back yard.  There are a lot of immigrants in our neighborhood and a lot of rental properties.  Anyway, these next few pics were fun.  I grabbed my camera and took advantage of Amy's cuteness since she's preggo and it's her birthday.  And, yes, I watched as she lifted and held fence sections in place.  Hello!  I had pictures to take!

I cannot believe the goodness of God in allowing us to live with our brother and sister.  It's amazing.  It's working out so well.  We are a good team put together by the grace of God and are looking forward to our future ministry in the Philippines.  Have I mentioned that before on here?  Details will be for another post.

11.11.11

My sister, Amy, is pregnant and has the coolest due date: 11.11.11  Her doctor says that the hospitals are already filling up with C-sections scheduling on that day.  We are excited to meet the new little one in God's perfect timing though.  This Stamper house is filling up!   The more the merrier.

20 weeks

beautiful lady in waiting

Amy and Mark are living in our house now. They moved here from Bend, OR several weeks ago. It is a blessing to share our home and our lives with them. We are enjoying immensely how God has lead our brother and sister here to prepare with us for our future ministry together. This note explains their journey. Amy is due on Monday with their first baby. I'm filled with joy and anticipation to watch her go through the process of becoming a mommy. It's an amazing calling and I know God will give her grace to live it for His glory! Although I've tried to communicate many things about motherhood to Amy it's really just something you have to experience. And so as she waits and watches with wonder for the day he will arrive I'm reminded many times over about the blessings that God has called me to mother and thankful that she too is blessed with this child.

Amy was recently given this advice and I love it! It actually brought tears to my eyes. The sweet lady who gave this to Amy has been a model to us of a Godly unselfish mother's love to her children. I wanted to share it here:

"Kids take so much time and energy and sometimes it's just easier to say no to all the questions they ask. I think that if I could tell you anything it would be to not be afraid to say yes. Yes to a picnic in the living room, yes to playdoh and water colors, yes to that garish outfit, yes to a few more books or one more cookie, yes to that puppy. All too soon, your son will be taller than you and opening jars that are too hard for you. It's a wild ride- enjoy every minute of it."

craving

Amy is 36 weeks pregnant. (isn't her belly SMALL! I don't know where she's hiding him!) The rest of us in the house are pretending that Amy has a mint OREO craving and we're helping her out all we can with it! We each take turns buying them and then we all dive in. WE are definitely putting on some sympathy pounds this way. It's the least we can do... We only have 4 weeks left for this excuse and then we'll have to come up with another one!

the 40 week S-T-R-E-T-C-H

Isaac Merrill

12:38 PM Dec 10, 2009

8 lbs 12 oz 21 1/2"

7 weeks and ALREADY showing

9 weeks

11 weeks

12 weeks

13 weeks

14 weeks

16 weeks

17 weeks

18 weeks

19 weeks

21 weeks

22 weeks

25 weeks

28 weeks

30 weeks

34 weeks

36 weeks

38 weeks

39 weeks and waiting for you, little one

I'm still here! Isaac is waiting patiently in his cozy cocoon. I'm enjoying every last minute of this pregnancy. I can tell that Isaac is a sweet boy with a laid back personality (hey- I can HOPE!) #3 was constantly waking me up at night- even in the womb. With Isaac, I'm the one waking him up for my regular trips to the next room. I love these pictures and am so excited to share them with you! They were taken by my amazing friend when we were in Tennessee this summer. You have to check out her site: Pleasant Vonnoh Photography. I could spend hours there pouring over her pics. Thank you, Pleasant! You captured some amazing moments that I will cherish forever.

Hi Belly!

"Hi, belly" is how Ella likes to greet most people's belly's! She doesn't get it. She thinks anyone- big or small- has a baby in their belly. Sometimes she grabs her own belly and says, "baby's kick'n me!" It's great! Jonas loves this baby and he's always very concerned if the baby has enough food and drink "in there" and if it has enough blankets to keep it warm "in there". He likes to feel the baby move and kick and he talks to the baby. He has wanted a baby girl the whole time and doesn't even want to hear about the possibility of a boy. We often say that God may give us a boy and we WILL love the baby even if it's a boy, but he just says, "no, it's a girl!" So, we'll see... any day now.