We visited some friends last night who are living on base at the beach. Seriously, how awesome would it be to have the ocean as your back yard!  We enjoyed our time with them and we introduced Adrian to the beach for the first time.

He loved it! It was an extremely windy day so he got overwhelmed pretty quickly, but I think especially next summer he will have so much fun in the sand and the water.

He looked so cute in his little hat!

I love our little family of three! We are so blessed :)

"Who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth— the Lord is his name" (Amos 9:6)

I'm on a mission!

Recently, my hubby resigned from his job at the church, resulting in a loss of 1/3 of our yearly income.  No worries...we're confident in the Lord's ability to provide.

BUT...I'm on a mission to make the most out of Nick's yearly salary.  Me going back to work is not an option for us - we don't want to put Adrian in daycare (plus, we both really want me to stay home with him).  So, in an attempt to keep Nick from delivering pizzas in the evening when he gets home from work, I am going to become (drum roll please): COUPON DIVA!

I'm really excited!  A friend shared with me how I can start using walgreens to eventually get household products and toiletries for FREE.  This is good news.  My sister Kayla is already pretty skilled at this, so I'm sure I'll be looking to her for a lot of advice.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Loving my Samuel

I love the names we gave our son. 

I love the Italian origin of "Adrian, and the meaning that ties him to our love of the ocean...something that in itself is a testimony to the bigness of God with the crashing of the world of the sea against the world of the earth.  Honestly, if it wasn't so weird, I would have named Adrian "Ocean", but alas...that's a very weird name.

I really love the name "Samuel" because of what it means to us.  If you want to read our journey behind his middle name, you can read it here. I found the verse that says, 1 Samuel 1:27–28 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD" and loved it.  We decided to give Adrian this as his middle name because his existence had proven the Lord's love for us time and time again. My fervent prayer when waiting for Adrian's arrival was that the Lord would help us lead our son to love Him and develop a relationship with Him.

This prayer was genuine, but I remember a moment during his first week of life that made me take what I was praying more seriously.  Adrian had been screaming for hours and nothing I was doing could calm him down (I later realized he was starving - I had been trying to put him on a schedule, something that ended up NOT being "easy, effective, and enjoyable" for our little family).  I was exhausted and very much in pain.  He was nursing about every three hours, but when he nursed, he tore the flesh from me so every feeding session was excruciatingly painful and I quickly began to dread it.  I remember cradling him against me and praying over and over again, "thank you Lord that I have this precious child to feed".  I meant it so much, knowing that even though this minute in my life was painful, I had been given the greatest gift on earth in that child.  I soon learned ways to better feed him that was better for both of us, and now feeding him is a very sweet, cuddly time for us :) 

The Lord has gently reminded me in the nearly three months that Adrian has been here that as much as I love my baby, Jesus loves him SO much more than me.  Morbidly, I'll admit, I've thought many times what I would do if God allowed a tragedy such as childhood cancer or sickness or something else that would force me to surrender him MUCH earlier than I would hope.  I know that my baby is no exception to the Lord's plan.  Although I pray the Lord would entrust Adrian's life to me for years and years and years, I know it is a good reminder to keep the "so now I give him to the Lord" part of the verse in the forefront of my mind.  Adrian is a gift.  I do not deserve to be a mother, or be entrusted with the precious gift of joy that has blessed our home.  He is his Heavenly Father's child first and foremost, and I do pray that one day he will except God's gift of life and be reborn.

This is why I love my Samuel.  The name that makes me keep my priorities in check.

I have started reading Mary Beth Chapman's book, "Choosing to SEE" about losing her 5 year old baby girl.  I am only at the second chapter right now, but I have already cried.  My friend who loaned the book to me warned me that it would convict me about my attitude about surrendering my baby to the Lord as it did her. 

I am just a mom.  Lots of people are moms.  While of course it is a special job, it is certainly an ordinary one.  In short...I am a mom, I am not God. 

While I wish and desperately hope and pray for a long healthy life for my son and future children, I need to walk through life with open hands, knowing that the Lord's will for their lives may not always be my own.  I am not at that place yet. I pray I will be at that place.  God is GOOD and so is His plan...ALL THE TIME!

Finally Back!

As of today, I'm finally back to volunteering at Onslow Pregnancy Resource Center.  I'm excited.  Originally, my plan was to be out on "maternity leave" for two weeks...but God had other plans.  With Nick being gone at training, and Adrian and I being in GA for a week, followed by being in Winston-Salem for a week, followed by Nick's mom being here for a week, I needed a little time to adjust to motherhood. 

I'm still sad about not nursing, but I'm reminding myself of the many benefits of formula.  Such as: being able to volunteer without being tied to the pump.  Yay!  Adrian did pretty well - I'm thankful he's such a happy baby :) He took a little nap and let me get some work done.
Back to volunteering:  OPRC is a great place to volunteer!  Nick and I love being able to be a part of such a great ministry.

OPRC offers free pregnancy tests, confidential support, abortion education, pregnancy options counseling, baby and maternity items, adoption referrals, sexual health education, and referrals to community agencies.

If you want more information, visit http://www.onslowpregnancyresources.com/ or come visit at 411-C Western BLVD.  Jacksonville, NC 28546

Who wants to save money?

You do!  Of course you want to save money.  I do too :)  I just wanted to share with you some ways I save money online that are super easy.  It takes me just a few minutes a day to use these sites, and I'm using them to put money away for Christmas presents.  December-March is "gift season" for me, because it includes my Mom's birthday, Christmas, Nick's Birthday, Andrea's birthday, Valentine's day, and now Adrian's birthday.  I have to save to be ready for it!  I LOVE buying gifts, so of course I want to be able to give well.

Swagbucks.  This is the best site!  It's very easy, but be warned - it takes a while to be rewarded for it.  Basically, it is a search engine.  I use it as my primary search engine, and periodically I am rewarded with "swagbucks" for my searches.  I also do the daily polls (worth 1 swagbuck) and trusted surveys (worth multiple bucks if you qualify). You can earn every day!

Recently, I redeemed my collected swagbucks for $25 worth of Amazon.com gift cards.  I was able to buy the nosefrida for Adrian, which was great because it technically didn't cost me anything!  I'm about to redeem more for $10 worth of Amazon gift cards - it's the way to go.

InboxDollars.  I just discovered this site recently - about 5 days ago.  It's a survey site that rewards you, but the best part is that it sends you "paid emails".  Your account is credited every time you open their emails, whether you complete the offers the emails are about or not.  I already have $8.00 in my account.  I know that is not very much in the large scale of things, but when I'm saving for one specific thing, like Christmas, it's great!






 
RewardTV.  I have been using this site for about 5 days as well.  You can answer trivia about TV shows you may have watched the night before, as well as movies you may have seen.  It also offers bonus surveys where you can earn points quickly.  I am very close to redeeming my points for a $25 gift card to Old Navy.  My little man is already wearing 3-6 month clothes so I need to buy new clothes for him sooner than I was expecting...a gift card is certainly useful!
http://www.rewardtv.com

Panda Research.  This is a site similar to InboxDollars.  The surveys they offer are kind of weird...most of them pay well if you want to actually complete the offers you take surveys on, but that usually costs money so obviously I don't do them.  They send paid emails as well, which is great!  I've made about $10 already. 
http://www.pandaresearch.com
One thing I would suggest is setting up an email account specifically for these survey sites, because otherwise your regular email account will be flooded with these emails.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy these as much as I do! Good luck!

Some of My Favorite Quotes

Here are some of my favorite quotes that I would like to share with you!  I'm a huge fan of quotes in general, because I like finding things that say things about my life or thoughts better than I can.  Enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed them!

My baby is 11 weeks!

Wow, these eastern North Carolina summers are so hot!  I keep thinking how grateful I am that I was pregnant in the cooler months as opposed to the warmer.  I can't imagine carrying around a little heat box in this weather!  We've just been keeping a window AC unit on in the living room and keeping the central air off to save money...thankfully it works really well. 

Adrian is getting so big.  I can't believe he's almost 3 months old already!  He's a busy little boy...moving all the time.  Thankfully, he is getting really good at sleeping through the night, and barely sleeps during the day.  The past couple of nights he's only been up once in the middle of the night to eat for about half an hour and then he goes right back to sleep - Nick and I are certainly loving it!

He is desperately trying to sit up and crawl, and it's so funny to see him get irritated that he can't do it yet!  This past week he discovered his hands, and it makes him so happy to hold things and play with his rattles and other toys.

He does nap for about 15-20 minutes during the day, and his recent favorite has been to sleep in the boppy on my lap.

I took about 400 pictures like the ones below. He was being so smiley and feisty!  He loves his new chew toys!  For all you mamas with babies, these are great!  I found the set at walmart and they're made by Great Starts.

On a slightly different note, I looove amazon.com.  It's great because I can shop and save things in my "wish list" without actually spending money.  Then, when I have money for it later, I know exactly what to buy.   It's great when brainstorming for birthdays, Christmas, anniversary...etc. 

This is my most recent favorite amazon find: chew blankets!

I'm pretty sure these will have to be my baby shower gift from now on.  They are seriously oh-so-cute.



Anyways, that's the update for now!  I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

This Chapter is Closed.

Those who know Nick and I best will not be in the least surprised by this post.  My heart is to pull the curtains back away from the window into our hearts and what the Lord has been doing. 


I have often wondered over the past few weeks how one should go about making a life-defining decision.  This is one that will inevitably affect my immediate family, my closest friends, and the people I care for the most.  I wish the Lord would -quickly- provide writing in the sky to give us wisdom of how to make this decision.  We have pleaded and prayed and have not come up with a solution that will leave everyone involved untouched.  I do feel, however, that these situations that can only be a piece in the puzzle of God's plan must touch all of our hearts - He is moving and using this to touch us all.

Almost two years ago, Nick and I made the decision to move to Jacksonville, North Carolina to prepare for Nick to assume the position as part-time youth director at Tar Landing Baptist Church.  We prayed a lot about it, and felt complete peace that making this "big" move was the right decision.  I was in the middle of my senior year at Liberty, and we took the steps needed to sign me up for online classes to finish my undergrad.  We found a rental home in two days, and moved four days before Christmas in 2009. 

Throughout the past year and a half, the Lord has done quite a work in our hearts and lives.  We fell in love with about twenty-five precious middle-school and high-school kids who made us smile, and encouraged us to be better people and challenged us in our own walk with the Lord.  It was exciting for us to watch God begin to romance some of the student's hearts and we prayed fervently for them.  Still, the work was not easy...of course, it shouldn't be.  I had to have a real wake up call many times before the Lord as I died to the plans I had envisioned for myself and our family and watched God's plans for us be better...time and time again.  My theme for the past year would definitely have to be that God's plans are always better. 

Even before Adrian was born, Nick and I spent a lot of time in the middle of the night awake and praying for guidance and wisdom over how to effectively lead this youth group through the joys and extreme difficulties that came with it.  The Lord used the most difficult times in our lives to bring us closer to each other and Him.  I know I will look back on this chapter in our lives as a very precious thing as I have countless memories of whispered prayers through tears over clasped hands.  I have shared some of these moments with you in this blog, using this as an outlet to share my heart when I was hurting the most as well as when my heart was overwhelmed with gratitude, amazed at how the Lord orchestrates every single detail of our lives.  You can re-read this post here, where the Lord showed me the verse, "Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. The LORD will command His loving kindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night" (Psalm 42:7-8)...what a precious reminder!  This encouraged me then and does again today.  In fact, I started this blog both to be able to look back and remember the ups and downs of my first year as a mom, but also because I wanted to share what the Lord was doing in my life as I stood by Nick as he tried to lead the Tar Landing Youth.

A prayer to the God of my life.

 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of trouble.

Those who know your name trust in you,

for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Psalm 9:9-10

We are heartbroken to be leaving the Youth Ministry at Tar Landing.  We have felt that we are part of a supernatural battle that is only a part of what God is going to do for this church.  We know God has an incredible plan for both the youth group and the church as a whole and our fervent prayer is that that plan will be fulfilled soon.  We know the Lord promises to use whatever circumstances to glorify Himself and we are anxious to see it.

To the youth:  We are soooo proud of you and are so encouraged to see how God has created each of you for a very specific purpose.  Even at such a young age, many of you have had to deal with extremely "adult" circumstances, and we are proud to see how you are making the decisions you are to allow God to use these things to be the most glorified in your life.  You are all at a crossroads, and you don't even realize it.  While it is difficult to not be distracted by relationships, school work, and day-to-day drama, it is during these years that the Lord begins to shape you for what He has planned for you.  We plead to you that you take Him and your relationship with Him very seriously.  Seek Him and seek to know Him!  We pray for you and for that relationship - knowing Him deeply is the most precious gift God has given us as His creation.  We love you all.

If anyone reading has any questions, you are more than welcome to email, call, text or message us.nicfasci@yahoo.com

abi.fasciano@gmail.com