26 Weeks

Time slips away from me so quickly, and I now find myself at 26 weeks gestation. Cletus is quite active at times, and he really does seem to know the moment I lay down to sleep at night because he chooses then to practice karate. I've been having some Braxton-Hicks contractions for the past couple of weeks, but thankfully they don't come too often. My protruding belly is getting more and more in the way of things, and my least favorite activity is bending down :) Below is my 26 week belly shot:

The past few weeks have been fairly eventful, so I'll try to update you on some of the happenings in our life. On September 27th, my brother Jordan walked his bride, Meagan, down the aisle. Though only two years younger than me, it's still hard to believe he's old enough to be a husband--I can't help but think of him as the 16 year-old I left in Waverly when I went off to college. Jordan and Meagan are moving to Mobile, Alabama for Jordan's job with JK Harris, so the Littrell family continues to spread out. They are expecting in early March, so Cletus will have a cousin and playmate soon after his arrival. Below are a couple of pictures from the wedding.

I took the second part of my US Medical Licensing Exam on Sept 28th. After nine hours of testing, I was thrilled and relieved to be finished. I won't know the results for a few weeks, but it's nice to have the pressure off for a bit. I don't take the third part of the USMLE for another year or so, so there aren't any other major exams standing between me and graduation.

My brother Jared was deployed late last week on his way to Iraq. If it's hard to believe that Jordan is married, it's extremely difficult to accept that Jared is serving in the military overseas. I so admire is willingness to serve our country, and though it's hard to see him go, I respect his commitment. Please be in prayer for Jared and his company during their deployment.

Since finishing my board exam, I've really jumped in to preparing the nursery. I cleaned out my desk, and our friend Jacob helped Chris move it to the garage and move the nursery furniture in place. The bedding is on the crib, and I finished making curtains for the room. I decoupaged letters to spell out the baby's name on the wall, but I obviously can't show those to you just yet since we're keeping the name a secret. I'm still working on making a mobile, baby blanket, and some art projects. I found a sweet wooden highchair at our church's rummage sale that I'm planning to paint soon as well. Below are some pictures of my projects:

To cap off an exciting few weeks, we found out that Cletus is going to have even more playmates in the near future. To add to the six we knew about (Qiping and Jimmy's twins born recently; Jacob and Trish's baby due any day now; Josh/Amy, Jordan/Meagan, and Leann/Garry all due in March) we learned that our new pastor and his sweet wife (Travis and Jenna) are expecting in June (due on my birthday, in fact), and our friends Chris and Carie are 11 weeks along with their second. What a baby boom! Most of this group go to our church in Memphis, so the nursery is going to be a happening place in the coming months. We couldn't be more excited!