What A Shiner!

I wanted to show you all a picture I took today on Skype of my tough husband. He and some other Army and Marine guys were playing football this morning and he took a hit while trying to get the ball. Check out his lovely shiner. That's a black eye if I ever saw one! And you should have seen it before he had the ice on it all day! I love you sweetie!

Mali News Reports

Below is a link from allafrica.com which describes some of what Bryon and his team are working on now. This is a recent public article so anyone has access to read it.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803310349.html


This next article is one from the Economist which describes the role Africa is playing on the War on Terror, specifically focusing on the vulnerabilities of West Africa (where Bryon is stationed).
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9340544


When articles show up in the news, Bryon can tell me about them and I will share them on here for you to see. Before they become public news, they are classified. Every little bit helps us stay informed and helps us know how to route our prayers.

Volleyball Tournament

Bryon has been a part of a volleyball league the last few months while in Mali and has really loved it. This past Friday, they had a tournament and these are pictures from the tournament.

March Prenatal Visit 2

I had my second OB visit this morning at 9am. All is well with little baby mushrush and mommy. The heart rate is a strong 164 and I have a very squirmy little one! My OB was looking at the ultrasound and kinda started grinning. She said I have a very squirmy baby. Thats cute now but when I'm further along, I'll probably be wanting a still baby that sleeps all the time. You know, Bryon and I always said, nothing has ever been "normal" with us, throughout our entire relationship. How we met, our dating history, our wedding and now our baby! Makes life more interesting for sure. Plus who needs sleep, bring on the kicks!

My fantastic OB took a few pictures for me to send to Bryon since he is missing out on the whole process and I wanted to share them with you all. There isnt really a good full body shot, but there are a few really good ones of his/her hands and fingers, head and leg. The leg pictures looks like its drawn up and ready to kick me good! I guess I'll have watch myself!

I will be able to find out the baby's gender in 6 weeks which will be May 12th. She scheduled the 3D ultrasound for then. Thats easy to remember because I graduate three days before that on May 9th. What a great week that will be! My next visit is 4 weeks from now. I'll post more updates then. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Mali update

I talked to Bryon a few days ago and he and his team have officially moved into their new house. This is very exciting for him because he now has his own room and bathroom and took his first hot shower in since living in Africa a couple of nights ago. I know your probably thinking, who needs a hot shower when its 100 degrees outside, but there is just something soothing and comforting about taking a hot shower and I'm so glad he gets to take them finally. They live much closer to the embassy now. Actually, he told me that he can see the embassy from their rooftop. This means the house is a bit closer to civilization so their internet connection is better! Praise the Lord for this!

Bryon told me that he had dinner the other night at a place called WAFC, aka. West African Fried Chicken. How hilarious is that, KFC all the way in Mali. Of course, this made his night, being that he is a frequent flier at KFC here at Fort Bragg. You cant beat a plate of fried chicken and fries when your missing the south! Oh and he has been training on driving stick shift. He's never had a stick shift car before and most of the one's you find in Africa are stick. He said, he's ready to drive my dad's jeep when he gets back!

Thank you to everyone for your prayers for both Bryon and I. If you get a second send him a card or an email. He would love it. I have my second prenatal appointment on Monday so I'll put an update here after that. I think all is well, we will see! We have our first wedding shower this weekend at my church Elizabeth Baptist Church in Shelby. I'm crazy excited about that. Bryon told me that I should wait and have the showers while he is gone because it will give me things to look forward to. I didnt really agree and wanted him to be involved, but now, I see he is right. Men don't get excited about receiving dishes, towels, and house things like women do and it has given me things to get excited about.


And dont forget to tune into the NCAA tournament. My prediction= TAR HEELS ALL THE WAY!

Easter 2007

I got up this morning to the sound of the birds lightly chirping outside of my bedroom window. I felt a soft breeze on my skin and could hear the light rustle of the curtains gently blowing in the wind. I reached over to touch Bryon, but of course, he wasn't there. So I rolled over and spent time praying for him, for his safety, that he would be able to come home for the birth of our baby and that God would shorten his deployment. At this point, I decided I should get up, so I got online, my normal morning routine, to check if Bryon happened to be on skype. It said he was! So I typed him a message with much enthusiasm and to my deep chagrin said, "Bryon Mushrush is currently not online, your chat messages will be delivered when you are both online again". For those of you who use skype, this is the message of the devil. NOOOO, Dad gum. So, instead of pining on my irritation, I started flipping through old pictures of us and found the ones we took last Easter. Thought you might like to see a few. We spent last Easter visiting my grandma in Charleston and then came home and spent Easter Sunday with my family. At that point, Mary and Nate were just dating and there was only ONE little one in the family. Now, only 1 year later, there are three little one's and a fourth is on it's way! wow! Oh, and isn't my husband handsome in his suit!

Love you all and Happy Easter.

Bryon and Casey

Bryon spending time with Casey Ray before his deployment. I have a picture of Bryon hanging on my mirror in my bathroom. I often give Casey a bath at night before his bedtime and he sees the picture hanging on the mirror. He quickly begins his nightly routine of saying goodnight to Bryon by saluting him. How cute is that. My sister taught Casey that whenever he sees Bryon is is supposed to salute him and sure enough, somehow it stuck! Now that is Bryon's official sign. I love both of those boys so much.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patty's Day to ya!

This is such a fun day, well as long as your wearing green its a fun day. I remember on St. Patrick's Day last year, Bryon said he refused to wear green and that I was not, under any circunstance, allowed to pinch him. Well, of course, that means nothing to me, so I proceed to pinch him as often as possible. Well, he got tired of it and decided to tape a green M&M (his favorite candy) to his shirt so that I would have to stop pinching him. What a goofball! You can see the picture below. Boy was he proud of himself for being so cunning. :)

Aside from that, today is my little sister Mary's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MARY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!! Mary, Nate and Ayden are living in Seminole, Florida with his parents now, while Nate is doing his culinary internship (not sure exactly what its called, but internship sounds good). They will be home soon though and will be moving to Boone (yes, most definately God's country up there, so georgous!)

In addition to all of that, today is the graduation fair at UNCC. What that means is that today, I pick up my cap and gown and hood for graduation. Wow!!! The end is really in site. Sometimes it seems like I've been in school forever. It's only been three years of graduate school but I guess that, plus 4 years undergraduate makes a whole lot of education. The goal, of course, is that I know what I'm doing so that I won't kill anyone. I had my board certification review course all weekend and am so intimidated! It's amazing how complex the human body is and how much there is to know. I will say that both UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Charlotte, together, have prepared me pretty well for being a Family Nurse Practitioner. The one thing I'm sad about is that Bryon won't be able to be at my graduation. Oh well, I'd give that up any day, to have him here when our baby is born.

I pray the luck of the Irish is with you today and the blessings of our Lord abound in your lives. I have two favorite Irish blessings to share with you.


"May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire."

and finally

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Kristen and Josh

If you can stand any more great news, my sweet absolutely brilliant and beautiful cousin Kristen and her fabulous husband Josh are having a baby! And not only that, but one month after ours! I'm so thrilled for both selfish and non-selfish reasons. Selfishly, I'm so glad our little one will have yet another playmate so close in age and that Kristen and I can go through this pregnancy journey together. Non-selfishly, they will really make wonderful parents for this child. Although I don't know Josh's parents that well, Kristen could not have had better parents growing up. My Uncle Tony and Aunt Laura were so loving and generous. I hope this little one takes after them and not Josh ;) KIDDING!

Sometimes it seems like nine months is so long to be pregnant and other times I feel like there is not enough time to learn everything I need to know. I've got all kinds of books about being a mom and then I realized I'm starting with the wrong books. So lately, I've been thinking about places in scripture where children are mentioned and several stand out in my mind. The first is Mark 10: 13-16

"And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them."

Clearly the Lord values children. He even goes as far as to say that we must all come as children to enter into Heaven. What does that mean? Well to answer that, I first think of what the character traits are of children which differentiate them from adults. Things like trusting, honest, innocent, willing, to name just a few. As adults we become so side tracked and we pollute our minds so much with junk from the world. An example of this is the book Oprah is encouraging people to read, "The New Earth". This has been on my mind a lot lately as I have challenged myself to read the book before giving my opinion. Please be cautious if you decide to read the book. I started reading it and was so blessed by the descriptions of the birds and flowers and finding peace in your life. Then I stumbled upon a section asking the question, is there absolute truth. The book goes on to say that when Christ said "I AM the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me" that He actually meant, I AM is the spirit inside of each of us. I tremble even typing this, for this is the OPPOSITE of the teachings of Christ. I AM speaks directly to the divinity of Christ, the sovereignty of God the Father and to slander His teachings in such a ways is very dangerous. This is an example of how we as adults attempt to win our way into Heaven. If we just find the spiritual side of ourselves, we will be ok. We can all create our own truth and everyone goes to heaven. That is the path to destruction. If only, we could look upon the Lord from the eyes of a child and see the beauty, love, purity and faithfulness that embodies Christ. How could we help but to fall down and worship Him.

Sorry for the tangent, I just feel so deeply that as I attempt to bring a child into this world, I want to see myself and this child the way God sees us. He has blessed us with this gift and I want to, in turn, be obedient to Him and show Him, through my life and my heart's cry for Him that He is sovereign in my life.

In addition to the verses above, here are so many other verses, especially in Proverbs that instruct children to obey their parents and verses directed to parents like the one which says "Instruct a child in the way he should go, and when he is grown he will not depart from it." paraphrased. Children are such a special gift from God. A scary and yet exciting gift.

Kristen and Josh, Congrats again! This is the beginning of a long journey with many ups and downs, lots of ditches to fall in and stones to trip over, there may be rain or snow storms blinding the path and sometimes it may seem like it will never end, but guess what there is a beautiful rainbow at the end of the journey and a beautiful child will grow up feeling loved, challenged and cherished. There is nothing anyone could wish for more than that. I love you guys so much.

Ultrasound Pictures

How adorable our little baby is! I had my first prenatal visit on Friday, February 29th and was able to see and hear our little one's heart beating. According to my OBGYN, everything is going well and the baby is growing as planned. I am eight weeks along and my due date is October 3rd, 2008. We are planning a scheduled induction so that Bryon will be able to come home and be there for the delivery without the risk of me going into labor early. The little baby's heart beat was a strong 170 beats per minute. And you will all be glad to know, there is only ONE baby in there! With the history of twins in Bryon's family, we didnt know what to expect!

My next appointment is March 31st. Hope you all enjoy the ultrasound pictures. You can see the baby's little features if you look closely on the blown up version. The head is facing down, you can see the little nose and eye if you look closely. The feet are facing upwards and the spine curved along the lining of the uterus. Please keep our little baby in your prayers.