Fantasma la Storia

Geez. Blogging must not be my thing.

All is well in the Fantasma family. Keeping busy with our little business, little church, and little girl. Not much going on besides all that!

Our biggest thing right now is plugging through photography and design work. It has been such a blessing that things have picked up. It has really helped our family financially to have a bit more steady income. If anyone needs Christmas cards, let us know!! We are excited to offer custom cards again this year. Postcards are a great way to save money on postage and still have an awesome greeting for your friends and family! If you want to keep up to date with our most recent stuff check us out on the Fantasma Imagery fan page or visit our website at www.fantasmaimagery.com

Our church, the Avenue, has been going through a sermon series lately called "When Life Dumps On You". It has been amazing going through the life of Job and how his sufferings relate to ours...and even more how his reactions and attitudes to suffering relate to ours. You should check it out at www.walktheavenue.com.

Sweet little Elliana is awesome too. She is now almost 14 months old and I can't believe it. I keep having these flashback moments where I see her sleeping in her little swing or laying propped up on pillows smiling at her Daddy. Now she's just walking around telling us all about everything she sees. I'm amazed at how many words she says...and how well I can understand her. She has developed this gentle, quiet personality, loving to just sit on the couch and read quietly with her stuffed animals even if a big ruckus is going on around her. She's just a little tiny thing too, at only the 10th percentile for height and weight at her age. I think that just adds to her dainty cuteness. I think she's the cutest thing to ever grace this earth, but I'm not biased at all.

Once again...I'm horrible at updating this thing!

I know...I know...I suck at this. I am no good at keeping up with this stuff. I guess that's what happens when life happens :P

Lot's on the home front as of now.

I'm 33 weeks pregnant...and growing steadily. Baby Elliana is very active and has blessed me with many early and painful contractions which has been an absolute blast!
The doctors finally cleared me from being on partial bed rest which was extremely exciting! I went 4 months without being allowed to have any aerobic activity or hold anything that weighs more than 5 lbs. It sounds like it would be a nice break...to have a medical write off to be lazy...but it was actually very sad. I'm just super happy that even though I was forbidden to exercise at all I still have only gained 20lbs total in my entire pregnancy. Now I am doing my best to make up for the atrophy and walk when it is not 100 degrees outside. Brian has been very nice to walk with me in the evenings when it cools down :)

We are going to be blessed with a niece due to Heather and Aaron in December! We're excited to meet Baby Holly and know that she and Ella will be the best of friends! Vince is growing like a weed and I have to say that I get quite a bit of satisfaction from the fact that every time he sees me...whether or not his Mom or Dad are holding him...he always needs me to hold him. It's a tough job being the kid's favorite person ever...but somebody's got to do it!!

Mom and Dad celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary (the actual anniversary date) in June. My darling sisters and I had the privilege of planning a vow renewal ceremony for them. It was awesome to see that after all of that time they are still madly in love with each other and were so eager to say "I Do!" again. No one could ever truly be as blessed as my sisters and I to have such an incredible example of God's picture of what marriage should look like. By God's grace we'll all have what they have someday.

The Avenue launched out from LSCC's facility in July and we are now meeting on Saturday nights. It has been quite an adjustment for us as half of our weekend is taken up by practicing, and setting up and tearing down Brian's drum set every week but we have really enjoyed being part of the team. We have been blessed abundantly by the awesome group of people that are working so hard to keep everything up and running at The Avenue and are so excited to see what God has in store for our baby church!!

Brian started his new job at Plattform Advertising in May..gosh has it been that long since I have posted on here!?...He is really enjoying working there...minus the 45 minute-hour long drive to Lenexa and back every day. It was really an answer to prayer that he got a job at this place because the insurance is absolutely what we needed in order for me to quit my job and us still have the same coverage and doctors that we had.

As mentioned, I will be quitting my job at Summit Tech when our baby girl comes to take on that full time job of being wife and mommy! I'm really looking forward to spending all of my time with my sweet Elliana but it will certainly be a change! I will also be working on our photography business for income, so if anyone of you needs any portrait photography services give me a shout! Now is the time to think about photos for your Christmas cards!!

Brian and I are celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary a week from today. I was working on our wedding scrapbook the other day (yes...still working on it) and got to re-read the vows that we wrote for each other. It brought tears to my eyes when I read Brian's promise to my Dad to take care of me and then Brian's vows to me. He has kept every word...I couldn't be more blessed. There is no way to describe how awesome it is to be married to that man!


Ok...that's all I can think of to update on for now. I'll try to get on here a couple more times before our D Day...I mean Delivery Day :P

Do you ever have things that happen in your life that make you really dwell on a certain theme or thought? Where everything seems to be pointing to the same exact revelation?
Appropriately enough, I have incessant thoughts about motherhood lately.

I had one of the best moms anyone could ever have. She sacrificed SO much to stay at home with me and my two sisters - homeschooling, playing, and just getting to know all of us individually as we became the women that we are today. Growing up I think I completely took advantage of the awesome mom that I had...mostly I think because my mom was the one that I was at home with all day, who was reminding me to study for that History test or that napping isn't really as productive as say, putting away laundry. Now I realize, as I take care of my own household that every single thing that she said has prepared me for what I do now. If she hadn't said those things and pushed me to be the best of me I wouldn't be able to handle it all at once.

How mom handled her spiritual life, marriage, AND motherhood was also deeply impacting. She would ALWAYS put God FIRST, then my dad, then us. If we went into her room in the morning to ask her a question when she was having her quiet time she would tell us to come back later if it wasn't important. What a great example to set for children - not only because it was important for us to see that as her first priority for the day, but also to teach us that above all she needed to maintain her relationship with Christ. She would also spend the last hour or so before Dad got home cleaning up the house, preparing dinner so it would be ready when he walked through the door, and making sure that we had everything we needed before Dad got home so he wouldn't get bombarded upon walking through the door. She also made sure that she wasn't ragged when he got home so she could save her best for him - it was a very rare occurrence in everyday life that Mom greeted Dad at the door unshowered and discheveled. She would always say, "Give your man a reason to come home." My parents are celebrating 25 years of marriage this year - after all this time he still wants to come home and it is very apparent that he adores my mom more with each passing day.

It will be difficult to not allow my world revolve around this new little being, but I know what a huge impact it makes when you put your Saviour and spouse before your children. By no means am I saying that I will neglect my sweet baby girl, but when I am with my husband I will strive to put his needs before my daughter's, and certainly before my own - and without spending daily time with Christ I will not be able to even attempt to take hold of the challenge ahead of me so I must be diligent to spend time with the One who made all of this possible.

Now I'm starting to think past getting through pregnancy and more to the fact that within the next several months I am going to have a daughter who will look to ME to learn what a wife and mother is to be. I feel as though I can approach that with confidence because of what my mom has invested in me - and with pride I will do my best to pass that down to Elliana.
This does not mean that I have any idea of what to expect or that I will be able to handle it any better than the next person. Not by a long shot! But I know that God has given me the tools to be the absolute best mom that I can be and I am ready for the challenge.

Some may know this but others may not...it is such an awesome thing that I have to share.
Last year my doctors diagnosed that it would be difficult for me to conceive without the assistance of fertility drugs/treatments due to a hormone deficiency. They offered to prescribe fertility drugs for me with the warning that "there is a high risk of conceiving multiples" if I were to take the drugs they wanted to give me. Heh....not quite our ideal...but we gave it some thought.

Then I was reading Hebrews 11 and this verse knocked me off my feet:
"By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he [ Or By faith even Sarah, who was past age, was enabled to bear children because she] considered him faithful who had made the promise."

My immediate thought was...who am I to say that God can't do this? Do I not think that God is faithful? I'm so young...a lot crazier things have happened! I knew that the fact that I was so young and already having issues didn't give me much hope for the future being any better but I was so willing to give it a shot.
We said no to the fertility drugs and yes to having faith and knowing that whatever happened...it would be in God's perfect timing.
This was painful because all I have ever wanted is to be a mommy. So not knowing if that would be a possibility was hard. During this time period...the verse that got us through it was this:
Hebrews 11:1-"Now faith is being sure of what you hope for, and certain of what you do not see." We got such great comfort and joy from this verse...saying to ourselves over and over..."it's not up to us."

Then we got the joyous surprise in January that I was pregnant!!! Followed by complete disbelief of course. I called the doctor, they did tests, and it was true!! What was even more humorous is that after the tests were done we figured out that when I had met with the infertility specialist who prescribed the fertility treatments...I was already pregnant! How's that for God's great sense of humor!?

It was even more real today when we went to get our 3rd sonogram...this time with the anticipation of finding out the gender of this little Fantasma. After doing all of the measurements and seeing it move around and cover its little face with it's hands the technician said she was going to check if she could see the gender of the baby. At this point, I'm pretty sure that everyone in the room held their breath. After some searching around she said...."this looks pretty girly". After another couple of looks she confirmed...we've got a baby girl!!

Most say that it is pretty early yet for the name for our baby girl to be set in stone...but it is.
Her name will be Elliana Joy Fantasma.
Why are we so certain? It's easy. The name Elliana means "the Lord has answered my prayer". How perfect is that!? That's exactly how we feel!! Baby Ellie is our answer to prayer - our smile from God saying I know the deepest desires of your heart and will not keep them from you - our miracle. As cheesy as all of that is, it brings a tear to my eye...that may be crazy pregnant woman hormones...but I would like to think of it being truly that moving :P

Brian and I are so excited and so thankful for our friends and family who have given us such great support and heartfelt congratulations...not to mention proud of ourselves for not allowing a fear of the unknown or lack of faith get in the way of God responding with joy to give us our little answer to prayer.