I finally get it...

Hey you guys! So this weekend I went to the Beth Moore simulcast called So Long, Insecurities. Let me tell you...this was the best conference I have ever been to. I think my heart was just so ready to let God speak to me and work in me. I have struggled with feeling free my whole Christian life. I was saved when I was 8, so I was pretty young. I have had times when I felt close to God, but I don't think I truly got it until this weekend!

I have always had the problem of feeling guilty for who I am and the things I have done or do on a daily basis. I have always felt like I just needed to work harder to be close to God. I have always felt like I haven't done my part to be in the Word as much as I should or praise God for everything. But this weekend, Beth said that being a secure woman means to BELIEVE that God LOVES us and FORGIVES us. That's it! He FORGIVES us! He died on the cross for MY sins...ALL of them! I don't have to feel guilty. I just need to BELIEVE that He has already paid the price for everything I have or will do in my life! The most significant part of the conference for me was when we were singing the last worship songs, and I just bowed my head and said "God, I BELIEVE that you love me, and I BELIEVE that you have forgiven me!" I can't tell you how free I felt for the first time in my life! The emotion I felt just swept over me, and I could barely contain the tears! I AM FREE!! And I can be SECURE in the fact that even if no one else loves me or accepts me, GOD DOES!!! And isn't that what truly matters?

There was so much that I learned, which I will share throughout the rest of this week, but I just wanted to share with you all the FREEDOM that I feel now! I am so thankful to the Lord for working it out that I would hear this message at this exact time in my life! :) It's like it was meant just for me! (And I'm sure a lot of other women felt that way, too!) Enjoy your weeks, and I hope you all realize that God loves YOU...FULLY and UNCONDITIONALLY!!!!!!! And not only that, but if you are a believer or want to be...HE FORGIVES YOU COMPLETELY!!!!

These are our names...final answer...

So AJ and I have been feeling the pressure to come up with good names for our little one since we find out what he/she is in a couple weeks! We had already picked out a great boy's name that we both liked so much, but I just wasn't that happy with the girl name. (FYI, I still think it's a boy, but I need a girl's name just in case!) Anyway...yesterday I was thinking about what color I would paint a girl's room and I had originally thought pink/brown, but then I just didn't feel like that was what I wanted. My favorite color has always been yellow, so I decided if we have a girl, we will paint the room yellow with white! Then I got to thinking that our name for a girl just didn't go with a yellow room. I wanted a happy name for our girl. So...I started thinking and came up with one that I absolutely LOVE. So.....here is our pick for names....

BOY: Lincoln Harrison Maldonado
GIRL: Aliyah Grace Maldonado (and we would call her Ali)

I love them and I can't wait to see the ultrasound and to be able to call him or her Lincoln or Aliyah! :) Alright...that's all for now! :)

Oh Springtime, How I Love You!!

Last week was probably the busiest week I've had with homework so far since I've been back in school! I was so looking forward to Thursday after school because that would mean I was done with my last hard week before summer! It felt so good to come home on Thursday night and relax and know that I had nothing major to do that night! I'm so excited that school will be over in about 3 weeks!! YES! :)

I had another doctor's appointment on Thursday morning before school. It went really well and I got to hear the heartbeat again. I was crazy excited to know that nothing is wrong and the baby is still growing in there! We also made an appointment for an ultrasound on May 10! I can't wait to find out if this is a boy or a girl. It will be so nice to call him/her by name! I still think it's a boy, but my husband is convinced it's a girl. We shall see! We actually decided that we are both going to plan something super fun to do with Elijah after our ultrasound and we will do whoever's plans that was right about the gender! So I'm excited!

I made this amazing peach/strawberry crunch on Wednesday! I also made taco salad and we had BLT's this week, too. All of those things made me truly feel like it was finally Spring! I love this feeling! And people have been mowing and we have been opening our windows and getting that fresh cut grass smell in our house...my FAVORITE smell EVER! I love this time of year!

Well, that's about it except that AJ and I had a date night last night! Ross and Emily watched Lij and we went shopping and out to eat. It was so nice. We got a Blueray DVD player because our DVD player was skipping all the time. I love it! AND AJ got me a computer for my birthday! (which is in like 2 weeks) I was so excited! It's an HP and it's white. It's small and wasn't very expensive, but perfect for me! My other computer hasn't worked for about 6 months. I think AJ got tired of always having to share his computer with me!

A last thing I want to leave you with...if you like BBC movies or movies like Pride and Prejudice, then you should watch the show Lark Rise to Candleford on youtube! It's soooooooooo good! Emily got me started on it and I can't stop watching! It's probably one of my favorite shows ever!

Well, enjoy your weekends! We are watching Hunter and Sophie overnight tonight, so we will be having so much fun! :)