Abigail is 11 days old

I love my little bubbas!



Her new outfit momma bought her!


Her huge robe:)


Abby being modest:) Today was her first bath since her belly cord fell:)



Flowers from my hubby on our anniversary! So beautiful!


Daddy, Mommy, and Abby at the bay!





Mommy and Abby kisses


Day at the bay! It was gorgeous out!


Abby took a nap in her crib yesterday for the first time:)





I love her smiles when she is sleeping!


Love this face!


Mommy and Abby are soaking up every minute we get with daddy while he is off of work. It has been such a great week and Abby has been on her best behavior. We have not had to discipline her at all:)We had a wonderful weekend full of family last week and many visitors. Abby had her doctors appointment Wednesday and is up to 6lbs 5 ounces. She gained 3/4 of a pound. The doctor was really happy and mommy was really happy that baby is getting enough milk in her! I continue to thank God daily for our sweet babe and all that God is doing in and through our family. Monday Brian and I celebrated our one year with a sushi date and some errands. Abby did fantastic and did not cry at all. She hung out in her car seat and let mommy and daddy spend time together. It was wonderful. Abby went to her first bible study on Tuesday. She is learning so much about Gods word and has a huge community of believers that loves and prays for her. What a blessed baby she is. Yesterday she went to the bay for the first time. The three of us soaked up the sun (Abby had shade) and we had a picnic on a blanket with Subway sandwiches for the adults and mommas milk for the little one. We were all very satisfied with our meals and the absolutely gorgeous weather. We even got to run errands afterwards and Abby did great. Babushka gave us a good amount of money when Abby was born so we invested in a great camera and are excited to share better qaulity photos with everyone and be able to develop pictures that actually come out. I spent 30.00 developing pictures the other day not realizing how bad my old camera is now. I was really sad that most of the pictures of her birth are not going to look good in her album. But we are so thankful to grandma for that wonderful gift. Yesterday Abby also lost her little belly cord. We love her cute belly button now and want to eat it:) Well I do! Brian thinks I am a weirdo when I talk like that.
With all the great things life has also had tougher moments in the Kinley home. Mommy is extremely hormonal since Abby came. It seem past 5pm every night I am crying about who knows what and super anxious. I do not think I realize how emotional you get after pregnancy. That has been really tough for me but I am sure it will get better. I have also had a really hard time getting into Gods word and praying. I feel really dry and want to soak up the Lord. Pray for me!
Our pediatrician (who we LOVE) recommended giving Abby baby vitamin D. We did yesterday and our poor baby was throwing up and fussy till 1230am. I was a wreck! I was so worried about her! God knew exactly what I needed when He gave me Brian as a husband. My husband does not get anxious about much and really trusts God in such amazing ways. He calmed me down and knew Abby would be ok. He is really handling my craziness so well! Brian is cleaning our bathrooms as I write this. He has been such a servant to us! He brings me breakfast in bed and changes diapers, washes dishes, and helps as much as possible. He really prays that when he goes back to work he will still be able to serve me and Abby. I just love his heart so much!

That has been our life this week. We love our girl so much! She is a precious jewel! She misses her brother so much and can not wait to see him today! Just a few more hours and we will be a big family again! Abby is also excited for her daddy to lead worship this Sunday so she can hear it. He played for her yesterday and I know she loved it. If she has not met you yet she hopes to soon!

Love from the Kinleys!

Welcome home baby girl!

Who would have ever known you could be so in love with your child! Abby came home Wednesday at 7pm. That night was so rough and I was freaking out and thought I would fail as a mom. As soon as that next day came along and I asked everyone for prayers God answered. Everything has been so wonderful since. I almost feel I am dreaming! I could not sleep until last night because being away from Abby to sleep was so sad to me! I just love her so much and want to stare at her all day and night! Anything I was a little nervous about has come so naturally. It is all by Gods grace! I just know God is in everything! As I talk about my pretty easy labor, learning to breastfeed and how great that is going, and how much our little girl sleeps and barely ever cries, I realize how great God has been to bless me in these ways. I know things will get hard, I know being a mommy to Abby will not always be easy, I know I will breakdown throughout her life, but for now I am soaking up every minute of this!
What has also been so wonderful is Collins deep love for his sister! He will not put her down, he stares at her and kisses her always. He was not excited to share his room with his sister but now asks, "when will Abby finally get to sleep in the room with me." Today I said, "I hope her eyes stay blue," and Collin said, "I want her to have brown eyes." He wants her to have his color. Everyone says they look so much alike. Collin was watching me hold her today and said, "we are the perfect family." It melted my heart! At church today he had to be near Abby the whole time and wanted to make sure no one touched her and wanted to hurry me up to get home so he could hold her! It is such a beautiful thing God graced us with!
What a wonderful time in our lives. We are enjoying watching our families come together and soak up our sweet girl! My mother in law has been at our place since Friday and it has been so great spending time with her and all of her help! Praising Jesus for this love we all have for our Abby!

Tomorrow marks Brian and my one year anniversary! I can not believe how amazing it has all been! In one year so much has happened and the greatest gift is our child! I love my husband so much! He is the best dad in the world. Watching him fall in love with our girl is so so sweet! He is so good with her and helps me so much! Brian is seriously the best example for all men! He leads our family in the Lord and is the best example of Jesus to me. I love him so much! Happy Anniversary my sweet love!




Great Grandma Sarah with Baby Abigail Sarah! Amazing picture!


Best big brother in the whole world!







Baby's first bath at home. She was three days old:)


Best dad ever! Daddy and Abby<3








First mommy and daughter picture. 5 days old!

Welcoming sweet Abigail Sarah

Brian doing what he loves most:) Reading his bible


Me all set for delivery:) So excited

So you might be thinking..."How are you blogging and in labor." Well what else should I be doing. I already had my quiet time and prayed and feel pretty good minus the intense contractions every couple minutes. But when there is a break I mine as well do something I enjoy. This is how I started this blog before the internet went out. Now it is October 19th and I have been a mommy to my sweet baby girl for almost 12 hours! I am IN LOVE! But let me get through the story about labor and then I will tell you about this intense love I have!
My water broke at about 230am on October 18th and I woke up immediately. I got myself all cleaned up, make-up on, hair straightened, packed a couple more things, made sure the house was good, and we headed to Sharp Grossmont Womens Center. We got there and I was still in no pain which had me a little worried they were going to tell me something I did not want to hear. That is exactly what happened. They checked my fluid two times and told me that my water did not break. I was certain it did because I was still leaking fluid non-stop. My contractions were growing but nothing to stress about. So the on call doctor told the nurses on the phone to keep me until my doctor came in and he would check me. At that point they told me I was 4.5 centimeters dilated. Dr. Steele came in at about 8ish and checked me out and confirmed I was not going crazy. My water broke and he said I was about 4 centimeters and 90% effaced. Brian and I were so so relieved at that point. Since my contractions were not too strong they got me started on an IV of Pitocin at 830 or 9. I started having contractions really soon after that. I breathed through some intense contractions for 3 hours. Brian was absolutely encouraging and such an amazing husband to have by my side. Our nurse Deb was so so great as well. At 12:30pm I was in an incredible amount of pain and we decided it was time for the epidural. I thought I could make it without but lets just say from about 12-1pm I went from 5.5 centimeters to 9! I felt like I was being ripped apart! But at the same time it was so so great! I was so happy with the progress and my labor was going so quickly. At 1ish was when I found out how fast I dilated. They thought I would be there for hours before that point so Brian went to grab lunch. He made it down a steep hill walking before he got a call to run back. The only reason they checked me was because Abby's little heart beat went down. It was so scary to me. The nurse that was helping at the time really made me anxious for awhile not telling me what was happening. Brian got back and we prayed and God answered prayers. Everything was great and by 320 I began pushing her out. I was really scared for the pushing but it went really well! Brian was the best help I could have ever asked for. He counted me through all of it. They called my doctor just in time for him to walk in the door and pull her out. Labor was so much better than I imagined and God blessed every minute of it. Anything I was worried about went great. The man giving me my epidural was Russian so we had some fun things to chat about. If I had to do it all over again I would not have changed a single thing. I was so happy to experience the labor pains for a few hours, I was happy to not feel much after that, Abby slid right out, and God was in every detail! Of course having numb legs for so long was not my favorite thing but you can't have it all.
Abigail Sarah Kinley was born October 18th at 440pm weighing 6lbs and is 19 in long. She was smaller than anyone thought and she is cuter than I could have imagined. So far we havent been able to capture the cuteness on camera but in person she is as precious as can be and perfect in every way. She has a full head of dark brown hair, beautiful bluish gray eyes, sweet colored skin, lips that are so kissable, a nose that you want to eat, everything is perfect! I honestly just LOVE her! She is already latching on pretty well and eating, she barely cries at all except when she came out, and she stares at everything. She is so responsive. I could talk about her all day long but I know I should be resting since it is 3am:)
Unfortunately we have to stay at the hospital till Thursday just because of when she came so we are excited for people to start coming to visit us at the hospital. We will have a whole day of just hanging out! Abby was able to meet her grandparents, great grandma, and uncle Jon today! They loved her and she loved them so much! It was such a wonderful time!

Thank you all for praying for our family! The prayers were so great and we felt them! I can not imagine a birth story that could have been better for me!

Praise be to God! This is His gift to us for His glory and we are excited to watch our baby grow to love Jesus and for her to share the love of Christ with others. We have prayed for her salvation in the womb daily and pray God will answer those prayers. We are blessed to have her and we are excited to watch Collin fall in love with his sister as well. I can not wait for him to get here tomorrow and hold her!

This is our story! We are so happy to share in this joy with all of you!


Joyful mommy and daddy holding our baby girl for the first time!




Grandma Zoya and Great Grandma Sarah


Grandpa Greg


Uncle Jon and Abby

39 weeks!

Let me first start by saying, as I write this I do not have any one particular person in mind. I know people can be sensitive and wonder if I am writing this blog because of them but I am not. I am writing this just to bless others and help other mommies to have something to read that may encourage them or help them grow in Christ.

What a journey it has been. I have been reading some pregnancy blogs of women in their last couple weeks. We all share so much in common. It gets so exhausting daily to wonder when your baby will be in your arms.You want to hold and kiss your child so bad. You get to a point of being so exhausted physically and not sleeping. It does get frustrating. My friend Samantha is due this week as well and we have been sharing our frustrations with each other daily and asking each other where we are at praying we go into labor. We have been trying to encourage one another and point each other back to Gods work. I think at the same time we both just realized today God knows what is best and we need to be content in where we are now. She badly wants a natural birth with no C-section but unfortunately is not able to get induced. So her c-section is scheduled for Thursday but we are praying her little boy comes on his own. I on the other hand really want for Abby to come on her own as well but I can be induced. I have been struggling with the decision mostly because I have been struggling with everyones opinions of everything and people not knowing my body and what would be best for me. I also do want to experience the labor as a first time mom as much as I can. This time of being pregnant has truly opened my eyes to the ways we as sinners tend to judge without realizing it because we are so passionate about what we believe and love. Just a few weeks ago my good friend told me she was going to start supplementing formula for her baby and I remember really struggling with her decision. I believe I was being very judgmental. God knows what her baby needs and she loves Jesus and I Know she knows what is best for her little one. Who am I to think I know what is best for someones child. My other friend Daniela has a sweet girl who was on breast milk for a year even though her daughter was in so much pain from her milk but know one really knew why. So many people kept telling her she had to keep breastfeeding. Well now her baby has a horrible intestinal problem from the breast milk and will not be able to try any real foods until she is two. Daniela looking back would have trusted what she knew would be best and not everyone else's opinions and formula fed.
All I Know is that God IS in control. And I hear that from people a lot in a way that is used out of context or almost in a judgmental way, "God is in control, trust His timing." Brian and I know God uses other means as well to facilitate things. Such as medicine. Of course we can trust God through our illnesses but we do also go to a doctor and listen to what they believe would be best for us if we trust our doctors through prayer.
All this to say, I feel so much more at peace today. My friend Samantha wrote me this today, "After having all the emotions I have had this week, I totally understand why people get induced! I think you will be extremely relieved to know you have a for sure end date. Plus, it seems like your body is a great candidate since you are already dilated."

The other thing so many women can be passionate about is an epidural. Some women have really bad reactions to it, others LOVE it, some just want to experience labor as it is pain or not, and then there are those people that just want to be hero's and tell everyone they did not use one. I really have wanted this whole time to be able to prove I can go into this with no meds at all. However, as my husband will tell you, I am a baby when it comes to pain! I can not handle pain. I am going to be totally content and fine if I end up needing to get an epidural. I do not want to do things or not do things just to prove something. That is why I now have $25,000 in student loans and a degree that is so pointless and will never be used. I just really wanted to prove to certain people in my life and my children in the future that I could do it! However, being a stay at home mom and wife is better than any degree in the world and I will pray my daughter wants to one day serve at home and care for her husband and children as I believe is biblical. That is how I will raise our daughters. If they choose to go to College that would be fine with me but once the girls have kids I pray they will be at home.

Today at church was so encouraging. As I was talking to many women about getting induced I just loved how understanding people seemed. I know it is hard for some people to understand but it is so nice for people to trust what God is doing in each of our lives and knowing we each have different things that are important to us and ways we do things. We are all so different. If this was something I could clearly point to in scripture than I would be making the decision based fully on scripture. Brian and I seek Christ in all that we do. We want to always glorify Him. I know we also want to please God more than man. All this to say is, you can be praying for our Abby. I pray she comes before Thursday if that is Gods plan but if not we are getting induced Thursday and are so happy Brian's mom will be here, our San Diego family be here, and Collin will be able to come to the hospital. This also helps Brian to get through certain things at work and know what day will be his last day. We are thrilled and excited to introduce our baby girl to the world!

God truly has abundantly blessed us. It was last year that we wondered if we would even be able to be pregnant and now we are getting ready to hold our precious bundle of joy! God is so gracious to us and has done more than we could have asked! Praise be to Jesus always. He is so good!

Grandma's 89th

Anyone who knows me knows my love for my babushka! She is my best friend and we are really close! I wanted so bad for Abigail to come on her birthday but God had other plans. Abigail's middle name is Sarah after my grandma. I just love her so much and I want Abby to know what an amazing great grandma she has. I pray they get to spend a few years together. What a joy to see grandmas sweet smile and joy today!

Here we go:)

I am 38 1/2 weeks now! Wow how my pregnancy is progressing at a fast fast speed! Yesterday I was 2.5 centimeters at my doctors appointment. Today we had to go into the hospital because Abby has not been moving too much in the last couple days. She is doing great and I am now 3.5-4 centimeters. I was up till 5am with cramps and then spent the rest of the day in bed resting. I am so happy with how fast things are moving along. I still have a week in a half to go but I think she will be here in the next couple days. I do wonder if my doctor and this nurse just measure different but I will take the 4 centimeters:)
Since the beginning I have really wanted Abby to come on My grandmas birthday which is this Saturday the 15th! That really can happen! I am ok with whatever day God brings this precious joy to us that would just be an extra blessing!
Now we sit here in anticipation waiting for our baby girls arrival! Come home soon Abby! Mommy, daddy, and brother are so excited to see you and kiss you and smother you with love!

38 weeks

My doctors appointment went great again! God continues to bless my pregnancy. I am now 2.5 centimeters dilated. MY doctor is so happy with how far I am progressing as a first time mom. He says my labor will be much faster than most. It is super encouraging. He has no idea when she will come but assures me she probably will not be late. I told him I am just not comfortable getting induced at this point and I would like to count my due date as the 25th instead of the 22nd. We will induce on the 26th if she has not made an appearance by then. I really think she will come a week early but I have thought this forever since 36 weeks:) Only God knows and He wants me to rest in His timing and plans. I am feeling so much more at peace about it all. I really only have a week in a half or so left so I can do it! My mother in law will be here on the 20th. It would be so nice to have her here when Abby comes. And of course I have always wanted Abby to come on my grandmas birthday which is the 15th or maybe she will come on our 1 year anniversary which is the 24th. So many fun options.

Now can I please share a picture of the cutest outfit ever! I love the Cubs and always have. Not to the point of watching them or caring if they win but it brings me back to growing up in Illinois and going to the Wrigley Field as a child and watching a game with my family. Our sweet friends from Church are also Cubs fans and we just found out this week. Oh what a fun thing that is for me. This is what they sent us! ADORABLE!!!!! Thank you Michael and Rebekah!