- What's Going On

Get ready world - baby Rebekah is almost here!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:20:14 -0800

We had our LAST doctor appointment today!!! We have scheduled an induction for Monday, March 15th and we have to go in at 5:30 a.m.!!! Our doctor said Rebekah would be making her debut around noon – late afternoonish. Our doctor also told us that he thought Rebekah would be about 8.5 lbs by Monday!! By looking at her pictures it looks like about 3 lbs of her is in her cheeks. She also looks like she is going to have Justins nose! Below is a picture of her at 30 weeks. We have had a couple ultrasounds since then but her face was smushed against my right side so the ultrasound tech couldn’t get a good profile picture of her.

Right now I am dialated at a 2 (which is where I was last week also) and the doctor said I am very favorable. Meaning I could be induced anytime if I wanted to be. Her head is down and very low. So now the waiting game continues!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:50:27 -0800

My birthday was last Monday and it was one of the best! Justin did a GREAT job doing things for the big 2-5 to make me feel special!

First off – for the 10 days before my birthday there was a card waiting for me somewhere in our room every morning when I woke up. My second to last card (Sunday) had a gift certificate to a spa here in Fort Smith for me to use after Rebekah is born! Then Saturday I got a beautiful bouquet of pink and purple flowers. And the card said “These are early just in case your not home on your birthday”! So a small hint for what he was doing for the day of my birthday! And then Saturday night we went up to Rogers to eat at Copelands (one of my favorite restaurants) with my family.

The top shelves are all my cards from Justin!

Monday morning when I woke up there was a card right on top of my contacts. (I put my contacts in first thing every morning before I even get out of bed). I opened it and it said to pack my bag for an overnight trip! I had a pretty good feeling of where we were going just because I had a hair appointment the next day in Little Rock.

So I went downstairs and our family “birthday tradition” was waiting on me. 25 candles on the counter for me to blow out! (It is getting harder and harder to do all of Mom and Dads candles!). Mom had a sack of goodies for our “trip”, there were cards from Mom and Dad, and orange rolls were in the oven! A great start to my day!

Blowing out my candles

So off to Little Rock we go. Well – I technically didn’t KNOW that yet. I just knew to head east on I-40. When we got to Little Rock we ate at Cheeburger Cheeburger for lunch. Then we went to paint pottery! (Another one of my surprises!) While we were painting pottery Justin left and came back with a “bouquet” full of chocolate covered strawberries from Edible Arrangements! I had been wanting one of these for a LONG time! It was so good – we ate most of it before I could even take a picture!

Then we went and checked in to our hotel downtown. Justin had made reservations at a very nice restaurant in LR but we ended up cancelling! Ha! We decided we didn’t really wanna spend so much money on dinner when we had already had a great day together. So we ended our night watching The Bachelor and going to Wal Mart to get a prescription for a fever blister that I had popping up! We had a GREAT time!!! Thanks so much to everyone who made my birthday perfect!

Our painted pottery! I did a picture frame for Rebekah and he did a bowl of some sort.

The Edible Arrangement! The white sticks are where the other strawberries were before I took the picture!

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:17:28 -0800

Some good news!!!! Justin got accepted into St. Eustatius!!!!! He now has permission to take Step 1 (his first board). The point of taking Step 1 is so that he can get into clinicals somewhere!

We are VERY EXCITED! It feels so good to be in Gods will! Meaning that even though this last monthish has not been our plans and haven’t been the easiest time in our lives – we have been blessed beyond words! God has really spoken to me really in the past few months but I would like to tell you a little about how he has since Justin did not pass the comp.

Before and after Justin took the comp it felt as though almost every sermon, bible study, prayer, etc. was just for us! Bro. Bob preached a sermon about going forward – pressing on. Marsha spoke on being Fearless – taking refuge in the Lord. One verse that she spoke about that I felt was “for us” was Psalm 27:14 (WAIT for the Lord: be strong and take heart and WAIT for the Lord).

Tara spoke wisdom into my life and reminded me of two things. One thing I didn’t realize I needed and one thing was something I had “forgotten”.
The first thing was Isaiah 40:31 – a verse I have known forever but had never spoken to me like it has in the past month.
(But they that WAIT upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.)
We needed to “relearn” to WAIT on the Lord and wait for HIS plan.

The other thing she reminded me about was to pray for the desires of our heart to match the desires of God’s heart. Three years ago when Justin was applying to med school God gave me that same prayer – to change the desires of our hearts if it wasn’t His will that we get into med school. I feel like he wanted to bring us to that point (twice now) to remind us to give EVERYTHING to him. Our dreams, plans, desires, baby – everything!

All these things reminded us to not be anxious also. We have both been so at peace while “waiting”. This is an answer to prayer – BIG TIME!

These few things are just a small portion of what God has done in our lives. We have been so blessed throughout this whole process. Not just the last month but the past three years. Thank you so much to ALL OF YOU who have been in our lives constantly praying, speaking encouraging words, sending sweet emails, and being so GIVING of your time and money.

I could write pages of everything God has done for us, shown us, given to us, taken from us, etc. etc. But hopefully you understand from this tiny testimony above how awesome God is – through ALL times.

We feel like this is the door God has opened for us so we are going through it!
So the big question is whats next? Well – a little more waiting!! Ha – fun right? Justin will take Step 1 within the next two months. He has some practice tests to take to tell him where he is “scorewise” basically. Those practice tests really determines on when he takes the test. After he takes Step 1 it takes about 5 weeks to get your score back. When he gets that score back (assuming that he passed) he will FINALLY be able to get into clinicals!!!! Clinicals will be two years doing rotations in the hospital and then he gets to graduate and start residency.

Continue to pray that Justin studies his butt off and learns everything he needs to learn for yet another test!

Best Baby Shower EVER!

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:01:27 -0800

We had the BEST baby shower EVER!!!! I had a great time! The hostesses did a great job. We had a little bit of drama with the weather but it ended up working out great. It snowed like crazy the Thursday/Friday before the shower so we were questioning what to do about whether we should cancel/move it/ or what? Merry Beths house (the person’s house it was supposed to be at) is after somewhat of a hill and there was no way people could park in her yard with all that snow and ice! So we all decided it would be best to move it to the church Fellowship Hall. I have to admit – I was pretty bummed. I thought that no one would come due to the weather and that all the hostesses’ hard work would go to waste. Well – the hostesses called EVERYONE on the invite list the Saturday before to let them know it was moved! Isnt that the sweetest?

So it ended up that actually most of the people invited got to come!!! Even Mollie came from Tulsa, Aunt Patti from Fayetteville, and Allie from Little Rock. I told them I was flattered that they “risked their lives” to come to the shower! Then I was beyond excited when I got there and saw that they had transformed the fellowship hall and made it as cozy as possible. And so personal! It was ALL ABOUT REBEKAH!

We got so much stuff. I didn’t realize exactly how much until we got home and started unpacking everything and I had to quit – I was so overwhelmed. And exhausted. I opened presents for an hour and a half straight! It became so surreal when we were unpacking everything that we’re HAVING A BABY!!! OUR baby – not just something we can play dress up with and give to someone else when it cries. Ha! We are stoked though. Just a little overwhelmed.

Thanks to EVERYONE who came to the shower and to all the awesome hostesses who made it the best shower ever!!!!

Below are SOME pictures from the shower (Justin took a TON). To see all of them go to http://lizandjustinvorispics.shutterfly.com/pictures/5059.

The cake! LOVED IT!

Part of the cake table

All the hostesses!

Her name is so pretty! =)

Thank you Leigh! LOVE IT!!!

My Mom and I

Another update!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:08:13 -0800

So sorry I have taken such a LONG break from the blog! But IM BACK!! I just wanted to update everyone on whats going on with us right now.

So the comp that Justin took on January 14th didn’t go quite as planned! He didn’t pass and therefore is no longer with Ross (the med school). He did not fail out of school. He had a good GPA – Ross just wouldn’t let him continue on to take Step 1. Step 1 is the first national board exam that he has to take to get into clinicals.

We found out on a Saturday that he did not pass so the Monday after that he went to work trying to figure out what next. We really prayed for God to close all the doors that he did not want us to go through and to just open the ONE that he wanted. So Justin called all the reputable foreign med schools that he could. It wasn’t looking good! Everyone said no – that they wouldn’t let him transfer. He also tried calling area PA (physician’s assistant) schools. They all have a year long application process so Justin would not be able to get in until August 2011!!

Tuesday morning a school called St. Eustatius called him and told him to fill out an application! So he has done that and has gotten all his paperwork into them. This morning he had a phone interview with the dean of the school and Justin felt like it went really well. The dean told Justin that he felt like he had plenty of “ammunition” to take him in front of the board and get him accepted. We should hear within a week by mail if he gets in or not.

If he DOES get accepted into St. Eustatius then he will take Step 1 around the end of March (hopefully before baby Rebekah gets here). Then if he passes Step 1 we will apply to clinicals which could more than likely be in Atlanta, Lafayette, Oklahoma City, or Chicago.
If he DOESN’T get accepted then we will just consider this another door God has closed and continue to knock on other ones!

We are doing great and are trusting God to take us through this crazy time. Thank you all so much for all your thoughts, prayers, and encouraging words. They mean so much to us!

An update!

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:56:30 -0800

Well we made it safely back to Arkansas! We got here to Fort Smith last Thursday.

So now heres the plan:
Justin has two more tests to take. The Comp – which he cant take until January 14th – and then after he passes that he will take Step 1 – which will be sometime at the end of February. Then after he gets his Step score back we will apply to clinicals somewhere. We will be applying to a few places! They include Atlanta (our #1 choice), Roanoke, VA, Wisconsin, Chicago, or New York City. Those are the main places in which you can stay for all two years of clinicals. If we don’t get to stay at one of those places for two years then we could just be moving around the two years of clinicals.

We plan on being somewhere starting clinicals around May. We will just have to see how it all goes with the baby! Who is due to be here March 20th! Before we left Michigan we had our 13 week appointment. Everything looked great! The doctor just did a portable ultrasound so no pictures but it was amazing to see how much he has grown in just 4 weeks! We got to see the heartbeat – which was strong. So we are VERY thankful for a good report!

Our next appointment is here in Fort Smith with Tommy Wood (someone who I have known my whole life!) So it will be cool that he will be delivering the baby and that the baby will be born the same place I was! The appointment will be October 20th and I will be 18 weeks. So HOPEFULLY we will get to find out the sex of the baby!! As you can probably tell from the blogs – we think it’s a boy!

We will be in El Dorado the next two weeks and then back to Fort Smith for two weeks and then back to El Dorado for two weeks (Get the picture?) Sorry I don’t have any pictures to post – I haven’t been very good at taking them lately!

How are you feeling?

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:16:54 -0800

Our first ultrasound - 5 weeks, The baby is that little dot towards the bottom left of the black circle. I know it doesnt look very exciting but when its your 'dot' and that 'dot' is in the right place - it is VERY exciting!!!

The second ultrasound - 9 weeks. Can you believe how much he grew???

The most popular question I have been getting from everyone is “How are you feeling”? Well let me explain the past couple of months for you.

The first thing I noticed was how emotionally up and down I was. The first “break down” I had was in Branson. I was helping my Dad cook dinner and I was in charge of the fettuccine alfredo. I was filling up a pan with water and he tells me – “Your putting to much water in there”. And I had to go into another room because I was bawling and I just COULDN’T stop!!!! It was so weird. Those still happen every once in a while. Like today. This little old lady came in to Sams and was describing an issue with her membership – and was telling me her husband had just passed away in July. I had to ask her to hold on because I felt the tears coming and there was no stopping em!!! It just made me so sad that she was all alone and she was so precious.

Then I started getting nauseous. But thankfully no throwing up! I just felt nauseous the majority of the day and didn’t hardly ever want to eat. I actually lost a few pounds. This “phase” lasted about 3 – 4 weeks and finally stopped at about 9 weeks.

Lately I have just been very “empty” feeling. Like not soon after I eat my stomach is already growling! It drives me crazy. I feel like I need to be eating all day. And if I don’t keep food and drink in my stomach I feel very faint and get really hot.

ALSO lately my nose has been crazy sensitive. Ill smell something and Justin will be like “What? I don’t smell anything!”. And last night Justin made tacos and I couldn’t hardly stay inside. I almost threw up and while I was in the apartment I had a towel over my nose. It smelled horrible to me. We had to open all the windows to get the smell out.

Oh and I pee ALL the time. I was under the impression that this didn’t happen till 6 months or later – when the baby was big. Apparently not.

And Ive had a little heartburn but nothing a couple of Tums cant handle! (Again – something I expected to happen WAY later).

So thats the latest! Thanks for askin! We have our next checkup (with a doctor that we LOVE) next Tuesday – the 15th. I will be 13 weeks. I am very anxious to see how much the baby has grown and to hear the heartbeat again.

Please pray that we have a healthy baby and that this pregnancy goes smoothly!

We have some exciting news!!!

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:51:02 -0800

We are pregnant!!!!! As of tomorrow I will be 12 weeks! Almost done with my first trimester! We are VERY excited!!!!!

Justin and I found out on Thursday, July 16. We were scheduled to leave for Branson that night. I woke up super early (6:30 am) because I was so excited about our trip. I have always heard the best time to take a pregnancy test is in the morning. Well – we had been trying for two months so I thought – Ill take one just to make sure Im not pregnant so I can have some good wine this weekend. Well the test turned positive instantly. At this point Justin was still half asleep. So I took the test over to him and just said “Look”. I started freaking out and I was like – I really think the test is wrong because it turned positive instantly – so I must have done something wrong. Justin assured me that wasn’t the case.

But somehow I had to pee again so I took another one. But this time I did the sticking the test in the cup thing. Well – instantly positive again!!!! But then I figured it was wrong again because I reread the instructions and I had stuck it in there too long. So lots of emotions that morning! And Justin had to go to class all day and do a presentation!!
So while he was at school I took a THIRD test. Positive again. So I figured it was official. And it was! All three times!

Below are some reactions we got when we gave the news!! We HATED having to tell Lou Ann and David over the phone. But I COULD NOT have been with my parents all weekend long and not told them! And we weren’t going to see everybody again until the end of September. So we decided that we were just going to tell our parents. But then by the end of the weekend – being with my whole family – it was SO HARD not to tell them. Especially for Dad – I think he had the hardest time keeping it quiet!

We had professional pictures done at Branson of the whole family and for the very last one the photographer said “On three say Justin and Liz are pregnant!!!” So she got everyones reaction in a picture!! Havent seen the picture yet but when I get it Ill post it.
Enjy the videos!

Trip to Branson!!!

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:30:37 -0800

This past weekend we got to go down to Branson! My mom and dad didn’t even know we were coming! The Branson trip had been planned for the whole family since the beginning of this year. Justin and I were not going to be able to go because we couldn’t afford it. BUT about a month and a half ago my Aunt Patti called and had found a way for us to go!!! So Thursday at 6:30 pm we flew out of Flint (a bigger town about 45 minutes away) and got into Northwest Arkansas (by way of Atlanta) about 10:30 pm. Aunt Patti had her car there waiting for us and then we drove down to Fort Smith and stayed with my brother and sister in law. Then the next morning we stalked my dad after his meeting – waiting for him to leave and go home!!! When he finally went home we showed up and surprised them!! Dad was on the phone when we got there – so not much reaction from him but below is the video of mom when we surprised her.

We had a GREAT time and really hated to leave! Later I will post some pictures of the trip.

I Love My Parents!

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:42:29 -0800

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