Update...

For those of you who have read our previous blog about our friend Sandra from church, let me give you an update.
They have moved her to a more specialized hospital in Downtown Houston. The Neurological Doctor that specializes with strokes did a full evaluation on her when she arrived. She is still asleep and not responding. The Doctor didn't give her family much hope. He said that by the 5th day she should be showing some progress if things have a hope of getting better but there has been none. He said short of a miracle they will have to decide whether to take her off of life support or do a surgery to put a feeding tube in. This has been devastating news to John, her husband. John is asking us to pray for a miracle but as we all know God is the ultimate physician and he knows what is best for Sandra and John realizes that as well. Please keep this family in your prayers. They have two children 9 and 6 whom have been under the impression that their mom was sick and at the hospital but they will soon have to break the news to them on the extremity of their mom's illness, I cant even imagine how hard that would be.
Thank you for your prayers I know that they have been felt by the family.

URGENT, PRAYER NEEDED!!!

Carissa and I have been attending Trinity Baptist Church in Missouri City, TX. It is incredibly small but we love it and have gotten to know everyone very well. This is the Church my parents have been going to, I also did youth ministry there last summer. Just this past week one of our members had a stroke, her name is Sandra Davis. Her and her husband, John, have two kids under the age of ten. She is a Librarian and he is a school teacher. Anyways they discovered that she had fluid on her brain and a blood clot, so they did emergency brain surgery on saturday night. During the surgery they found numerous other blood clots and discovered she had an annurism on her brain stem. She is currently in a coma in the ICU department and is being transferred to a better hospital in Downtown Houston.
We have come to realize that alot of people read our blog, many that we dont even know. So if you are reading this PLEASE just take some time out to pray for this family. They are near and dear to our Hearts and huge servants for His Kingdom. Pray that God will send confort to their family and that He will bring Sandra to a full recovery. Thankyou in advance for your loyal prayers, we are so blessed to have such dedicated prayer warriors as friends!-nick

Our Anniversary Weekend & Its a _________!!!!

This weekend was so much fun. Nick is one amazing husband. As busy people, our ideal get away would be relaxing, which it was very much! We went downtown Houston and stayed at the Magnolia Hotel. The Magnolia is the hotel we stayed at on our wedding night so it was special to go back there. We didn't really get to enjoy the hotel last year as our flight left very early the next morning, so it was nice to explore and enjoy the Magnolia. Nick had a weekend of memories planned out for us. We did things that we had done while we were dating. On Friday night we went and ate at the Aquarium for dinner, Saturday we ate at Chuy's for lunch, went to the movie, and then ate at Birraporeti's on Saturday evening. We did a lot of eating, can you tell? All of these places are special to us in different ways so we were reminising all weekend. It was so much fun. The best part was that it was super relaxing and it was just us. It kind of felt like we were in a different town and it just felt good to "get away" from life's craziness and enjoy spending time together. Thank you Nick - it was amazing and I LOVE you!!!



Now for the part I know you all are waiting for me to share. :) Yesterday, we went to the doctor and got to see our baby moving, punching, and kicking around on the ultrasound machine. It was so amazing to see how big the baby has gotten since our last ultrasound which was nearly 2 1/2 months ago. We also found out that we need to start thinking PINK, because we are having a baby GIRL!!! We could not be happier for this exciting news. Our precious little girl is healthy and growing beautifully, praise the Lord! He is so good and we are so blessed for this little miracle. Here are some sweet pictures of our little Mini Vann!

Our Very First Anniversary!!

I am so excited today! I woke up with a smile on my face because today is the day Nick and I start our anniversary fun weekend!! I can't believe it has been a whole year...well almost, Sunday is the official day, but WOW! This past year has flown by so fast. It has been amazing! I absolutely love marriage and especially because I am married to Nick! He is so wonderful and everyday I love him more and more. So this weekend Nick has planned a surprise weekend away just for us. If you know Nick well, you know that he's not very good at keeping secrets. He knows this and will admit this to you. But, he has been so good at not telling me anything. I'm very proud of him. I LOVE surprises!! So I was told to pack every type of shoe I own...I assume that means, tennis shoes, dress shoes, flip flops, casual shoes...I will need a bag just for shoes. Who knows where we are going - and honestly as long as I am with Nick it doesn't matter to me. At 2 I am going to pick up our wedding cake replica. When we moved to Sugar Land our cake topper got ruined because I think we moved on the hottest day of this entire year! But, that's ok - I think fresh cake will be much better anyway.
Also, stay tuned...............MONDAY is a special extension of our anniversary weekend as it is one of our big exciting baby days! We find out if we are having a boy or girl!!! We will keep you updated as we can't wait to find out and tell you all! This has been an exciting baby week too as I ordered our baby furniture yesterday. Here is a picture of it.



Well, I will definately let you all know how the weekend went when we get back! I'm off to packing :)

~Carissa

Here Ya Go Belly Stalkers!!

OK so, Here is the picture that all you belly stalkers have been waiting for!! There is an ever-so-slight baby bump!

However, we have learned not to underestimate our little one because he/she has been very active in his/her mommies belly. He/she plays most of the day and Nick is even able to feel he/she sometimes. Very Exciting! Hope everyone is doing Wonderful and enjoying the Holiday Season!

Vann Update!

It has been a VERY fun couple of weeks. Carissa has been feeling 100% better which is wonderful! Mini is getting SO big! For all of you that have been wanting belly shots, there is not much of a belly to see! We will post some though! OK so here is a little update on some of the things that we are most excited about!!

1. Mini is developing wonderfully according to our doctor. I still feel like it is a boy and Carissa is undecided. Here is what baby-gaga.com says about our little one:
Your nearly four-inch long gymnast is happily mobile inside your womb and if you're really lucky, you’ll notice a point when your sneezing, coughing or laughing results in a little kick here or a poke there. Still, many women don't feel anything until the 17th week or later. Although the poking and kicking isn't very charming during sleeping hours, it’s a good sign as it means your baby is actually reacting to outside events. Yay! You’ve got yourself one active healthy baby! Their little elbows and knees are bending more freely this week and their little legs are finally growing longer than their arms and getting pumped up for prenatal Richard Simmons. Many of their major organ systems are increasing in capacity—particularly that amazing tiny heart and complex circulation system, which is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood per day, and will increase to a very impressive 200 quarts per day by the end of the pregnancy. As far as hair goes, we’ve got some new scalp patterns beginning to develop on the head, although actual head hair is not yet present.
YAY so EXCITING!!! Here is a picture:



2. We FINALLY got our wedding video!! WAHOO.. It is incredible and we are SOO excited about it. There were so many things that we had forgotten and didn't even know about. I'm sure some of you married people can attest to that. Anyways it is about 1.5 hrs and I think we have watched it like 4 times now. It is beyond just a video of a wedding, it is incredibly entertaining, more like a movie.. SOO COOL!

3. We went to an adoption fair in Sugar Land. Carissa and I have felt strongly about adoption before we were even married. My passion for adoption started my Senior year of High School when I went to Uganda. Seeing all the orphans and knowing that all they needed was someone to love them, broke my heart. Thankfully we do not have fertility problems but I can't help but think that we could love an adopted child just as much as a biological one and how great it would be to give a child in need, love and a family. I knew that one day I would adopt and how wonderful it has been to have gone to Living Hope where adoption is SO prevalent. God is awesome and has got Carissa and I very excited about adopting children. The adoption fair focused on Domestic and International adoption. Both would be wonderful and I CANT wait to see what God has instore for us.

4. We had to say Goodbye to a WONDERFUL family, the Estes. They left today (Sunday) to begin their mission in Tunisia. They are truly a God Fearing Family dedicated to making His name known. They have the most adorable baby boy, Jude. We are sad to see them go but so excited to see how God is going to use them. They are truly a blessing.



Well thats about it for now. If you have any baby name suggestions we would love to hear them! Also, I have come to find out that a bunch of people read this thing so comment why dont ya.

Mark Driscoll's Video on Joel Osteen

Hey bloggers, i stumbled upon this video on a friends blog. Would LOVE to hear your comments!!-nv