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March 8th is a day I'll not soon forget! We've had lots of fun playing in the snow over the past few days, but today it just KEPT snowing... nearly 14 inches!!



We don't have any big hills, so I took the boys to the end of our (gravel) driveway and made a track for them to sled down. It was pretty small, but they loved it.


And here's the reason I won't forget this day:
 
Right smack in the middle of these two boys is where I tripped and tore my ACL ligament (in my knee ) AND fractured the head of my tibia! OUCH!! At least I had plenty of snow to pack around it while waiting for Johnny to get daddy!! :)

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(By Terese Cooper, originally published in the August 2006 issue of The Mother's Heart)

On Valentine’s Day – just ten years ago – I wrote a love letter to my husband telling him how much I loved being married to him. We had just celebrated our five-year anniversary and I looked forward to what the next five years with him would bring, “Whether we will be preparing for an empty nest or chasing toddlers and changing diapers- I’ll be happy as long as we’re together.” Little did I know that in the next five years, the Lord would answer our prayers and we would more than double the number of children had.

When I met John, we were each single parents entering our relationship with much anticipation. We had long discussions about our hopes for the future. When we discussed future children, it was bittersweet. John spoke of his dreams for a large family, which caused me to love him all the more, because I had similar dreams. But, I had a difficult confession to make. Years before, I had a tubal ligation and would be unable to have any more children. John didn’t hesitate to say that God could take care of that. My faith in having more children wavered, but John chose to love me regardless of whether or not we could have more children.

Once we married, we quickly realized the emotional and physical demands of blending two broken families into one family that would honor God. Any Christian family attempting to put together the pieces of life after a divorce has some serious challenges to face. Anger, intolerance, threats, and volatile situations from former spouses were more frequent than we’d anticipated. Explosive incidents caused us so much grief and pain, but we vowed to stand firm in our faith and be an example of Christian character. However, these months of pain and trials proved to draw us closer to the Lord, which strengthened our marriage and family.

As our faith continued to grow, God revealed to John that we should consider homeschooling our children. That step of faith has continued for almost 14 years now and the Lord has transformed our lives. Not long after we began homeschooling, I picked up a book called: All the Way Home by Mary Pride. This book sparked a conversation about our long held dream to have a large family. We started talking about the possibilities and whether it would be reasonable to try to have more children. We began praying about it together and over time God revealed how He planned to add to our family.

God provided funds for us to have a tubal reversal, and we prayed that it would be successful. It was! Our first child together, Jake, a beautiful baby boy, was such a blessing to us, and such a precious answer to our many prayers! One day we were driving along Interstate 265, going to visit John’s parents. We were just basking in the joy of God’s rich blessings upon us. That day we made a decision that radically changed the direction of our lives. John made the following statement: “I think we should just leave our family planning to the Lord.” I looked at him in awe at the moment, because it was the exact thing I had been thinking! I, too, longed to rely solely on the Lord for our family planning, completely out of a spirit of thanksgiving for God’s mercy. Also, our years of relying on the Lord for strength had taught me that I could faithfully accept His sovereign plan for our family size, and the timing of our children. When we had this brief discussion together, I felt an incredible sense of “oneness of spirit” with John. This was a unique feeling, a precious blessing from the Lord for us both to have concluded the same thing on our private walks with the Lord and to agree so readily. We were elated!

The elation turned into excitement for us as we became pregnant with Haley when Jake was not quite six months old. We became pregnant with Johnny, our sixth child when Haley was fourteen months old. This pregnancy ended in an emergency C-section, which required general anesthesia and was quite traumatic. It was at this point my faith in God’s plan began to waver. I was having doubts about whether I could handle any more. However, I always came back to Phil. 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Our family and friends met the announcement from us with concern when we became pregnant with baby number 7 just over a year later. I was nearing 40 and having so many babies so quickly was taking a toll on my energy and my strength. At this point, I have to admit we shared our family’s concern, however we tried to be positive and thankful. We were overjoyed to have been given the blessing of a seventh pregnancy, but we were also more than just a little scared. After much prayer, I was able to have a natural delivery of our seventh baby- a precious little girl!

With 7 children, ages 4 months to 20, John and I were both feeling stretched beyond capacity. We were convinced each of these children were an incredible blessing from the Lord, but began to be concerned that we were not doing a great job of caring for all that the Lord had given us. Privately, each of us was wrestling with the idea of having no more children. We told God we would trust Him with everything, but our faith was beginning to be shaken amidst the chaos of our daily lives. At this time, we were also reaping what was sown in our earlier failed marriages. Our oldest children were now teenagers stretching their wings between two families that had very different standards. We sincerely wanted to let the Lord be in control of our family size, but we also felt that we could not handle adding any more children to our very full family. It was truly an emotional and spiritual struggle for each of us.

As we drove along Interstate 265, on another visit to John’s parents, we embarked upon this topic once again. John stated simply, “I just don’t think we should have any more children.” As he spoke a huge wave of relief rolled over me. I had felt the same leading, but had been wrestling with the guilt of that decision for a while. It was amazing. We were in exactly the same spot of the drive when we made the decision to accept God’s sovereignty in the timing of our children. As we crossed the overpass, I could see the huge sloping hill behind John’s head as he looked at me and it was like a snapshot of the last conversation. That was the first time we experienced the “oneness of spirit” regarding our family size, and here in the same spot the Lord blessed us again with the same event, almost as a memorial. This was yet another gift from God, this blessed peace in the decision to consider our family complete.

Now our children are: Blaise 20, Rachel 19, Lacy 19, Jake 6, Haley 5, Johnny 3, and Maelyn 18 months. As you can imagine our lives are never dull, with three children in college it is challenging to keep up with their lives and activities and of course, the four little ones at home keep us hopping around too! We continue to homeschool our younger children and we are just so thankful for the size of our family. While we still struggle at times with energy and resources, we know that the Lord provides daily for us, as we lean on Him. We will never regret that we let Him be in charge of the timing for each of our pregnancies. Our faith is strengthened and renewed each time He reveals His provision for our lives.

Terese Cooper is married to John and is a homeschool mom of seven, with four children still at home. She is active in her local homeschool community; is the listowner of HomeForHisGlory, a network of 500 homeschool families in the Kentuckiana area; and is currently involved in the start-up of HomeForHisGlory-Enrichment Co-op, which will serve over 80 families.  

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              Everyone kept moving (imagine that!)      


     

Posted in Family

Well, we had a beautiful day! We were all getting ready to go fishing and we stepped out the door and saw this:




Needless to say, that got everyone's blood flowing! And kept the children occupied while we get a few last minute things together for our next adventure, fishing at the Metz's.

Johnny caught the first fish:

He was so excited!! Jake and Haley actually caught 2 of the biggest fish, but they both BROKE their lines, so we didn't get any pictures.

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OK, I have tried and tried to get this video to play HERE but it just won't work!! If anyone has any suggestions PLEASE send them on. I tried to upload it jsut like the Hula one and it still didn't work. BUT, it seems to work if you cut and paste into your browser, so please take a moment and do it is so cute! Of course, I *am* the mom here! :)

http://i47.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid47.photobucket.com/albums/f169/Coopers4Him/MarchApril07119.flv

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We got to participate in an awesome service project this weekend. Our church hosted
30 on 30, which originally meant we would build 30 homes on the 30th of September.
These homes are to be sent down to New Orleans for the Hurricane Katrina victims.
It actually turned out to be 33 homes, because of the overwhelming response of volunteers. There were over 6000 and it was quite incredible for our family to be part of such a massive effort.
We had to be there at 8am to get our work assignments. My dd and I were working food service with our American Heritage Troop. Our group was sent up to the 5th floor for worship, which was quite an expericence in itself as we normally sit on the ground floor and rarely even see the top balcony. Here's Haley posing from our seats:

After a time of worship, we stocked up with goodies and headed to the parking lot. I have to admit, I felt a little guilty because everyone was working so hard building and everywhere we went people were SO appreciative and showering us with thanks. Of course, we did come loaded down with homemade cookies! Kind of hard not to smile and be thankful, I guess. ;) But, we didn't even make any of the cookies, we just showed up to work like everyone else and yet everywhere we went the workers were thanking us, like we did something special.

Jake was with Daddy hammering up some walls. I dont know of much that could be more fun for a 7 yr old boy. ;)

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I don't want to pass up this opportunity to give God  glory. Since my husband been unemployed since April, we know this vacation was a true God-send. We even stayed at a relative's condo in North Myrtle Beach, for free- praise God! =)

So, here we are enjoying our gift from God: 

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Just had to try out the video function on my new camera! ;)

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A local youth pastor posted an interesting request on our homeschool list (HFHG). See my response below the original request:

"I have been watching the e-mails discussing myspace.com, spying on our
teens, kids using vulgar language on IMs, etc. While I appreciate your
diligence as parents, it  occurred to me that the Bible says that we will
know the true Christians by their fruit. From that thought, I believe God
has led me to seek your help.  I would like input on this subject: Has the
youth ministry model that most of us are familiar with failed?

My thoughts: I believe the youth ministry model as we know it has failed
miserably. 75% of all "Christian" teens will completely backslide in the
first year after high school. 95% of "Christian" teens DO NOT have a
Biblical worldview. most do not believe in moral absolutes. Many believe
that all roads lead to heaven. The majority of "Christian" young people by
their sophomore year in college cannot name the 10 Commandments, but they
can name no fewer than 15 brands of beer.

What can I as a Youth Pastor do differently? do better? Is their anything
that I do that is ineffective? Does VBS, church camps, etc. do anything to
develop young people spiritually, or are these just part of the litany of
programs that we have always done, so we must continue to do them?

I ask for your feedback because I have been more and more deeply burdened
with the plight of our youth. If your kid is the devout Christian kid, they
are an oddball--- EVEN IN THE CHURCH. Pray about it, then respond from the
heart. I believe that God has a plan for revival in this next generation,
but it will not come without some deeply painful examination, of the church,
of the youth ministry model, of our families, and of ourselves."

My response:
I think one of the most important things in our own children's walk was the friendships they developed. My 19 y/o dd had a core group of friends who were like-minded and while through the years one or another has made mistakes, the others were there to remind her of "the right way" and encourge her to come back. They have truly helped hold each other accountable for their choices and actions. These were friendships that began and were developed at church.

My dd was also greatly helped by a group at church her senior year (which was at a public school). It was a time when I was quite overwhelmed with life's responsibilities and I was just not able to be everything she needed. Well, praise God, He sent a wonderful volunteer for her D-Group and this person was truly there for our daughter! She went the extra mile- called our home and scheduled coffee dates with our dd any time she missed a group meeting. They would get together and she challenged her to pursue college goals and to proceed with paper work that needed to be completed. Honestly, she probably is more the reason that our dd is in college than me (yes, it humbles me to say that!) But seriously, I share this because I think if we are going to see a change in our teenagers, we need to see a change in the adults working with them. If every youth worker had the initiative and genuine concern that this lady had, I think we just might begin to have a revival!  

I can contrast that with our 20 y/o ds who chose "other" friends. :/  Of course he was (is) the type who calls everyone a friend and doesnt tend to have "best" friends; so he didnt have the benefit of that core group that our dd had. It might also be more of a boy/ girl issue.

One BIG mistake we made was to follow the advice of one youth minister and give our 15 yr old son MORE freedom. I was told that a 15 yr old boy "should" be allowed to roam around riding his bike *all day* with his friends. At the time he was our oldest and we just didnt know how much freedom he should be allowed and of course HE wanted as much as possible!  But, I now see that was just BAD advice and we never should have followed it.

I did NOT grow up in church. This all comes from my very limited experiences of raising our own dc and occasionally volunteering in the youth ministry. 

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