Posted in Family Life

My little girl turns three years old today.  I can hardly believe she is already that old, and yet it seems like she has been in our family forever.  What a bright ray of sunshine she is in my life!  She is sunny, sweet, kind, and a true delight to all who know her.  She is a wonderful gift from the Lord, a precious blessing for which I am so very thankful.  It is a joy to see her grow and begin to become the person God means her to be.  She is very feminine, delighting in pretty dresses, babies, and all things little girlish.  She is dainty and delicate and simply delightful!

Happy Birthday to my precious little sweetie!

Posted in Family Life

Tomorrow is Father's Day, a wonderful opportunity to honor the fathers in each of our lives.  I am blessed to have two men in my life who are both wonderful, godly men and excellent fathers. 

The first is my own father.  My father is such a special man.  He is a man of great wisdom and kindness, a man with an honest and compassionate heart.  He is a quiet man, but he has such depth of soul and strength of character.  I am so very blessed to call him Daddy, and to be able to say that I have a sweet, loving relationship with him.  I trust him and look to him as an example of righteousness.  I love to watch him interact with my children, his grandchildren, teaching them about life and the things of God.  What a truly wonderful father I have.

The other father in my life is the father of my children.  My husband is a man of vision. passion, and sincerity.  He is one in a million.  His humor, his courage, his strength of conviction, his optimism, all of these traits reveal his godly character.  He is a wonderful father to our children.  He loves them so greatly and with such ferver.  He has a deep desire to see each of his children walking closely with the Lord and following the Scriptures in their own lives, and he has committed himself to seeing that desire come to pass.  I am so blessed to be married to this vibrant, passionate, intelligent man of God.

This Father's Day, as I honor the daddys in my life (my own and my children's), I can say that I have been tremendously blessed by God in His giving me my father and my husband, the two most important men in my life.

Posted in Family Life

Sweetness personified

Posted in Family Life

We don't hear much about callings anymore (unless we're talking about a "call to the ministry").  We certainly don't hear motherhood referred to as a calling.  And yet, it is the highest and most noble calling a woman can aspire to.  Motherhood is arguably the most influential profession there is.  The impact of dedicated, self-sacrificial motherhood on subsequent generations is tremendous.  What profession has more far-reaching affect on the future than that of motherhood?

Those of us who are mothers know the work involved in motherhood.  We also know the rewards that are gained in pouring out our own lives for our families.  We know the joys in bearing and raising children.  Christian mothers know the glory in serving God by bringing up children in the nuture and admonition of the Lord.

Motherhood is a blessed opportunity to minister to the Body of Christ right in our very own homes.  It is a beautiful way of serving the Lord as we serve our families.

Bearing and raising children is an important work.  There is great nobility in motherhood.  Mothers do something no one else on earth can do.

"Only a woman can carry in her body an eternal being which bears the very image of God. Only she is the recipient of the miracle of life. Only a woman can conceive and nurture this life using her own flesh and blood, and then deliver a living soul into the world. God has bestowed upon her alone a genuine miracle — the creation of life, and the fusing of an eternal soul with mortal flesh. This fact alone establishes the glory of motherhood.

Despite the most creative plans of humanist scientists and lawmakers to redefine the sexes, no man will ever conceive and give birth to a child. The fruitful womb is a holy gift given by God to women alone. This is one reason why the office of wife and mother is the highest calling to which a woman can aspire."

                                                                                                  ~Doug Phillips

Let us celebrate the high calling of motherhood.  It is a blessed gift from the Heavenly Father.

Posted in Family Life

In honor of the fact that my newest son is now six weeks old, and because I have had a number of requests for it (yes, Lyn, this is for you!), I am going to share my fifth baby's birth story.

My four previous birth experiences varied widely, so I really had no idea what to expect this time.  I wasn't even sure if I had a better chance of going into labor before my due date or after.  Two of my children had been born "early", two "late", so I had a fifty-fifty chance either way.  (As it turns out, the scales tipped in favor of going after my due date--not what I had been hoping for.)  Each delivery itself had been very different as well.  I was induced with my first baby, which if given the choice I would not do again (it's much more intense than natural labor, at least for me).  My second baby came after my having to be on bed-rest for six weeks because of pre-term labor--but the birth itself was fairly easy.  My third child was the nightmare delivery--she was born in posterior presentation (facing up), which is not a pleasant way to have a baby.  My fourth baby came after fourteen hours of labor....'nuf said on that one.  So, early on in my fifth pregnancy, I began praying that if God willed, I would have a quick, easy labor and delivery.  I also happened to be close friends with a real, honest-to-goodness prayer warrior.  I mean, when this lady prays, things happen.  She and her sons began praying fervently for me and the baby as the time for the birth drew nearer.  Still, I really didn't know what to expect this time.

For the last three weeks of my pregnancy, I had been having frequent "nuisance contractions".  Actually, these kind of mild contractions are the only truly consistent thing about each of my pregnancies.  I was just sure that I would go into labor anytime.  At 37 weeks, I began dialating, and by week 40, I was more than two centimeters dialated.  I eventually became very tired of waking up each morning thinking "Today could be the day."

Two days after my due date, we made a visit to the hospital because I was having quite a few mild, fairly painless contractions.  After being examined, I was told that I was still only about 2.5 centimeters along.  The midwife advised us to go home and get some rest.  My husband took the next day off from work so that I could rest, and by about ten o'clock that night, I began having some occasional moderately strong contractions.  I took a bath at 10:30, then went to bed.  I woke up at just before midnight with a very strong contraction, and then another came soon after.  At just after 12 am, the contractions closed in at about two minutes apart and were very strong.  At 12:15, I woke up my husband, who called the hospital to let them know it was definitely "the time".  He called again on our way to the hospital to ask them to have a wheelchair ready at the door--there was no way I was going to be able to walk anywhere, let alone all the way to the elevator (my husband had to help me get out of the car and into the wheelchair).  By the time I was finally settled into a birthing room, I was eight centimeters dialated and entering transition (that was at around 1:45am).  After about five minutes of pushing, my fifth child and third son made his entrance into this world.  That was at 2:17 on the morning of January 22nd.  He was a beautiful, healthy baby boy, my biggest yet at 7lbs. 13 oz.  The entire experience of his birth was such an answer to prayer, and I felt the Lord's presence throughout it.

Having a two hour labor certainly wasn't what I expected.  But it sure was a blessing.  In fact, I consider it a miracle.  But then, aren't all births miracles?

Posted in Family Life

Bookend boys--my oldest son holding my youngest son

My girls love their little brother....

Few things in life are quite as sweet as this.

Posted in Family Life

After the long weeks of waiting, we have finally welcomed our new baby into our family.  Our newest little blessing was born early on the morning of January 22 after just two hours of labor.  He is a sweet, easy-going little guy who is well-loved by his big brothers and sisters (and Mommy and Daddy, too, of course!)  We are all so thankful to the Lord to finally be able to hold and cuddle this newest addition to our family.  May he grow up to love and serve the Lord with all his heart.

Posted in Family Life

That's right, I'm still pregnant.  Family and friends are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new little blessing.  I officially have exactly one week until I reach my due date, so I may be waiting a little longer.  In the meantime, I am trying to keep myself and my children occupied and distracted from thoughts of "when will this baby be born?".  I have recently been finding out what a good cook my husband is.  I am also finding out how very thankful I am that I have trained my children to help with housework.  We've had a good, full two weeks of schooling since our break at Christmas.  The cradle is made up, the carseat is cleaned, the cute little baby boy clothes are washed and neatly put away.

Now, all we need is the baby.  And so....

...we're still waiting.

Posted in Family Life

No sissies allowed in our house--my husband makes sure of that!  I can definitely say that my boys are all boy.  They love boyish things, and they spend their time in boyish pursuits.  In their imaginations, they have no limitations, they can slay the dragon, rescue the princess, conquer the bad guys, and still be back in time for lunch. 

In all seriousness, though, we deeply desire to train our sons to be men of virtue, willing to come to the aid and protection of women and children.  Though they are still boys, someday they will be men, and we desire that they will be godly men of character and uprightness, men prepared to fight against the flesh and the devil, men ready to stand for righteousness, men of integrity and honor, men who can be trusted to keep their word, men ready to lead their families in prayer and provision and by personal example.  There are precious few men like that these days--I want my boys to be that rare commodity--truly godly men.

Posted in Family Life

After being sick for nearly two weeks, I feel as if I have emerged from a dark tunnel.  I'm blinking my eyes at the bright daylight around me as I attempt to get my bearings.  My children, though they are obviously glad Mommy is feeling better, are not too pleased with the particular version of Mommy they have had to contend with for the last couple of days.  You see, because I was unable to do much housework for an extended period of time (and though my husband tried his best to keep up--he is a man after all, and a legally blind one at that, which limits his abilities to some degree), the home needed some whipping into shape.  The children, naturally, were recruited to do their share  of the whipping.  So, within a couple of days, I have reclaimed my territory, and now Drill-Sargeant Version of Mommy can take a rest while fun, Cookie-baking Mommy takes over for the rest of the week.

I have to admit, once the house reached semi-normal function once again, I became a little frustrated with amount of "school time" we had missed over the past two weeks.  I was very tempted to spent this week playing catch-up.  I thought, "what about Math--we missed a bunch of days, and now we are behind in the lessons.  How will we finish the book by the end of May, especially with a new baby coming?  And if we don't stay on track with History, we'll be working on this year-plan until July!  And what about English, and all that reading we should have been doing."  But my sweet, wise husband reminded me that you can't really get "behind" in school when you homeschool, and that my children have had all kinds of valuable real-life learning experiences over the last couple of weeks.  This is the week before Christmas, and (before I got sick) I had planned to spent it doing fun, Christmasy things with the children.  So, I resolved to not worry myself over academics--we can always get "caught up" later on in the year.  Instead, I will enjoy this week with my children, making crafts and cookies and singing carols and talking about the birth of our Saviour.  It only happens once a year, and each of my children only has once chance at childhood.