Devotions July 30, 2007

Unfortunately, I left my devotion book at my house when I came to visit My Love.  Although I totally believe in reading the Bible and have been reading some in Ezra since being here, I thought I’d look on line and see if anything interesting could be found. 
The first site I went to has devotions by one of my favorite people: Elisabeth Elliot.  I wouldn’t consider it Bible study really, but it surely will challenge you spiritually.  I read many of them and wanted to share the site with you.  I think that you will really appreciate it if you’re a young mom like me.  Enjoy! 

http://www.backtothebible.org/index.php?option=com_devotion&qid=5&Itemid=75

Pictures from my sabbatical July 29, 2007

This is beautiful Baby Doll playing in one of her favorite toys.  I took this picture yesterday.  Today she grabbed those toys hanging from the bar for the first time.  I am so impressed with her ability to grab.  Her favorite thing to grab is my hair!

            

This is handsome Little Man with his friendlies backpack on.  His PawPaw and Honey brought this back to him from China.  He loves this backpack and wants to take it everywhere.  When he opened it, he said, “I’m going to wear this on the airplane to go see Daddy!”  He wants to wear it on the airplane, because My Love was wearing a backpack when he came to see us.  I love that Little Man wants to be like his Daddy.

Funny Sunday July 29, 2007

My Love and I tried something we haven’t tried before.  We took both children into the Sunday morning worship service!  I think that it went pretty well, especially considering Little Man has never sat through an entire service.  Even when I brought him in at EBC, I took him out before My Love preached.  We took Baby Doll because we didn’t know where the nursery was.  We took Little Man because we didn’t want to go through all of the crying and all since we aren’t going to be here long.  About half way through the service he looked at me and said, “I want to go to my class.”  We’ll see what happens next week.  Toward the end of the sermon he ripped a big one and then turned to me and said, “I need to poop.”  All I could think was, “I hate potty training and all it makes you go through.”  But I calmly picked him up and walked out to the restroom, which I had to ask for directions to, all for him to not poop.  Was I surprised?  No.  Where was My Love during all of this?  Standing up in the back holding Baby Doll because she had gotten fussy earlier in the service.  Will we do it next week?  I would, but I bet My Love wouldn’t!  The best thing about all of this is our friends were sitting right next to us with three of there children.  (They know where the nursery is!)  Although their children have sat through services before and their youngest that was in there was a little older than Little Man, they were both so encouraging to us and made us feel like our kids were as quiet as a sleeping cat.  I grateful for their encouragement.  What did the preacher preach on?  Faith, but I only know that because I read the bulletin!      I hope that your Sunday worship was more productive than ours!  May God bless what little I caught in the sermon!

we are here! July 27, 2007

Wow!  It’s been so long since I’ve written.  At least, since I’ve gotten my post to update.  Last Friday I sat and wrote a post, but it didn’t go through.  I was so mad that I took a week off.  Actually, part of the reason I took a week off is because I was preparing to come here with My Love!!!!   We  have made it safely, and it is so great to be together as a family.  Little Man, Baby Doll, and I are planning to stay for two weeks.  After that we will be back to Mississippi for two and a half weeks or so before coming to My Love’s graduation. I can’t begin to express my happiness right now.

Allow me to begin by updating you on the events that got lost somewhere in the world wide web.  Baby Doll had to go on different formula last week.  Since weaning from me, she had progressively gotten worse.  She is doing fabulous now.  However, I’ve had to try her solids again and have found out that she can no longer eat yogurt.  Oh well, at least she’s happy. 

I’m sure you recall my listening session with God where He informed me that I was going to teach Sunday School, and I freaked out thinking that it was my class but the second grade teacher called me.  Well, last week I did get called to teach my class!  I accepted because I knew that God wanted me to.  Then I proceeded to prepare like crazy.  I enjoyed teaching adults again.  I sure miss my class at EBC.  It’s hard not teaching when that is the gift God has given you.  I thank Him for allowing me to teach in my new setting.

Now, on to our trip.  Coming out here was wonderful.  Mamie and Pappy were great help.  We were blessed by a donation from one of the Sunday School classes so finances were taken care of as well!  Praise the Lord!  Baby Doll and Little Man did awesome!  We stayed the night to make it a two day trip, and Little Man and I shared a bed.  He was so precious.  When I got in the bed with him, he hugged me like a teddy bear and kept kissing me and saying, “I love you.”  What a joy being his momma!

Now that we are here Little Man has accomplished another big step.  He is sleeping in a big bed!  My Love and I have avoided switching him since he loves his crib so much, but last night (in the middle of the night) Little Man decided he wanted to sleep in the big bed rather that the pack ‘n play.  I put him in the big bed, covered him up, and didn’t here from him until the morning.  He even stayed in the bed playing until I went and got him.  Nap time today wasn’t as easy, but he is in there asleep right now!  What a blessing!

Tonight My Love and I are going to a ball.  I expect him to post pictures on his site soon.  Speaking of pictures, sorry I don’t have my camera set up right now to post some.  I hope to do that within the next few days.  I love ya’ll deeply!  Congrats to my cousin on her beautiful baby born on My Love’s birthday!  I guess we know who has a better prayer life, BeBe!  Just kidding!  I hope ya’ll have a great weekend; I know I will!

Pursuing Calm July 15, 2007

I have been wanting to write about this wonderful devotion I read last week, but I just haven’t had a chance to sit down and share it. 

“Can any of you add a cubit to his height by worrying?”   Luke 12:25

 I am quoting from Chris Tiegreen:

Worry is a plague.  We encounter difficult situations and think about the ways we want them to turn out. Or worse, we think ab out all the ways we don’t want them to turn out, obsessing about everything that can go wrong in them. We play a mind game called “What if something goes wrong? What if I get sick? What if I don’t have enough money to eat? What if my work fails? What if…?” The possibilities are limitless. And they grow larger the more we think about them. In our minds, the potential disasters swell and overwhelm us. When they do, our Protector and Provider seems to grow small and faith disappears. What is the solution? We know there is a place of rest for the believer–Jesus has promised it to us. But how do we get there?

Jesus tells us in Luke 12:31 to set our minds on the kingdom. This is hard to do. In a crisis, we are prone to set our minds on the desired outcome. We fix our gaze on the preferred result and ask God to accomplish it. That outcome may be good and holy, but as long as it is our hope, we are not focused on Jesus and His kingdom. Jesus asks us to set our minds on God and accept what He accomplishes. The outcome may be exactly the same in both cases, but calm in our hearts will only be areality in the latter approach. We cannot experience the peace of faith when our eyes see God as a tool to accomplish our purposes. Our eyes can be either on God or on outcomes. Not both.

Jesus is constantly telling us to htink in a way contrary to our fallen nature. It’s difficult; we need frequent reminding. But it’s the only way to internal rest. Pry your hopes off of your circumstances and put them on the Person who promises peace. Desire only Him, and you will never be disappointed. Or worried.

“Never try to carry tomorrow’s burdens with today’s grace”    –Anonymous

She suggests reading Psalm 27 also.

I just needed this devotion.  Those of you that attended the monthly WMU luncheons we did for the Senior Citizens at EBC know that the Lord has really been working on me in the area of worry since you heard me speak on it many months.  Prior to having children, I didn’t really worry about things.  Then along came Little Man and the worry too.  I cannot praise the Lord enough for how far He has brought me on the journey of faith.  I am having to trust Him so much now with My Love, my children, and myself.  He is totally challenging me.  How thankful I have for people like Chris Tiegreen that spur me on.  Yet, most of all, I’m thankful for His Word and Holy Spirit that work on me personally.  Without Him, I’d be nothing.

Finally, allow me to share an awesome story to celebrate God’s greatness.  Last Sunday my Sunday School teacher challenged us to sit and just listen to God for our prayer time and allow Him to say and bring to mind what He wanted us to focus on that day.  So, Sunday night I did.  I sat and listened, and He spoke.  Among other things He impressed upon my heart that I would be teaching Sunday School the next week.  Now, I’m very comfortable in teaching; it is what I love to do, and I certainly miss teaching Sunday School each Sunday since we’ve moved.  However, I just joined this ladies’ class and it is full of women who are much farther along in their journey and knowledge of the Word.  I just assumed that God was speaking of this class for me to teach.  So, I spoke with Him about my inadequacy and so forth but ultimately surrendered to Him that I would if called upon.  Monday and Tuesday passed and I thought of it but no call.  Then came Wednesday.  The call came for me to teach Sunday School, but it was from the teacher of the 2nd grade class!  Hallelujah!  I was so humbled though by the fact that God gave me a “heads up” that I would be called upon.  All it took was me listening.  Isn’t God so good!

4 Months! July 13, 2007

I can’t believe my Baby Doll is 4 months old!  I couldn’t get her to smile for her picture.  In fact, I was lucky to get her looking at me.  She was so interested in that baby doll beside her!  Little Man never noticed or cared about the baby beside him until he was 11 months.  So funny how kids are different.  Oh, excuse me, Little Man says that he is not a kid; he’s a boy!  I think that’s cute.

Baby Doll’s 4 month check-up went well.  She weighede 16 pounds 9 ounces and was 23.2 inches long.  I can’t beilieve how big she is!  At three months she just weighed 10 pounds 2 ounces!  She’s done a lot of gaining!  She is absolutely beautiful and strong.  The doctor said she was perfect, and it’s no big deal that she has gained this much weight.  I just thank the Lord that my OB doctor delivered her early, because I bet she would’ve been a big one!

Baby Doll is so sweet. She is laughing a lot, especially while I change her diaper.  She loves for us to sing to her.  She smiles and often sings along.  Little Man is enjoying playing with her more it seems.  When he woke up from his nap yesterday, he asked if she could get in the bed with him!  I think he’ll put her in his bed so they can sleep together as soon as I let him.  My Love’s sister did that with their baby sister, and my brother would come and get me whenever there was a storm!  It must run in the family!

I started Baby Doll on solids while my love was home.  (I would’ve never done that without the doctor’s okay with Little Man.  I guess I have the “been there, done that” attitude with #2!)  She loves to eat.  She smiles and talks while I feed her.  It is so fun!  Her favorite food so far is yogurt, which was (and still is) Little Man’s favorite.

How old are they? July 7, 2007

A friend of mine has these on her sight, and I thought they are cute.  I just can’t figure out how to keep them at the top of my site.  Maybe My Love can help me when he sees this, or perhaps wordpress isn’t able to do it the way blogspot is.  I don’t know!  Either way, you can always scroll down and find them! 

I plan to have a new picture of Baby Doll to show her at 4 months.  I haven’t taken it yet because she isn’t feeling well…allergies I think.  This is what she is doing!  The pillow is because she’ll actually stay in her bed with it, at least for a little while. 

Little Man is doing so well at pottying!  He looks so cute in his underwear, when he wears it.  He enjoys being what Pappy calls “Little Man No Pants”.  He’ll even refer to himself as that sometimes!  I love it!  His aim is a bit off.  The funniest thing is Chapeek, what Little Man has named the cat, likes to watch Little Man tt.  Little Man likes to try to squirt Chapeek.  Don’t you just love boys! 

Daddy’s Visit July 5, 2007

As you have probably noticed, I have procrastinated on posting about this visit.  My procrastination is due mostly to the fact that I haven’t wanted to face the truth…the visit is over.  In fact, I’ve spent my time being sad and missing my husband even more.  However, I am finished dwelling on it, and I’m moving on.  After all, I will see him again in a couple of weeks!

We had a fantastic time together as a family.  Little Man hugged his Daddy for a long time when he first saw him.  It was absolutely precious.  Then Little Man proceeded to tell Daddy everything he could think of to catch him up.  Of course, Daddy was the parent of choice for the weekend.  Even Baby Doll seemed to recognize him.   We spent most of the weekend just being together.  Daddy got to give baths and feed Baby Doll her first bite of cereal.  He also enjoyed playing with his Buddy.  It was so much fun.  I enjoy being with all of my family.

When Little Man and I took My Love to the airport things went perfectly.  Little Man enjoyed the escalator and did well saying “bye” to Daddy.  On the way home he even saw Daddy in his airplane!  I love his imagination.  We took pictures Sunday before My Love left.  Doesn’t he look great with his children?!