Faith of a Child

Well my ear has been bothering me. Its been clogged and I haven't been able to hear out of it...not good when you've got a baby crying in the other room.

So tonight as :A" was heading to bed, she informed me that I needed to go to the ear doctor.

Flash back to Sunday. Our pastor, mentioned during his sermon that we often use God as back up when option 1 doesn't work out. He used a headache as an example. Those in more desperate situations don't have other options. When they have a headache they pray first and hope and expect an answer to their prayer for healing, and usually see it! Then there are those of us, with so many advantages and options. We have a headache, we reach for the Tylenol. Tylenol doesn't work we each for more. That doesn't work we cry "Oh Lord heal my headache!!"

Pastor challenged us to make God the first option!

Now back to tonight. I told "A", "Well honey why don't you pray for mommy's ear."

She asked why and I said, "Cause God is big and able to heal and doesn't cost any money!!"

She got shy and wanted me to help her so this is what we said:

Me: "Dear Jesus"

"A": "Dear Jesus"

Me: "Please make Mommy's ear all better"

"A": "Please make Mommy's ear all better"

Me: "In Jesus Name"

"A": "In JeSUS NAME"

I put that in all caps because that is what it sounded like to me! It suddenly became really loud!! I told "A" that God heard her prayer! She was so giddy! She kept covering her mouth and giggling. I explained to her that now she knew God really hears her prayer cause he answered one! So she literally, immediately prayed for her white, medium sized, fluffy, poodle dog that is a girl, and comes with a collar with the name sally written on it. In Jesus name amen. Whew.

yeah.

Can't fault her with non-specific prayers!

I guess now we will learn the lesson of how God doesn't always answer our prayers right away.

Unless there's something I don't know Lord!....

Things To Come...

I really enjoy spring time. After fall, spring is my favorite season! Partly because we might have a few days of pleasant weather before the inevitable 4 month long heat wave called summer here in central Texas, and partly because of the promise of things to come!!

We have a garden so spring just screams new life to me, and sinse we live in Texas we have been able to enjoy the fruits of our labor through winter here.

See thIs worn out broccoli!

We didnt even collect the last of it florets and it will give us more I am sure.

The spinach the girls have been enjoying, in fact, for lunch today!

Now on to the promise of things to come!

Here we have beautiful blossoms that will be growing into peaches! We are very excited because there are lots of blooms!!

Arent they so pretty and delicate looking!

This is my Valentines day present:

Lemon trees! I drink lemon water all day long. I lurve it!

And I love the smell of lemons...breathing in, breathing out...imagining the smell...mmm.

Thirst is overcomming me!!

These little buds are the beggining of lemons....YAY!

Now we finally have some strawberries growing. This has been a two year process of getting one or two random little bitty strawberries that we always have to cut in half ( we must share you know!)...ugh. But these are looking promising!We also have blue berry and black berry planted. We will see how they do! We planted some grapes along the fence so I am really excited to see how that goes!

The veggies are just in the beggininnig phases but here is some corn we planted, We just planted a little and then we will plant more later so it will last us longer!Here is our surprise! We put the pumpkins we carved for halloween out to watch them decompose.

It was very intersting to our girls. We put them in the empty planter we hadn't used last summer. Well guess what we have growing!!??

Pumpkin! What a neat lesson for the girls to learn: that ultimatEly death leads to life!

Hmmm... all of creation does point to heaven doesn't it!?

So as we prepare for the commemoration of our Saviors death and then resurection, all I have to do is look outside to be reminded of the promise of things to come!

Do You Know What Today Is The Anniversary Of?

Today is the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.
Today marks 36 years of legal abortion.
The number of lives killed since then is too staggering to even wrap my brain around.
Many assume that this stance, pro-life, is one of religious roots. Of course there is obviously a faith based root to believing killing a human life is wrong, which is why murder is against the law as well. But I believe that anyone who values human life can see the depth of injustice that is called abortion.
No one argues that the aborted fetus was alive. Look an any medical text book. The cells are multiplying and the life is growing. It is alive.
Not only is it alive it is a human life.
We are horrified at accounts of others choosing death for an innocent being. There was a recent news report of Al Qaeda strapping unknowing people with bombs only to detonate them in a crowded place, those unknowing innocents were people with down syndrome. Shocking isn't it? Horrifying even. But everyday human life that has been diagnosed with such a disability is ended at someone elses will.
Then there is the tragedy referred to as the Holocaust. An unthinkable amount of human lives were killed at someone elses whim; actually he had a very calculated and deliberate strategy to wipe out a whole race. Did you know that African American babies are aborted at 3 times the rate of white babies? Did you know abortion clinics are strategically placed in poorer neighborhoods or neighborhoods that are predominately black?
Lets look at the current situation in Uganda. Children are being recruited as solders and sex slaves by General intent on achieving more power and rule. We are moved ti tears and rightly so when we think of all the children who's lived have been lost or negatively impacted because of one mans ambition. And yet one of the most voiced concerned in having an unwanted baby is the fact that this baby would hinder its mother from achieving what she could. Is the ambition and hope for one life worth the cost of another?
We watch in horror when the news reports of a mother killing her children, and yet...
men are charged with 2 murder when his pregnant wife is killed.
Is it the wantedness of a child that makes its life worth saving? Would it then be appropriate to murder the unwanted child given up for adoption? Of course not.
These "medical procedures" have been disguised as such, when in reality they are what they are: the killing of an inconvenient, unwanted, or disabled innocent life.
I could argue against many of the points pro-abortionists make but I will leave the numbers to speak for themselves:
6 million killed in the holocaust
unknown killed in the longest lasting war in Africa, but at least 2 million have been affected
4,000 a day in US and 130,000 worldwide EVERYDAY killed by abortion

http://abort73.com/

Encouragement From A Stranger

Well I foolishly decided to go shopping today. I HAD to go to the grocery store for some forgotten items and sinse I had to venture out with all three girls, I thought I might as well make it a morning. SO we went to Ross. I have over $30 in gift card credit there, and both girls need shoes. Well they didn't have what we needed so I browsed the baby clothes. No luck there either, so then I went to look at the big girls shirts, sinse I am a very big girl right now and nothing fits...well I had a little luck. But the baby was in the sling and the girls were bored and acting up, so after 2 separate potty trips... to the line we went. By then it was full blown screaming from Julia, and the girls were playing tag at the check out! Not good. My voice was getting tighter each time I had to call the girls to "STAND BY THE CART!" I was on the course heading straight for blow up. Gone was my excitement in having found a shirt and a birthday gift for #1. The woman in front of me could obviously see the countdown in my brain, because she told me I could go ahead of her and then went on to tell me she had little ones and knows how hard it is to get out and about. I asked her how she managed to be out alone and she said well now I have older ones to help with the younger ones. I knew then she was probably 'mom to lots'. She went on to engage the girls in conversation while I checked out and I thanked her as I walked out the door. As I was sitting in the front seat nursing my baby feeling much calmer than I had been I saw her walk to one of those big vans that holds lots...she was a 'mom of lots'! And I thought, someday I will be the one to encourage a young mother with three children 4 and under. I will be the one to speak peace into an escalating situation. Hopefully, next time it will be me...And I said a little prayer that she would be refreshed this day. "... He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." Proverbs 11:25

And now just for fun:

Dress Up Fun

Dress up AND holding the baby

And finally aunt Lest getting a great smile...one after another!

Oiling Can

Today is Kevin's first day with students.

He is a music teacher and sees all the students: Pre-K trough 5th grade. Which means each day is 6 different lesson plans and six different classes and the next day brings the other half so six more classes. Unfortunately, last year was very difficult, with some classes ruining it for the others and none of those kiddos moved! :) So they are back. And Kevin knows the Lord has him here. He was ready to leave but did not feel a release from the Lord to do so. So he knows it is the Lord work to be there, but its still hard!!!

Some Men from church were encouraging him yesterday as we were leaving church and kinda joking around with him about starting school. These men both had previously taught in the district Kevin teaches in. But anyway, one of them said (when Kevin joked that they could pray for him again) that he was the tin man that needed oiling every 5 minutes. I smiled at him and nodded my head, and he looked at me and said, "You're the oiling can!" He was still joking around and was pretending to console Kevin when he came home form work. But man, that stuck with me!

So I decided that I would make an effort this year to be his oil can. Not that I didn't pray for him before, but the tin man needs oiling every 5 minutes! So no, I didn't pray every 5 minutes, but the Lord graciously brought him to mind through out this morning and afternoon and I would just stop and pray real quick or sometimes not so quick.

I share this not to brag because, I promise there will be days when I'm sure I will not be a good oiling can, but I share this because I thought it was such a good word and good visual, at least for me. So for all of us that have friends, spouses or children that are facing a difficult day or days, we just need to think of them as the tin man, and ourselves as the oiling can!!

Prayer Request

Well we went to the midwife today, which I always enjoy doing. It makes for a nice little day trip cause we get to go to Austin and sometimes we do something after we visit with her. The girls love going to these appointments and hearing the baby's heart beat and chatting Ms. Laurie's ear off. I love going and chatting Ms. Laurie's ear off!
I am 6 weeks away from the due date and the baby is still head up it seems. I had suspicions that that was the case, but what do I know!--turns out I might know something!
So Laurie, our midwife wants us to go get an ultra sound to find out for sure if it is or isn't breech. We don't even know for sure that there is something to be concerned about yet.
This pregnancy for me has been a constant test of me just trusting, and I am ashamed to say I have failed the test I think. I have spent a lot of this pregnancy being anxious at least under the surface. If any little thing arose, I became anxious, and yes each time I exerted much effort to choose to trust in the Lord, but yet the next test arrived and I would face it once again with anxiety. SO this is no different, and although my good friend Dr. Deb assured me that there is every likelihood that this baby will turn on its own by the time the day arrives, our plan for home birth has to take this into serious consideration and prayer.
I would love all of you to pray with me for this baby to be head down when we do get an ultra sound, and if it isn't that it would turn.
I would also ask that you all be supportive in prayer and words what ever we feel comfortable doing as the birth of this baby draws closer. I am sitting here debating whether or not to even post because I am afraid of having to be on the defence of what decision we may make. Of course I know you all love us and any concerns you express would be with the best intentions, but you understand right!? I did hours in the library researching before Annelise was born at home, and of course will be just as educated in this instance. But the most important thing to me is that what ever decision be made based out of trust and not out of fear.
So all that to say: pray for this baby to "turn, turn, turn"--get it?!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lgtCJAWfrk&NR=1
Kevin put this song on today and said it was for the baby, so we all laughed and danced in our pajamas--- well the girls were in theirs!