The Belly

This may be the last time I am pregnant, so I thought I would document my pregnant belly.

Easter festival pics

Baby blanket and beanie

I was so excited about how my latest knit and crochet projects turned out. The baby blanket is one of the bigger projects I've done in a while. I also made a matching baby beanie, which I crocheted, and I am working on some matching baby ballet booties. I have bought supplies to begin an even bigger project, but with baby on the way, I don't know how much of it I will accomplish anytime soon, but I am hoping to make Princess a dress.

How Marvelous

This has been a long week. I am sick, though really only slightly sick compared to almost everyone else I know. My mom is sick and has been to the doctor for the second time, and she's still not better after shots and medicines galore. My hubby has been sick, but is thankfully now on the up and up. Princess was only slightly sick a couple of weeks ago and has a little lingering cough every now and then.

Speed Racer has an ear infection and is on an antibiotic that has messed up his stomach and has given us fits with diaper changing time. He actually goes to the potty most of the time, but with all the sudden needs to go, we put him back in diapers for a while. He cries in pain every time because he is so sore. And he has had a continuous cough. On Thursday I was so worried about him - his cough sounded bad and there was nothing to do for it. The medicine was not working and he sounded slightly croupy. I called the nurse and she said to give honey for the cough. Now little ones cannot take anything more than honey or Delsym so we just had to listen to him suffer. The nurse reminded us of a few other things to do for him like running the humidifier at night, standing him in the cold night air, and standing him in a hot moist shower. We got his room as moist as we could before bedtime by running the humidifier and for the first time all week, we all slept all night long without being up for a few hours listening to him suffer and cough. The honey, by the way, said to be proven to work better than Delsym now, only succeeded in choking him. That same day, probably due to the stress, I was having regular contractions and thought I might be having a baby that day or the next one. As we slept though, they disappeared and all was well, I suppose.

Yesterday, was a beautiful sunshiney day, and we all got out in the weather and went to Dawson Baptist church's Easter festival. The fresh air helped Speed Racer's cough, and finally for the first time in a week or more, he ate a substantial amount of food.

Despite all these things and waiting on a new baby to come into our family and knowing that these are not ideal conditions for bringing a baby home to, I woke up with a song in my heart, and I thought I would share:

Full Term and Waiting

So I am now 37 weeks pregnant and expecting the arrival of our baby girl any time now. My main concern is not knowing who will be able to keep my kids when I go into the hospital. Currently, all grandparents are sick, and Speed Racer is on antibiotics for an ear infection, not to mention that I don't know where they will go if we have to rush to the hospital unexpectedly. They all live 45 minutes to an hour away. I know God provides all our needs, so I am leaving this need in His hands.

I've had a sore throat myself, so my house is not perfectly in order like it has been for a few months now. ;) Not to mention I need to clean the bathrooms - the dreaded chore when pregnant.

I'm an Alien!

I was asked to do a video testimony for church. Only God can make that video look good - I was so nervous. At any rate, this is what I wrote out as some of my thoughts beforehand. I feel much more confident in the written word than in the spoken word, thus the reason you've never seen me vlog before, that and I don't own a video camera.

“I’m just a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody who can save anybody.” Denver Moore, Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

As a youth, I asked Christ into my heart many times but I did not make a public decision until Easter Sunday my senior year of high school. All of my life, I had watched Christians proclaim Christianity, but continue to live a mediocre life and that’s one thing I always knew that I did not want to do. If I was to be a Christian, I wanted to be totally sold out to God. I think that’s when I first recognized that I would be an alien in the world, but as I’ve grown, it has become more and more apparent to me.

God is a good God and He has been good to me in so many ways. We have gone through many stages together – the nostalgic I’m in love stage like Pastor Blake mentioned on Sunday, where I saw God do great things and my faith grew wide but not as deep, the stage where it seemed like He withdrew His presence from me, where my faith grew deep and I learned the true meaning of obedience, and the current stage is a very sweet, tender, and intimate stage where He speaks to me all the time through random means, but I always know that He is there and I am not alone, and even when I don’t know an answer to a problem, I can fully trust that He’s working it out.

Though I mentioned I wanted to be a sold-out Christian, I have learned that as a wife and mother, my focus is not always 100% on Him. Sometimes, my focus is divided. However, that’s when He brings me to an awareness that this world is not my home. I get distracted sometimes by all the desires of the world – a bigger house, nice clothes for my children to wear and opportunities for them, even such things as simple as friendships.

I am currently in a bible study called, “No Other Gods,” where we have explored how we sometimes make gods out of our worldly desires. One thing I know without a shadow of a doubt to be true is that although many of the things the world can provide are nice, all of them, even friendships will pass away and may fail me, but God never fails. His love is eternal and He is always faithful, even when I am not. As His child, He will never forsake me. One way He makes this known to me is by not allowing me to have something I really want because He knows I will make that thing a little god over Him. This is how I am always aware of my heavenly citizenship and that I am an alien in this world.

I know that as an alien of this world I am meant to be different and not meant to blend in with the rest of the world. I make sometimes feeble attempts to influence the rest of the world for Christ, sometimes only through the writing of my blog, sometimes, by asking simple questions to get people to think about how Christ is working or wants to work in their lives.

I am a stay at home mom, and that’s one very big decision we’ve made as a family that is sometimes a sacrifice. We make choices not to have some of the simple luxuries that most people have. I don’t have internet access on my cell phone. My kids typically wear second hand clothing and shoes. At Christmas, we only bought a couple of very small new items for our children and mainly gave them used toys, so that we could buy new things for a needier child.

If I was driven only by the world, then I could work and we could have a bigger house with finer things to go in it and my children could have new things all of the time. However, I have found that Daniel and I are the greatest influences on our children, and the time I spend staying at home with them is priceless and valuable in an eternal sense, even when I often struggle with my role as a mother over them.

Parenting Thoughts

1. You are the best person for the job as the parent of your children, so take responsibility and do it.

2. No one else will put quite as much into your kids - even teachers and grandparents. Make the most of every opportunity. If you know you are slacking, what do you think anyone else is doing?

3. Don't expect a grandparent to pick up where you left off. They just want to be grandparents, have no rules and do whatever they want to do. {I totally don't understand this. This is not how I remember my grandparents.}

4. Have fun. Laugh when you want to cry. Discipline when its needed. And spend quality time with them so that they don't get bored and unruly. Know them better than anyone else. Question them. Be quiet with them. You will know how to invest in them when you do these things.

5. Love them like Christ loves you. You can never over love them.