Blessing in a bundle…

“Never will a time come when the most marvelous recent invention is as marvelous as a newborn baby.”
Carl Sandberg

I am an auntie for the 11th time! My brother and his wife welcomed a baby girl into their family yesterday morning and if the rest of this little girl’s life is anything like her entrance, they have a world of surprises in store for them! First of all, she was very unexpected. They were not planning on having any more children and took medical measures to insure that decision, but God obviously had other things in mind. Imagine their surprise when that little line appeared!! Then, they were scheduled for a c-section in 2 weeks, but things started happening this weekend and surprise: she came early. Mom and baby are doing great. This verse keeps popping in my head:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

God is so awesome. This was so not in my brother’s plan. It is just another reminder that we are not in control. We can try to plan and prepare, but if God has a plan, there’s no stopping it. This girl is here for a reason and my brother and his wife are the family God needed for her. (He couldn’t pick a better family!) I’m sure there are worries and questions and all those what if’s that surround bringing a new baby home, but He has a plan.  He wanted her here and now she is and I can’t wait to see what is in store for this little one!

 

On my mind…

There is a lot to think about right now with all that is going on in the world. The whole war thing? Well, I don’t even know what to say about that. More troups, extended tours, injuries, fatalities, no end in sight. It is way too much to wrap my little brain around. It’s hard to be supportive of a cause that makes no sense to me. I’m just not going to go there right now. Something a little closer to home is occupying my thoughts anyway. There is a sweet mom in my MOPS group who’s heart is heavy right now. This Sunday will mark the 3rd anniversary of the loss of their first son. She was 6 months pregnant in what seemed like a perfect pregnancy and then suddenly got sick and lost the baby. She and her family are just so on my mind right now. It’s hard to know what to even say about it. I appreciate that she talked about it in our group. That they allow themselves to remember and to grieve. It is such a complicated loss for most people to understand and it would be easy for them to keep it tucked way down deep. I’m grateful she felt comfortable and trusting enough to share it with us. I pray for comfort and peace for them as they remember their sweet little boy.

 

TV Decision

We have made a decision regarding TV.  We don’t like it.  Now, I’ve known for awhile now that I wasn’t a huge fan of it and rarely turned it on.  But for my husband to come to the same conclusion is pretty remarkable.  There is simply, in our opinion, nothing worthwhile on anymore.  So, yesterday, I called up the cable company… and canceled our service.  (Well, not entirely, but only because since we have our internet service through them, it would have been more expensive to cut cable completely because then they would jack up the price of our internet.  Make sense?  It didn’t to me either.)  All I know is that we have slashed our bill in half and our lives have not suffered due to a lack of programming options.  If anything it has helped declutter our lives.  TV’s off mean less noise!  And I don’t know about anyone else, but I am not a huge fan of a lot of noise.  With 3 young kids, I have a natural overabundance of it, and I’m not fond of anything that adds to that!  Now, please don’t think I am up on a soapbox all high and mighty saying that everyone should throw their TVs out the windows.  I am just relating a decision that, right now, feels right for my family.  We’ll see how it goes.  Stay tuned…  (hee-hee)

 

Letter from El Salvador

I am not a huge fan of getting the mail. It just doesn’t excite me because there is hardly ever anything fun in it. But every now and then, something fun comes and today was such a day. There is nothing I love more than seeing an envelope from Compassion with the words, “Message from your sponsored child” on it! We usually receive at least one letter a month from our little darling, and they just make me smile. It is so amazing how much I love this little boy across the world who I have never actually met. He wrote that he goes to school but doesn’t get good grades. Bless his sweet little heart. I write to him that we are proud of him no matter what and I hope he knows that. I hope his family tells him that. I know nothing about his family except how many there are. He has never written anything about them. Now, granted, he is quite young and his letters are pretty simple. It is just my hope and prayer that he is surrounded by love and compassion. That he feels some of the love that every child deserves to feel. I hope he knows how special he is!

 

A New Year

2007. A new year. It hardly seems possible that 2006 is over. I’ve spent a good deal of time recently reflecting on the past year. It was an interesting year to say the least. It brought the birth of our third child who has brought me more joy than I could ever find the words to express. I then faced postpartum issues such as I never had before and would never have expected. We dealt with an antidepressant withdrawal that caused probably the most difficult season in our family to date. It was a year filled with ups and downs, huge stresses and great joys, many mistakes and lessons learned. It is with much hope that I face this new year. I have some goals for this year. I start each year with goals. Don’t we all? But this year, I really want to meet them. My keywords for this year are priorities and gratitude. First, I need to prioritize what is important. What I need to do versus what I want to do, proving myself to be a capable, goal-oriented woman, not a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, put out fires as they come up young adult. Second, I alway want to remember to be grateful. God has so richly blessed me and I have not been a good steward of those blessings. I have three beautiful, wonderful kids. I have an amazing husband who has stuck to me through thick and thin, who always picks me up when I fall, has a truly gracious and forgiving heart and who can put a smile on my face no matter what. I do not want to take these things for granted. I need to focus, daily, on gratitude. Gratitude for blessings beyond what I could ever imagine or deserve. So here we go. 2007. A New Year.

 

Day Five

Today is day five of my new Lexapro regimen and I moved up to the full dose today (I had been taking half.) I feel like it is starting to make some difference. I am actually able to sleep more than 1-2 hours at night. Interestingly now that my body is able to sleep, the baby has been getting up several times a night so I actually feel more tired now than I ever did when I wasn’t sleeping at all! A friend told me today that I sound more like myself again. Not that there was a HUGE change, but I certainly wasn’t acting normal. So if people are starting to notice, hopefully that means things are on the mend. I still am having some side effects from the med, but that is only to be expected and should continue to get better as I go. I’m on a low dose, so hopefully my body adjusts quickly. As scary as it can be to go on a new medication, I feel like I did the right thing. I’ve hated how I’ve been feeling and am so looking forward to feeling myself again!

 

How does He know?

How is it that God knows what I need to hear and when I need to hear it? I just got off the phone with my sister and mom. Perhaps you’ve seen the news this morning? Authourities foiled yet another terrorist plot, this time 10 planes from London set to explode simultaneously. Unbelievable. My dad is currently in town for work and is scheduled to fly home tomorrow. The last place I want him right now is on a plane. As my sister and I were discussing this, my mom, who is our ever present example of unwavering faith says, “You just got to have faith.” I know that. But it is so hard when I’m scared. It is a frightening world we live in. Nothing is certain. Nothing is sacred. They are testing baby formula for crying out loud! What kind of sick individual would hide poison or explosives in baby formula! This world is so screwed up it makes my head spin and it is spinning wildly today. Then I read today’s verse:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. ”- Psalm 46:1

I need to focus on that today and in the coming days. When the world turns crazy and doesn’t make sense, he is my refuge. I can rest in Him. When evil abounds and seems to win, He is strong. He doesn’t lose. He is always there to help me.  I know He has a plan for me and for the world and even though it doesn’t always make sense, it is not for me to understand.  In the end, I know that His plan is perfect and He will overcome.