Mary's First Sign!

We are so excited to see Mary telling us whats on her mind! We've always loved baby signing at our house and I've posted about it here before. But today our youngest signed EAT for the first time. We were all cheering and happy, so we kept giving her cheerios to get her to keep signing it and then I got a picture!




Please go visit Signing Time for more on Baby Signing

Wordless Wednesday - Daddy's Girl

my wonderful man with our three week old daughter:

Thankful Thursday!

Thankful Thursdays is hosted by Iris please join us every Thursday!

Today I am thankful for our beautiful little Mary
Now one week old!

The love of siblings!

Thankful Thursday - Birth Day

Welcome Baby Mary!!!!
She was born at 10:15am,
is 19 1/2 inches,
and weighs 6lbs. 8 oz.

Thankful Thursdays is hosted by Iris please join us every Thursday!


Today Iris posted this verse at her site:

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.” ~ Psalm 28:7 (ESV)

How appropriate for my day ... I'm packing up to leave for the hospital to have our baby girl! She is almost here ...we can't wait to hold and snuggle her!!!

Give thanks with us on her Birth Day! Here is a verse the Lord gave me for her when I was 26 weeks along:

David's Psalm of Thanks

7 That day David first committed to
Asaph and his associates this psalm
of thanks to the LORD:

8 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.

9 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.

10 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

11 Look to the LORD and his strength;
seek his face always.

12 Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,

1 Chronicles 16:7-12

Wordless Wednesday

Here she is: Our Baby Girl at 26 weeks. Based on ultrasound measurments they tell us she is now 2lbs, and some ounces.


Here is her profile shot:




Here her hand is by her chin or mouth and she turned her head and smooshed her nose against my belly:



Here are her little feet pushing out on my belly (one is a bit blurry, but it is her feet) ... I just love baby feet!!!



And one shot of mommy's tummy:


To view who else has posted a Wordless Wednesday post or post one of your own click here

Why Mary?

I've had several friends and family ask why we are planning to use the name Mary for our new little girl? So here is my explination:

After attending a Women's retreat in Jan. I really felt the Lord speak to me, to my heart. He spoke about things I need to learn and change, about growing closer to Him, but what I found amazing was that he even spoke to me about our baby's name.

As I left the retreat that afternoon I found myself telling God "Thank you for getting me here to this retreat today, I so needed to hear Susie Larson’s message. My heart, and my mind, just echo some of her words:

“Bedrest just mocked my vision for what I wanted to be for my kids!”

“All I could do to make myself worth something was obliterated”

Oh, God, I know those feelings. My limitations and what my body is keeping me from doing makes me feel so small …

But what I found so reassuring in Susie’s talk was despite her stories of many challenges as a child, illness as an adult, being on bedrest for months on end and almost losing her baby son, was that she was now able to stand up and tell us that “Like Joseph of the Old Testament, I became fruitful in the land of my suffering” and “God is good all the time! He truly truly has our best interest at heart.” She truly grew closer to the Lord, and came to know the joy of that closeness.

Then, she put up this verse Psalm 126:5-6

Those who sow in tears
Will reap with songs of joy.
He who goes out weeping,
Carrying seed to sow,
Will return with songs of joy,
Carrying sheaves with him.


It seems the Lord spoke to me though that verse … concerning my current circumstances of bedrest and even this baby’s name. There have been great tears of pain and frustration and sorrow and even bitterness. Tears due to stress, due to finances, due to illness, due to loss, due to loneliness, and confusion and just plain lack of control of what is happening in my life. But I can hear the Lord telling me He wants to take and use my tears so that we can see a harvest of joy and singing. And I realize that kind of joy only comes while growing closer to our Lord and Savior. All of our tears and struggles have done just that, drawn us closer to our Lord.

And this makes me think of my time on bedrest and of our precious baby girl due in June … I think about her so often, especially when she kicks and wiggles. I’m so grateful to be pregnant. There seems to be so many reasons for me to consider the name Mary. Besides having two best friends by that name, friends who the Lord so carefully placed in my life at just the right times, and Allen’s dear Grandma Mary who helped to shape this man I love! I also came across a name book that lists the definition of Mary to mean “child we wished for”, and of course that is so so so true!!! Especially true after miscarriages. Oh, how I long for this baby! But a few other name books we've looked at had this definition for the name Mary: “sorrow or bitterness”. I’m guessing because Mary the mother of Jesus lived through much sorrow and bitter times. But that is just my guess. I can’t help thinking how that relates to me today. Certainly I have not had to live as Mary the mother of Jesus did, but I see how it fits where I have recently been. I’ve walked through disappointments, miscarriages, depression, and other lonliness … but in all of this I keep clinging to my Lord … I can’t explain in clear words why or how I know that He is always with us but, my Lord, I know you are! I've known His comfort even in loss and confusion.


So, like everyone, we’ve known times of sorrow and bitterness (I used to think that was a bad thing, but I’m learning its not). I can see now how those tears of sorrow and bitterness watered that seed of faith, and out of those low times can come great joy and singing. It makes Mary sound like a perfect name for this little girl and then maybe followed by Faith or Joy or Grace or Elise or something that expresses our blessings from the Lord. You see, out of our time of “sorrow” and tears came this “child we had wished for” and shes not just the gift of another child, but we are being blessed by the "grace" of our God, also the gift of stronger "faith" and the gift of "joy", so that we might freely say this little girl is “consecrated to God”. (Consecrated to God is the meaning of Elizabeth and Elise)

I don’t know with any certainty what is in store for the rest of my pregnancy or for the rest of my parenting years, but Oh my Lord I know that you are at work, you have a purpose and a plan, and a great love for me and my family. I pray that you help me, please help me to grow and to change as YOU desire.

UPDATE: No finaly name choice yet, but we'll post it when we decide ... which could be the day she is born ... or a few days after ... stay tuned

Wordless Wednesday - the view from bed rest

Here is what I Have been looking at most of the day:
The end of my bed, the closet, a TV table with the kids homeschool books piled on it, my dresser with our TV on top (playing movies for Z. and O.) And of course my little gift of encouragement from my dear friend, ML.

Friday's Ultrasound

Quick explination about these pictures: top one is full baby profile, with head toward bottom left and butt and legs toward top right. She is quite a wiggle worm, so not the clearest of ultrasounds. The second photo is of the area were you can tell is it a boy or is it a girl.

We took all 4 kids and went to our 19 week ultrasound on Friday. The Dr. doing my ultrasound was great about the full room. He walked in, looked a little surprised and said with a big smile "Great! a party!"

Up until this ultrasound I'd been saying I wanted to keep the gender a surprise, but the kids wanted to know so badly and something told me I should go ahead and find out. So at the very end of the ultrasound our Dr. says "last chance to find out..." I told him "go ahead ... tell us boy or girl". He was great about it and really tried to explain each part on the baby so the kids could get it. But it basically boiled down to, "if it were a boy we'd see a little boy part right here, but we don't, so you are getting a baby sister". It made it worth losing out on my surprise at the birth to see the look on my Rosebud's face when she heard that. It was shock for about 30 seconds and then just a huge grin and giggle. She has hoped for a sister each pregnancy, but as you know she has only gotten brothers up till now. Honestly, I am thrilled to just have a baby. Boy or girl does not matter to me one bit, but it was so much fun to see Rosebud's reaction. But as we are all giggling and smiling about it, O(our 5 year old) says "A girl baby?! That's my worst nightmare!!!" We assured him it was no nightmare and I know he'll love and cuddle on her just the same. It really was a fun day! And now I guess we can go shopping for pink :)

Who holds your hand?

Friday, January 11, 2008
Who Holds Your Hand?
I wonder who holds your hand? Who has a grasp to you during the trials and tough times that come with life?

David wrote this is Psalm 10:17
You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.

To read the whole story behind this touching picture please visit:

who-holds-your-hand - from the uncle's blog

confessions of a cf husband - the daddy's blog

whos-in-charge-here - from the grandpa's blog

How Great thou Art, from the Hospital

On our way home from a family lunch Sat. afternoon, we were in a minor car accident, no one really injured, just a bit jarred around and whiplash aches and pains. But to be on the safe side I called and talked to my OB office, they wanted me to go to the hospital for an ultrasound. They sent me up to L&D, hooked me up to baby monitors and all looked good, but we had to wait 4 1/2 hours for an available ultrasound. Baby and placenta look just fine. And I got 5 hours of quiet time in a hospital room (trying to find the positive there). I did bring a notebook and a few books to read with me. And at one point could not get the hymn "How Great Thou Art" out of my mind, so I sat there writing out the words to How Great Thou Art ... great words to meditate on, if you ever find yourself sitting in the hospital for hours on end.

Am pasting in here a video to Selah's version of How Great Thou Art, its just beautiful!




Seems like that Selah one only works for some people, so I'll add this one too:

Another Miracle

Our life continues as it has been, pregnant, exhausted and sick, but also elated, joyful and blessed! God is with us each day and I'm in awe of all he does. Someone shared a story of a miracle with me this week. True, it filled my eyes with tears, but also fills my heart with the joy of the Lord!


I'd like to share that story with you, its been followed and updated on several websites, please visit these websites often to see how you can pray for this family.

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/

http://theaddyouthpastor.blogspot.com/

http://nagsheader.blogspot.com/