what can i say?

our bed is comfy. our constant battle with glory has been getting her out of our bed and into her bassinet. after her spending the past week or so with me in bed all night, it dawned on me that if i put one of my regular nightgowns in the bassinet with her, she might sleep in there and feel like shes with me.

SO... its one a.m., glory has been in the bassinet ASLEEP since eleven (personal record) but Elias is camped out with us... wide awake with a ferocious stomach virus. poor guy... this is his second time in a month with this nasty virus going around our community.

pray for miraculous germ control and kids who love to cuddle.

Shame on me.

I've been a bad blogger! The thing is... I actually have a lot I've been wanting to say & just no time! So here are a few quick updates.

- We're just realizing that Glory is lactose intolerant. Ughhhh. I am so glad this little girl is such a good eater, but I'm having a hard time staying away from the dairy. Thankfully - I love the taste of soy milk & God is hilariously good because we just got 2 jugs of CHOCOLATE soy milk donated today. We've never had that before:)
- Elias is doing sooooo good. We just signed him up for a toddler gym class at the Y, so I'm sure hilarious stories will come. Also, in an effort to teach him to say "mama" (he used to say it all the time, then just switched to daddy for everything) - we've confused him and he thinks "mama" means please. You can imagine...
- We've got a new girl at the house! Allison is her name and she seems awesome. I'm so excited to see what God is going to do in her life & ours through her time here.
- My favorite new websites are www.coolmompicks.com & www.fabric.com. I could stay on them all day! Last week I jumped back into sewing but I've been doing it all by hand... this week my goal is to break out the sewing machine and my end goal is to make new nursery bedding for the kids using some sweet new fabric.
- Today was my first day leaving the house by myself. Seriously? Is that a joke? Six weeks and I haven't been by myself for one minute... surprisingly, I also haven't minded. Working out has been the only hard part but I've been pushing Elias & Glory in our double stroller around the gym track while Nick works out on Mon, Wed, & Fri. but I haven't had time to do my killer-circuit-weight-routine from when Kal & I worked out with Regi. Today I finally pumped Glory full of milk, threw Elias in the crib for a nap, wished Nick luck and raced to the gym. It was awesome and she was still asleep when I got back:).

Lastly... here are a couple of big spiritual issues I'd like to blog about when I have time: the spirit of adoption. It's so interesting to me that even though New Beginnings girls typically parent, all of ours are placing for adoption right now. Is God doing something special in them, in us, in the ministry, in this city? I at least want to pay attention to what the spirit of adoption looks like for us in Christ.

being a "creative counterpart". My sweet new friend Marilee loaned me this awesome book about being a wife/mother and the whole thing is challenging me to rethink the monotony of being a housewife or just a mom. God is challenging me to consider what a joy & great honor it is to shape my husband and families lives...

lastly... craving the Lord. Having a six week old babe, a 14 month old, a husband, and a house full of preggos leaves me wanting more & more of Him. I have to say - it's the best craving ever.


.... it's atleast way more comfortable than craving Mac & Cheese like I have been for the past 48 hours. Stupid lactose intolerance:)

ha ha ha haha ha....

I am thoroughly pleased with myself. Our assistant anf good friend, Lauren, has a small problem keeping up with her cell phone. She had recently lost it for a matter of weeks & it was quite frustrating to not be able to reach her. Just yesterday she got a new one in the mail and we all breathed a massive sigh of relief.

Imagine my surprise when today I found she had gone out for an errand and LEFT IT HERE. We were all amused watching Lauren scurry around the house completing the scavenger hunt I set up for her to find her phone. Teeeee heeeee.

update!

MIRACULOUS UPDATE! Katie is getting sent home on strict bedrest. This is awesome for her & for baby because it means the doctors feel confident shes not going into labor in the immediate future. For her enjoyment and reference & for my entertainment, I will list my fantasy bedrest list:
- Ellen, Oprah, & The View (need I say more)
- reading till my eyes fall off
- bragging rights for the most miserable pregnancy:)
- soap operas
- sleeeeeeeeeeping
- soduko & crossword puzzles
- scrapbooking
- quilting
- did I say Oprah?

congrats K love, I am so proud of you for keeping your cervix closed.

dissapointed... worried... excited.

My sister Katie, aka Ruby, is one of the greatest sources of joy and stress in my life. No woman knows me better & I am pretty sure there is no one who likes me as much. Its a ridiculous blessing because I am in awe of her and all God has made her to be & she somehow has this truly warped positive image of me. However, I have this intense worry problem with her.... I trust God to take care of her, but I feel this fervent desire to wrap her fragile body in bubble wrap and carry her thru life. God is constantly reeling me back in, reminding me that she is a mighty warrior who is competent to stand on her own & He is before her and behind her - taking better care than I could ever imagine.

So last night when I got the call that her water had broken ten weeks early, my heart went into sister-preservation mode. I started researching the internet and looking for flights back east so I could be by her side. I finally got a few minutes to talk to her this afternoon and I was in awe of her strength as a mommy... she is making every wise decision and trusting infinitely in the one who is able.

So please do pray for her & my tiny little nephew. Pray he will have patience in the womb and that she will have patience in the hospital on bedrest. But while youre praying, praise Him for her strength and their story to come because He is more than able to preserve them both and she is more than capable in Christ to flourish through this trial. Shes my sister-hero.

my little roaring lamb

In the past three weeks, two days, and ten hours - our little lamb has grown into a mighty fine baby. She's certainly gone from docile newborn to fierce little lady. As I type, Nick and I are passing our little bundle back and forth - she's in one of her pissy moods & we're feeling a little like pawns in her infantile chess game of life.

I've been thinking a good deal about her over the last four days or so. Somewhere around Thursday, she started looking just really beautiful & almost enchanting to me. I think most of that phenomenon is due to the fact that she's growing out of her little baby-face & growing into her little-girl-face. Where everything on Elias is thick like porkchop limbs, all of Glory's body parts are long, slender, & lean. When she's awake, every few minutes, she stretches her arms & legs erect in front of her - taunting me with her skinny little body - reminding me that one day I'll sit at home terrified that some man other than her daddy is noticing her tiny dancer body.

But also, I know partly she is looking so beautiful to me because my heart is finally able to be vulnerable with her. I was so scared of her, of being hurt by her. Since we first heard about the possibility of Trisomy, my brain just switched to tactical and pragmatic - my emotion and deep love for her only came to the surface for a brief moment when she was born. I remember looking past my sister, into Glory's face, while I was still being operated on - and saying over and over again "she looks like me! she looks like me!". But then for weeks afterwards, I couldn't see it. Just last week I was able to see it again - she has my ugly sleeping habits, my same fussy face, & every once in a while I really feel like I'm looking back at myself. In so many ways, she makes me appreciate my own awkward smiles & silly grins - just because they are so breathtaking on her.

So today we got some test results back from a recent brain ultrasound she had, and it's been confirmed that she has mild hydrocephalus. It's nothing tragic and it isn't at all life-threatening - worst case scenario she'll need to have surgery to have a shunt installed to drain the fluid from her brain. Even still - sitting on the stairs this morning, on the phone with the pediatrician, I felt that desperate crazy love for her welling inside of me. I was angry, angry, angry with the Lord for a few minutes until my sister called with a good word. She was praising God for a whole other situation and telling me that He is ABLE, and when I finally broke down and told her what was going on - she encouraged that crazy desperate love in me, reassuring me that Glory needs me to love her that crazy way. She needs her momma to fight for her in prayer & in life.

So tonight I'm thankful for my little lamb, my beefy hunky son, and the intense scary love that God put in me to be their momma. They & their Daddy hold my heart and that is vulnerable and uncomfortable but it teaches me to rely on Jesus & it teaches me how big His love is for me.

So....

I'm feeling a little sentimental. Today is a special, extremely special day for FOUR dear people in my life. On the East Coast, Leigh Hood & Gray Ladd are getting married and here in Puyallup - Jimmy & Faythe will be united. Let's start with one couple at a time:).

While she is now so much more - I met Leigh when she was a youth & I was her youth leader. I immediately loved her spunk and recognized that if I could get her to think I was cool, the rest of the Shandon Youth Group might follow. I'm not sure if the others ever caught on - but Leigh and I became almost mildly inseparable pretty quickly. During college, I'd spend a lot of nights at her house - watching Law & Order and talking baby talk to her bed, which is quite possibly the greatest bed in America. I grew to love her family, her spunk, her heart for Jesus, and her high-strung nature that made me laugh for hours. During the most type-A years of my life, knowing someone that was more intense than me was really helpful. The thing is - Leigh does EVERYTHING intense... this wedding, her Jesus, and loving others. I've learned a LOT from her and I'm dying not to be there.

When she told me her & Gray were dating - it all made perfect sense. He had helped lead her small group when she was in high school, so to some the age difference threw them off... but I totally understood. Only Gray can meet Leigh's intensity with extreme love & sensitivity. Only she can be so passionate to express to him what an amazing guy he is. From the minute they started dating, I was so glad to know they'd definitely get married - and their union is one that I intend on learning a good deal from.

I met Faythe when Nick and I were out here interviewing for this position. Debi, Miles, and all the Musicks were anticipating her visit greatly and so I knew she was something special. We only spoke a few words that day - but a few months later when I saw her for the second time, sitting at Debi's kitchen table, God spoke to my heart and told me that she really needed to be our assistant. I was back at my house next door, on the phone with my sister, when Debi walked in and I jokingly said, "So do you think Faythe would ever move in here and be our assistant?". Debi only looked mildly surprised when she replied..."That's exactly what she just told me she wants to do".

Over the past three months, I've come to grow intensely thankful for this couple. Faythe - with her passionate heart for Jesus and people, and Jimmy - quite possibly the nicest man alive. My favorite memories with them include laughing at our girls, watching them dance together, Jimmy coming over every morning and making Faythe get dressed, Jimmy telling us that we didn't know anything about dance & he really did, Faythe explaining to me what a true 'wanker' is & the first time I called Jimmy one. Tonight at the wedding, the memories only expanded: First, they walked out of their ceremony to a DC talk song. Then, as I was dancing with Faythe at the reception - she quietly informed me that Jimmy had asked her to meet him in the restroom. I love it.

Anyhoo - I'm so thankful for these four people. The world is richer for having them, my life is better for knowing them, & the Kingdom is advance because of their obedience.