Wordless Wednesday: Evidence of Patience

Not a peep of complaint, sitting still on the bathroom counter.

“Cheeeeeeese”

P.S. Daddy, Rachael and I had a great laugh and enjoyment in the crimped Afro the child had when we took the braids out before bed. Running about the room only added volume. =D

August 8, 2012 0

Little Guy

We had a little guy for respite the past nine days (thanks, Matt, for the math). I can’t give out a whole lot of details about him, but I can tell you that he was tiny enough to utilize all of Hannah’s “new baby” things and sleep for the majority of the day and night (bonus!).

We weren’t given more than a handful of sentences of vague instructions on him so Matt and I studied him to figure him out. Since we weren’t given a general bedtime for him, the first few nights were very trial and error oriented. But we eventually fell into a “normal” routine with him.

The girls adored Little Guy, enjoying his “real life doll” qualities and returning him when their attention spans moved on. “Where baby go?” was a common phrase from Abi as she suddenly came to the reality throughout the day that she hadn’t checked on Little Guy recently.

She was always ready to hold him,

never turning down a single offer.

Look at her little Mommying. =) She was so preciously gentle with him.

Little Guy just snuggled right into our family and provided (Matt and I joked) “training wheels” for our soon-to-be addition of Hannah. I even got to play with cloth diapering Little Guy when he ran out of disposables a day and a half early of his pick-up date.

Little Guy… I don’t know if we’ll ever get a chance to meet you again. But I won’t forget your snuggles. And the way you scaled my shoulder, from the outside in, a few days after you met me until you were comfortably nuzzled in my neck. Thank you for trusting me.

Trust may not come easily to you. Most babies your age are more entertained by faces, studying them and wanting to interact with them. It took you a while to watch my face for more than a glance-by. You studied objects and flocked to fluorescent lights. Maybe faces were too inconsistent for you. Maybe you were guarding yourself. Maybe the lights reminded you of the NICU. Who knows. But thank you for getting to the point of studying my face for a few minutes by the end of your stay. Your eyes spoke volumes.

Precious boy, if I can leave you with nothing else, I want to leave you with the hope you listened to me singing with the congregation on Sunday morning. With your ear to my heart you heard:

” How sweet to hold a newborn baby;

And feel the pride, and joy he brings;

But greater still the calm assurance,

This child can face uncertain days because He lives.

Because He lives (you) can face tomorrow;

Because He lives all fear is gone;

Because I know He holds the future,

And life is worth the living just because He lives.”

(“Because He Lives” by Gloria & William Gaither copy write 1971)

And

“I need no other argument, I need no other plea;

It is enough that Jesus died,

And that He died for me.”

(“My Faith has Found a Resting Place” by Lidie Edmunds & William Kirkpatrick to a Norwegian Folk Melody.)

I sang these over you throughout the week. And I prayed over you that you would one day see that despite the pain and loss and uncertainty, Jesus is more than enough. No other argument than Jesus is needed in this world and because of His hope, tomorrow is able to be faced.

Thank you for the opportunity to love you, sweet Little Guy, and if we never meet again, I take comfort in my prayers and my family’s prayers for you not falling on deaf ears.

I loved you like my own, Little Guy, even if we only had you for a week.

How you blessed us.

– Thank you, Jesus.

August 2, 2012 0

Wordless Wednesday: Elephants

Elephants for lunch. =)

August 1, 2012 0

The Joy of Financial Responsibility’s Accomplishment

I sent this email to my sister this morning and I just wanted to share it with you all over here too because it really makes me happy.

God has blessed us with our financial situation and the ability to stay afloat through good budgeting (even with some mistakes) so that I can stay at home to raise our two (almost three) girls. Along with choosing the budget and for me to stay home, comes gradual financial decisions and less of the “eggs all in one basket” whims. While the later method sounds foolish, there are some cases (like purchasing a vehicle) where “eggs all in one basket” is really the only choice.

One way to “cut back” and be more financially responsible in our spending has been to cloth diaper over disposable diapers. One helper of that decision has been Abi’s skin sensitivity, but another has been the obvious money saver.

I must confess, I have been slightly jealous of those with duel income or at least a greater nest egg that have been able to make the cloth diaper switch all at once, purchasing their whole stash in one big chunk of a withdrawal.

But the reality has been for us that the slower building of our stash and adjusting our stash method has been the piece by piece and most responsible approach for us.

This may not sound like too much of a sacrifice until you see the behind the scenes of that picture. Adding 1-4 diapers per month to get to a 3 day washing schedule for Abi and build our stash for a newborn has involved hours of research, trial/error, craigslist hopefuls and failures, waiting on 3 week difference international postage, and much strategy of mine and the girls’ allowance money over an eight month period.

That being said, I give you my email to my sis this morning and share with you my domestic joy:

“So I’m dorkily excited because my last shipment of cloth diapers came in today. I got 6 more. I have been slowly picking at adding cloth diapers to our stash for the last, seriously, EIGHT months and we finally have a full stash from birth to potty training. I’m SO EXCITED to no longer be looking at, sewing, altering, and fussing with cloth diapers to build up our stash. As it is our newbie baby stash has me washing every 2 days, for the 3month to 18 month phase I’ll be washing every 2-2.5 days and for the 18month plus phase I’ll be washing every 3 days. YAY! This just gives me a REALITY washing experience (cause washing daily is not on my agenda along with managing 3 kids/nursing/house work/wifehood/outside of our house ministry oh yeah and eating, breathing and sleeping).

So as I wash the “fresh from the factory” 6 diapers, adjust our diaper bins to fit our new diapers in, and settle into the new washing machine routine just know that this domestic-happy me is smiling…. big time.

And after next month’s allowance money spend on 3 wetbags (one for Hannah’s diaper bag [since Sundays/Wednesdays Abi and Hannah will be separate and I’d like a “catch the dirty diaper and lock out the smell” bag for each], one for the living room changing table [new baby = CONSTANT changes] and one for the nursery changing table), I will happily put the cloth diaper thoughts aside and just coast through diapering 2 kiddos. [Sure some of these things are not needed, but there also is a “convenience” factor of diapering two kids 2 years apart that plays into my success on minimal hours of sleep. – Just being real.]

On our registry there are still 3 covers/prefold sets for the 3m-18m phase that could be quite helpful to add to our stash as night diapers (prefolds/covers are the only thing we’ve found that can hold a HUGE amount of pee and not leak all over the bed while the child does aerobics in the night), but nothing we couldn’t live without. So it’s possible that in the future I may purchase 2-3 more diapers, but it’s just nice to sort of close the door on the “building our stash to actually work for our lifestyle” phase and move on. =D

If we were Mr. and Mrs. Moneybanks, we would have dropped the money all at once (up to $300 – and that’s on the cheap side!), but that’s not the case with us, so purchasing primarily 1-2 cloth diapers from overseas and waiting out the 3 week difference between purchase and receiving we have done… for eight months. And now…. YAY! We’re done! YAY!

The washer never sounded so good.

– delighting in domesticity. ;)”

Our financial situation is really good due to my husband’s hard work and great budgeting. So please do not think for one minute that I am complaining or in any way feeling oppressed. We are blessed beyond belief to be able to sponsor two (soon to be three) World Vision kids as well as serve the Lord in many ways with our finances. I’m just happy to see the fruit of our budgeting coming to a close in the world of cloth diapering. =D

– Thanks for sharing in my joy. =)

July 19, 2012 0

Summer Water

This year as we pulled into the community sprinkler park (FREE!) Rachael and Abi started squealing from the back seat. A smile hit my face… maybe this year will be more interactive. A flashback of last year’s “we don’t do water” instantly looked brighter.

I had to do all I could to keep Abi from running across the street straight to the sprinklers. Rachael jumped in place, her patience and obedience displayed, while I got all our stuff from the car/applied sunblock. (Funny how much goes into a morning of water play.)

We circled the sprinkler pad a few times, soaking it all in. And then Abi let go of my hand and Ms. Assertive was off…

Rachael, Ms. Precautions, close behind her in a moment of boldness.

JUMP!

I love how no matter where we are, they just love playing together.

There also was a park attached to the sprinkler pad so we could dry off with joy on the slide. =)

This time Rachael was the assertive one.

But this one didn’t need a personal invitation. 😉

Ms. Big Sister took it upon her own initiative to make sure Abi’s first trip down the slide was fun and secure. (Precious to watch her care for her little sister.)