Mommy Moments: A child who begs to change diapers?!

~Mommy Moments~
Moments that are the essence of motherhood

My 4 1/2 year old daughter sees me changing her siblings' diapers at least a dozen times a day. And I always try to make diaper changes a sweet time. I know you're thinking, it's poo and pee, how can it be sweet? Well it's not about the poo and pee, it's about the one on one face time opportunity. Not that I'm not cooing in my kids' face acting like a silly goose at other times of the day... ;) It's just that it kind of takes the ick out of diaper changes if I'm distracted by kissing little toes and tickling little tummies and kissing little cheeks while I do it. So I've made it a habit to be so distracted- but don't give me too much credit here. I didn't really do it conciously, but I've just always loved the specialness that makes up for the ick and somehow wound up with this really handy habit of being so busy loving on, praising, singing to, and being silly with my babies.
My 4 1/2 year old Chicklet was no exception herself, in fact her diapers were the start of it. I would play "this little piggy" on one foot when I first put her on the changing table, then after changing her while singing some silly song, I would blow raspberries on her belly before snapping her onesie up and finishing off with a round of kisses on her chubby little cheeks and "this little piggy" on the other foot.
Well apparently in doing this I must have somehow made changing diapers look like a FUN and COVETED experience!!!! LOL!!!!! Because Chicklet began begging me to let her change the baby's diaper a few months ago. I made sure to only let her change wet ones- scared of the disaster that could happen if I were to let her change a #2. I also like to avoid letting her change her brother's diaper just because, well, he's a boy and they're pretty close in age. Not that she thinks anything of the difference, being only 4 1/2, but I think it just makes ME feel weird for her to be changing his diaper when they're so close in age, like it might be something he'd be embarrassed about when he gets older and finds out his only-2-years-older sister changed his diaper as a kid. Might be kinda awkward, KWIM? I haven't made a big deal about it and try to not act like I'm specifically keeping her from changing HIS diapers because I don't want it to be an issue in her mind. So when she asks to change a diaper I sort of reluctantly taught her how to change Babykins' diapers and sometimes allow her to change the wet ones with supervision. She BEGS me all the time to please let her change a diaper, and even CRIED over it one afternoon when I changed the baby for nap without asking her if she wanted to do it.


At the beginning of this week I asked Chicklet if she could think of ways that people tell each other they love them without using words. She looked confused. I told her that when I pet her hair or rub her back I'm telling her I love her without words. She was confused for a minute before a big grin took over her sweet little face and she ran up to me to hug me, saying, "We can say love with HUGS!" A moment later she added, "And KISSES!" I asked if she could think of anything else and she giggled and tickled me, saying, "Yep! Tickles too!"
Thursday morning I was reading my Bible and having prayer time. I had just changed Bug's diaper and given the kids a sippy and a cheese stick in bed to tide them over until I finished my prayer time. My computer is pretty much right outside of their bedroom so I hear everything that goes on and I heard it loud and clear when a short time later Bug hollered out that he messed his diaper. I answered back that I'm almost done my God-time and I'll change him in a minute. Well I'd just finished my prayers when I heard the timer buzz and the toddlers charged out of the bedroom like a herd of stampeding... toddlers. I opened my mouth to verbally direct my little dude to the changing table for a fix on that poo diap but before I could say a word, my daughter says to me, "Mommy, I changed brother's poopy diaper!"
Mommy about had a panic attack. I wondered how much poo was smeared where and opened my mouth to scold her for changing a diaper without supervision, and she KNOWS she only changes wet ones, and HOW MUCH POOP is smeared wherever she changed him, and...
But she again cut me off before I could say anything.

"I did it because I love him."

I froze and tears welled up in my eyes. I was about to chew her out and it's a good thing she unknowingly put me in my place before I did. Wow. Just wow.
Sometimes as parents we worry if we're doing it right, doing enough, doing too much... We hope we're not screwing them up. We pray that God will cover the areas we lack in with His grace. And then there are moments like this when we're just so humbled and amazed and honored to be given this task of raising these little souls.
I'm praising God for these little blessings- especially a certain daughter who knows that love is more than words. ~♥~

Spiritual Warfare

I was in the woods. There were dark skeleton trees surrounding me. The sun peeking through the branches even seemed dim. And there was something up there... in the trees...

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
So many things have happened since Thanksgiving and I wish I could say they were all good. Actually something pretty bad happened to some of my family recently. Not my immediate, hubby and kids, family. I can't tell you who it is and I can't tell you what it was, until it's all sorted out, but it's very much not good.

Before that, we had a brush with identitiy theft, but God caused my hubby to check his bank account almost as soon as the charges were made and despite the bank doing their best to make a nightmare of it, we were not out any money and the inconveniences from the whole thing are fairly minor in retrospect. I do hope they catch the selfish individual who did it. This person went online and ordered a ton of expensive novelty items from a goth store called Hot Topic. I pray that even if the police never catch this thief, that they will be overwhelmed with guilt until they repent and find something more honorable to do with their time and talents.
And before that we were all sick at some point or another for about 2 months. Some of us... *ahem* Some of us were sick for a week once, and some of us were sick for the whole 2 months.

And I had a dream that I was in the woods. The trees were naked and still and the dim sun peeking through the branches didn't warm the atmosphere. There was something up there. Something in the trees. Some sort of larger predatory bird. Many of them, sitting up in the trees, camoflaged, waiting. Waiting to swoop down and pick at the weak. At the first sign of weakness. Just waiting for a chance...

And that's when I knew that all these things that were happeneing were not coincidence. We were under spiritual attack. Some of my family, not my immediate family, still is. But when I had that dream it prompted me to get back on track in my prayer and Bible reading. I've spent nearly an hour every morning reading and praying lately, and I'm ashamed to say that's the most I've ever spent in my life on a regular basis with God. I was close to God as a small child, and by the time I had the self-government to have a specific time with God, I was a struggling teenager wrapped up in my struggles instead of dedicating time to God. I've come to be closer to Him again only since having kids and those of you who are mamas of only littles know that it's hard to get longer than 20 seconds without interruption to do anything. Many of us don't even get to go to the bathroom alone. My usual Bible readings were as many verses as I could get in on the internet before the next kid crisis, and short one liner prayers throughout the day, and finally I would try to pray as I lay exhausted in bed at night and wind up falling asleep a sentence or two into it. But as I determined to have this Sweet Hour Of Prayer every morning, God has allowed the teething (and usually crying) baby, to either sleep in late, or be happy in the Jumperoo while I read. The toddlers make it very difficult but as long as I get after them consistently, it is doable. I fill cups, change Bug's diaper, and bring them breakfast in bed. Then I set the timer for an hour and put it up on their shelf and they are allowed to get out of bed to get a toy to take back to bed, but they must stay, eat, and play on their beds until the timer dings. I make sure that they know this is because Mommy needs some special time with Jesus every morning, and because they know I'm doing this, they often beg me to read the Bible to them after the timer dings and they are allowed to get up.

If you feel that you or your family is under spiritual attack, I strongly encourage you to start or reinstate your own Sweet Hour Of Prayer! Perhaps if you already pray in the morning alone, you may wish to add a Bible and prayer time in the afternoon with your kids or before bed with your husband. Perhaps a prayer group online or with some other couple or some of your close friends. You will have to pray that God will help you to set this time aside for Him, and that He will show you what hour in your day is the one that you will have the least distrtactions. If you are not sure what to read or pray or where to start, I suggest that you just start at the beginning of the New Testament and read a chapter, slowly, letting it sink in, before beginning to pray. Thank God for His provision, for His love, for whatever you hold dear, and then cast all your burdens on Him and let go of them, in faith that He will work everything out for good to those who love Him. A chapter a day and if you feel you have more to glean from it, you can read the same chapter several days in a row until you feel that it has sunk in enough to move on to the next. When you have finished the New Testament, start over, this time at the beginning of Genesis, and you will be amazed how much more meaning the OT has when you are looking at it and thinking "So THAT's why/where/who/what/when..." after reading the NT. If you are having trouble knowing what or how to pray, I recommend purchasing one or more "Powere of a Praying ___" books by Stormie Omartian. I have The Power of a Praying Wife and The Power of a Praying Parent and I use one of the prayers in each as a springboard for my prayers for my family every day. I have gone through both of them several times over and will continue to do so as they are very good ways to launch a prayer for a specific person for a specific need in their life. A great couple's devotional is Night Light by James and Shirley Dobson- don't let the seeming simplisticness of the early questions throw you. It gets deep fast and some of the discussion questions are HARD to actually talk about!

"Keepers at Home"

Before you read the rest of this you should go read THIS POST because my post here is in agreement with that one and reading that one first will compliment and clarify what I'm talking about here.

I think that in the Bible in Titus 2, the phrase "keepers at home," the part that people aren't tracking with is not the HOME part. It's pretty much agreed that the meaning of that is that women need to make sure their house is kept up. I think it's the KEEPERS part that people don't understand... at least it was for me at one point. People see "keepers at home" and think "housekeeper" as in maid, servant, whose duty is to cook and clean and carry out orders. Well if that's all a woman's good for then count me out! Who would sign on for that? It sounds like some sort of mindless slave. The thing people can't see is that "keepers at home" doesn't mean a maid. It means a gatekeeper of the home. A guardian of the environment which we call home. Being a keeper at home is a high calling indeed. It's not a maid, it's so much more beautiful than that! The Keeping part means guiding, guarding, and tending. It doesn't mean merely cleaning. We are to guide our children as they learn and grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. We are to guard against bad things coming into our home- like a gatekeeper keeps the enemy out of the city, so we should keep the ultimate enemy from entering our homes. We are to guard our home environment and our children from evil influences. And we are to tend our family like a gardener tends his vegetables. We are to nurture and encourage our little sprouts, and fertilize our relationships, prune out bad attitudes/clutter/anything that chokes the life out of a family like weeds, and cultivate good soil for a family to grow and thrive in by blessing our families with our attitudes and the work of our hands. The work of a keeper at home is not mindless servitude. It's an exciting and challenging daily adventure, a challenge to guard and bless those that we love. Being a keeper at home would seem to me to be more focused on being a spiritual thing, and is not just a physical do-the-dishes thing. Of course having a tidy house and dinner planned out will improve the spiritual atmosphere of the home, but that's not the whole package. It's just the icing on the cake.

Cancer

God is bigger than cancer. I remember when I was little, 9 maybe, and my sister who was 3 years younger would wake up screaming in the middle of the night that her legs hurt. She said it felt like little men picking at her bones. It scared me when this happened. It started happening alot. She was diagnosed with leukemia. My parents opted to go a natural route (and lots of prayer of course!) rather than chemo and my sis was cured and is now a healthy 23 year old mother of 2. When my sis was first diagnosed with cancer my mother had all of us tested. My mom had ulcerative colitis and was bedridden all winter every year. Turns out she had pancreatic cancer as well. I used to get these weird shooting headaches that felt like searing hot lightning shooting up the back of my neck and skull. Turns out I had a sarcoma of the brain. It's a good thing mom wanted us all tested. My dad and little brother were fine. Well my mom and I were healed like my sister was and live to tell the tale. We could have easily all lost the battle or it could have been overlooked until it was too late.
Now my mother has cancer again. She has breast cancer and has been fighting it for about 8 years. The thing I have to remind myself of when thinking about my mom dying and what if my sister's cancer comes back or mine does or my children get cancer... I remind myself that God is bigger than cancer. If He wants to take my mother home then I can't do anything about it and no doctor or treatment in the world can either. And if he wants her to be healed then the fact that she has a hole eaten out of her chest by cancer and tumors all over inside her does not matter. GOD is BIGGER than cancer. God can take my mother and make her whole and new again. Or he can take her HOME to heaven where she will never cry, never be afraid, never be in pain again. She will bask in Jesus' love and live forever whole and healed in paradise.
I'm not going to lie to you. It's not OKAY with me if God takes my mom home. I won't be okay and I definately will have some serious issues with accepting it. In my mind He needs to heal her HERE and NOW. I need her. We all need her. I want my children to know Grammie. I want them to remember her. I want to spend many more happy Christmases with her. I don't want to lose her and when I think about that possibility I have a hard time keeping myself together. If I'm still blogging when I lose someone dear to me, you're probably going to see a side of me you don't want to know. Or I will go missing because I'm too brokenhearted to blog. But I have to keep on reminding myself that God is bigger. God can heal her and if He does not then I need to remember that she is in paradise and that she IS healed. It may not be the healing we all want, but we all die someday, and when we do, if we have a personal relationship with our creator, then we will live forever in heaven with no more tears and no more pain. And I WILL see her again, someday my own children will meet her, and we will all be together celebrating CHRISTmas for eternity.
Only God knows the future. In the meantime, I will continue to ask God for a miracle, for an earthly healing for my mother. Because God is bigger than cancer, and He can do anything.

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

I am a tad bit busy this afternoon and also a wee bit short on inspiration due to being up with kiddos all night and feeling quite tired. So I hope you will forgive me, instead of writing a new post right now I'm just going to refer you to a post from one of my other blogs for your daily dose of fresh reading material. ;)


Some believe that once you're 'saved' you're saved no matter what you do afterward. I just read a comment on another blog that said the person didn't get, "...how Jesus would allow someone who committed unthinkable crime and denied Him all their life, get into heaven JUST for saying a simple prayer when he was 8." Well I agree- that pretty much sums up why I don't believe the once-saved, always-saved philosophy. But on the opposite end of the spectrum I don't believe that God yanks your name out of the Book of Life every time you make a mistake and you have to say the sinners prayer again to get put back on the nice list. I also don't believe loss of salvation has anything to do with you getting snached away from God, but that you leave Him of your own accord. So here's what I get out of my Bible on the subject;
Saying a prayer in and of itself will not get you to heaven. Good works will not get you to heaven. For by FAITH through grace we are saved, not by WORKS lest any man should boast. That means just being a good person won't get you to heaven. Why? Because ALL people have sinned. Every one. The wages of sin is death - that means any sin - but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus. The wages of robbing a bank is death. The wages of murdering is death. The wage of thinking a lustful thought is death. The wage of sassing your mama is death. All sin is sin. Sin cannot enter heaven because God is holy and sin cannot be in heaven with the holy God. So if you sin, even an eensy weensie bit, you cannot go to heaven. And obviously everyone on this earth has sinned at some point whether they realize it or not. So the only way to heaven is to have Someone pay your way in for you, since the price of a ticket to Paradise is one pure and blameless, sinless human life. And there is only One who can pay that price for you - Jesus. So you have to believe that Jesus is who He says He is because if He's not, then He can't afford your ticket either.
And if you truely believe that Jesus is Who He says He is, then you will want to please Him. You will be thankful for him paying the price you could never pay so you could get into heaven.
Say you're waiting at the gates of the Superduperbowl, and the tickets are so expensive that there's only one man on the planet rich enough to buy tickets- the only son of the owner of the Superduperbowl arena. If you try to go through the gates without a ticket, you would be arrested. So say someone comes up to you and offers to pay for your ticket. He says he's the son, the only man on earth who can afford your ticket and he wants to pay for your way in. You won't accept the gift if you don't believe he is who he says he is, right? You would mock him and laugh and say, "Hey no way dude, I have a plan to sneak in or bribe or beg or whatever because you can't possibly be THE SON! Haha! You're probably just trying to make me look like a fool!" But if you DO believe he is who he says he is, you would feel so grateful that he would do this for you asking nothing in return that you would make conversation with him, try to get to know him, try to please him, try to express to him somehow how very grateful you are! You would want to tell everyone you met about how wonderful this son is! You would want your friends to get into the game with you! You would be so happy and excited! You would not leave his side and if you did, if you stumbled or forgot yourself and acted like an ingrate or were rude to him, you would apologize, ask forgiveness, and keep trying to do better, thankful all the way that he did not go back on his offer every time you messed up!
Now lets try a different hypothetical. Let's say you didn't really believe he was the one he said he was, but you pretended to. You might have even convinced yourself at the moment that he was the one, but then you got to doubting and overthinking it and decided to go your own way. Or you did believe at first but then decided that making nice was too much trouble, you'd rather go off with your friends and do what makes you feel good and hang out with people who like to bash the son with words and actions. If you are not with HIM at the gate because after accepting his offer you decided to go your own way, how can he pay for your ticket? He can't! You left him! Or what if someone tells you he can pay your way but they are not the son. Maybe they claim to be, maybe they claim to be someone else of power who can get you through the gate. Well no matter how much you believe in them, how good and nice you are, and how far you follow them, if they can't pay the price of one sinless, 100% pure human life for your ticket, then you're not getting in that gate.
Does that make sense? If you believe in Jesus, you will want to do what is right to please Him. If you fall he's not going to change His mind and leave you there alone of course. He'll hold out His hand to you to help you back up. But if you decide to stay on the ground and not get up, or go your own way, or follow someone who cannot pay the price, then you're not going to be able to get in that gate! The sinner's prayer isn't a wristband for the county fair. The event IS HEAVEN; the *journey* there isn't what we're buying a ticket for! The journey is for getting to know the One who is paying our way. Because if you don't know Him by the time you get to the gate, you won't have a ticket.

Footprints in the sand of my life...

A post over on Pixel Perfect gave me the inspiration to write this post. :)

Signposts along the path of my life which I have left as a rememberance of the Blessings and guidance God has given to me!

When I was just a little baby in my mother's womb, I was dying. When I was born they didn't know if I would live. My mom had had blood transfusions previously that did not match her blood. When she was pregnant with me (and 5.5 years later my brother as well), her blood was trying to kill me. Somehow though I did not die. I lived and thrived!

About 5 months before this, in a different state, a baby boy was born very prematurely. The doctors and parents didn't know if he would make it. He had a machine to breathe for him. It was a miracle that he did make it! And he lived and thrived.

I met that boy 13 years later and I soon knew that he was The One. It took him about 3 years longer to come to the same conclusion. ;) But that was 3 years I don't regret. While it was very difficult with all the doubt and rejection, it was 3 years I had to pray, to pour out my heart to God, and to sort out in my mind and heart what was important to me in life.

When I was 17 I was at youth group playing freeze tag in the church basement with the other youth and I tripped on something, likely my own feet, and fell into a window. My hand went through the glass, and then my head and shoulders. Time slowed down. I could hear the glas raining down around my ears. I was through the window to my waist and was about to fall all the way out when my right hand caught the wall at the edge of the window. This was a big window and I should not have been able to reach the edge of it, let alone push back with enough force to push myself back into the church. But somehow the wall was suddenly closer, I was suddenly stronger. And I pushed myself back into the room. I felt myself falling straight backwards. I was surrounded by a bright light, it was all I could see. This comforting glow all around me as I fell backward. I fought with everything in me to stay standing. I could not. I was too heavy. I was scared. Then I felt a giant warm hand on the back of my neck and shoulders, gently oh so gently. Someone said in my mind, more like a knowing than a hearing, "trust me." I paused in my fighting for a second, then as I realized I was still going backward I fought again. The calm voice said, "You are safe. Trust me! Trust me." So I let go. I totally let go. I stopped fighting. I let myself fall backward. Only I was no longer falling. I was being ever so gently layed down. So gently. I felt peaceful and safe. I felt the hand on the back of my neck and shoulders still there and it comforted me. Then I heard other voices. "Is she alive?" "She's not moving!" "I think she's unconcious!" "Somebody call 911! Call an ambulance NOW!" I began to mentally claw my way back and the light went out. The hand was gone. It was dark. I started trying to speak and it was a few eternity long seconds before I could. Finally I shouted, "NO AMBULANCE! No hospital, no ambulance. I'm fine!" But I was not fine... I couldn't see a thing. I pulled myself to sitting and I was blind. Everything was as if I had my eyes closed, only they were open. I hurt. My knee hurt. My left arm hurt. My head hurt. Everyone swarmed in on my all at once and I went nuts. I lost it. I yelled at them not to touch me and said I can't see. They ignored me and I freaked out and began lashing out with my fists at anyone nearby screaming to stop touching me. Finally after I punched my future husband's best friend in the stomach they got the picture and stopped crowding me. After a minute of being left alone, crouched on the floor like some wounded animal, I started regaining my vision. As soon as it came back I was calm. I looked down at my hurting leg and saw nothing, so I then looked at my arm and saw that my wrist was sliced open and bleeding, swelling around my watch. I calmly said, "Can somebody please help me get this watch off before it swells so much it cuts off my circulation?" The youth leader jumped into action and gently removed the watch while his mom got me a paper towel to catch the blood. I refused to go to the ER at first, but later, upon finding that my right knee was split open to the bone about 2 inches long I allowed myself to be taken to the ER. The phantom pains would torment me at night after that. In my knee it would feel like my leg was being sawed off. I would scream and my sister would wake up in the next room and bring me pain meds, bless her heart! A couple months later, after the stitches were out and I was able to walk on it more normally again, my sister and I were talking. I was feeling depressed and moody. Satan was whispering in my ear that God doesn't exist. He said that we are alone in this world. I had been wondering why years of prayer had not turned my man's heart to me yet, if I was imagining my strong feeling that he was The One. I thought maybe all my prayers were wasted. Maybe I'm crazy. I prayed silently, "Oh God! I'm doubting you! Please help me! Help my unbelief! Please don't strike me dead for this; Please show me that You are real!" This all happened during a conversation with my sister about something trivial like music. My mind turned to the accident and suddenly I remembered something I'd forgotten about completely until that moment. The Hand. The Voice. I asked my sister, "Hey, remember when I went through the window?" She said she remembered the horrible incident. I continued, "Well after I pulled back into the room somebody caught me and layed me down really gently. Who was it? I have completely forgotten it until now but whoever it was was a hero for thinking so fast to catch me! I really need to thank them!" She was silent for a moment and then said, "Uuuhhh... Um... There was nobody near you. I don't know what you think you remember but there was nobody near you. You bounced back into the room, bashed your head against the wall on the way, and then fell really hard, rolling."
It was then I knew without a doubt that God had not only not struck me dead for asking for a sign, but in His great mercy he had answered my question months before I asked. He had sent an angel to catch my falling soul gently while my physical body was injured. He took me out of that moment and whispered to me to TRUST HIM. And the echo of that came back to me when I asked Him if He is real. "You are safe. Trust me! Trust me." I KNOW God is real. I have felt His hands keeping me from harm and I have heard His voice whispering to me to trust Him. This has always been a great comfort to me when I feel Satan's lies pummeling me! When the evil one whispers in my ear that God is not real or does not care about individual people, I love when I remember the precious words God whispered into my soul that night.

At 18 years old, I was blessed by Mr. Right waking up to my existance! :) When I was 19 we married in May. We had both saved ourselves for marriage. Praise God! I walked down the aisle barefooted in a fairytale dress my mother made, in the spring by a lake outside. That will be 8 years ago this May... 8 wonderful blessed years!

We decided not to have children for a while at first. Then we decided due to the awfulness of the world we would not have children at all.

Then in January of 2006 I found out I was pregnant. And so on September 17th, 2006, a beautiful baby girl was miraculously born to two people who should not have survived from their own births and did not plan to have children at all.

In July of 2007 I had a miscarriage. It was a very dark time in my life. God sent me the support I needed to be able to finally greive and heal. And in November I conceived our dear Bug! The pregnancy was full of scares, so many times I thought something bad was happening, but it did not and he was born in August of 2008.

1 week before the birth of little Buggie, was the culmination of another miracle. The purchase of our first house!

So here I am, in a miracle house, living a miracle life with a miracle of a husband two miracle children. (And probably a miracle computer since it's tried to croak on me about 100 times already and somehow keeps hanging on.) I sometimes get discouraged, sometimes I despair. It's so hard to see the sun (Son) when you're in the dark valleys, isn't it? But He keeps bringing me up the mountains to see the beautiful view of the tapestry of my family's lives. If I just hang on a little longer through the valley, there's the mountain on the other side and at the top is the overwhelming peace of His presence. At the top, I can see the miracles behind me, a trail of them, like a patchwork ribbon of joys and sorrows, beautiful contrasts that I can only understand afterward- some on the mountains and some not until Mt. Zion.

~
Praise be to God on High! You oh Lord have faithfully brought me through the trials, even when I have drug my feet and resented You! Even when I have doubted! You have been ever patient with me and I thank you Lord from the depths of my soul! I want to be useable by You as You have used others to help me on my journey! Please use me, flawed though I am. Use me to show others Your amazing love and faithfulness to those who love You! Amen!
~

May they sing of the ways of the Lord

(not my photo)

How precious to me are Your thoughts oh God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.
-Psalm 139:17&18

Search me, oh God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the Way everlasting!
-Psalm 139:23&24

May all the kings of the earth praise You, oh Lord, when they hear the words of Your mouth.
May they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great!
-Psalm 138:4&5

Reminiscing Blessings

What a beautiful day it is today! Not too hot and not chilly! A lovely Sunday indeed. As I sit here thinking about my amazing God and the amazing things He's done for me, I am looking around at my miracle house. "A miracle house" you say? Why yes, a miracle house. :)
You see, it is not only miraculous that we were able to buy a house at all, but that we were able to buy such a nice house, with such a big yard, right when the economy was collapsing and banks were not wanting to give loans. It's miracle that the seller went down in price drastically for us when they had other offers. And it's a miracle that we were able to move into a bigger home JUST in time for baby Bug to be born. We literally moved in one week before he was born! :)
Here we are in the house, taking pictures to email to my parents to ask their opinion on putting an offer in:

I was so pregnant and roasting in the summer heat in that picture! And my little Chicklet was 1 3/4. It was only a little over a year ago and how time has flown! Yes, she is wearing socks under her sandals in the pic! ;) The yard needs alot of work, it's just dirt with thorns growing and no real grass. So I had her wear socks to protect her feet and so we could just take them off when we got back in the car to go home.

It's such a lovely house. All the open doorways are arched and the whole house is painted this light beige color inside. It's very open and bright with lots of windows. We had been looking for a house to buy since my husband got out of the military in 2005. Every time we found one we liked it was either too much or the offer was rejected. This one was way out of our league and we knew it. But after prayers and thoughts and discussions and advice... we offered. We had a set price that was the max we were able to afford and we were not going to stretch ourselves over that amount no matter what. It would be tempting if we thought we could get a house to go over our budget but that would wind up being horrible on us financially in the long run. I could just imagine us going bankrupt. So we agreed on our limit and promised each other and God that we were not going over it. We knew that God knew what we could afford and if the seller would not take it it was not for us. So the seller countered back higher, we countered back at our max price and they rejected. They expected a counter back again but we couldn't do it. That was all we had. Another dissappointment. Another fallthrough. BUT we were at peace because we knew if it had been God's will we would have gotten it. So my husband stopped by the real estate office on his way home from work to sign the rejection and end our involvement. And as he was pulling out of the parking lot, his phone rang. It was our agent. The seller had changed their mind!!!! They asked us to resubmit our last offer and they would accept it this time and that's how God worked to get us this house that was listed at $20,000 above our limit.
That can only be a God thing. There is so much more to the story, so many more little miracles along the way, but I don't have time to type them all up so I will just leave it at this, and go to bed with a smile tonight thinking of how God has provided this house for us and how VERY THANKFUL I am to Him for it! :)