Happy Valentine's day!!

Last night my husband stayed up very late. When I woke up this morning, I saw the reason why! He had been hand making my card. Nothing means more to me than a gift straight from the heart!!Happy Valentine's Day!!  I sure do love my guys and am BLESSED every day by them!!

Inside

Front cover

Inside (can't turn it)

Dear Noah, you're 6?

I question this because it seems like time has gone so fast. I prayed for time to go by fast when you were a baby. You were colicky, refluxy, and just all around grumpy...all the time, 24 hours a day. I prayed so hard for that time period to go by quickly!!

Sleepy parents, crying baby

When you were a toddler, they diagnosed you with a severe language delay and put you in the autistic spectrum category. At one point you were having 3 different organizations visiting our home weekly, or twice a week, for speech therapy, play therapy, and a parent teacher educator through the school system. I prayed you through that time so you would just speak to us! I couldn't wait to hear the word, mama.

Play therapy outside

Terrible twos...I couldn't wait for you to listen and obey, and be potty trained! Wild spirit, into everything, and threw fits all the time!

Oh sweet Noah, those years were challenging but they seem like such a blink of an eye now! And I only have the sweetest thoughts of those years! And look at who you are today!

 

Let's talk matters of the heart....Yours is huge. You have compassion, understanding, and an encouraging spirit that is so amazing. Your teacher described you as "full of love and thankfulness....a shining light for Jesus!". Who's your superhero? Jesus!! He is taped to your door! You want to know all about Him, read your bible daily, listen to the bible on cd at night, and you know/memorize more scripture than Daddy and I combined. What are your life goals? You want to be a missionary, a medical one, so you can tell others about Jesus and be a dr. like Daddy. What is your greatest honor? Getting to pray for people especially in big crowds...like in front of the school at chapel or in front of all the AWANA kids at church. I'm not sure where you get that from, but you love praying and don't worry a thing about what other think....you just pray what's on your heart, and it is ALWAYS sweet!! You worry, you always want to do things right and stick by the rules. If you get into trouble, you HAVE to know you are still loved and forgiven or it tears you to pieces. You told me last night that you want me to kiss you goodnight every night forever, and I said I would until you moved away. You were disturbed, so I explained one day you will go away to college. You promised me you would never do that, and never leave me. I said "Deal!" we exchanged thumbs up. Promise me you'll quit growing up so fast, and I promise you I'll never pray time away again!! Love you, Noah.

 Happy birthday, my sweet baby!

Birthday cake did say "Happy birthday Noah!"

Birthday cake for breakfast is ALWAYS fun!

E-mazing!

The boys got some much needed fresh air and sunshine after a weekend of winter colds, ear infections, and croup. I'm not sure why I decided to be the music for this clip, once I realized how stupid I sounded...I stopped! They had an "e-mazing" time, to quote one of Nathan's favorite words.

Sunday Thankfulness

Just thought I would try to start mentioning some things that I am thankful for on Sundays from the past week...
1. Friends - I had a birthday on Tues. and I was just overwhelmed by kind words. I mean words that I feel like I can never live up to! Not only was I showered by kind words, but kind acts as well. A pamper session, yummy dessert, and just the sweetest gifts ever. This past week I really felt like God showed me how much he has blessed me with old friends, and new ones...with encouragement and with people who are willing to speak my love language. So thankful for all of that.
2. Peace - I am thankful for God's peace in circumstances that are beyond our control. I have a tendency to be anxious in all things and I feel like this week God taught me a powerful lesson about praying specifically for that anxiety and praying for peace. It was life changing. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6. I have this in my kitchen. I read it daily. But this week I realized that the first part is a command, "DO NOT be anxious" then pray. It's impossible to trust God when you are anxious. When the peace of God fills you, your perspective changes on all things.
3. My husband - I'm thankful for him always, but this week especially. I'm thankful that we are in this life thing together and that we can grow and learn as a team. There's nobody else I would rather do it with.
4. Our Sunday School Class - Eric and I teach the 4 yr old class and they are a hoot. It is challenging at times but so rewarding to be a part of their lives at this time. Some of the children come from rough families, some from amazing families...and I love them all. Here's a little list of the things they were thankful for today in class: "family, my shirt, you (ME!), poopy (really this brought a lot of laughs), spending time with Poppy after church outside, my girlfriend (again these are 4 yr olds), you (again, Me! melt my heart)." We have a lot of laughs and I'm thankful God put us in that class to serve Him. We would have never picked that role, but we are having fun learning.
I could go on, but I'll save some more for next Sunday! Thank you, God for the many sweet blessings this past week.

Sweet Monday

Yesterday I had the privilege to co-host our Ladies' ministry group called "Sweet Monday". http://www.sweetmonday.org/ Check out the website if you want to know more about the Sweet Monday tools and maybe consider starting one at your church!

I LOVE this group of women at our church and I give them credit for giving me the confidence to get out more and become more involved in church. I feel like my spiritual walk improved tremendously after the very first Sweet Monday I attended. I began to feel like it was ok to take chances, to make our little (sometimes fearful and OCD - haha!) family known to people and open our hearts to new opportunities and new friendships. I'm so grateful for the wisdom and insight the "more seasoned ladies" bring to the table, for the endless laughter, and for the sharpening all these women provide for me. I know that I don't speak much at these meetings, and often you'll find me near the back in the most unseen location I can find. But I ENJOY it, absorb it, and it fills my cup and speaks to my soul. So maybe these women don't realize how much they mean to me because I don't say it, so I was really excited to be able to co-host at our new house to SHOW them I loved them. I am grateful, humbled, and utterly in awe of my friend, April Scott, who took the main hosting duty and led our little group in activities and a lesson that was so profound, well, I'm pretty sure she's the only one who could do it such a phenomenal way. Sweet Mondays are "Women's Socials on a shoestring....tied to a generous God" and I feel like our lesson last night "tied" our whole lesson, Lavish Love, to the most important person in our life, Jesus. How great is that! It was a great lesson, I wish I would have videotaped it! Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed our night!

Playing games with a partner

Goodies

My mantle gave me OCD fits

April's Valentine pretzel yummies found on pinterest! Aren't they gorgeous!

Balancing pretzel yummies on our head to try to get them in our mouth!

Check out the concentration!

Lots of laughs made my heart happy

Car accidents, tornadoes, and C. diff - A week in Review

I feel like I may be able to write a country music song based on the title of this blog. But these are some of the major happenings that we have personally experienced over the past week.

Last Friday we were in a minor car accident. In the pictures in is very hard to see the damage to the truck, there's a reason for that. There's very little damage!! The car that rear ended us was TOTALED! Talk about angels providing protection over your vehicle! The boys were unharmed and I had a minor case of whiplash. My bible verse the morning of the accident was :"We prayed that he would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled" Ezra 8:21. Coincidence? I think not!! The devotional was talking about the importance of praying for you and your family as you travel. God answered in a mighty way.

As I mentioned in my last blog, Noah has been sick a lot. His strep would not go away so they put him on IV strength antibiotics to get rid of the strep. A few days after the car accident he started getting severe stomach pains and bloody diarrhea. Picture below is our return visit to the dr. I think this was the 6th visit in the past few weeks.

Please notice their hands. They are clasped on their laps. They do not want germs, I do not want germs or anymore return visits to the dr. This visit proved to be beneficial since he tested positive for C. diff bacterial infection in his stomach. This is a very serious infection that could make him very sick or even kill him. But, we caught it so quickly, started his medicine "without haste", his diarrhea stopped by the end of the day and the only complaint he has is occasional stomach pains. We are thankful it wasn't more serious and that he felt so much better so quickly...really it is almost a miracle. But God's in the business of doing that sort of thing.


The day after the C. Diff diagnosis our little community was hit with a very rare January tornado. Our weather radio went off and I checked the weather on my phone so we were able to get to the basement before the phones went dead and the power went out. It was very scary not knowing what was going on but I tried to keep it light to not let on to the boys that I was scared.

Here we are in the room in our basement that is completely underground. After 10 minutes of being in the pitch black, I remembered our emergency bin with all our flashlights and lanterns! Fun times with the lights out and lots of fancy flashlights!

There were about 50 homes that were severely damaged or destroyed during the tornado. Several homes as close as a mile to us were destroyed. Our neighborhood lost power and have several trees and other debris but for the most part we were completely untouched. We had a little wind damage to our porch roof, some downed trees (that were nowhere close to our house) and a trashy yard due to the windy conditions. Even though the damage was severe around us, not one person lost their life. So thankful for that. Below are a few pictures of our leaning trees and trashy yard.

Again, angels surrounded our family and protected us. That's the theme for my week in review. Some circumstances that could have been tragedies, were really blessings because we were protected so carefully and lovingly this past week. We were also able to see God's protection in such a tangible way. It gives me chills. There's so much to be afraid of in this world, and I am the world's worse about fearing every little thing. But, with God as my rock, what are those things? I praise God for watching over the O's this past week. His mercy has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated.

Psalm 27:1-6
The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid? When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock.Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD.

Warning - sad little video

We've been in the house for WAY too long, so I have lots to blog about it seems ;). Here's Noah last night. Stir crazy and I think his meds are making him very emotional. He said he wants his life to be different because he's been so sick. So sad! After this video he asked me if I was his real mother.What? He needed some snuggle time and some warm cookies out of the oven. It made all the difference. We're praying for some better days in the O house, the sooner the better!!