My Brother's new twins!

Here is my Brother and his wife Jamie holding my fist Nephews!! They are recovering so well. Thanks to a whole lot of prayer, and some good medical teams. I cant wait to go to California and hold them!!

A " new " To Do list.

OK, So today I got in the mail, my very very very favorite magazine. It's called "Above Rubies" and it is totally FREE! I love free stuff by the way. It a magazine that was started by a preachers wife in New Zealand (she now lives in Tennessee) and has been in print for 32 years. They run on donations only so they print when can afford to print. Typically 4 times a year. They are dedicated to keeping it free. If you want to sign up for your free subscription go to http://www.aboverubies.org/.
Anyhow, one of the articles that is in this new issue is about To Do lists. The mother of six who wrote the article said this,

"Mother Teresa said this 'It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in the doing'. This got me thinking. We women are famous for our daunting TO DO lists. what if, instead of making a list at the beginning of the day of all that needs to get accomplished, we turn it around a bit? What if we made a list at the end of the day of all the unseen acts of love? I believe this list would be more telling as to how productive the day actually was. We still need that TO DO list. It keeps us focused and on track, also guides us to accomplishing those things that are our responsibilities. But Maybe we could ad to the tip of that list, after the word "do", with words "in God's timing". Offering up our time to God to be used as He desires is a beautiful act of worship. I'm going to make my list tonight and I encourage you to do the same. I think you'll be amazed to see how much love you put in your doing today. Similarly, if you don't have a lot to add to that LOVE list but you got lot accomplished from the days TO DO list, keep that in mind when writing out the next day's list. Maybe "love a little bit more" should be at the TOP of that one."

I definitely need a "little more love" at the top of my list. How bout you ladies? God specifically pricked my heart last night (hours before I received the magazine) to be more sensitive, loving and gentle to my kind spirited, people pleasing, sometimes in the way, daughter. God replayed for me in my mind last night, all the times she tried to help yesterday, but how many time I just saw her as "in the way". Thank you God for showing me how to love as you love. Help me to put it into practice with my children.

What a Mothers Day

Today, I understand, how very lucky I am. I sometimes take for granted that I am such a lucky mom. I was brought breakfast in bed by my husband and my two darling little sweeties, Jacob and Ireland. They smiled so big and were soo proud to eat with me in bed. I watched my two healthy, alert, loving children pay me compliments on what a good mommy I am, and how much they love me. As I sat there though I teared up thinking of my sweet sister in law who is celebrating her very first Mothers Day. Only her experience was in no way like mine. She had to go visit her two sick twin boys in the hospital. She gave birth prematurely at 31 weeks, about a week and half ago. Her babies were not too healthy to start with and one just had heart surgery two days ago. Not only that but they had to move one, so she got to spend her mothers day visiting her two precious boys at two different hospitals.
I cry right now as I think about how very caught up we can become on little things, like manners, or chores, or annoyances, or just the responsibilities and inconveniences of being a mom. Those things do matter sometimes, as we cannot have ill mannered, lazy children. But how often do we let it warp our view on them as a whole? I know soo many mothers right now giving up on mothering because of the work and consistency that children need. I remember being one of those moms, just a few years ago. I would just plop my children in front of the t.v. for hours on end, just to have them "out of my hair". And then I would grumble say to my husband," I love those kids, but man will life be easier when they are older." You know what, I think no matter how much older they got, I still said the same thing! Because the problem was not my children's age, it was my heart. I also remember making the choice five years ago to cut off our ability to have more children, due to the sacrifice that motherhood demanded. My husband and I wanted to be "free" of the bonds of children. Little did we know that we were in a different bondage, not one caused by children, but one caused by our selfish hearts towards them. God has such a different view on everything, doesn't He? He says in Philippians 2:5-8
"⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
⁶Who, being in very nature^a]">[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
⁷but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature^b]">[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Did you read that? Our King came to serve! Yet we grumble about taking care of children, the VERY thing he calls blessing here in Psalm 127: 3-5

^"3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.

⁵ Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate"


But ohhh how I regret that decision of our vasectomy now. Children are different to me now. God showed me the importance of looking BEYOND the work of motherhood, to the JOY of motherhood. Some days that joy is more hidden that others, but it is always there.

I cannot help but think, that If I had just thought of mothering as a burden at 19 and single, my sweet spirited, precious Ireland, would not be here. And then, when my husband and I were already overwhelmed being a very young married couple, who had a two year old, and were separated by entire continents, could have chosen to not have more, I would never had that sweet little boy who is my absolute treasure. The same little boy who helped my clean up a whole box of dried spaghetti that I dropped all over the floor today, all the while saying, "don't worry mommy, I will help you, I still love you even though you drop stuff a lot."

Praise you my Lord and savior for putting life into my heart and prodding me to choose it, when it seemed like the wrong thing to do at the time. Your still small voice always speaks FOR LIFE. I thank you for that, and for my two precious "inconvenient" children. And hopefully MANY more to come.

Those random thoughts are just some of the things on my mind this Mothers Day.

This is my precious new nephew, just a few hours out of heart surgery. He is only three pounds. I don't know how they did it, but they did. He is not out of the woods yet, but is recovering well and they were able to completely fix his heart defect. Thanks for praying. It turns out he had one of the highest recommended infant heart surgeons. Praise God.

Sadness and hope

hello everyone, I need to ask you to pray with me for my nephew Hudson. You may know that my brother and his wife just had twins. they were very early 31 weeks), and we just found out that one of them has a severe heart defect and blood is getting into his lungs. he will be rushed to surgery very soon. either today or tomorrow these are their first children, and long awaited since they had many difficulties conceiving. Please pray for healing, a safe recovery, guidance for the doctors, and for this to grow Mike and Jamie's faith in the one true God. A faith that they are just barely starting to discover but have not yet truly seen with eyes that see..

lets pray. " Father be with my brother and Jamie during this ordeal. Heal Hudson of this heart defect so that they will not have to operate. I pray Lord that if they operate, that you would give him the most skilled doctor out there.. That you would be his hands and his mind to know what to do and how carefully to do it. I pray for Faith to become a strong part of my brothers life and that Jamie too would see your hand, and know that you are God. Please comfort my family as they struggle to see their three pound little miracle who is loved so much, go through such a horrible surgery. Be with us Lord. Amen"
Valerie

This is how the kids like to do homework sometimes. They have grown soooooo close since we started homeschooling. I love days like this where the kids just love being siblings. They may be few and far between but they happen.

Be careful, the Lord can take your car keys.

OK, so I obviously don't mean to imply that my husband and I made a mistake and are blaming it on God, (although I have to be honest in saying it did cross our minds). I realized the other day, and God confirmed it this morning, that the keys being missing, and the dealership saying that they cant replace them (unless we pay them ridiculous amounts of money), is a test of faith. Really does God test faith with keys.....ABSOLUTELY! When this happened Jake was mad, I mean mad. And I was confused and mad too. Why God? Why when things were just sort of becoming peaceful, just slightly getting better, would you allow the keys to go missing and not allow us to find them? Well you know how the saying goes that if you pray for patience then God will give you things to be patient about? Well I had prayed earlier that week that Jake and I would learn to take the stresses of life, with Grace and patience. We were in a rut, of just letting everything bring us down. We were not laying anything down at the feet of Jesus. Instead we were living like we didn't have a loving God, a loving Savior willing to take the burden. We just kept tallying up the stresses and piling them on our back. How sad for our children to watch us during those weeks and months. And then the keys happen. But it was as if it was a breakthrough for me. It was as if God was saying "Nothing will go right in this world Valerie, this is not heaven, lean on me and you will be able to handle this life". And so God did, as He has done many times before, he has laid before me the decision of life and death and has whispered, "choose life". Life and death in the sense that life leaning on Him is truly a life worth living, but life carrying your own burdens might as well be death. I may not always choose life, I hope that I do, but I also know God will always call me back to lay down my burdens and have Him carry them. Ahhhh, back in the arms of God. I feel better today than I have in weeks. Have I found my keys? NO. Is Jake still unemployed? Yes. Do I now know God is for me not against me? You Betcha!