1/17 through 1/23

January 17th, 2010
Tonight I was reading Kelly's blog. For those who don't know, God took Kelly through a journey of being a single woman who desired to get married. She ended up finding her true love much later in life (around 30 I think) than she anticipated. Once they began trying to have a baby, they faced infertility. God finally blessed them with a beautiful baby girl, but after a healthy pregnancy, she gave birth to a baby who was blue and not breathing. They rushed Harper, the baby girl, off to another hospital and she was in the NICU for 26? days. It was at this point that I learned of Kelly and her blog. So, if I got some details wrong in this story, it's because I didn't know of her when she was going through all of these things. I saw all of these "Pray for Harper" posts around the blogosphere and got hooked on Kelly's story. Harper recovered beautifully and has become a healthy and vibrant little girl who just celebrated her 1st birthday! Kelly's husband, Scott, created a video for Harper's first birthday with the recordings and photos of Kelly's pregnancy, delivery, Harper's NICU days, and her healing. I sobbed through the whole thing! What an amazing story of God's grace and of miracles!!!

Reading it made me treasure my baby boy even more. My heart welled up with gratitude towards God for gracing me with this answered prayer. Our journeys aren't always easy, but what God does in these most difficult of circumstances serves as a testimony of His love and grace. "If that's what it takes to praise you, Jesus, bring the rain."

Praising God for my "Heaven Sent" son.

 

And because this one cracks me up:

(Arrgh! Pirate Baby!)

January 18th, 2010

Arts and crafts:

January 19th, 2010
Genesis 9:12-16 - "God continued, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I'm putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth."

 

I forgot to include this picture. Each day, I let Jaydon and Zoe take turns picking out Josiah's outfit. It goes against all of my anal matching obsessions, but it's fun for them. This is Zoe's most recent choice:

 

January 20th, 2010
I didn't make this today, but I took a picture of it today. I try to keep a portfolio of all of the crafts I make and projects I do. I made this for Chad and Shelby's baby before Christmas and keep forgetting to take it to church.

January 21st, 2010
It doesn't even do it justice.

 

January 22nd, 2010
Josiah is 5 months old!!!

 

(Josiah is now grabbing at his sign and, of course, wants to put it in his mouth!)

      

January 23rd, 2010

Today I went to the memorial service of a family member. She was the foster mother of my cousin's ex husband. Make sense? Yet while she was not blood-related, she was very much family, especially because she was Jaydon and Zoe's Nana and she loved them and their mom with everything she had, despite the fact that their dad, her foster son, was no longer a part of their lives. She died on December 26th of cancer. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather today. I couldn't take too many pictures of the service itself, but here's a few of the day:

(She's sitting in His dwelling place, beneath the shadow of His wings right now)

(Part of the drive home)

(I very much enjoyed my time with my mommy. She looks beautiful in this picture, but wanted to give me a makeover in the car after we took it because of how pale I am)