Bloom Where You Are Planted!!!

Bloom where you are planted!!! I will be honest and tell all of you that I have decided to kick and scream and make sure that I am not planted in this new earth that God has called us to. I have made sure that I have made it miserable and desolate and dry and just down right unlivable for the  past 2 years. Boy do I wish I could change things, but I can't. The Lord opened my eyes about a month ago to the beauty that He has blessed me with.

This is a view of Castle Rock from the famous Castle Rock that my children love to hike. Each day I am learning to thank God for something beautiful in my new community. Wow it really isn't hard to be a happy joyful person when you learn to be thankful.

 

My first Senior

 Where has the time gone? I was told when I had Emily to enjoy every moment with this child because before you know that have grown up right before your eyes. Well that is so true. I still remember holding her in the hospital and literally starring at her for hours. My husband and I could not take our eyes off of her. I look at her now and think when did my little Emily grow up. I couldn't be more pleased with the you lady she has become. She has a servant's heart and loves to help where and whenever she is needed. As I type this she is in Nebraska with her sister helping a new mommy for 3 weeks. This is Emily's senior year of high school and a big mile stone for all of us. I started homeschooling her 2 weeks after I had baby # 4 and to tell the truth I did not know if it would work. We are first generation homeschoolers so we had no model to follow, but we decided to dive in headfirst and see what would happen. So thankful we took that leap of faith. We have had so many great experience's and many not so great experience's but it has all been worth it. I love the relationship that I have with this child we really are best friends. I remember when she was getting close to high school I thought to myself can I really do this? The Lord answered us with a great speaker who talked at a homeschool conference that we had attended the summer before her freshman year. He talked about discipling our children and training them up in the way of the Lord morning, noon, and night. The last thing he encouraged all of us in the session to do was no longer say that we would take our homeschooling year by year but that we would begin to tell ourselves and others that we would homeschool until Jesus comes. Well Marc and I have done that. we have never ever questioned our decision again. We know all of our children will be home schooled until the end. Emily I love you and we are going to have a great senior year.

7 Weeks

7 Weeks ago today we were not so patiently waiting for our precious Annaliese to arrive. My water broke on Easter Sunday at 7 in the evening. We just assumed we would have a baby in a few hours, but that did not happen. Monday morning we decided to walk and try some herbs and tinctures to get my labour going. After a few hours of walking I was exhausted and needed some sleep. I layed down for about and hour and then was awakened by a very strong contraction. Things were finally beginning to happen 20 hours after my water broke. I still felt in my heart that something was not right, it was just not like any of my other labours. I had my midwife check me and she said that the baby was so high she couldn't even feel her head. I just felt like she was not positioned right and I still don't know if that was the case. I don't know what time I started pushing but after 45 minutes I knew something was not right and so did the midwife. She checked me again and found that I had a huge cervical lip that was very swollen. She tried to get the swelling down with ice and I had to breath through contractions with out pushing. I did this for about 20 minutes but was beginning to get delirious. This is when I decided I needed to go to the hospital. The drive only took 15 minutes but it seemed like and eternity. By the time I got checked in, examined and comfortable, we found out that there was meconium and that I was only a 9. Now we had to wait and pray that my body and the baby would cooperate for me to have a vaginal birth. It was 9:30 p.m. and the doctor was not happy that it had been over 24 hours since my water broke, but she was willing to wait and let me try to do this vaginally. We waited and baby was not cooperating very well so we prayed. The Lord granted our request and at 1:01 A.m. Annaliese was born. She was not breathing and she was completely limp I could not believe this was happening. Again the Lord was gracious and I heard them say we have a heart rate of 100, then a couple of seconds later I heard that most glorious sound that every mother longs to hear, her first CRY. What a beautiful sound that was. With in 5 minutes my daughter was laid on my chest and she was beautiful and healthy. She weighed 10 lbs and was 21 inches long. She did have a broken clavicle but that was nothing I was just thankful to be holding her. What a mighty God we serve.

Annaliese Joy her first day of life.

4 weeks

Here is Annaliese when she is 4 weeks old. She is now 6 weeks so I am just a few weeks behind on posting. We love her and are so grateful we have been blessed with her.

Easter 2013

                                                         Easter 2013

Annaliese

We are enjoying this little blessing as she grows everyday. We are so thankful for this beautiful gift sent by God.

 

She Has Arrived

Our sweet little bundle of Joy has arrived. Annaliese Joy was born on April 2nd at 1:01 a.m.. Long hard labor but in the end we were blessed with a beautiful 10 lb baby girl  who is perfect and healthy. She does have a broken clavicle but that will heal in a couple of weeks. We as a family are rejoicing.