7--a book worth reading

I just finished reading this book: 7: an experimental mutiny against excess by Jen Hatmaker. I stumbled across her when lots of people began reposting one of her blog entries about being the worst end of school year mom ever. It was pretty funny! It even landed her a quick segment on the Today show. 

So I was reading around on her blog and started looking at the books she's written. I thought this was an interesting concept. She picked 7 areas that she feels like we as a culture overindulge in and did a type of "fast" from each one for a month. For example, clothing. She picked 7 items of clothing and only wore those 7 items for the entire month. Or spending. She picked only 7 stores to spend money at for the entire month. You get the idea. 

Here's the synopsis on her blog about 7:

7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees) took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence. In the spirit of a fast, they pursued a deeply reduced life in order to find a greatly increased God. 

I think she's so spot-on in many of her observations of current cultural Christianity and the church. I think most of us don't know how to abstain or fast or suffer to create any room for God to speak to us. She is very challenging. Think Radical¨ by David Platt (which you should read if you haven't.) I long to see believers stepping out in faith, questioning some of our culturally accepted practices, and glorifying our Father in Heaven. And that I'm praying about what that means for me too.

Read it and let's talk about how the Spirit may be challenging you.

A Really Fun Week

Last week we had the opportunity to host a missionary family for the week. They are church pastors in Trujillo, Peru and have been home in Louisiana for the past 10 months (to have a baby). They came to town last week for the annual General Assembly conference for our church denomination. We had a great time getting to know them and our kids loved making new friends. After the first night, their two oldest kids had slumber parties upstairs with our kids every night and cried when they left. It was a little busy having 8 kids in the house all week, but totally worth it. One of the reasons we bought the house we live in is because we wanted to be able to host missionaries and guests, and I'm so glad we have the ability to do that.

You can check out more info about them at www.perumission.org and www.stuing.blogspot.com

 Here are our big kids' memories from the week:

Catherine: This was a really fun week with them here. We loved it. It was hard to say goodbye. I love playing with Satomi, Sam, and Ezra. I hope they come and visit us again. And I love this picture. I loved when she slept in my room, played Barbies with me, and loved seeing her and Anna dress up like princesses. 

Will: I liked playing with Sam, shooting the bow and arrow and I didn't want them to leave.

Anna: I didn't want them to leave. I had fun with them. It was hard to say goodbye to them. I had fun with her sleeping in my room, playing Barbies and dress up with her. 

and please note--this is what happens when you take two crawling babies outside. they crawl in opposite directions!!

Morning Bible reading

I am enjoying summer mornings of having a more relaxed breakfast (well, as relaxed as it can be with five kids). It gives us some extra time to incorporate some morning Bible reading into our routine. To be honest, I have intentions of this year round, but it usually doesn't happen on school mornings when we are  running behind, packing lunches, and getting everyone ready. 

I am currently using a little book that I really like. It's in a series called Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers. This one is about Scripture. There are also books on the trinity, the gospel, and the mission that I would like to get and read eventually. 

Each page has a couple of sentences that concisely explain an aspect of scripture. For example, today's reading was about how the Old Testament points to Jesus. At the bottom of each page are 3 or 4 scripture references. There are usually Old Testament and New Testament references. I like that they don't print out the verses because it is giving the kids good practice to find books in the Bible and look the verses up themselves. 

The book isn't necessarily intended to be used as a daily devotional. You can easily read the book just like you would a story book as well. But I'm enjoying just taking one page each day for our summer breakfasts.  

Lemonade Stand for Orphans

We are part of the Orphan Care Ministry team at our church. This May, we launched our first annual Lemonade Stand campaign. We asked families and individuals in our church to host a lemonade stand  or change drive some time in the month of May. Half of the proceeds will be used to start an adoption fund at our church and help church members with the cost of adoption. The other half will be donated to other organizations the promote adoption and orphan care. This year it is Reece's Rainbow, which helps with the adoptions of special needs orphans. Check them out at www.reecesrainbow.org  

Our kids have been asking to host a lemonade stand since last summer, so they were very very excited to finally do this one for Orphan Care. We had ours a few weeks back, on one of the rare Saturdays in May when it didn't rain. Actually, the day we did it called for 60% chance of rain. We prayed about it not raining until after we were done, and God definitely answered our prayers. As we were putting our things away, two minutes after we were finished with our stand, it started raining. I love God's timing!

We had our stand at Mimi and PopPop's house because they live closer to a main road. We took turns standing out on the busy street and yelling "Lemonade!!!" Jay and I required small children to be with us for this or else we felt a bit ridiculous doing it on our own. I was pleasantly surprised at how many random people stopped by. It gave us a great chance to explain to them about our Orphan Care ministry and how they could help.

The day before, we put fliers in the mailboxes in our neighborhood and Mimi and PopPop's neighborhood explaining when and why we were hosting a lemonade stand. We had quite a few neighbors stop by and give generous donations. We also texted and facebook messaged a few people who live close by and asked them to come.

Mimi made some delicious lemonade and brownies to sell for 50 cents each. I think of all the people who came, only one gave us only 50 cents. Everyone was so generous! We even had one or two people who couldn't come but still made donations the next day. The kids were very excited to go home and count how much money they raised for orphan care. I was then very proud of them for getting some of their own money from their piggy banks to add to it. They are so excited to know that all of that money will directly help someone be adopted into a family.

I would definitely say our first lemonade stand was a success! And we love seeing and hearing about so many families from our church hosting their own. I think this will be a great annual tradition, and it's a wonderful way to do orphan care ministry in a way that involves the whole family and teaches children from a young age about this important biblical call and responsibility.

Want to help? It's not too late to host a lemonade stand of your own or make a financial donation. Just let me know if you're interested.

Happy Easter

He is risen, he is risen indeed! Alleluia!

We have had a wonderful celebration of Easter this week. I feel like we all took time this year to slow down a little more and meditate on what Christ actually did for us on the cross and in his resurrection. The Son of God willingly died for us, took the punishment of our sins, conquered death, and rose victoriously. That's the best news I've ever heard!

I'll post the typical Easter post of egg dyeing and the kids in their cute coordinating outfits (wait til you see James in a tie!) but for today I wanted to share Will's drawings. The first is from the church service we attended on Friday at noon, remembering Christ's suffering and death. The second is from today, celebrating his resurrection and life. I love these five year old puctures and that he is understanding both parts of Easter. If you only have the cross, it's just sad and unfair that he died. If you only have the resurrection, you miss the pain and suffering of our savior for you. We have to have both to grasp what God has done.

I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Easter celebration as well.

Circus party

Last Saturday our church's Orphan Care ministry hosted a Circus Party for the local children's home. We have been trying to establish an ongoing relationship with the workers and children there over the past few years. We go there a few times per year for work days and meals and to play, but we also wanted to have them come to us to play too.

The party was a huge success. The kids loved the games (parachutes, clown relay, etc) and crafts. We even had someone making cotton candy and popcorn and a magician perform.

We aren't allowed to take pics of the kids but here are a few pics of Catherine
and Will enjoying the activities too. I love that they think it's a great experience to be with these kids who don't currently have families--to develop compassion and understanding in their hearts from a young age for others who need to be shown the love of Christ.

Missions Conference

Our church just hosted our annual Missions Conference this past weekend. This is always such a time of encouragement and hope to see how God is working around the world. Our church supports over 50 missionaries, and each year about 20-25 of them attend our conference. It is amazing to hear their testimonies and stories of how God is working and how they are serving.

This year we heard from a family with three young children who are living Uganda. They are building a children's library, serving as a doctor at the medical clinic, running a support group for families with sickle cell anemia, and building lasting relationships in that village. (Check out their blog www.steadfastjoy.blogspot.com for more.) We heard from a computer engineer who works to translate the Bible into new languages and serve missionaries in the field. We heard from people planting churches in Costa Rica, India, Columbia SC, Belgium, and Turkey. We had veteran missionaries who have been serving for the past 20 years, and new missionaries who are still raising support so they can go to Africa. We had missionaries from Kazakhstan, Japan, Greenville, Puerto Rico, and more.  I love how it all makes the world feel both very big and very small.

We were also challenged about how to do missions right here. One of my passions for this is through our church's Orphan Care ministry. James 1:27 commands us all to care for the widow and the orphan. There are many ways to fulfill this mission. Think about the gifts and talents God has given you and how you can best serve.

• Can you help mentor a family through the new DSS program Family Friends? 
• Can you host children for 4 to 6 weeks through Safe Families during a time of crisis? 
• Are you willing to be foster parents? 
• Do you have a desire to adopt? 
• Can you spend a few Saturdays each year serving at Miracle Hill Children's Home?
•  Can you donate cleaning supplies and household goods to the Children's Home? 
• Can you donate clothes or furniture to families in need?
•  Can you make a financial donation to a missionary, Reece's Rainbow, Bethany Christian Service, Miracle Hill, the church's Faith missionary offering?
• Will you pray? Above all else, pray. 

Our God is faithful, loving, and compassionate to all He has made. He loved us enough to send us His Son, Jesus. He desires to be in a relationship with us and bring us into his kingdom. How can we not tell others this great news? What is God asking you to do?

Babies' Baptisms

On December 30, James and Elizabeth were baptized at our church. We view this baptism as a recognition that they are God's covenant children and that  He will work salvation in their life. We promise to do all that we can as their parents to point them to their Savior and trust Him with their lives.

God has been extremely faithful to us in trusting us with 5 children. He has so graciously provided for not only our physical needs of care, but even more so our spiritual and emotional needs. It's quite amazing if you really know us to see some of the spiritual transformations and growth that have occurred over the past 7+ years. We love that God's plan for our family is different--and better--than what we would have planned for ourselves. We would have "played it safe" and made decisions out of fear or anxiousness. That's still a temptation. But we've stepped out in faith and are so thankful for His blessings and His care.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Merry Christmas

I hope you have a wonderful and joyous celebration of Christ's birth.

Christmas and the days leading up to it and the days recovering from it are some of the most exciting days for families, especially with little children. They are also some of the most exhausting and trying ones. Every day for the past month we have had extra Christmas events and parties and school performances and church choir and shopping and wrapping and more. I have tried to cut back on a lot of the extras this year but adding anything extra into my daily routine right now is enough to make me crazy, or at least very tired.

But as I prepare to go to bed and to celebrate my savior tomorrow, I am trying not to worry about how early our kids will wake up, the fact that we forgot to put out the reindeer food and cookies for Santa, the mess that our house will be for the next few days, the logistics of packing people up so we can visit my family for 18 hours, or the laundry I still need to put away.

I am reflecting on the fact that this chaos and mess is what my God chose for his son. Jesus willingly left something more wonderful and perfect than we can even imagine to come into this messy and broken world. For me. For you. It amazes me.

So Merry Christmas friends! Celebrate the chaos and craziness and praise God for Jesus.

A new advent tradition

I love advent. The waiting and anticipation. The excitement and longing. I love advent calendars and wreaths.

Each year I am trying to incorporate a few advent traditions into our Christmas celebration. One of my favorite blogs www.desiringvirtue.com has some great ideas for this. We are trying one of them this year with the Christmas books.

I have a lot (probably 35-40) of children's Christmas books. I wrapped 24 of them, one for each night from dec 1-dec 24. Each night after devotions the kids take a turn picking a book to unwrap and read together. On her blog, she only does nativity/Jesus books. Most of mine are christ focused, but I did include a few "night before Christmas" and secular books.

If you want to try this but don't have 24-25 books, just start with what you have. Do 7 and open one each night the week before Christmas. Or pick 4 and open one each Sunday night in December. You can adapt based off what you have and what works for your family.

The kids have loved this so far. I hope to make it an annual tradition.

Pilgrims and Indians give thanks

Happy Thanksgiving! This is one of our favorite holidays: pretty low key with focus on thankfulness and family. And who doesn't love a few little Indians and Pilgrims? The kids had these really great costumes from their Thanksgiving skits at school. So fun!

This past year has been one of the most challenging of our lives, for sure. Last Thanksgiving we told the kids that we were having a baby. We didn't know yet that it was two babies! Jay's dad actually kept joking last Thanksgiving about us having twins and we told him to be quiet because he was worrying Jay. One year ago I had no idea what was in store for us.

This year I am extremely thankful for God's faithfulness to us. He has walked with us closely throughout our time of pregnancy and newborns. Not that He wasn't before then, but we have learned to trust Him more and how much we really do need Him. A lot of this year has been humbling to me, a breaking of my self-dependence and pride.

God has also really shown us how it looks and works for a community of believers to help one another. Like the Pilgrims and Indians (at least the nice, friendly ones we teach the kids about) we have things to offer one another and ways to help each other. I can't name all the ways that others have helped us this year, and I'm thankful that I'm now getting back on my feet enough to be able to help others as well. Helping with meals, chores at home, children, phone calls, cards, and more--It has been so encouraging and refreshing to see how God provides through his people.

We hope you have a happy Thanksgiving, filled with gratitude to the One who is the giver of all good gifts and is always faithful to us.

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." Psalm 100: 4-5

"Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great Kind above all gods." Psalm 95: 1-3

"God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you. For our many blessings, for our many blessings, Amen, Amen" (Anna's favorite blessing--because it says "thank you" even when she refused to say thank you for 6 months)

Out to dinner

Last night Jay had some late afternoon meetings in Charlotte and wasn't going to be home until 8pm or so. That meant I was on my own with all five for dinner, bath, and bedtime. I decided to take them all out to dinner--by myself--so that they wouldn't be weepy about Jay not being here for dinner and I wouldn't have to clean up the kitchen.

I was a little fearful that the babies would both be crying and someone would spill a drink and someone else would need to go to the bathroom and someone else would complain about their dinner. That's how it has been some nights lately at home.

In order to make this a successful outing I did a couple of things:
1. I gave them a choice about where we were going to eat (at home being one of them). I also only gave options that I knew I could manage. So even though it was spirit night at chickfila for Catherine's school I did not make that option to dine in, only drive thru. I know my limits people. They picked to eat at schlotzskys.
2. We practiced what was going to happen and what I expected from them. This includes getting on shoes and going potty before we left the house. This also includes deciding in the car what they wanted to order so that I wasn't standing there trying to figure that out with 3 kids telling me various things while people impatiently wait behind us. (turns out I need to decide ahead of time because I'm the one who stood there the longest to order!)
3. I gave them very specific instructions about when to get out of the car, whose hand to hold, which white line to stand on, who should hold open which restaurant door , etc. and I told them they were responsible for keeping each other safe. Will especially likes this role of protecting his sisters.
4. We practiced our table manners of sitting and using napkins and taking turns and being patient.
5. I highly praised them for their good behavior and obedience. I told them when they behaved so well and were obedient it made me want to take them places more often. So they suggested we go out every night:)

We had a lot of people stop and comment on how many kids I have and how well they were behaving. I thought about it a lot after we left the restaurant. I don't want to be prideful that they did so well. Goodness knows that they have many nights that aren't this way.

But I do want them to be an example to others that children are a blessing. So many people look at us with some weird pity because of the work and responsibility and chaos of having five little ones. And it's true that it is a lot of work. But there's also a whole lot of joy. And if someone can catch a glimpse of that through well behaved children and a mama who truly enjoys them at a restaurant, maybe it will soften their hearts a tiny bit.

Praying for our children

I desire to pray for our children daily, to intercede on their behalf, pray for their salvation, pray for patenting wisdom, and thank our God for his gift of these sweet ones to our family.

But I often struggle to find time or remember to do it. I was trying to think of something I do every day that I could pray simultaneously. I decided that since I spend a good bit of time nursing babies that this would be a great prayer time.

To help me know what to pray for our children and how to pray for them, I've been using the book "Praying the Scriptures for your Children" by Berndt. This was a gift from our church's childrens ministry after the babies were born. I have really enjoyed using scripture to pray specifics for them.

A friend also just gave us Key Chain Verses as a gift. It is a set of about 30 verses that are personalized for James and Elizabeth. I keep one by the chair in the nursery and I plan to put the other in the car. It's great to just pick it up and pray through a few verses at a time. (If you're interested you can check them out at www.keychainverses.com). You could also make something similar pretty easily if there are specific verses or passages you want to memorize or pray with your children.

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." 1 John 5:14

Post Baby Body Struggle

Let me start by saying I love my children. I love that I have been able to be pregnant and physically carry them and birth them and nurse them. I wouldn't trade that for anything. It truly has been my lifelong dream. I realize that there are women who would love to have that opportunity and haven't been able to be pregnant.

I am, however, in the 8-week postpartum "so this is what happened to my body?" phase. It's rough.  It's something I struggle with. I think most women struggle with their weight and body image, regardless of pregnancy and childbirth. And then you throw in stretch marks, pregnancy weight gain, and other physical changes and it is very easy to focus on that.

I have struggled with this really since my first pregnancy. Prior to that, I had been skinny my whole life. You know, that kind of girl who could eat anything she wanted and still weigh 110 lbs. That was me. Sadly, I took pride in that. It was part of my identity. Who I was. And then God started giving us children and that is no longer me. In my mind I like to think I'm still that skinny girl who can eat whatever she wants but that's not true.

I've tried for the past few years to "be really good"--you know exercise more, eat healthier, things like that. But I keep coming back to the same struggle with food and my weight and my appearance. Because really the behaviors aren't the issue. It's my heart.  Why do I want the baby weight gone? Is it so I can still find my identity as that skinny girl? So people will be impressed with how quickly I lost the baby weight? So I can be prideful about it? So I don't have to show self control in this area of my life?

Or do I want it so that I can be strong and healthy to care for my family? To treat my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit? to be prepared to do the good works God has for me to do? I've been memorizing 2 Timothy 2: 20-21, praying that God will change the motives of my heart. That I will desire to be an instrument of special use, made holy, useful to Him, and ready to do his good works. That's what I should desire with my body.

That's the only thing that is going to create a change in my behaviors and choices in this area. And maybe with that I'll lose the baby weight and look more like I used to. Maybe I won't. I'd like to say that it doesn't matter, but I'm not there yet. God is still working on me. Still sanctifying me and teaching me to honor Him with my body. I was bought at a price, after all. My body is not my own. 

Here are some resources and encouragement in this area:

This book, Every Body Matters, by Gary Thomas is the best I have read about our heart and motives for caring for our body. I highly recommend it.

Here's a link to a blog post that is one of the most honest and real and truthful expressions I've seen about this struggle: Part 1 and Part 2

And here's my friend Brooke's perspective on the aftermath of 8 babies

I hope that this may encourage you on a topic that can be difficult for so many women. It truly is worth it to have these precious babies and allow God to use the body He created and gave me. And I'm pretty sure He's going to give moms really awesome bodies in heaven!

One month! And I need Jesus

These babies are one month old today! We have survived so far! I will upload pics and more fun info soon but I didn't want the day to pass without Claiming the victory of the first month! Our kids love to play dinner games. We have a box of dinner games and conversation topics but they also love to come up with their own. The other night Catherine invented the "I need Jesus" game. Everyone takes turns telling about something in their life that they need Jesus to help Them with. The kids' were things like "I need Jesus when I want to hit someone" and "I need Jesus when I don't want to obey". Mine were "I need Jesus when I am really tired and impatient with children" and "I need Jesus when I want to think about myself more than others". Nothing like a good dinner confessional for the whole family! But I do need Jesus. Without him I'm not sure I would have made it through the past month.

I am NOT supermom....I am thankful

Pretty much on a daily basis I have people telling me I'm supermom these days. I am definitely not!! I am a mom who fiercely loves her children and is doing the best that she can on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. But at the core, I am selfish and lazy and seek comfort and quiet and control.  I think that's one of the reasons God has blessed me with these 5 little ones--so He can sanctify me.

So if I'm not supermom, how do I do it? With lots and lots of help.

The past few months have required me to get over my desire to be self-sufficient and to rely heavily on others. It sounds like it would be easy to let other people help, but at times I find it very difficult. I think it's part of my desire for control. 

I am so thankful though for people God has placed in my life who are walking through this with us and are willing to be patient with me and our children and to help us all survive.

We have two wonderful young ladies from church, Anna and Rachel, who are here multiple times per week to help. They play with the big kids outside in the yard, take them swimming, do art projects, fix them meals, help with rest time, do my dishes, play games, and more. I am so very thankful for their enthusiasm and tender care of our children.

It has been a tremendous blessing to have Mimi and PopPop here. I can't even describe all the ways that they have helped us. Marcy came pretty much every morning the entire month of June and fixed breakfast for the kids when I couldn't walk in the mornings. They feed us dinner, give our kids baths, help with laundry, take our dog out, have the kids over for slumber parties, pick up things at the grocery store, watch the kids so Jay and I can go out on a date for an hour, and play and love on our kids like crazy. We keep telling them to let us know when they need a break! But they reassure us that this is one of the reasons they moved here and that they are so glad to be able to help. We are extremely thankful to have them here.

My family has also been so helpful. It's a little harder since they aren't in Greenville, but they have traveled back and forth multiple times in the past weeks to help with the big kids and to hold babies. They have kept the big kids for 2 and 3 days at a time to give us a little bit of a break. They bring us food and call to check on us and have been so encouraging.  We are really thankful that they are close enough to share in the joy of all of the chaos too!

I have friends (like these 2 lovely ladies) who have been extremely generous of the time and their homes to have our kids over for playdates, feed them lunch, and offer me so much encouragement.  They've been doing this for months now and hopefully soon I'll be able to return the favor and have their kids over to play! I am really thankful to have friends who know what I need without me even having to ask.

We also have a wonderful lady from our church who helps us with our laundry. We have members of our sunday school class/bible study/jay's work/neighbors who bring us meals. We also have a night nurse who is coming about twice a week to help us get a little extra rest at night. I am thankful for these extremely practical ways we've been helped.

And of course, I have a wonderful husband who is pretty much super-dad.  I am having to depend on him so much to help with the kids and household tasks that I normally handle. All while he works 11-12 hours a day too. He's pretty amazing and I surely couldn't do this without him. I am so thankful God gave me a husband who leads and serves our family.

So see, I am not supermom. I am an extremely blessed mom who has lots and lots of help and lots and lots to be thankful for.

Keeping my perspective

I'm now 37 weeks and these babies are mighty comfy in there. Three weeks ago my dr said I probably had 10-14 days. Obviously we have passed that by. Now they're saying it may be another week or two and at the latest they would induce me on July 2nd.  I'm readjusting mentally to keep hanging in there for that long instead of expecting to go into labor at any given moment.

I feel like there's a fine line for me right now between complaining and being honest and being thankful.  I don't want to complain about my physical lack of comfort or the strain this is putting on our family, although at times I do. But at the same time, I don't want to deny that what I'm doing is physically difficult or that this is hard on our marriage and our children. And if I do say something about it, I don't want to come across as being unthankful for the gift of these babies.

I am so very thankful for these babies already.  When I stop and think about the true miracle God is giving us--two babies at once; two babies who I knew He wanted to add to our family although I never expected them to come at the same time; two babies who are growing inside me--I am in awe. I can't deny that this is His doing. And in the scheme of life and eternity, my discomfort for 9 months, especially these past few weeks, is nothing compared to the glory these children can bring Him.  I have to remind myself of this daily.

Last night in my insomnia I reread the book Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic. I highly recommend this book to anyone with little kids--moms and dads.  I think she gets a lot of the perspective on parenting right, and I trust her experience since she has five little ones, including a set of twins.  I probably have lots I can learn from her.

One chapter that really encouraged me today was about the mom's attitude and self-talk. She said that she used to find herself thinking all day that she was "overwhelmed."  And while it may be true that she was, once she eliminated the word "overwhelmed" from her vocabulary, it became much easier to do the work God has given her to do. I need to remember that now and especially in the months to come. The days when I feel overwhelmed and tired, I need to instead focus on the work God has given me to do and His strength that He will give me to do it.  This is His plan for me and for our family. His desire is not for us to be overwhelmed by this, but instead to bring us good and not harm, to give us hope and a future (Jer 29:11).

Okay, so I'm basically writing all of this as a reminder to myself. But maybe it will encourage you as well.

Also, I know that there are lots of people praying for us and I greatly appreciate it. Here are a few specific prayer requests:

• Praise God for the gift of these two babies and pray that our family will continually be thankful for this gift, even in the chaos
• Pray for my delivery, especially that I would get to the hospital quickly enough to receive the prep that is needed for a twin delivery
• Pray for the health of the babies and for my health and recovery after delivery. 
• Pray for Jay, Catherine, Will, and Anna who have had to do without much of my attention and help. Pray for their continued patience and understanding when we bring home the babies.
• Praise God for the help of our family and friends, who truly are getting us through on a daily basis with everything from childcare, to laundry, to meals

Thank you for your prayers and your encouragement!

Mourning and Rejoicing

Our family is really practicing the verse in the Bible that tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.

 In God's timing and wisdom, my sister Kelly is delivering their daughter Mia today and saying goodbye to her here on this earth.  At the same time, I'm sitting here waiting to deliver twins.

 My heart breaks for Kelly. I hate that she has to face this and has had to make extremely difficult decisions about her health and Mia's health.  I hate that she won't be bringing home her little baby girl. Kelly is excited for us to have our babies. She's thrilled to be expecting a new niece and nephew.

 It just seems like such a strange comparison for all of it to be happening at the same time. But we trust God's timing. None of this was a surprise to Him. And we'll keep praying for peace, wisdom, and comfort for Kelly and the rest of our family as we go through the rest of today and in the weeks, months, and years to come. We appreciate all of you who have been praying for Mia. We rejoice that today her little body will be made whole and complete as Jesus welcomes her with open arms.

Here's my 35 week photos. Catherine took the first one and Will took the second one. The babies are still hanging out and growing in there. In my ultrasound yesterday, they estimate that James weighs 5 lbs 7 oz and Elizabeth weighs 5lbs 13oz. Yep, that's over 11 lbs of baby in there. We're thinking they'll be here in the next 7-10 days. 

Here are a few pics of the nursery. It still seems surreal that there are two cribs in there. This whole thing may not seem real until I actually hold two babies.  Until then, I'll keep waiting and waddling and resting.

So Encouraging

I have to admit: some days I feel like I can't possibly make it through another day of pregnancy. And then, I have friends and family who offer encouragement and support in so many ways. And it recharges me enough to keep going. We have friends and family who are currently cooking meals for us, doing our laundry, having our children over for playdates, and donating all kinds of baby gear to us (cribs, mattresses, bouncy seats, clothes, diapers, and more). I am amazed at the generosity and awed by seeing how God truly uses the people of His church to be His hands and feet.

My wonderful friends from Sunday school hosted a baby shower for me yesterday. It was a lot of fun to celebrate these two little ones. It still seems surreal to me to know that we're having two babies. It may not seem totally real until I see their little faces. Catherine was excited to go with me to the shower and help open presents. We were given diapers, diaper disposal, nursing pads, bottles and accessories, clothes, sweet little blankets, burp cloths, and more. They also brought us frozen meals to stock our freezer. How amazing!

The babies are continuing to grow well in there. Catherine wanted to take a picture of the babies--so there they are! They should be approximately 4 1/2 lbs each this week. I had my 33 week appt today and everything looks great. My blood pressure is staying low and my weight gain is slowing down (I actually hadn't gained any since last week). I'm just supposed to take it easy and "not do anything crazy" the dr said!

Many many thanks to everyone for their encouragement and support. I certainly can't do this by myself and I'm so thankful for the people God has surrounded us with who are just as excited about these babies as we are.