~ in NOT of ~: a special day

Showing posts with label a special day. Show all posts

9/5/12

Truly Blessed

The best anniversary ever! If you haven't yet, please read part 1 of our anniversary.

I wasn't joking in my last post when I said we were dancing in the minefields. When talking about covenants my husband shared briefly with our children during dinner that our marriage certificate had been destroyed. He kindly left out most of the details, much to my relief. Especially since I, in my complete foolishness, had ripped it to shreds. Three days after we were married. Three days. I had no understanding at all of what marriage meant.

I happened upon this perfect blog post from a blog I regularly read. Here is a little excerpt:

A Christian marriage begins with the reality that marriage is God designed and God instituted and has a purpose far beyond this temporary life... The truth about marriage reminds me often of how far short I fall. His divine design is inspiring...yet sobering and convicting to me...

~ Bambi from In the Nursery of the Nation

I couldn't agree more! Praise the Lord for His redeeming Grace.

I only tell you about my ripped up marriage certificate so you can understand the preciousness of the gift my darling husband gave me. I was completely surprised, and once again reminded of the Grace of God.

Since my husband thought he was going to be gone on deployment for our anniversary he wanted something really special. He got several people in on the deal, all without my knowing.

Our marriage certificate!

Isn't it beautiful?! He had to go through great pains to keep this a surprise!

Friends ordered our marriage certificate from Virginia, my mother-in-law asked me (back in June) for a family picture (so I mailed it to Colorado and she mailed it back here to the framer, lol)

He chose a very special verse about marriage, had it beautifully framed and hand delivered to me.

I think it is the most thoughtful and meaningful gift ever, and I am so honored to be the wife of my husband.

Even my children made the day very special. They had some of our friends pick them up for a couple of hours and we had no idea what was going on.

They baked us a cake (a flourless, gluten-free cake!) beautifully decorated it, made strawberries with whipped cream (homemade with no sugar), and even pooled their money together and bought a bottle of bubbly. How romantic!

This day is special to them, too. More than they know yet. It is my prayer that our children will know the Lord, know His grace, and one day understand the blessings of a godly marriage. ~the example of Christ and His Bride.

This was a heartwarming day. May the Lord fill the earth, and to Him be the Glory!

9/3/12

13

13 years ago today I did a really crazy thing. I ran away and married a 19 year old boy I barely knew.
Nobody thought we'd make it. There were times I just knew we wouldn't make it.

We were dancing in the mine fields.

But God knew. God is faithful. By the world's standards we were destined to fail, and we certainly tried. But He had different plans. That is what the promise is for.

I am so thankful for my husband. I'm blessed by his perseverance and fortitude.
For the man that he is, I would dance through the mine fields every day. I'd sail in the storms.

13 years ago I could not even imagine what an incredible husband and father you would become. This marriage is beyond anything I could have dreamed up. I am so honored by God's grace, and I look forward to growing old with you as the years fly by, Mr. Pilot.

Thank you husband, for loving me even when I am unlovable.
Thank you for loving the Lord even more.

Happy Anniversary! I am glad you are here to celebrate it with me.
God is in the details, isn't He?!

7/14/12

The righteous shall live by his faith!

A couple of months ago (please excuse our lateness in this post), our family, friends and church body were excited to welcome the two oldest children: Belle and Boy as self-professing believers in Jesus Christ! They made their profession and we welcomed them through the administration of their baptism.

I was very happy to have the opportunity to give the "Father's Blessing."

I shared with my children the tremendous joy that I have to be a part of their lives, and the job that we share together in sharing our growth in Christ. I am grateful to share with them the significance of this milestone in their lives, and charged them that this is only the beginning of a lifelong journey, that there would be many ups and downs throughout their spiritual lives. But reminded them about a famous Puritan preacher, Richard Alleine, who told us that "The World (is) Conquered by the Faithful Christian," and that we are a part of this great battle that is occurring all around us everyday, remembering that we must take up our swords, which is the Word of God, which will give us encouragement and is the most powerful weapon in the hand of a diligent steward of the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

Pastor was excited to administer this sacrament to the children, sharing with them, and all the body, the importance of baptism as a public demonstration of God's grace in their lives. It was a tremendous encouragement to all the faithful.

We were elated to have a fellowship meal the following day, and the family was able to share together their first communion with the new professors also!

We provided a floral arrangement, demonstrating the blessed transformation that we experience, from a mixed bouquet (sinners), through the precious blood of our Savior (crimson roses), to the glorification of a redeemed family of God (white tulips). The cake also shared one of our favorite verses:

For by grace we have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Ephesians 2:8

Great Uncle and Aunt were on hand also, making a trip up to our neck of the woods, to celebrate this special day.

We did a little shopping for everyone so we could together share and communicate that we are clothed in Christ's righteousness, and it is by his stripes with which are healed.

May all men everywhere know that the Lord Jesus is able to save any man from his sin, and present them new to himself as a glorious creation forever worshipping his Redeemer, saved by the grace of God.

The righteous shall live by his faith!

Habakkuk 2:4

5/16/12

I wish I could tell you our new baby's name...

A new baby is here!

Exactly on time, and exactly perfect. I'll get around to posting the entire labor story when I am not sleep deprived, but here is the short version:

I had my 39 week appointment on Wednesday and my doc asked me if I wanted her to "get things started." I knew she'd be asking since she already told me that they don't like VBAC's going past 39 weeks, and I knew I'd be tempted to say yes. Since I was trying really hard to be patient, I brought all of my children to my appointment to hold me accountable ;~) and she agreed to let me wait another week.

Imagine my surprise then the next morning things started all on their own!

After arriving at the hospital too early, we left so I could labor more comfortably~ in the van.

We arrived back at the hospital in the perfect amount of time. No time at all! No iv, no monitors, no pressure gauges, no being forced to lay on my back in the bed. No doctor.

Just 12 minutes in the hospital and our baby arrived!

Can you read that scale? 9 pounds 12 ounces and 19 3/4 inches.

A whopping 2 pounds bigger than my previously biggest baby!

Hello Biggest Sister!

Baby is so big, the hat the Belle made is too small!

Yet another perfect detail, Dad was right by my side to welcome this new precious life.

So blessed!

And hello to biggest brother!

This baby is big and strong!

Baby's first morning in the Word with daddy.

All right, I'll tell you, we have a new baby GIRL! We kept the entire family in suspense because the children wanted to find out together if they had a new brother or sister. She was born at 4:42pm on Thursday and we were able to leave the hospital around 9:30 the very next morning. The children were at home eagerly awaiting the arrival and big reveal of their newest sibling. That will be another blog post.

Her birth was everything I wanted minus being at home~ every detail played out perfectly.

You will have to email me if you want to know her name... It's perfect, too.

3/20/12

Minus the Mustache...

This is the face of a Carrier Qualified Jet Pilot!

2/28/12

2 Birthdays Have Past

Guys. She needs a new nickname. Guys just doesn't suit her anymore.
She is such a lovely ~~little girl~~ young lady. She really is a young lady now and she is blossoming right before my eyes. Conversations with her are changing. Don't misunderstand, she can still talk the head off a sleeping chicken, but her understanding of the world around her is growing and deepening and it's impressive. Belle can usually be found behind a book, and is especially pleased when she also has a chicken on her lap while she is reading.

12 candles. My goodness.

Now she can listen to her books while holding her chicken. She likes that!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Butter got to celebrate early since daddy had to be in Florida for a few weeks.
The big 5! We didn't get through breakfast before Butter was asking if her tooth was going to fall out yet. Remember when she was two and she said "When I drow up and I'm free, my toof is dunna tum out!" ? I remember that post like it was yesterday.

She is still very much my "little mommy" and is known to make her little sister squeal from too much s~~mothering~~ loving, but she is learning to tone it down a bit.

Daddy had to be gone for her special day, but she was giddy with excitement when he called.

Happy Birthday Girls! I am so blessed to be your mama.

2/19/12

February 12, 2012 a day of Jubilee

$0.00

($x.xx) to $x.xx

These are some of my new favorite representations of being DEBT FREE!!! That's right you heard me, we are no longer slaves to our own foolishness. As Pa from 'Little House on the Prairie' says: “Only cash on the barrel.”

It has been quite a long and arduous journey for us to finally escape from the spending cycle that we got ourselves into. Many will remember the various extremes that we went through to escape, and there are so many friends and family who helped us along the way. Some helped with payments that had to be made on cars initially, others helped with showing us useful recipes to feed a large number of people. So many people were more that happy to help, when they realized that we were committed to a life of thrift. We really started making inroads to our debt when WE changed, and subsequently our spending desires changed as a result. Of course we still wanted to be able to go out and eat nice meals out in town, or buy some new clothes or games, but it took a diligent change of lifestyle to get the ball rolling.

We had already started on this journey when I read a friends copy of “Total Money Makeover” by D. Ramsey, and he mentioned something very pertinent to this subject. He discussed that money isn't just raw math where we pay off the highest interest rates first and move on down the line till we're done. This might be mathematically true, but its certainly not emotionally true, which, lets face it, is the crux of the matter when we are talking about making changes in the way we spend our money. We of course, didn't like our debt, and we had a budget that we followed...loosely...but we weren't committed in such a way that we were willing to make much more drastic changes to end the cycle of bad spending.

I am happy to report that we did start taking our budget much more seriously, and as we began making steps toward decreasing our debt we realized that this was in fact possible as we started claiming small victories. There were a few times where we felt the need to get fully committed, by taking such actions as: selling off all our “investments”, using our tax return towards our debt, and living in such simple conditions that we could be considered 'wacky' as we kept trudging along. Since 2008 we have paid $75,000 of principle! This includes the travel trailer that we purchased so that we could live at the RV park in Meridian. I don't know if I could figure out how much we paid in interest, but it still makes me sick to think about it.

There were various changes that we had to undergo as a family, and I believe that my wife's commitment to living under a budget was one of the most important aspects of our success. I will allow her the opportunity to share with you “How to live within your budget” so you can get her perspective As for me, I'm grateful that I could cast a vision for the goals of my family being debt free while remaining sensitive to their wants and needs. It's been a tremendous journey, and as we shared with the children, I pray they never go back to being slaves to lenders again!

Here is a link to the working spreadsheet, 'Debt Free Budget', that we used as an invaluable tool to help us set goals and allocate our living expenses while still aggressively paying off debt.

If there are questions about how to use it feel free to ask.

And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. (Exodus 13:14 ESV)

12/1/11

We had a couple birthdays...

Sis turned 7 and Pops turned 3 while I was on my blogging hiatus. Here are some pictures for you.

I was quite pleased that Sis requested Thai food for her birthday meal. I certainly can't make that, so we had a lovely visit at one of the many local Thai restaurants in town. She has good taste, YUM!

I requested an ice cream cake from a sweet friend, I have got to learn how to make these!

And for her gift, I sewed matching dresses for Sis and her doll. I loved making them, and plan to make more.

Sissy, you are turning into such a lovely young lady. Your compassion and affection for others is such a blessing! May your light shine for Christ always and may all who are in your presence be blessed!

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Pops got an impromptu party with a few friends, what a nice surprise!

We have a Cowboy-Jedi on our hands, watch out!

Pops was a bit overwhelmed by all of the excitement and attention that was on him, although extremely witty, he is actually quite shy. He is becoming an incredibly sweet and cheerful young man, and is forever making us laugh. Pops, may the virtue of cheerfulness be with you always, and may you seek the Lord with your whole heart!

Happy Birthday, Pops!