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Monday, December 27, 2010

Fa La La La La, La La, La, La

Christmas 2010 will go down in the books as a great celebration. We started the advent season by doing a Jesse Tree, which I highly recommend googling if you've never heard of it. They are advent readings each night leading up to Christmas. It really helped my older kids look at the big picture of the Bible. How Noah, Abraham, Rahab, John the Babtist, Mary etc., each played a part in leading to the Christ.

We took Rachel to see the Nutcracker this year. I think we have started a tradition because she LOVED it and is still walking around the house on her tip toes. I think we have to take Bennett and Ellie next year too. They would have enjoyed it as well.

We spent Christmas morning at home, opened Christmas stockings and let the kids play a while and fill up on candy while we were waiting for me to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast. No one was very hungry for them, but they were yummy this morning as leftovers!

We got to my parent's house at 11 and spent the day there, opening presents and eating WAY too much! Having small children and getting to watch their joy at each new gift is so much fun. They make for a great celebration.










1 comments:

Kendra said...

Hi there! I've never done this before, but I felt compelled to leave a message for you! It's 1am here in Canada and I'm writing because we've been wrestling with God since we were first married about the issue of birth control. We too, went off the pill shortly after we were married and became pregnant in fairly short order...I thought my world was ending b/c I had made the assumption that I would not get pregnant! I was a fairly new believer and had never explored the topic of birth control and what God has to say on the matter. However, after going back on the pill I felt the same restlessness in my spirit and we came back to the place of trusting God, based on all we had read in the Bible. Very long story short, after each baby we wrestled with God and for a short time I took the pill after each. By this time there were three and God surprised us with a fourth...I didn't even know I was expecting until I was 8 weeks along! After our last daughter was born I really began searching God about this, feeling a bit crazy because NO ONE in our circle of friends, or even our church talks about this subject. In fact when big families are talked about there is almost a hint of condemnation, like they should know better. This brings me to the reason I am standing here at (now)1:30am!! About a month ago I was in my van and I felt the Holy Spirit really speaking to me and I finally just said, "I am tired of fighting you, I want you will in every area of our lives. I don't want to look back and wonder if there would have been one more child in our family. I know you have a purpose for every person you bring into our family and that through motherhood you are refining me!" (I should mention that my husband had long ago decided that it was good to trust God!) Anyway, yesterday I recognized the signs of ovulation and immediately became fearful, "here's where the rubber meets the road," I said to God! I talked it over with my husband and he prayed and confessed to God our fear of what people think about us and how they may judge us. He repented for all the thoughtless words we've us when refering to children and how many He may give us. Then, as I was passing the computer, I decided to type in "trust god fertility" into the search engine (which btw, I've done countless times!) and your blog post from 2007 appeared! It was like reading my own story, though, so far, the Lord has spared us from the grief of miscarriage. So I wanted to thank you for your candidness and willingness to be vulnerable because your words from four years ago ministered to my heart! Life with Jesus truly is the great adventure and with obedience comes excitement about what He will do in our lives. I'm realizing more and more that when Jesus talked about the narrow road and it being hard to find, it's usually my pride that's in the way of me walking the narrow road. I hope I don't sound self-righteous because I also realize that the Lord reveals this to some before others, and it's my prayer that our life may inspire others to seek out the narrow road. I must remember that He is a loving Father and that He has plans to "prosper me and not to harm me, to give me a future and a hope!"
So blessings to you and your (growing perhaps!) family. May God contiue to strengthen and encourage you as you mother your little ones!
Kendra from Canada