Little Survivalist

Bethy, our six year old has an addiction. She loves Man vs. Wild. I can't say I share that love, but that's not the point, I guess. Shane likes it and has been watching it via Netflix. Bethany is engrossed by it and is asking good questions. Hey, and she's learning what plants are edible in case she's ever stranded in a remote jungle.

Actually, I suspect Bethany likes Man vs. Wild because her Daddy does. Ashlyn formed a love for football for the same reason. I think it's sweet. Well, except when Man (I don't even know his name, I just make fun of the way he talks!) eats raw fish or something. Then it's just gross and I wonder if we're messing up our six year old's mind by letting her watch it.

Oh well, she's bonding with her Daddy...gotta love that!

Proofers Needed

Okay, I was surfing the web and came across some shirts I'd like you to check out. Any of these just not seem right to you?

 
You can also see a Grandma model wearing a shirt that says, "We're expecting our first baby boy" and a baby wearing a shirt that says he'd rather be assisting a birth! Just enjoy a laugh today, courtesy of  www.razzle.com/childbirth+tshirts.

Miracle (Warning: graphic photo)

We had a baby dedication ceremony Sunday at church. All babies born in 2008 and 2009 were invited to be a part. It was sweet to have Audrey there. One of the promises we as parents made in front of our church family was to remember our children are  special gifts. Shane and I spoke later about what we were thinking in that moment.

This is what was on our minds:

 

  This is my placenta from my fourth pregnancy. It was a successful VBAC with an post term baby. You can see in the photo of a finger pointing at a knot. That's what we were thinking about. We have another set of pictures from Audrey's birth with a similar picture of a knotted cord.

Knotted cords can be fatal. Imagine your child's oxygen and food supply threatened for weeks and weeks while mom and dad continue on without a clue! Babies' cords knot way before the end of the pregnancy; they knot when babies still have the freedom to use it as a jump rope. Thankfully, neither of our daughters' cords knotted during pregnancy, although Audrey's may have tightened during labor, sending us for an emergency Cesarean birth. This is a very present part of our lives. We think about it on a weekly basis, even though our knotted cord babies are ages 3 and 1!

Having children so narrowly escape death has made us especially thankful for their little lives. It's helped us have grace for our little tornado Jaika.

The reality is, and I've said this here before, is that all of us have escaped death, probably narrowly as well. Who knows how many times God protected us from being in an fatal car accident by placing us behind a farmer on a John Deere (happens in this rural area all the time!)?

All of us are fearfully and wonderfully made, with a purpose put before us by a Holy God. Your life is precious and has meaning. May your heavenly Father confirm that in your heart today.

Physical Therapy for Mommas

I've come upon a of new-to-me resource I want to pass on to all my mom readers. I'm really excited to discover a physical therapist with a women's health specialty. Even my smallish rural hospital has a couple of women with this expertise. They are trained to help women with our unique physical challenges that can stem from simply being female. For example, if a woman is having a lot of lower back pain during pregnancy, a physical therapist like I described can help her ease her pain and hopefully keep it at bay. I love this!

Of course, I'm really loving the whole idea of physical therapy right now, as I'm benefiting from my treatments greatly! I have what I've described as "Mommy Neck and Shoulders" where my neck and shoulders are so tight, my nerves are getting compressed. PT has really done wonders, much to my surprise. I thought I was going to have to have surgery for my carpal tunnel like symptoms.

Something that really helped me was to read a sign on the PT room wall. It ready, "You don't have to live with pain." I have been living with lower back pain just because I thought I had to. I thought it was just weak abs from having a second Cesarean. I was already benefiting from the therapy on my neck and shoulders, so why fix that only to live with lower back pain? I mentioned it to my PT and we are going to address it as soon as my neck is healed. I'm so excited!

I know, I'm a little bit of a nerd, but so what? I am so blessed that PT is solving my hand issues, and quickly, too! I'm also blessed that my PT doctor says a massage or two would help me, too! I've had one so far (my first ever!) and there's not much better than a 45 minute deep tissue massage ordered by my doctor! No guilt!

Seriously, if you are a momma in pain, don't live with it. There's no reason to! You don't deserve it, even if it's a result of bad habits (mine is probably from carrying babies on my hip and having poor posture). There's no time like now to tackle those habits and the pain.

Besides, there might be a massage in it for you, too-and even if there's not, at least PT time means an hour or so out of the house sans children! I just pretend it's a spa treatment (where I have to work a bit, but hey, it's better than changing diapers)!

"I want to live like I was 70 yesterday...

and God gave me a chance to live all my younger days..."

The lyrics to a GS Megaphone song go something like that. It's inspirational for me. Even more inspirational is seeing it done in real life. At my doula training, our ages came up. One of the women was 57 and she soon learned she wasn't the only one nearing her sixth decade-one other trainee and our trainer were all about the same age.

It's one thing for a woman well established in  her career, like our trainer, to be mature and still learning, but how about someone becoming a doula at age 57? Isn't that great?

I know there are challenges. I was whining at the training about needing to sift through all my breastfeeding knowledge to sort out what's dated and what's valid. My more mature friends have years worth of information to sort through! The key is they aren't hindered by it; they keep plugging away anyway!

I want to keep learning until I'm six feet under. I want to instill that love for learning into my children. That's one reason we love Sonlight. We also try to live a life of discovery as a family, always sharing what we're learning, especially about science since we have a science geek daddy in the house! We take the time to explain things to our kids. Just today Bethany and I were driving through new road contruction and we talked about what the workers were doing with all the rocks they were digging up and why they couldn't just leave them in the ground.

What's out there you want to do before you're "too old" (whatever that means)? Well, hop to it, friend!

When God is Silent

Last year at this time God let me down. Big time. Is it okay to say that without fear of a lightening strike? I believe so, but I've been tempted to save face for God's sake. Of course, he doesn't really need my help with his public relations, so I'm just going to be real about it.

In my last post, I talked about asking God for help. There are times when he doesn't help like we want him to. Last year we had (like we usually do) several pieces of property in which we must pay taxes on. I knew the tax money was not in our budget. I prayed. I know God clothes the lily of the valley, and he knows if one sparrow falls. He wants us to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's so I knew he wanted us to pay the taxes. No brainer, just trust God, right? Well, I did. I knew worry wouldn't make money appear in my bank account and that we'd spent wisely yet still didn't have the necessary funds due at the end of January. So, I fully expected God to come through by January 31st.

Well, he didn't. And it hurt.

I was confused. My pride was hurt. I didn't want to pay penalties. Perfectionists don't pay penalties.

Okay, it's not like we were getting hauled to tax court or anything, and when we got or income tax refund, we paid them all in full, no problem. But what about my faith? Where was God?

I've felt let down all year. I read scripture about God rescuing his people, about him providing and something in my heart said, "Yeah, but not for us, not for my family...He's forgotten us (remember we've had land on the market for over a year...when it sells our lives will be perfect, ya know)."

Yet I learned last week that God was silent for over 400 years in the Old Testament. The silence of God is an age old question, not just something I alone have felt (which is what the devil would like me to believe).

We can hold fast to his promises that he will never leave us or forsake us, even if we don't feel like he's with us, he says he is. He does not change. He's the same God if he's speaking to us or not. Someone giving me wise counsel said to me, "Wendy, Satan may have wanted to mess with you and God said, 'Go ahead, take her out and play with her a while, she'll still be mine when you're done.'"

Well, now, that sounds like a challenge to me! A challenge is always the way to motivate me! I am challenged to be God's girl no matter what games Satan is trying to play with me. I want to be known as the woman who still stood firm in her knowledge of Who's she is.

Guess who's budget doesn't have enough funds for taxes this January? Satan vs Wendy, round two!

It's okay, we know Who's side wins in the end, don't we!

Doula Wendy

So, I thought I'd let you know where I am today. I'm not home...I'm not even typing this today, I've typed it up ahead of time so you won't start bugging me with being on Facebook too much instead of blogging! I'm not even on Facebook...I'm being trained as a doula!

This Thursday, Friday and Saturday is the training required for doula certification through DONA International. I can't believe this week is finally here! I'd like to share how it came to be.

Last summer, I realized I am now in a season of life where I can become a doula, or professional childbirth assistant. My youngest child is our last child and she's old enough to do without me for longer stretches of time. Shane's job has changed to have much better hours and my oldest girls can help watch the younger ones for a short while if a sitter isn't available right away. We could also use the money and birth is a passion of mine.

So I started checking into training, but they were all in south Texas. The trainings cost about $350,  plus travel expenses...then what would I do with Audrey, who is still nursing? Leave her for four days and hope my milk supply lasted? Take my whole family to stay in the hotel so I can have access to her? There was no solution.

I prayed and prayed for a solution.

Finally I had the idea (not of my origin, I assure you) to call trainers in the Dallas area to see if they'd conduct a training. There are two and one of them said she would be glad to! Not only that, but that holding it nearer to my home might even allow women from Oklahoma to attend. The trainer (who is also a believer) asked me to be the "hostess" in which I do most of the footwork for it in exchange for free tuition! My heart was jumping for joy when she asked that! God did indeed provide. I am certain that as you read this, He is providing even more blessings-top notch training and the initiation of potentially long term friendships with other trainees. Isn't he good?

Next time you think you have a problem too big to solve, ask him for help! He's your number one fan after all!

Everyone's got something...

Have you heard the great new song, "Perfect People"? There's no such thing as perfect people... the lyrics go.

I read not long ago on anther blog that everyone has one area they don't have together (I'd add that it's at least one!). If every time you visit their home it's perfectly clean and tidy, you can guess their bedroom is a mess or their checkbook isn't balanced. We, of course, like to assume if their home looks good, their entire lives must be perfect and we, by comparison, must be failures.

I think this can be especially true for homeschooling moms. We have to constantly fight the idea that all the other homeschool moms have it together and we're the only one with messy houses, rebellious kids, and stacks of unused curriculum.

Are you ready for some freedom? I am personally realizing I've been believing a lot of lies. I believe this year may be my year to seek out what those lies are and expose them to the light of day. It promises to be an exciting journey!

In December, as I was thinking of Mary and Joseph and the baby Messiah, it occurred to me that Mary and Joseph should have been the perfect parents. I mean, think of the pressure to raise the world's redeemer! The Perfect One! Yet, God purposefully chose to place his gift to the world into a sinful family.

I can assume Mary may have raised her voice. She may have become impatient. Maybe she showed favoritism (and who wouldn't hold up their sinless child as their favorite!). Joseph may have been harsh, or too soft. He may have struggled to be the spiritual leader in their home. Can you imagine being the spiritual leader to the Christ? Whatever the struggles Mary and Joseph faced, we can know God was not surprised by them. He knew their weaknesses and sinful appetities before they were formed. And he chose them anyway. He chose them to parent his Holy Son.

Just like he's chosen you to fit into your family. The husband you're supposed to be married to is the one you are currently married to, and the children you have were chosen for you. The circumstances of your life are not an accident, nor are they so unique that God can't give you victory over the challenges.

Pray God will open your eyes to truth, exposing the lies your hearts been suckered into living by. These are often subtle, but once exposed are actually quite alarming! I pray as you walk in truth, the weight of the lies will fall from your shoulders. It is for freedom He set us free!