Giving Thanks to God for Many Blessings

Just relaxing this morning (because Thanksgiving dinner isn't at my house today) and thinking of all the things I'm thankful for. My cousin M wrote down her list, and that inspired me to write my own, as well as post it on the fridge for those days when I'd rather gripe than be thankful to God for all the blessings that come only from His hand. In no particular order:
1. Salvation through Christ, full and free
2. My loving, patient, caring, considerate husband
3. My eldest sensitive, cuddly, thoughtful son
4. My younger spunky, lively, makes-you-laugh (and cry alot too) all the time son
5. Extended loving friends and family
6. A warm house in the winter
7. Good food to eat and no worries about not having enough
8. A healthy pregnancy thus far
9. Stable work and pay for my husband to provide for our needs
10. The ability to stay at home with my kids
11. Biblical guidance in training up our children
12. Forgiveness for my failures and shortcomings
13. Reliable vehicles to drive
14. Overall good health of family and friends
15. Good music, tea, warm baths, candles and all those little things that brighten my days

I pray that I can continually remember these things, as well as many more blessings we receive each day and forget to give thanks for.

Life as a Parent

I just thought I'd write a few lines on how ironic it is, that every time I schedule something, someone gets sick and I have to cancel. How does sickness know you have plans? I recall missing a choir concert recently, last years Christmas program, having company last week for our yearly Christmas girls function. Somehow, either I end up ill (like this time, so I couldn't even blame anyone) or one of the kids just happens to show up with illness at the last minute. It likely is also because we try to keep busy in the winter, so schedule lots of stuff, and then eat junk and end up with low immunity because of all the sugar and lack of sleep...but it still seems unfair. Oh well... I do wonder if I should ever make plans for my life again. Maybe I should just never have company and never make any commitments, to remove that disappointment that comes when we have to cancel....but then again, that'd be pretty boring too. Even moreso than the anticipation of looking forward to fun things and then having to stay home and staring at the walls. Spring will come again someday...and hopefully with it health and a healthy new baby to look forward to.

thoughts on adoption

Just recently some friends of ours found out they were going to be parents through adoption, after much time waiting. The baby was to be born the end of December, and the wife had gone to prenatal checkups with the birth mother, as well as met with her prior to this, as she (birth mom) had chosen them to be the parents for her baby. Well, they got a surprise a couple weeks ago when the mom went into labor 2 months early, so they are suddenly parents now (much to their happiness but also surprise). Baby is doing well and should be released soon, but it got me thinking about our spiritual adoption. In natural adoption, once a child is adopted, there is no going back. That child is yours for the rest of your life. You can't disown them (as you can a natural born child), but they are yours forever. We as Gentiles are adopted into the kingdom of heaven when we believe, and this is a promise that can't be taken away. I think of that song A Child of a King "I've been adopted, my name's written down; an heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown." We sure don't deserve it, but the promise is there, that whoever believes on Him, will have eternal life. Not just the chosen people, or the good people, or the ones with the right genetics. Galations 4 says "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, than an heir of God through Christ." What a wonderful promise!!

the un-excitement of the week

Not much on my mind today, but do feel a great deal better than yesterday, or the day before. On Wednesday I had my first prenatal appointment, and the only slot they had open was 8:30 am. Fine for me, but I have 2 boys that I have worked on getting them to sleep until that time for my own benefit. Not only that, but I needed to talk to the financial counsellor before the appointment, making me have to be there at 8. So, I faithfully make up some pb&j sandwiches and milk cups for the boys, wake them and plunk them directly in their car seats and drive off to town. I get there right at 8 (and you moms know how hard it is to actually get somewhere on time) and tell them what the deal is, and they tell me to just wait as S (her name) isn't in yet. I wait, and wait, and wait, and then find out she had a meeting today and won't be in until afternoon.(she did call and apologize that afternoon, so she's forgiven) So, they are late getting me back for the appointment, so I have sat a total of an hour in the waiting room with 2 tired (but happy, thankfully) boys when we all could have been sleeping. Oh, did I mention that I had 'slept' half the night in the LazBoy with James as he was already not feeling well and was tossing and turning and crying if he wasn't in my lap? Needless to say waiting that long would have been fine any other day, but today? I just didn't need that. The appointment went fine from then on, and my due date is officially April 23, so we'll see what actually happens. To add to the excitement, Tuesday Luke had the flu, and Thursday James awoke in the night with it. At least they both didn't have it at the same time, because two puking kids would just be bad news. Luke is luckily old enough to handle it pretty good, but James still needs alot of assistance. And although I've dealt with my share of sickness in my nursing career (think of the Mesa ER with all it's old people and post-op surgery floors -full of puking), I still don't handle it too well. It all started when I was a pretty new nurse and a sweet old man was coughing and I handed him a Kleenex and at that exact moment he coughed so hard he threw up into my gloveless hand. I've just never been the same. (my apologies to those of a weak stomach) ;) I did get our budget figured and honed in this week, so now the challenge is to live by it!! That'll be the hard part, but I know will pay off (Greg had to turn down an offer for a hand made Nicarauguan (sp?) guitar that he wanted the first day we were on track, but I'm sure we'll survive, we just had to laugh at the irony of it) Not that we needed a guitar, as neither of us even know how to play. Definitely not a necessity.

Busy Saturday wanderings

Yesterday I feel like was just a whirlwind, so today was spent recovering and napping. We arose early to get Greg's truck running (parked at the bottom of our driveway and needed push-started to get going) so that he could get the starter replaced at a friends house. (the friend needed to borrow it and offered to fix it in payment of using). So, Greg got going early and I continued getting ready for being gone all day with the boys being babysat all day. So I then got the boys out the door in the nick of time, delivered to Auntie J's house, and kept on trucking to get Greg to head to the Rose Garden to see Dave Ramsey(http://www.daveramsey.com/). We missed our parking exit, and ended up on one of Portland's many bridges, and had to meander back again, verging on late because of the mishap. So, finally able to stop running and just sit, we sat all day (1-6) and got very excited about cracking down on all debt, which is his main schpeil (sp?). Living in our means and not buying things we can't afford (if you don't have the money, don't buy it). He's quite inspirational, and his methods are so basic that anyone with a some discipline can follow them. He says you have to be weird (to expect to not have mortgage is definitely weird in this day and age), so I guess we can expect some weirdness in our future. He encourages cutting up of all credit cards, using cash (which is hard to do, as we've already been trying it, but it works) and only using debit cards when necessary (you spend way more when you use debit rather than cash). So, hopefully we can implement what we've learned and then prayerfully be more able to help others in need instead of giving all our money to banks (who may 'need' it, but it sure isn't a good investment or a blessing to God) Anyways, then we headed back to Uncle R & Auntie J's house and had wonderful soup for supper and a great visit before tiredly heading home. Thankfully we got another hour of sleep due to daylight savings time change. Today we came home from church, napped and now are ready to eat some apple pie that Greg has been requesting all fall (and summer and spring and finally gets).