Freedom Writers

I think it's sad how in our society there are "throw-away people". What I mean is that there are people we think it would be too hard to help. Sometimes it's the alcoholic or drug addict. Sometimes it's the tenth homeless man begging for money you see on your way to a Tigers' game. Sometimes it's the orphan in another country. Sometimes it's the murderer on death row. The thing is, we all have some of that in each of us. As humans we are all sinful, hopeless and poor. Praise the Lord that He has rescued us from that. Here's a question: Say there are 3 homeless men that know each other and live on the streets together. They have lived on the streets together their whole lives and they all know what a terrible life it is and what each other struggles with every day. Now, one of the men gets a dollar as a hand out and buys a lotto ticket. He wins 20 million dollars. When he gets that 20 million he goes and buys a huge house, tons of great stuff and has a grand ole time because he has never had anything in his whole life. He gets plastic surgery, new teeth and a bunch of rich friends who don't know his past. He never talks to his 2 homeless friends again. He still knows what they are going through but chooses to forget them to go on to his new lifestyle. Do we judge him? I mean, he sounds like a pretty crappy friend to me. He sounds a little bit like me too though. I mean, I went from having nothing, being a crappy sinful human being with no love or salvation, to having the grace of God. Jesus Christ died for my salvation and I'm keeping it all to myself. I think a lot of us do that. Thanks Jesus for the gift... It's super! And then we just keep right on moving. We have more than we could ever ask or imagine and we still don't share it with others. We pick and choose who is good enough for the gospel and decide who needs to know. We would never say that but it's true. I'm going to try to be more open to God's calling this week. Who knows what could happen?! Maybe we could all do the same?

Gardening

One of my new hobbies is gardening. I love planting things and seeing them grow. New life is so beautiful. I have lovely gardens around my yard and they're almost all planted. I can't wait for the flowers and vegetables to all come up. I feel like a cute stay-at-home mom that loves to scrapbook and garden. (Maybe it sounds lame but I love it!) I can't wait to can and freeze the vegetables we don't eat and I especially can't wait for my zucchini to come up! I LOVE cooking with zucchini! I'm so thankful that God let us have a part in this miracle. Eric and I went out the other night and pruned back all of our trees. It was a lot of fun. We are really starting to love doing yard work and being outside together nurturing our gardens. It's such a joyful hobby.

I took a nap.

I couldn't stick with the plan.

Schedule

So I'm trying to get more on a schedule. Poor Eric has to get up at 6:00 every morning and I'm a total night owl. I could easily be up until 2:30am cleaning, working and doing projects every day. BUT that means my husband is exhausted (which is usually how it goes). Therefore I need to get to bed earlier. My plan of attack is to start waking up at 6:00 every morning with him and not taking a nap all day so I'm tired enough for bed at a reasonable time at night.

Right now I hate my plan.

My baby's eyes

Yesterday morning I went to a women's bible study on Esther with my mom. It was an awesome study with awesome women. After the bible study, a woman asked if she could hold Zechariah. As she was holding him she could not get over how precious he is. She kept saying that there was something different about his eyes. She said that they don't sparkle, they shine. After a little bit she realized what was so beautiful about them. She said "When I look into his eyes I see Jesus." She told him that God has a calling on his life and that "You can always tell when a baby is loved." She also said that he is filled with the Lord.

That's some pretty cool stuff to hear about your baby.

I love Jesus.

My Husband

Eric's a great guy. Pretty much anyone that knows Eric (at least in the time that I've known him), loves him. He's genuine, real, sweet and passionate. He's a great guy and a great person. Recently though, he's graduated to a new level of awesomeness. He's now more than just an awesome husband and father, he's becoming an amazing Christian. He believed before but he's now submersing himself in Christ and it's beautiful. He's becoming a spiritual leader in our home and is teaching me so much about the Lord. I am the most blessed woman in the world.

Belly Button Miracle

So I've been meaning to blog about this for a while now and I'm finally getting around to it. When Zechariah's umbilical stump fell off, the inside part of his belly button was sticking out (it kind of looked like an "outie"). It oozed stuff too. I didn't think anything of it and someone said it would go away so I didn't worry. At his 2 month appointment though it was still there so I asked the doctor if it was OK. He got a concerned look on his face when he saw it and he said it was an umbilical hernea and we needed to keep a close eye on it. He said if anything changed or if it turned red we needed to call him right away. Eek! That's scary for a mom.

Well, after that appointment I started keeping an eye on it. I had to come in a few days later for his shots because he wasn't quite two months for the first appointment. When I came in I showed the nurse that it was still oozing (I hadn't mentioned that to the doctor because I forgot) and asked her if that was bad. She said I needed to get an appointment right away. I came in the next day to see the doctor again and he said I needed to get an appointment with a pediatric surgeon. I got an appointment for the following Thursday. Two days later I went to change his diaper in the morning and the hernea was bright red (I think it was filled with blood). I called and told the nurse what it looked like and she put me on hold. When she got back on the phone she said the doctor said to come in right away. (Very scary!) Our doctor and another doctor looked at it and called the surgeon's office and got me an earlier appointment but it still wouldn't be until Tuesday.

Over the next few nights and into the weekend we spent a lot of time praying for his belly button to heal. It continued to look the same and we were scared. I was imagining my little baby with IVs in and a gas mask on for surgery and I could hardly handle the thought. On Saturday morning I changed his diaper and it was still unchanged. A few hours later I went to change his diaper and it was completely gone. COMPLETELY GONE! It wasn't going away, getting smaller or changing... It was just gone! God healed his belly button and was so gracious to do it quickly so we couldn't explain it in any other way. The nurse told me to keep my appointment with the surgeon so I went to see him. Here's how the conversation went:

"So, what's the problem here?"
"Well, he had an umbilical hernea but..."
"No he didn't."
"Well, he did but it's gone now."
"No he didn't. They don't just heal like that."
"Well I prayed and it did."
"Well, whatever. Either way, his belly button looks just like it should. It's perfectly healthy and there's nothing wrong with it."

Praise the Lord!

I told my doctor what happened and he said... "Power of prayer!" "You and I know what we saw." It's awesome to have a doctor who loves the Lord and believes in his unfailing power and promises.

Mother's Day

For my first mother's day presents Zechariah got me a picture frame with 8 pictures of him in it and Eric framed and matted (it took him 4 hours) a 20"x30" print of a close up of Zechariah's face. It was beautiful. I love my family.

My Tree

So I have this beautiful tree in my side yard. I don't know what kind it is but it looks a little like a weeping willow. It flowered only for a few days but it was the most beautiful sight! My friend Kim came over a few weeks ago and showed me that on the trunk of the tree a bunch of shoots were sprouting off and starting to grow and she told me that I need to prune those all away because they will suck the energy and nutrients from the top of the tree which will keep it from growing tall and healthy.

This thought and a sermon I heard last night got me thinking about how God prunes things away in our lives. It's different for everyone and sometimes we hold on to the dead clipping with everything we have. Sometimes it's excruciatingly painful and sometimes it's like bricks lifted from our shoulders. But it's always good. Sometimes it's God pruning away the dead shoots like sin, strongholds, evil thoughts and the like. Sometimes though, God is pruning away things that are good so we have more energy for His highest and best calling. Sometimes God prunes away money, jobs, people, hobbies, interests, activities or even ministries. He takes away the distractions so that all we have can go to completing our heavenly purpose.

I'm in a mom's bible study once a week and one of the things we've really been focusing on is simplifying life. Getting rid of the excess so we can focus on what God has for us. I'm trying to simplify my possessions. I don't need that box of clothes that is in the attic (none of which I've worn in at least a year) and we certainly don't need the boxes of DVDs and CDs that we will never watch or listen to again. I've simplified my activities a lot but all our "stuff" is next on the list. Time for more pruning! Bring it Lord! I will try to be ready! (I'm not sure if I should have said that but here goes!)