Ten is a Beautiful Number

OK, I can’t keep quiet any longer!

I have known for a whole week!   The news has leaked out here in Alaska but now we are going public.  I found out two days AFTER my hubby left.  It would have been nice to celebrate together. I would have known sooner but just misread the physical symptoms as pre-deployment stress.   Obviously, that was not the case.  I can now literally say my I have my hands full.

Baby number ten is on the way.

I am feeling pretty good so far considering how sick I usually am.  I am nauseous, sleepy, having a few migraines, and I can no longer stand the taste of my regular diet coke, but thankfully that is all.  Of course, that is ALWAYS open to change!  I would love not to have months of the usual vomiting and dry heaving though!

We already have a boy’s name and have narrowed our girl name down to three.  Due date as of now is November 23.  We will be having a very thankful Thanksgiving!

Psalm 127:1a Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Psalm 139:13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,the days that were formed for me,when as yet there was none of them.

Praise the Lord with us! And please pray for our family.

Prayer Filled Stars

Several months ago as I began to anticipate and prepare for this deployment, I began to pray for a meaningful way to count the days away.   On our first deployment we put up a paper chain.  One link for each day and took one off each evening.  That was a visible way to do things and one that the younger children can easily understand.  The chain worked pretty well but was draped all over the house and sometimes was too much of a reminder.  It was however easy to adjust the number of rings in case the dates changed.  It didn’t serve much of a purpose other than counting down though and I wanted something more substantial.

I had someone tell me that what they did was get a large jar and put enough Hershey’s Kisses in them for each child to have one each day.  When the jar was empty, dad should be home.  It was also easy to adjust the number if days changed.  I have so many people in our household that I would need to buy stock in Hershey’s to make it worth while!  That would be A LOT of chocolate (even for me).  A kiss for daddy has a little more meaning than just paper chains I suppose but it isn’t what I was longing for.

I continued to prayer that the Lord would show me what to do.  I am not the most creative person in the world and nothing was coming to mind!

Then one night the Lord woke me from a sound sleep and this idea was running through my mind.  For several minutes I willed myself to not forget in the morning.  Sadly, I often do forget things by morning.  I did remember but forgot to mention to hubby and eventually over the following days the thought vanished from my mind.  I knew I had forgotten something great and prayed that I would remember.  The Lord woke me a few more times from sleep in the following weeks and reminded me of the same idea.

I mentioned this to my hubby and he thought it was a wonderful idea too.   So we went with it.  Let me explain how we are counting away the days.

One thing I would like to mention is that one of the ways daddy will be greatly missed around here is at bedtime.  Bedtime is daddy’s job.  He prays with each child before bed.  That is just daddy’s job.

What we have done is purchased enough die cut stars for each day that daddy will be gone.  They will be easy to adjust if the dates change a bit.  They do not take up too much room and are neatly stuck on the wall in the corner of the hallway.  They are visible but not “in your face” for a too constant reminder.  We will take one down each night before bedtime for our countdown.  Here is the blessing part.  Since daddy is the one who prayers with the children at bedtime and that will be sorely missed, we have written a prayer on the back of each one.  Daddy wrote some before he left and I wrote some.  They are prayers for him, for us, for leaders, for giving thanks, for the cars to not break down, and just about anything we could think of that we would need prayer for during this separation.  There is meaning and substance now included rather than just counting the days away.  It helps to fill a void that is there because daddy is gone.  The Lord is so good to show us this.

So here is a photo of our hallway corner with approximately 200 prayer filled stars.

One Big Sea Lion

On our latest visit to the Alaska Sea Life Center we had a great time playing with the sea lions!

Wanna Kiss?

Hello there buddy!

Tag, your it!

Spunkiness Defined

Happy birthday to my middle child!  She turns 12 today.  She is spunkiness defined.  She is the life of the party and the one to make everyone laugh.  She is silly, crazy, and just a little bit strange!  She is also full of love, tenderness, and laughter.  Happy birthday sweetheart, we love you!

An Escapee from Crabville

Image by Vanessa Pike-Russell via Flickr

My middle daughter has a hermit crab.  She takes great care of it and has enjoyed it so much that her brother decided that he would like to have one too.  The other day we headed for the pet store.  He really needed to get all of the supplies first but his sister decided to be gracious and said his crab could bunk with hers.  He was very excited as he picked out Jack and brought him home.  He placed Jack into his new home with his sister’s crab and assumed all would be well.

His sister’s crab seemed a bit territorial.  He climbed all over the other crab.  As the afternoon progressed and friends called to play they crabs were left on their own unsupervised.

Later that day when my daughter checked in on her crab and his new room mate, Jack, she was surprised to only find Jack occupying the tub.  Her crab was gone!  As far as she knew, he couldn’t get out.  That apparently was a false assumption.

We looked and looked.  While she was already planning to get a new crab to replace hers, all I could think of was the stench that would come when he died and we eventually found him in the house somewhere.

As the thought of the possibility of finding a decaying crab in the days or weeks to come and where that may end up being replayed in my mind, I decided to go for another look.  I was on my hands and knees looking in every nook and cranny.  When I finally decided to give up once again, I placed my hand on the corner of my daughter’s dresser.  I jumped and screamed as little legs moved.  Her crab was clinging under the lip of her dresser top.  Now I HATE spiders and let me tell you, crab legs greatly resemble large spider legs when found in a place they do not belong.  I was actually so shaken that I had to find another child to pick him up and place him back in his home.

Each crab will have its own living quarters tomorrow and hopefully there will be no more escapes from Crabville!

Praying for Barb

A while back I mentioned a friend who is dealing with a brain tumor.  Here is an update and I ask that you lift their family up in prayer.  Her tumor is back and about half the size it was when she had surgery.  Her strange symptoms are returning and the cancer is also into the brain now not just the tumor.  They are looking at last resort medicines now.  Her family has also been very sick lately with her son being admitted to the hospital for a short time.  Please lift them up in prayer and all of those whose lives they touch.