Thursday, November 29, 2007

20 Weeks - We had the gender determining sonogram today, and ........

We'd be happy either way it went right? Although some little one told me she was praying in the car on the way to the doctor's office for her personal choice!

So dad made it over from work, to witness the results (it worked out great that his job is only 5 minutes away). It's funny that we found out this time and not with baby 2. I guess we just couldn't take going through that suspense again.

We all sat there in the office and watched while the ultrasound technician rolled the little camera thingy around my tummy until she got to the area of revelation!

And the results are
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

86% of those who responded in the the poll which was included in the previous post were


.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

RIGHT!!


Older Big Brother and Sister are totally excited and so are we. I admit I was a little nervous, thinking man I'm thinking too much about what it would be like to be "even", to have two sets, to have equal testosterone (if that's even possible) around the house so he's not outnumbered by a bunch of doll houses and pretty clothes!!!! Of course I'd be happy either way but this makes things really fun.

Oh and Jeoff just reminded me that this is what happens when you have one who came from a family of four girls and another who came from a family of four boys.

You gotta get two boys and two girls. Did we learn that in Biology or some other science class?

Anyway....


Thank you for having fun with us and participating in the poll!!





As far as names go, Big Sister 1 has been suggesting the name, Samuel, since 2005 but that didn't happen since the baby ended up being a girl.

So Samuel is still in the running. We don't have any other choices yet.

Suggestions? Let me know. It definitely has to have significant meaning.

Oh yeah, here's a development update.

Speak son....

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Very interesting...

.... from EthicsDaily.com, June 2006

Following are several excerpts

(Ted Seago) came up with a model called the "family integrated church," where Christians worship, learn and pray as families. Church is a place where believers come together for corporate worship, but the teaching of theology and doctrine to children is centered in the home.

"When you're talking about a family integrated church, you're just looking at a church that has brought everything back under the guidance of the family," Seago said.

In their church, Fathers ..serve communion to their families and pray over them. When a child becomes old enough to accept Christ, Seago's invitation is not for them to walk the aisle but to discuss it at home with their parents. Dads baptize their children.

Grace Community teaches that fathers are to be the spiritual leaders of their home. In the family integrated church, no adult except the parent is a significant influence
on a youth's spiritual life.

"Men are called to lead their families," Seago said. "They are the priest of the home."

Women are instructed in "biblical" roles for wives, including remaining in the home during their child-rearing years. A lot of the women members have college degrees but choose to "put work aside in this season of their life" so they can be home with
their children.

Families stay together for Bible studies, worship and fellowship, though optional childcare is provided for younger children and babies. It is not acceptable for a child to sit outside the family. If a child visits without a mom or dad, he or she sits with another family. "We do everything together as a family," Seago said. "We don't
separate."

Church members eat together every Sunday in a "fellowship meal."

Started by five home schooling families 14 months ago, today there are about 50 families in Grace Community Church. Members include Voddie Baucham, an author
and conference leader who in 2005 co-sponsored a Southern Baptist Convention
resolution contending that parents, and not the government, are responsible for
educating their children.

"Leading our own children to Christ, that's our greatest mission field," Seago said. "If you have children at home, that's your mission field. That's your small-group ministry."

While the model appeals most naturally to families with children, several older women, mostly widows, have joined, as have some younger single men. Several older couples have visited and decided the church wasn't for them.

While all the current families homeschool, Seago is hoping to reach some more
"non-home schooling families that we can minister to."

by Bob Allen, managing editor of EthicsDaily.com

Monday, November 26, 2007

Please vote in the new poll!



I would appreciate your input. See the question in the top right corner and let me know what you think? Will it be a boy or a girl?

Also, enter a comment on this post, if you want to make your vote public!





Other topics and categories on this blog:

Thankfulness

Imari's Article in the Newspaper

Baby Update

Toddler Discipline

Chaos, Qualor, Filth (Clean that house!)

Homeschool

Women

Is Christianity Decreasing in America?

Children

Marriage

Childbirth

Voddie Baucham

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thankful

What am I thankful for?

In addition to the list below, I am extremely thankful to God for the opportunity that I now have to be home with my children. It is not something that I can say I've hoped for during all my time of motherhood. It is a desire that I grew to have, as Jeoff and I grew in our marriage and as parents. When we began to have the desire to have me home, we didn't know how in the world it would be possible! The biggest reason for this was debt, and spending money that should have gone toward debt repayment, paying cash for things instead of borrowing fort it, etc. etc. etc.

The job he has now pays almost 3 times what he made a year and a half ago!

God is good and He is faithful!!! And I am thankful!

My thankful list:
  • Life! Abundantly.... (To live is Christ and to die is gain)
  • The opportunity to be home and provide the primary instruction and influence to our children throughout the day
  • A wonderful husband
  • 3 beautiful children
  • A great family (mothers, father, sisters, cousins, etc.)
  • 1 cutie pie baby on the way
  • Great friends
  • The influence of great churches and great spiritual leaders

Imari's Article in the newspaper - Away from the game: Cedar Hill's Imari Thompson



06:38 PM CST on Wednesday, November 21, 2007

By RANDY JENNINGS / The Dallas Morning News
rjennings@dallasnews.com

Athletes who distinguish themselves away from competition:

Imari Thompson, Cedar Hill, SENIOR

Notable: Thompson is a third-year member of the school's a cappella choir, which consistently draws top scores in UIL competition. He is a tenor II, one of six in the choir. He ranks 80th in his class of 470.

Sport: Running back on the football team

Favorite singers: J Holiday, Chris Brown, Jennifer Hudson.

Favorite music: R&B



Comparing activities: "There's pressure in choir to keep getting good scores, just like there is pressure in football to win. We want to keep the tradition going in both."

Teammates reaction to his singing: "They sing along with me."

As a tenor II: "I'm a low-high. Tenor I is up there."

College plans: Weighing football offers from many universities and service academies, including UNLV, Air Force, Naval Academy, North Texas and Kansas.

Potential career: Sports medicine. "This will be it for choir when the school year ends."

Halfway There - 19 Weeks


I had another check up last week. It had been about 5 weeks since the last visit. I found out that my iron level had actually gone down. :-( I was told that I need to make sure I'm taking the iron supplements 30 minutes before or after a meal, take it with orange juice, and begin cooking in an iron skillet.
The midwife was extremely surprised that the levels were so low this time and she said "YOU MUST BE REALLY TIRED! Even if you weren't pregnant that would be a really low iron count so I KNOW it's making you tired! I agreed.
They will check my iron again in 10 days.
I have also been feeling a lot more flutters!!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Ten Great Reasons To Have Another Child

1. Have another child to join with God in the creation of an immortal soul.

Parents are given the incredible opportunity to assist God in the creation of an immortal soul. As the late Cardinal Mindszenty said, even the angels have not been given such a grace. “The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral—a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body...Even the angels have not been given such a grace! What is more glorious than this—to be a mother.” Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty Reason

2. Have another child to bring joy into your life.

There is no joy like the joy of welcoming another child into your life. You will marvel anew at how perfectly formed your little one is, and over how quickly you will fall head over heels in love with him. You will be enchanted with every tiny aspect of her appearance. The color of her hair, the shape of her nose, and the winsomeness of her smile will occasion endless happy debates about from which side of the family (yours, of course) she got that adorable trait. The birth of a child will bind you to God more tightly than ever before, in awed gratitude. “She was the most miraculous thing that had ever happened in my life,” Whittaker Chambers wrote about his new daughter in Witness. And in the lives of most of us.
I thought that one dayI would be a famous artistand create great works of artInstead, God made me a mother,and my children are His masterpiece. The design of their lives will live on after me. What is painted on their hearts will last an eternity - Anonymous

3. Have another child to grown in holiness and virtue.

For those who marry and have families, children are the primary means God uses to help them grow in holiness and virtue. Children teach their parents patience, perseverance, charity, and humility. They give their parents the opportunity to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. They come into the world naked, and we clothe them, hungry and we feed them. Thirsty, and we give them drink. All of the things that we are required to do for the “least of these our brothers,” we do first and foremost for our own children. St. Catherine of Siena once had a vision in which God took her to a roomful of crosses and told her to pick one. St. Catherine went to the largest, heaviest cross in the room and would have chosen it. But God told her that it was not for her: That was reserved for the parents of large families. “Mary gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes.” Luke 2:7

4. Have another child to help end abortion.

When Mother Teresa of Calcutta was asked by a young mother about the best way to proceed with pro-life work, she responded emphatically, “Have a big family. That is the best way to end abortion!” How this works is not difficult to understand. As children become more rare due to contraception, sterilization and abortion, whole segments of society become less and less familiar with the sense of joy and hope that only babies and children can give. In this climate, contraception and abortion feed on themselves, as the increasingly selfish few further reduce their number. By having another child, you demonstrate once again to the world that children are God’s greatest gifts. “Children build up the life of the family and society,” as Pope John Paul II has said. “The child becomes a gift to its brothers and sisters, parents and entire family. Its entire life becomes a gift for the very people who were givers of life and who cannot help but feel its presence, its sharing in their life and its contribution to the common good and to the community of the family.” The more children there are in society, the more pro-life that society will become, and the easier it will be for the great evil of abortion to be eradicated once and for all. “Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19

5. A) Have another child so your sons will have brothers and your daughters will have sisters.

Children who have siblings learn early to share. They learn to take turns and to put the needs of others before their own. The bond formed between brothers and sisters is lifelong, and stronger than the bond between the closest friends. “How good it is, how pleasant, where the brothers dwell as one!” Psalm 133:1-2

B) Have another child so your sons will have sisters and your daughters will have brothers. Boys who have sisters learn the dignity of women. They learn to treat other girls and women with respect, as they consider how they would like their own sisters to be treated. Girls who have brothers learn the complementarity of men and women, both fashioned in the image and likeness of God. “Love begins by taking care of the closest ones—the ones at home.” Mother Teresa

6. Have another child so you (and your parents) won’t be lonely in old age.

People who have children don’t have to rely upon strangers to care for them in their old age. Children also become the parents of your grandchildren. Grandchildren bring joy, happiness, and laughter, while still allowing you to get a good night’s sleep! “Grandchildren are the crown of old men, and the glory of children is their parentage.”Proverbs 17:6

7. Have another child because people are our greatest resource.

Humans are blessed with the gifts of an intellect and free will. It is human ingenuity that discovers creative solutions to the problems which confront us. People without children should remember that it will be someone else’s child who will become the doctor that performs their life-saving operations. Someone else’s child will become the firefighter that saves their house. Someone else’s child will become the railroad engineer. “How can there be too many children? That’s like saying there are too many flowers.” Mother Teresa

8. Have another child to contribute to the economy.

Families with children are fuel to the economy, purchasing houses and cars and college educations. Without young people to enter the workforce, social security systems fail. Without children to attend school, teachers are jobless. Many industries, from fast food restaurants to toy stores, obviously rely heavily upon business from and for children to stay in business. But ultimately the whole economy does. “Like a fruitful vine your wife within your home, Like olive plants your children around your table. Just so will they be blessed who fear the Lord.” Psalm 128:3-4

9. Have another child to counter global depopulation.

Anyone who has traveled from coast to coast in the United States and seen the vast empty spaces should know that America is not overpopulated. In fact, the entire population of the world could live in the state of Texas, in single-family dwellings with front and back yards. Fertility rates are falling everywhere. The world’s population will never again double. If current trends continue, world population will peak by the middle of this century and then begin demographic freefall. Our long-term problem is not too many children, but too few children. Having another child will help offset the coming population implosion. “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth.” Genesis 1:28.

10. Have another child to help populate heaven.

The child that you and your spouse have been generous in accepting from God was created to return to Him, after a life of love, service, and obedience on earth, to spend eternity with God in heaven. Our Lord Himself said that there was plenty of room for those immortal souls. There is no overpopulation problem in Heaven!

“There are many mansions in my Father’s house.” John 14:2

“Ten Great Reasons to Have Another Child”

Permission to reprint granted.
Redistribute widely.
Credit requested. http://www.pop.org