Rebekah's 1st B-day Party!

Rebekah had a blast at her 1st b-day party! She played with her cousin, Genesis, and her friend, Ava. She LOVED her b-day cake, which I made and Sydna helped me decorate (I am really proud of it :)). She opened presents and was so happy. She had a great time.

She had never had cake before, so this was her first piece of cake to try and boy did she love it! She smeared it all over herself and once she was done she put her plate to her mouth and started liking the plate :) It was so funny to watch!!!

Welcome Alastair Benjamin Caffey!

Congratulations Sanja and Tony on your sweet and beautiful little baby. We are praying for you!

Signing progress...

Thought I would give you guys an update on how Rebekah is doing with her signing. She is actually doing really well! She is signing a lot more now that I am being more proactive about it. She is signing food, cracker, all done, please, thank you, sleep, she tried snow today and she can do it! She can also sign more. Her favorite is cracker :) She loves her crackers. I am so grateful that she can communicate that to me. She is also signing milk...that is also one of her favorites :) She is a funny little girl. She sometimes tries to sign stuff, but I have NO idea what she is trying to sign. She actually signs, "signing time"...sort of. When she wants the video she signs it for me. Smart girl! She is getting better and better every day. I am enjoying it as well.

She can't sign but understands book, read book, play, change diaper, dirty, hot, bath and some other words that I can't think of. I am hoping that with time she will learn to sign these as well.

I continue to teach her to sign friend and play. Not sure she gets friend yet :) I am also teaching her cold when she wants to go outside and it is FREEZING outside:)

I will keep you posted!

Sweet Little Valentine....

Happy Valentine's Day from our little valentine :) and monkey of course ;)

The good, the bad and the ugly...

I was talking with Matt this morning about my struggles so that we could pray together because I definitely need those prayers! Rebekah is a year old now! She is a wonderful little girl, but a sinner :) I am desperately wicked as well, apart from God. I am still going through that sanctification process and it is painful at times.

As I was sharing with Matty my struggles I was telling him how frustrated I have felt the last couple of days. I still struggle with my role of being a mother...that takes all of me. Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom and I feel so privileged to be able to be a mother, but, there are struggles that go on in my life. If I want to be a good and godly mother to Rebekah, that means that I have to give her all my love, give her the time that she needs, etc. I need to be there 100% for her, especially right now that she is so dependant on me. My struggle is laying everything else down so that I can fully embrace and concentrate on her. This is how it goes, "Rebekah is playing with a toy and she wants me to be right there, but not only in presence...she wants me to BE THERE and play with her. I, on the other hand, want to finish the scrapbook that I am making for her...I want to get the dishes done while she plays around me. She will do that for a little bit, but truly she is the happiest when I am at her level...playing, being silly, loving her. Only at this level can I truly love her and be patient with her and truly embrace what she is doing."

This is hard for me...I am one of those type of people who want a clean house, read a book...use my time as much as possible and it frustrates me when I can't get anything done. I know that this is my fault and that I need to let go! More than anything, I want to be an excellent mother and wife. This is more important to me than anything else. But the laundry still needs to get done, the dishwasher needs to be loaded and unloaded, bathrooms need to be cleaned up! I truly wish I could have someone to help out with those things so that I can focus completely on Rebekah but I don't. Then I think, I only have ONE child :) How am I going to handle two, three or four!?

This is not an anti mom post, but these are things that go on in my heart and mind in a daily basis. These are some questions I ask myself sometimes. I KNOW that our Lord is great, mighty and awesome! I was reading in Acts 17:24-25 how He is Lord of heaven and earth! He is powerful...and He is watching me 24/7! The only thing I can tell you is that being a mom keeps me humbled, broken before the Lord and truly dependant on Him. It is a good thing, yet at the same time it is a painful process. I remember talking to my friend Kelley a long time ago about being married and having children and she said that husbands and kids are a part of that sanctification process and how they are a mirror for us to see all of our shortcomings. God is definitely using our little girl to show me my selfishness, impatience and my lack of love. I thank the Lord for Rebekah! I love her to pieces...all this hurts so much because I want Rebekah to have a wonderful home. I think that sometimes to me that means being "perfect" and that I will never be. Like Paul said at the end of Romans 7 as he himself struggled with wanting to do what was right and ending up doing what he did not want to do, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." BUT then he ends it so beautifully when he says, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:24-25. This is exactly how I feel...ONLY God can deliver me, help me to become a godly mother and wife so that He Himself will receive all the glory, not me. I love you Lord so much! I need you!

Here is a picture of Rebekah's b-day celebration. We took her to Zios for dinner and we gave her a little bit of that cool whip... we try to not give her sweets at all, so this was a special treat for her :) She liked it, but she liked her bread better ;) Smart girl :)

Rebekah's first year with us slideshow...Enjoy!

Rebekah's 1st Year with us! El Primer Año de Rebekah con Nosotros!

Rebekah is a year old...well, on Monday :) Here is a brief recap of how much she has changed this year. She is a funny little girl with a sweet personality. Click on the picture to see the full slideshow :) Happy 1st B-day Rebekah :) We love you so much!

Who is God?

This is what we taught our Good News club kids this past Tuesday. We met for the first time this year and it was so good to meet with those kids again. They were so excited to be here and I still could not figure out why they would be so excited to come back to us...but I later realized how prideful I was being. Yes, prideful because it is not about me or Matt or Rebekah that they are here, but it is because our Lord has given them a hunger to learn about Him. It is because of the Lord that they want to come back and not because of us. God is amazing, awesome and good! I know this and it will never change the awesomeness of who He is! I felt so priviledged to be sharing His Truth with the kids.

Only the girls came this time but it worked well because Matt had to prepare a lesson for church on Wednesday, so I decided to help him out this time by preparing and teaching the lesson for our Good News Club. I had a blast with the girls while Matt played with Rebekah and Brittany. It was neat to see those girls opening up to me, but what I loved the most was to see how they were so intrigued and hungry to learn about who God is!!! I loved it :)

Again, we feel SO BLESSED to share God's love and Truth with these kids. Praise His Name!!!!

Falling more in love....

Yep, that's right! I am falling more in love with my husband :) We were in Seattle last week and for some reason I was overwhelmed with the realization of how blessed I am to be married to the most loving man that I have ever met in my life! I am amazed at how much Matt loves me and Rebekah. Truly, I have never felt more loved in my life and it only gets better! I keep telling Matt how he has truly embraced the Word of God where it says, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." Ephes. 5:25-28

As a recipient of that love I feel so priviledged and it confirms more and more how it was God who brought us together for His glory. I am more and more confident and grateful to the Lord for such wonderful man of God who loves me so much. I also see him how he loves Rebekah and it truly melts my heart! He is so tender, loving and such a teacher to her. It is a beautiful picture. Thank you Lord for blessing me with this man that is a radiant light of Your love!

"Love never fails. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away." 1 Cor. 13:8