God is peace. He is peace indeed. Sometimes we cannot understand why things happen or for what intent, but God is sovereign and holy and good. As I think back about last week and having that unfortunate miscarriage, in spite of everything that was happening I had this incredible peace within me. Yes, I was discouraged and very sad because of the hopes we had for this little life that the Lord had created in me. And yet at that moment I just had peace, and today I have peace. He is our trust and our hope. HE is our Rock and our Salvation. I know that it is God alone that makes me feel hopeful about tomorrow.

It is so neat how the Lord goes before us and truly prepares the way for us as He allowed such a sweet time with Matt and Rebekah in OKC...it was such a peaceful and special day we had. I felt like it was a gift from God because He loves us and is so caring and gentle. He hurts when we hurt. And Again, I realize how loved we are by our families and by the body of Christ...the calls and emails and even the flowers, the love that we received from everyone. We are so blessed to have them.

God you are so awesome, SO SO awesome. Thank you so much God. Thank you for Jesus Christ--that He died so that we can truly have life. Lord help us to share this hope that we have and this amazing gift the we have been given. Help us to carry it to the next generation...to the ends of the world. Give us a passion that will truly ignite our hearts. Help us to see that this hope is worth SO much more that anything this world can offer. We have such a great obligation! To share Christ's love and hope to the world. Why can’t we see that? Why are we so blind and self-focused that we don’t see the big picture. Please forgive us God. We are willing vessels Lord to do whatever, wherever, whenever...Here are we, send us!

God does not give us more than we can handle!

Sometime late fall of last year our neighborhood kids next door were not coming to our Good News Club and I did not even see the kids playing out in the street. Matt and I decided to pay the parents a visit to ask about the kids and to tell them that we have missed seeing their kiddos at our Tuesday night club.

After talking with the mom we realized that they were struggling financially and were very stressed. The kids would go for about an hour to our neighbors across the street and then come to our house. For this, they would pay the kid who was taking care of them $10. We had a feeling that it had something to do with that, so Matt and I talked about this before going over and decided that if it was a financial problem, that we would take their kids early. We were both dying to ourself...in my flesh I did not want to do this, but I knew that these kids souls were more important than that hour of rest/dinner/preparation or whatever we needed to do.

The kids, ages 3, 6, 9, started coming earlier and boy they had energy :) It was such a hard time because a lot of the times we were getting ready for dinner or for the evening and the kids wanted to play. I had to pray lots for the Lord to give me grace to do this. I will admit that sometimes I had a really bad attitude about it, but I never told the Lord to provide another way for the kids. I only asked for His grace. God always did give us the grace needed. Many times the parents brought their kids earlier than we had agreed to and they would sometimes pick them up close to 10:00 pm!!! These were some very hard nights.

This past week we realized that bowling was over for the parents so the kids are now coming at the same time that the other kids come. I can't tell you how amazing that was this past Tuesday :) I could only thank our Lord for His goodness toward us. You know, He never gives us more than we can handle. I was glad that I never complained and truly I did not even realize it until that evening. What a great God we serve! He gives us all that we need to be equipped to serve Him. I love that serving God does not mean that we have to go to another country, although this is good and some people's calling, for us it has been the calling to serve God in our neighborhood, at work (for Matt), the body of Christ and everyone that we come in contact with.

Thank you Lord for using us to be your tools so that others can come to have a relationship with you. What an honor it is. You do the work...we are just willing vessels. May Your name be glorified!

Big Sister!

Yes, we are pregnant indeed! We are excited one more time for this little blessing from above. We are so looking forward to this year and what is ahead of us! I believe that for me it will be a year of believing God's promises and of much growth. I am excited and look forward to all that the Lord will teach us through this pregnancy and after the baby is born. I believe that it will be a year of total dependence on Him, which it should always be, but it is something that I am learning to do more every day. It will be a year in which God's Word will become truly alive and active in my life and take root in my heart. I am so excited for this journey that we will be taking as a family.

Please pray for us (Matty, Rebekah and I) and for our little one. Again, we will not find out the sex of the baby...it is much more fun that way :)

Some sweet and fun memories...

• A couple days ago after Rebekah woke up from her nap she was signing "bath" and so I said let's eat first, but she kept signing "bath." I wanted her to eat first and then take her bath, but she then pointed to the bathroom and said, "bath" :) When I said bath back to her, she had a huge grin in her face. She had a great bath time. We then watched her signing video while she had her lunch. It was quite a treat for her. She is so cute!!!!!!!!!

• Like I mentioned before, I love rocking my little girl before bed. It doesn't always happen, but I try to...it's just a special time for us. After breastfeeding her I tell her, "rock" and she will say it too and lay on my shoulder or chest :) She is sweet, sweet!

• Rebekah loves to pretend like she is laughing, especially when I laugh :) It is cute to watch.

• When Matt and I are driving together and I run out to get something real quick Rebekah doesn't like it, so I have come up with something to cheer her up a little. When I return to the car I sneak up and jump back and forth in front of the car and wave at her and do all kinds of crazy things...I am sure the other people who are watching are probably like, "ok, this mom has gone nuts here..." But I really don't care. I actually love making her giggle. When I get in the car she is just laughing away. It is too cute.

Train up a child...

"Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it"
Proverbs 22:6

As I was putting Rebekah to bed last night after our Good News Club kids left. I was listening to this verse on her little radio. She has these Scripture songs that she listens to when she naps or when I put her down for the night. The first verse in the CD is the one above.

I have been singing this verse a lot lately because the song is pretty catchy and sweet :) As I was breastfeeding her and rocking her to bed (something I love to do), the Lord truly helped me to see clearly what it means to train up Rebekah as I was thinking about the crazy evening we just had with all the kids at the house :)

Rebekah does well for the most part, but sometimes it's close to her bed time and she acts like it :) She played well for a while and then she just wanted to play with the toys that the other three year old was playing with. We were busy teaching the kids while taking care of Rebekah, getting the kids attention and trying to keep some good conversations going...a lot of stuff to do at once :) So, sometimes when all this is going on I tend to ignore what she is doing. Matty is better at this, which is a good thing! This is why I think the Lord reminded me about this training stuff last night. I was choosing not to train her because it was one less thing to worry about.

As I was sitting and thinking about this verse the Lord showed me the importance of training my little girl not only because "it's the right thing to do", although this is good, but because I am training her for her future! As I train her now, this is the person that she will become 5, 10 or 20 years from now. I am building her character and so this is why it is important for me to take the time to train her up so that when she grows old she will become the young lady and woman that God created her to be. I don't want her to grow up to be selfish and prideful and to always think of herself. I want her to be selfless, humble and to put others first.

It is not easy sometimes to be consistent, but it is crucial when you are training your children for the future. I read a quote a couple days ago that says, "Life is a battleground and homelife and schooling should be a training ground." Another one that I think of often is, "I don't want to make you happy, I want to make you good." something like that... :)

I love how the Lord gently leads us as we raise Rebekah. I love how He shows us our faults so that we can be better and honor him through our lives. Praise His sweet name!

What are you passionate about?

In college and for the longest time I struggled with this question. You know, I was never the "best" at something. I could do a lot of things but I was not truly really good or passionate about some specific thing. I knew that I was passionate about the Lord, His Word and His kingdom. I love Him so much! For some reason I struggled because beside this, not to diminish my love and passion for God, but I felt like I had not much to offer others.

As I became a wife I started to see some of my passions more clearly and as I became a mom I definitely started seeing why God created me. He created me mostly for Himself and for His glory and now with my two roles I am so completely satisfied!

I love my husband and daughter and more than anything I love that the Lord has given me a passion for them...to be an excellent wife and mother. I was sitting one day all by myself and it was then that my question was answered and felt a true and deep joy within me that I was doing what God wanted me to do. Stay home with my daughter and take care of a hungry husband :) who will eat anything I make (that'a bonus:))

I thought, I love and am passionate about cleaning and making this house a home where my husband can come after work and feel happy and at peace (an oasis) and I love making goodies and yummy things. I love to cook and I love keeping my house clean and organized. I love staying at home! I really do. I hate it when I am busy and can't enjoy the quietness of our home. I love staying at home and keeping busy at home. I like making memories for my little girl...I started a scrapbook for her (which I have never made before and never thought I would) but I made it because I wanted Rebekah to look back to her first year with us and to see in picture (and in this scrapbook that I made with so much love) how much we loved and enjoyed her. I did a little b-day party for her and I enjoyed it throughly. I did not want it for it to be fancy, but mostly I wanted it to be special and celebrate with our family and close friends this wonderful year we had with her. I also love when I try new recipes and my husband always says, "you are the best cook" and this makes me want to try more and new things. I enjoy having people over and get to know them in the privacy of our home. Matt and I both love that and we try to have someone over at least 2 or 3 times per month. I enjoy preparing for it and getting out our nice entertainment stuff and making it nice for our guest. I see it as a blessing that we can do this for someone else. I also love being silly and crazy with Matt and Rebekah...I get myself so wrapped up in it sometimes that Matt probably thinks I have gone nuts or something, but the constant giggle of my little girl and Matt just makes all the difference and I can go on and on and on.

We have talked about homeschooling and I feel that this is what we are supposed to do and I am already praying and asking God for direction on that. I am so excited and look forward to doing this with my kiddos. I know that it will be challenging at times, but when you have the conviction that this is what you need to do, I know God will help you through it as well. I am so excited!

So, I just told you what I am passionate about....how about you? What are you passionate about? What fills you with joy?

Some pictures...

Here are some pictures
of our little girl. These are also from that photo session and they are great!

I like the one with her hands lifted high because this picture shows her little character more. She is a very happy little girl and loves to giggle.

The one with her and I kissing I like too because this is one thing that we do in our family a LOT...we kiss and kiss and kiss and hug and hug and we are just very affectionate :) Rebekah loves it too and she loves to kiss us even when we don't ask for a kiss. She is a very sweet girl.



The one of her starring is just shows how gorgeous she is :)

The one of her walking and showing that sweet face that she has is just her too. Rebekah is a very gentle and sweet girl. She is so kind too.

We are so grateful for being parents and having such a sweet, loving and beautiful girl to love on! Thank you Lord!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow...

Yes, God is faithful and good and we are not. As of March (2007) the Lord paid off our debt (this does not include our mortgage) and we are extremely grateful to Him for doing this. We had been working hard at it, but the Lord is the one who deserves all of the glory. We actually did not think that we would be out of debt until the end of this year, but the Lord in His goodness paid it off :)

We received a big tax return this year and so we put it all toward paying off debt and we also received some random money for a sound wall that they are building behind our house and with these two checks, we are now able to live in the freedom of owning man nothing. Like I mentioned before, we still have our house to pay off and this is our next goal and prayer request.

I remember Matty faithfully praying and asking the Lord to pay off our debt and we have seen His mighty hand do it whenever we least expected it. Now we faithfully pray to the Lord to pay off our house. He will do it in His perfect timing and plan. I like asking God without giving Him my "wisdom" or "knowledge" of how He "should" do things. I like His results and I know that they are better than anything I could have pictured to be "perfect."

As Matty and I were talking about being debt free Matt asked me, "why do you think things happened all of a sudden?" That same morning I asked myself the same question and the Lord reminded me that He did it so that we would not be prideful about it thinking, "well, we worked so hard and we saved all of our pennies and boy it was hard work, but we made it!" He wanted to receive all the glory and wanted us to praise Him for what He did...He wanted to remind us of His faithfulness and love toward us and He also wanted us to have mercy and grace on those who are in debt...to see them not with haughty eyes, but to help them out! Yes, we did do things to get us there, but it was ultimately HIS hand who provided the increase and paid off our debt.

I love God! He is so sovereign and good to us. He is in control and we are not. I love the way He helps me see that. What a great God we serve!