Summer Stretch

Today, is my first official day of summer vacation with my baby girl! She gave me a special gift this morning and let me sleep in! We are at my parents in Bartlesville for the week, and already we've both fallen in love with being on vacation. My mom has been spoiling the both of us. Well, really spoiling Lydia, but I get to reap the benefits of a happy baby. :) The last few weeks of school were busy, busy, busy! And today, we have been very lazy, lazy, lazy! I know the summer is going to go by so fast, so I am just soakin' up every moment. I want to enjoy this summer to it's fullest! Spending time with loved ones, playing outside, going for walks, going SWIMMING! We will be taking a few mini-vacations to see friends and family. It is going to be good. The best part.... no stress!!! I just went out to check the pool water, it is a little chilly still so we will wait another day for Lydia's first swim at Bop and Grandma Lou's pool! After she wakes up from her nap we can go for a walk, or to the park, take a trip to the mall, play with toys, dress up for some photos outside with the blooming flowers...really, we get to do whatever we want! Earlier today we were listening to the birds and the windchimes while swinging on the front porch... it was so relaxing, just as summer should be.

So to sum it up... I am super pumped about Summer... taking in the joys of Life and loving those around me. Praising God for all He has done in my life and asking him real nicely, "Please Lord, stretch this summer as long as possible."

"Mom Brain"

Mom brain- the condition in which women who are pregnant or just gave birth can not remember anything. I suffer from “mom-brain”, I’ll admit it. If I don’t write myself a note, set a reminder on my phone, call a friend to ask them to remind me, record it in my school calendar and personal planner, then chances are I will forget!!! My mind is just on other things right now. (changing diapers, folding laundry, feeding, cleaning, sleeping) Just this week I went to a recess duty I wasn’t assigned to.. I was thinking to myself, “What is that teacher doing out here during my duty?” and then she came up and asked me the same thing… and well I was out there when I could’ve been enjoying 15 minutes away from my class. Then, a few days later… I send the kids out to recess and I start to enjoy my 15 minutes of freedom, when the office pages me and asks if I was going to do my recess duty today… I blamed it on mom brain. Good thing I have such a wonderful group of co-workers who have experienced mom brain and show me grace when I’m being overtaken by it. I guess you could say I’m in a sea of forgetfulness.

There have been times where I will be so wrapped up in taking care of my daughter or catching up on sleep that I do forget other areas of my life. I’m just too busy to remember some things and if it’s not important enough for me to make a reminder note then I will just forget about it completely. I started thinking though.. maybe…just maybe, my condition of “mom brain” isn’t such a bad thing right now… maybe it is a blessing!!!! Let me explain.

Sometimes in life we forget the important stuff but remember the stupid, trivial stuff, that doesn’t matter. We remember how bad someone has hurt us, or done something wrong to us. We remember the hurt and the pain of people’s actions. We remember the harsh words spoken, the untruth that was told and we let it get to us. Or we remember the mistakes we’ve made, the poor choices we made, we let the sins from our past creep into our mind to discourage us. I know I’ve I taken time and let it get me down or discourage me. I ‘ve found myself dwelling on it. Just recently I caught myself thinking of the past and who had mistreated me. The pain started to return and I thought, “Whoa, where is this coming from?” It had been quite a while since I remembered it. I thought I’d moved on from it and forgot about it, but it somehow returned. I let myself remember! What if I let my mom brain take over that part of my thinking as well. How freeing that would be… I mean, what good comes from remember how someone else has hurt me? I can’t think of how that is beneficial to me. I can’t change what happened. I can’t go back or redo things.
What if I forgot that someone offended me, and then when I ran into them at Wal*mart I smiled and showed them grace. How cool would that be?? What if I forgot that someone hurt me? Wouldn’t I feel better? Wouldn’t my heart ache a little less? I think so.

And ya know, the coolest part about forgetfulness … Christ has forgotten my sin! Ps. 103:12 says, "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” It’s no longer there once we’ve confessed and turned away from it! I don’t know about you, but for me that is reassuring that I don’t need to remember, if HE doesn’t remember. So my new philosophy, if isn’t worth writing a reminder note about… just forget about it completely.


Things to remember:
God loves me!
God has saved me!
God forgives me!
God has a plan for me!
Morning recess duty!

Lydia's first photo shoot

These are some of Lydia's first photos with Tiffany Canaan Photography. She was 10 days old. She was a good sport, even though it took a very long time with all the wardrobe changes, diaper changes and breaks for feeding. From the pictures it looks like she had a very restful time. I think there was only one picture with her eyes even open. I think back and remember how proud I was. It was all so new and I was still letting the reality of Lydia's birth soak in. (Sometimes, even today I still have to take a moment and let it soak in.)
She is a dream come true.

I called my mom...and started taking my vitamins

In the first moments I knew I was pregnant, I called my mom and we prayed together. I will never forget the words she spoke as she prayed with me over the phone. She asked God to protect the little life that was beginning to grow inside me. That is something amazing about having a godly mom, she will pray with me whenever, wherever and about whatever is on my heart. I love my mom for many reasons and this is one of them. This is when the many prayers for Lydia and me first began. I can't wait to share with Lydia about the many people in our lives that were praying for us while she was growing inside me. Praying, for me, gives me strength, because I'm releasing all the things I can't do on my own, over to the ONE who can do ANYTHING! Looking back, I am amazed at how God was answering those prayers. He was watching and protecting and providing for our every need. (and He still is) I love seeing how He works! From little things like helping me get my lawn mowed, to the big things like protecting my baby inside me while I was in the hospital fighting salmonella food poisoning for five days. I have always believed that there wasn't anything too BIG to bring to God in prayer, but in this process I've learned there is nothing too small to bring to him either. He cares and takes care of it all!




"For your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!" Matthew 6:8

Delight + Patience = Desires

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires. Psalm 37:4

If you knew me before I had Lydia... you probably knew that I love children! (Good thing since I work with them 9 months out of the year!) I have been an aunt for almost 10 years and with each new niece or nephew added to our family, my heart would grow more and more fond of the idea of being a mom someday. I enjoy loving on my sisters' children. All 7 of them helped me with my own waiting process until it was time for me to have my own lil' darling. I can't remember not wanting to be a mom.

A true heart's desire is a sustained longing...
Sometimes our desires seem so far away from becoming reality. There are obstacles in our way and we can't see how "it" is ever going to happen. We have to wait. I am starting to see that waiting isn't a bad thing, it might be a hard thing, but it isn't necessarily bad. Usually if we look close enough there is a reason for the wait, either for our good, or someone else. Beth Moore said "Nothing is passive about patiently waiting for desire to turn into delight." Do not give up on your desires!! God knows us better than we know ourselves. He has placed desires within each of us for a purpose. We have to trust that God will get us there...in His perfect time. Lydia came into my life in His perfect time. He has a Divine Plan in spite of the mistakes I make. And for that, I have to praise Him. He knew what I needed and when... and He also took into account the desires of my heart. That is just how GOOD he is to His children!

There are times when I'm overwhelmed by the goodness of God... for granting me a desire of my heart! It is amazing having a sustained longing come to reality! So if you are "in the waiting" for your sustained longing... be encouraged...keep delighting in God...it is definitely worth the wait!

Saved by Grace X 2

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Lately, I've been reflecting on GRACE (Grace is God's unmerited favor. That is, grace is God doing good for us that we do not deserve.)...and I've come to the conclusion that I've been "saved by grace" twice. I have been saved by grace initially through faith in Christ and His atonement for MY sin. The second reason I say I have been saved by grace is through the life of my baby girl, Lydia Grace. When I found out I was expecting I knew right away that if I was having a girl then her middle name would be "Grace" for a reminder of God's amazing grace in my life. I also knew that being a single mom would mean that I would have to rely wholeheartedly on God's grace to see me through the journey.
With this in mind, I decided to blog about our journey with my friends and family. May you be blessed by these stories of two girls of Grace.