“You are pregnant. You had a miscarriage.” Those are two sentences I never thought I would hear together. It was a surreal moment. Even though a miscarriage was the only thing I knew could account for my symptoms, I had been almost freakishly calm until the door closed behind the doctor who delivered the verdict. That’s when it hit me. The sobs came abruptly and caught me completely off guard. My husband covered me with his steady comforting embrace. After several minutes, I was able to regain my composure. I looked at my parents through tear clouded eyes and said something like “I’m sorry. I thought I would have handled that better.” I felt bad for causing such heightened emotions in the room. We had been laughing and making jokes just a few minutes earlier. It felt odd to switch gears so quickly. I didn’t realize how absurd that apology was until my parents told me that was to be expected. Over the past month since we lost our baby, I’ve experienced grief in a totally different w
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This is not my calling...or is it?
I grew up in a military town. In fact, I grew up a few miles from the largest naval base in the world. Naturally military families have been a big part of my life. A a child, I had many friends who were around for a few years then moved across the country or even the globe. I had a hard time dealing with the loss of friends. We would do our best to keep in touch, but our relationships were never as close as when they lived near me. When I was ten years old, after going through the cycle of making and losing friends many times, I decided that I would NEVER marry a military man. I was convinced that I was not cut out for that kind of thing and did not want my children to have to deal with the pain of their friends leaving and more importantly their dad leaving for months at a time. Fast forward eleven years and I met a wise, handsome, God fearing man named Anthony. I met him in a life group (fancy term for Bible study) at the church I had just started attending. He seemed like a neat g
My Family=My Mission Field
Over the past couple of weeks I've been thinking a lot about missions trips and how neat it would be to go on one. My husband is working on coordinating a missions trip to Ghana at work and my church is doing a missions trip to Kenya. The longing to go is stronger than it’s been in years, but honestly I’m not really in a position to go. I have an almost four month old baby that I’m nursing and I have two other small children to take care of. I caught myself fantasizing about having the freedom to just go, when I was reminded that I’m already on the mission field. My children, my husband, my family- they are my mission field. It’s not as “glamorous” or awe-inspiring as feeding orphans, teaching scripture, building houses, or any other thing I’d do halfway across the world, but it’s just as important. I have three small children that as of right now do not fully understand the love of Christ. They can’t comprehend the meaning of Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sinful
DIY Liquid Hand Soap
One of my least favorite things to buy is hand soap. I can never seem to get it for a good price, so I normally buy the giant bottle from Bj's or Wal-Mart. It pains me to buy things at regular price, but buying in bulk is usually the second best option to good sales. When it was just Anthony & I, hand soap wasn't something I gave much thought to. We were both working and going to school, so we really weren't home much. A big bottle of hand soap could last us months. $5 every few months was not breaking the bank. Now that I'm a stay at home mom of two kids, its another story. It seems like I always have a reason to wash my hands. I take my kids to the bathroom, change Enzo's diaper, clean up food, boogers, and other questionable things from my kids faces, bodies, and/or clothes, clean random messes, and the list could go on. Not to mention that fact that Baby # 3 seems to be sitting right on my bladder and I have to pee every five seconds (you think I'm exa
I Will Love You if I Feel Like it.
No one can tell you who to love We fell in love I fell out of love Listen to your heart Do what feels right This is just a short list of popular phrases about love. Our world basically says: "I will love you if I feel like it." So many people make love out to be some magical thing that you don't have any control over, but that isn't exactly true. We all have feelings that may seem magical at times, but they are feelings, not love. We can't always control what we feel, but we can control what we do with them. Most people will probably be attracted to someone at some point in their lives. God knows I've been attracted to my fair share of men, but thank God I didn't respond/react to that attraction every time. I would probably be a MESS if I had! Love is so much more than attraction. Here is a better list of what love is: Patient, Kind, Not jealous, Not boastful or proud, Not rude, Doesn't demand it's own way, Is not irritable, Keeps
Don't Forget the Mailman!
My mom has always been good at remembering people who help us throughout the year; people who are typically forgotten. As a kid, we had the best mailman. Our mailbox was attached to our house, so everyday he would walk up to our front door to give us our mail. My sisters and I would listen for him and open the door quickly to catch him before he left. He would tell my mom "My, what handsome boys you have!" or some other silly comment. We looked forward to seeing him everyday. Around Christmas my mom would always make him some sort of baked goods, usually cookies if I'm remembering correctly. She would give him a big ol' plate and he didn't care that he was going to have to lug it around with him. He looked forward to the treats every year. Mom also baked goodies for our mechanic (who we saw often with our 1984 Dodge Ram van that loved to break down...are our many other used cars!), and a few others. I have always wanted to follow in my mom's footsteps wit
10 Old Fashioned Dating Habits We Should Make Cool Again | Thought Catalog
10 Old Fashioned Dating Habits We Should Make Cool Again | Thought Catalog This is a neat article. It is interesting how confusing dating can be in today's world and also how special it isn't a lot of the times. -Johanna