Prayer Request

Actually, I have several prayer requests.

The first is for my sister. She is having some complications with her pregnancy that are really scary. She is about 12 weeks right now. I know everything is in God's hands but she is a bit of a tizzy over everything. Please just pray for peace and for the Lord to comfort her in every way possible.

The second is for my brother. I can't go into details but just pray for him. It is a terrible situation that will only get worse before it can get better and we just really need the Lord's guidance through all of this, especially my other family members. And my brother REALLY needs the Lord.

And finally, for me. I was convinced that I was going to be able to work part time next year because of my new jewelry business. I thought I had found someone to work with that would be a great partner-in-crime and we would split all of the teaching responsibilities. Well, it fell through and I turned in my form to my principal yesterday stating that I would be working full time next year. It is a bit of a heart-breaker because I really wanted to stay home much more with Levi next year. It is frustrating not being able to be with him more. I praying that God would guide my decision making process and let me know what His plans are for my teaching career and my Premier jewelry career. I'd love to be able to stay home full-time, but I must get my level II teaching license before I do that (it never expires, unlike the one I have right now that expires in 2 more years) so I can come back to work in the future if I need to. I'm having a hard time figuring out where my priorities should be, beyond God and my family.

Thank you so much for your prayers. It is hard having so many tough things come at me all at once, but I know God will use me through all of this and help me stay focused on Him, as long as I ask. Thanks again and many blessings to you and your family!

Dedication

Just a quick post:

We had Levi dedicated at church this morning. It was wonderful and so empowering to know that our whole church is standing behind us as we raise Levi. Jason did a great job saying a few words in front of those thousands of people and then Skip prayed for us and for Levi. It was a great time. And we had a ton of family and friends there with us, which was wonderful! Praise God for church families!

Confused, frustrated, and ambivalent?

I am not exactly sure what to write... I just know that I need to write. My sister is going to have another baby in October with her current boyfriend. They are also planning to get married at the end of April. This makes number three. The reason I don't know what to say is because I don't even know what to feel about it. I am angry, but not nearly as angry as I was about the others. I am frustrated, but part of me just thinks, "well, this is what she does." I love her and I love her kiddos, and I think her boyfriend is a swell guy, but I just don't understand how this keeps happening. I don't want to go into too much detail about her personal life, so I'm only going to share what she has shared with me... but it's just so confusing and frustrating trying to understand the situation and make sense of how I feel about it. I do not think her getting married is the best idea, mostly because of her history with her boyfriend. Like I said, he is a good guy, but I don't even think they know what they feel about each other at the moment. Like I said, I'm just confused. I don't know if I am just used to her having kids with every guy she meets (how sad, I know) or if I just don't have the energy to get worked up about this? The last two times this happened I was a wreck. I was obsessing about the future children, her relationship status, what my parents were going to do about it, how the kids were going to make it. I was making judgements and assumptions about her and letting my imagination run wild. This time, I think I am just not going to think about it. that might get a little tricky on her wedding day, but I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know how to express my disapproval without being hurtful or unloving. I don't know how to show her how I feel without her getting defensive and shutting down. I know God is going to work on me through this situation, and I am praying He will also work on her heart, and her boyfriend's heart. They need Him, just like I do, only they don't realize it yet. Please continue to pray for her and her growing family. I guess I should start embracing the fact that I am going to be an auntie again.

Spring Break

Spring Break is coming to an abrupt end. Tomorrow is back to the real world! I'm not looking forward to being back at work, although it will be nice to see my kiddos. My biggest issue is that my dossier (huge long paper) is due on March 31 for me to get my Level II license. I have about two years left before I have to get that license, but I want the option of staying home with Levi and our next baby, whenever that happens. I have about half of it done, but still a TON more work to do before it is finished. I'm just not sure I have the time and/or energy to do it in the next few days... Ugh. But, on the flip side, I think I found someone that I work with who is willing to job-share with me next year! It is so exciting! I just hope my principal goes for it. I think she could go either way, but most of it is going to depend on the other teacher getting her ESL endorsement. We shall see. I will talk to my principal tomorrow, or in the next few days at least, to see if she will be OK with it. I think there are about 50 days of school left before summer break, though! That is super exciting!

There is not a lot new with Levi, other than he is crawling like crazy and has started signing. He signs "milk," "more," "up,' and "byebye." It is so fun watching how much he is learning every day! And he is getting faster and faster with his crawling. It is awesome! Although, he really needs to be watched like a hawk now because he picks up every tiny speck on the ground that we don't even know is there until he is putting it in his mouth! Oi.

This coming weekend we are going to have Levi dedicated at church. It is going to be a really nice event because not only are we going to commit, in front of our friends and family and the congregation of our church, to raise Levi in a Christian home where we will do our best to teach him to love and fear the Lord, but we are also going to get to talk to some of our family that won't understand why we are doing that rather than baptizing him. We don't believe in baptizing babies because baptism, in the Bible, is something you do after you accept Christ into your heart. It is a public act based on a personal decision. It is not something you have to do to be saved. It is not something that you have to do to save babies. It is a personal choice you make to show everyone around you that you have chosen to follow Christ and will do your best to live for Him from then on. We pray Levi will accept Christ early in his life and choose to be baptized, but that is only something God knows. All we can do is teach him Biblical ways and pray he makes that choice for himself one day!

Crawling and eating

So, Levi is officially mobile! He is crawling on all fours, rather than army-crawling like before, and he is already trying to stand up on the furniture. He can't get up all that often because we have tall furniture, but he keeps trying! Once he is up, though, he is already cruising along. It is incredible to see the motivation he has to get walking. I think it is going to be pretty soon when he decides he is going to walk.
Not to mention we have not found a single food this boy does not like. The other day for lunch he had half of a banana, a whole fruit cup and 2 chicken nuggets. I didn't even know his tummy was that big! It surprises us every day how much he can eat. His favorites right now are bananas and meat. He will eat cheerios if we are trying to keep him entertained while we are busy cooking or something, but he prefers bananas. He hasn't quite figured out the sippy cup yet, but we keep hoping it will just click for him one of these days, or we are going to have to try a different cup that isn't so hard for him to use. My little boy is getting so big!
And, he LOVES the cat. Any time he sees the cat he starts laughing and chasing him. It is so funny because the cat HATES babies. Levi will crawl right over to him and the cat just bolts to the other side of the room. It is quite comical.