Deep Thoughts

 At church we have been doing a bible study based off of the movie Courageous, and it has been tons of fun.  About 2 weeks ago we talked about abiding in the Lord, spending time with him and really seeking him in our lives.  I had one of those moments where the Lord kind of thumps you on the head and goes uh hum this is for you Rachael.  So I started last Sunday making a big effort to spend more time in God's word.  I sat down on my bed and I prayed, "O.K. God, give me a place to start, something that will give me a peace and comfort with David being underway." So, I took a breath and opened my bible right the the very first Chapter of Ruth. I Just began reading and It's one of those books that from the beginning I was interested in the story line, and then I hit a passage of scripture....

"But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.  WHERE YOU GO I WILL GO, AND WHERE YOU STAY I WILL STAY.
Ruth 1:16.  

When I sat down and started reading this book I COMPLETELY forgot that I had that same scripture reference engraved into David's wedding band 3 years ago.  I know Ruth was talking to her mother-in-law but with David's military career I thought that it was very fitting.  All of a sudden I felt so much better. Such a comforted feeling fell around me and  it was just what I needed as David and I start this new experience of under ways and deployments. 
Things only began to get better from there.  For the last couple of weeks we have had David's car up for sale and VERY little interest had been shown in it, which was very discouraging. On Monday morning after my trip to the gym I had a voicemail from someone interested in buying David's car!  This was so exciting....and I immediately began hoping that this was it! I was kind of skeptical at first because it was a lady who searches Craigslist for used car to buy for a used car dealership and so I kind of thought they weren't gonna make a decent offer. I prayed and asked that this would all workout. (I just wanted not to have to deal with it anymore....It would be one less thing on my plate).  Then I started wondering, Oh goodness this is David's Car, what if I sell if for a price he disappointed with.....and I have no way to run it by him first.  Luckily all went well and I think David will be happy with the price...we wanted more for it but it was a couple hundred over his lowest number!
Since I sold the car and had no one to take me home the receptionist from the dealership had to give us a ride. During our ride back to my house I was worried that it was going to be super weird and awkward but it wasn't! Some how the subject of being a christian came up and we had the most natural and wonderful conversation.  She fell away from her faith after mother had died and seemed to be a little lost.  I've always been nervous about a chance to witness because you begin to doubt if you really know enough to actual be an effective witness. During our bible study we talked about how in the movie Courageous how natural one of the characters witness was and how it doesn't have to be about bible thumping and scripture quoting. For me my witness to the young lady was based purely off my personal experiences and how the Lord has shown his presence and grace in my life.

WOW What an amazing week! After abiding in the Lord for only a couple of days I could already see and feel him moving in my life and I look forward to seeing what else he has in store for me!

On another note, I heard something this week that kind of got me fired up.  I was searching through Netflix for something to watch and happened upon Glee, this show is a MESS! The singing and dancing is great but the rest of it is just a bunch of liberal junk.  In this episode one of the characters is  basically trying to convince the other gentleman that it would be OK to sleep with this girl because that is what he wanted. He was making it out like the bible is old news and that what was written back then doesn't apply to Christians today.  That is the biggest load of bull of heard in a while. 

While times have changed and things are different then what they where back in Jesus's day we are still being judged and held accountable by the same GOD. For example,  we may not sacrifice animals anymore but the Lord does call us to sacrifice of other things in our lives that might be more pertinent. A cow doesn't mean to us what it did to those people back in biblical times. Today our time, talents and extras in life hold more value and there will be times that the Lord will ask us to sacrifice those things in his name.  For me the best test is still the WWJD phrase.  Would Jesus sleep with a women just because that is what his physical body desires? Would Jesus be in a homosexual relationship?  Would Jesus sit and watch this movie or listen to that music?  (The music area is where I struggle.) Just because times change, doesn't mean that the way Christians live their lives should.  This why so many people say Christians are hypocrites because we say one thing and live our lives in a completely different way. 
I want people to know that I am different...and I love the Lord with all that is in me!  Everyone struggles with different things and I am probably the person furthest from being perfect (David could say AMEN to that one) but the Lord forgives all sins because they are all equal. 

OK end soap box :-) Thanks for listening!

Rachael

Love & Marriage

So tomorrow will be three years of marriage for the husband and me! It's truly amazing how your love changes and grows into something new everyday. 

I do have to say though, that 3 years just doesn't sound like a very long time at all (especially when we have been together for almost 11 years)!  It doesn't feel like it's been three years since I woke up and put on the beautiful wedding dress and watched David cry like a baby as I walked down the aisle (One of the best and SWEETEST memories of my life).  Seeing those tears as I made my way to his side, made me realize even more how much he truly loved me and how strongly he cares for me.

I am so blessed to be able to share my life with David. I know everyone says this, but he really does make me want to be a better person.  I can't think of kinder, more friendly, and caring person then him. I am truly AMAZED everyday at how  slow to anger David is and how patience just abounds him. I struggle daily with my temper and patience and I wonder how in the world he handles me most days.  In every area of my life that I fail to be the kind of person I should be, he picks up the slack and makes me feel whole.

Sometimes I think that he can just read my mind and know every special thought that I think about him, and because of this I don't always verbalize what I think and feel or feel for him like I should. The job that David does everyday isn't and easy one. He's at work more then he is at home and he functions on very little sleep. Through all of this he walks in the door with a smile on his face, and ready to spend time with me and the baby. I am truly grateful for his wonderful and positive attitude.  He could very easily walk in the door and  kick off his shoes and sit on the couch and do nothing...but he doesn't! He does just as much as I do, he cleans the kitchen after dinner, plays with the baby, we go for a family walk and then he baths, dresses and put the baby to bed and spends time with me all on maybe 4 hours of sleep some days.

David really does seem like the perfect man to me. Yes, there are days we want to strangle each other; but more often then not, if we have a disagreement, it's because I've gotten upset over something silly.  Sometimes I don't feel worthy of the wonderful man the Lord has blessed me with, but I do know how truly lucky I am. Not all husbands are as hands on and focused on their families like David is. 

So David,

For all that you do for us, all the love, attention and hugs that you share with us I am truly grateful. You do such a great job providing for our family and working so very hard. I'm thankful for your never ending patience and all your kind and loving words. Thank you for building me up and making me feel so special to you! EVERY little thing you do for me or to help me out doesn't go unnoticed and I appreciate you so much. You're the best friend I've ever had.  I hope with every year we are together, I become a better wife and friend to you, because you deserve my best. So, as our lives change, and we over come more challenges, and we share more happiness, I will be there with you every step of the way. I promise that I  will love you more today then I did the day before. You mean the world to me and I love you so very much!

And There to I pledge you my faith...

Are we just "Lucky" ?

This last year has been nothing short of amazing. David has made me feel like I'm achieving more in my life now then I ever have before. In comparison to some other 1st time mother stories I feel like David and I have had it easy with our sweet boy.  He slept through the night within 2 1/2 months, I can never tell when he is teething because he always seems happy, he's a great eater, and he naps like  a champ.  I get a tad bit annoyed when people tell me I'm "lucky."  While this is true, David (husband) and I worked VERY hard to establish the routine and schedule we current live our life on, so I almost feel like that comment takes away from all our hard work.  Getting a new baby adjusted to sleeping the way they should is very challenging and you spend most of your time wondering if you are doing the right thing. I also am a firm believer that it doesn't have anything to do with luck.  I spent lots of mornings and afternoons crying and frustrated because I was taking a happy newborn baby and laying him down in his OWN crib to figure how to put himself to sleep and he would just cry.  As a first time mom it is never easy to hear your sweet baby cry, much less feel like it's your fault for laying him down. It was great having the support of my sister Shea, offering her advice and affirming that I was doing the right thing! 

I knew that having a baby would make life more...complicated and suddenly the simple things weren't going to be so simple. But, I  was determined that I wasn't going to make things harder for myself.  I didn't want our baby to get attached to certain things up front, like sleeping in our bed, or only falling asleep by only being held or rocked, or driving around in a car. So that left me one choice, to help our son figure out how to independently put himself to sleep (which is a learned skill). So I'd take my happy newborn, who had spent the first part of his day eating and being awake, up stairs and swaddled him up real tight and laid him down in his crib only to hear him cry.  Looking back I don't really remember how long he would cry for some times 15-20 minutes some times longer. But I do know that he was feed and dry so the only thing that left was being tired. I also don't remember how long it took for this him to figure his schedule out but once he figured it out nappingis a time he gets excited about.  Once he recognized his bed he would get excited when we would lay him down and cover him with is favorite blankie.  There were no more tears, not from me and not from him.

It wasn't much different when it came to sleeping through the night.  I began to notice that he would sleep five or six hours one night and then the following night he'd only go for 3hours.  After dealing with this for a couple of night I realized that when he was waking up after only 3 hours of being down, that he wasn't hungry, he just woke up and didn't know how to put himself back to sleep.  I began to let him "cry it out." (Oh no what a terrible mother, I let him cry lol) To my surprise at night he'd only cry for about 15 min. or so before he would go back to sleep. Yes, it would have been easier to just go pick him up and let him sleep with us or just nurse him back to sleep but learning to sleep is something we wanted for our son.
I want our son to be a independent while knowing that no matter what his parents are here to love and protect him.  We never wanted David to depend on us for sleep .  Yes sleeping babies are so cute and comfy and you want to snuggle them over and over, but if you stop and think about it, is that what is best for them in the long run? For our family the answer was no.  I know that not only would it affect David negatively it would do the same for me.  I need my sleep just as much as the baby does so that I could make it through all the other challenges that having a newborn brings. 
There are lots of things that a baby has to learn and sleep is just one of those many things.

So yes my toes curl and a get a little annoyed when people tell me we're "lucky" bc luck didn't bring us to where we are.... a lot of time and prayer did.

And The Months Fly By

 David turned 8 months old in December and he had a great first Christmas.  I'm sure this will be the last year that we don't have to keep an eye on our Christmas Tree.  We did all kind of fun and festive things, we went to the Botinical Gardens and saw the lights, meet Santa Claus, and even made a trip home to SC to see the family at the end of the month.

January we rang in a new year and a new month with lots of firsts. David got his new big boy car seat, he started crawling around (and man he sure can book it!), and we had to lower his baby crib (very sad for mom). The hardest part about January for me is that David gave up on breastfeeding.  He was just to interested in everything going on around him that he just would rather take a bottle.  Finding a safe formula without a ton of additives and junk in it can be hard and very frustrating, not mention very expensive.

February is going to be called our adventure month!  Our good friends Molli and Larry welcomed their 3rd baby into their sweet family and we are so excited for them.  We had the honor of watching their other two kids, Aiden and Ali while they were at the hospital. This was David's first little slumber party at his house and I think he loved every minute of it. Little did we know that in just a couple of weeks he would get the chance to have his very own slumber party at their house! Big David (we really have got to figure out this name thing lol) ended up being admitted to the hospital for a pretty serious case of appendicitis on the 18th and having surgery the next morning.  Luckly he didn't have to stay long and he was able to come home that same evening.  It is such a blessing to have great friends that you can just call in the middle of the night and you know they will come to your rescue. I had a freakout moment when I was trying to figure out how I was going to be with David at the hospital but still find someone to watch my little one all night and the next day with no family around. We were glad to have David's sister come up and spend the next week with us while he had time off from his surgery.  We went out to eat, took David for his 3rd baby haircut, and went to the zoo. It's so great when family comes to visit. 

While I was pregnant David and I made the choice to not be a co-sleeping family for multiple reasons.  One reason being that I feel like it's just a really bad habit thats hard to break and in the end I think both parents and the baby don't get the quality sleep that they need. Our biggest reason is that David and I are parents all day everyday, and he works crazy hours so when we crawl into bed at night that is our chance to just be husband and wife.  We watch some TV and do our devotions together and its much need time together. Its so easy to lose focus of your relationship that we really want to make the effort to keep it healthy and strong and I think that is such and invaulabe leason for David to learn as he grows and watches us.  A lot of what he sees he will mirror in his marriage and I want him to always make his spouse a priority.

But I can't say that we haven't enjoyed some snuggle time together here and there. Above is a picture from today.  David is on nights this week which means he works from 6 p.m. and doesn't come home until 8 a.m.  From there he showers and heads to bed. My David's are best buddies and you can tell they both really enjoy their time together.  So time together today meant taking a nap and it's enough to just melt my heart.  These boys mean so much to me and I wouldn't trade my life for anything.

Playing Catch up

So, I have been TERRIBLE at keeping up with this blog....but last week I decided to start up again but then I got overwhelmed with trying to update everything.  So, I'll post his month pictures I missed and then just start fresh.

He's growing way to fast But we are loving every minute of it.

6 months old

Oh My we're at half a year already and I become more in love and completely happy as he grows and learns new things. This month for us has been a big for our family because David has learned to do many new and exciting things.

 Such a sweet little smile!  This grin brings me so much joy. I'm blessed with a very content and happy baby.

 Doing a little sitting up on the couch.

 These next two pictures crack me up everytime I see them.  It's like he is says "come on mom" I've had enough.

But for you mom....just one more!

 He can now sit up on his own, although not for very long, so we sit close by as he continues to learn how to hold himself up. David continues to show interest in food and his tummy is handling it much better these days.  I thought about making my own baby food, because we want to keep him on an all natural and organic diet, but I figured I could go with the organic baby foods that are already out there and my life would be much easier. But finding a good selection of organic baby food can be hard.  My favorite brands are Happy Baby, Plum and Earths best but each company has there own problems, from my point of view anyway. Happy Baby and plum only offer blends of fruits and veggies.  They don't have just spinach, peas, green beans etc. The veggies are always mixed with a fruit, and at first I thought this was great but then I realized when he starts eating table food I wont be mixing veggies and Fruits for him at the dinner table. I want him to like the veggies by themselves first and not become dependent on that sweet taste of fruit being mixed in.  The Earth's Best brand is great but they don't offer a whole lot of variety of veggies.  So right now we're trying to figure it all out.  At this point he loves, squash, carrots, green beans and of course sweet potato's.  He's like his Papa and is not a fan of peas.  When it comes to fruit he sure doesn't turn that down.  Pears took some getting use to but he loves them now along with, mango's, bananas, apples, and prunes. 

Our other big achievement this month are those two bottom teeth that have popped up. He is handling teething well so far.  I've heard people make it sound like a horror story but he seems to be the same sweet happy baby we love!  He of course just chews on anything he can get his hands on! 

David was able to get 10 days of leave from work so we were able to go home and have a wonderful visit with our family, which was much needed.  I think the more distance between you and your family the closer it can make you if you let it.  Everyday David does something that I look around and want so badly to share it with my parents, my sister or  David's family but then I'm hit with the reality that it is just us and I'll have to try to share through a phone conversation (which just isn't the same). 
So going home gave us a chance to share with them all the joy David brings into our lives everyday.  We also were able to have some 6 month pictures take of him by Davey Morgan Photography! Which you can see here  http://daveymorgan.com/blog/?p=6898 .  David was cranky when it came time to take pictures but you would never know just by looking at the pictures Davey was able to get!  Thanks so much Davey :)