Long Time, No Bloggy

Hi Blog friends. I have not forgotten you. I know that all my precious prayer partners are still out there. I hope you are all well. It has been very hard for me to sit at a computer and write for any length of time with a full time job and even more importantly, an almost 7 month old full time baby guy.

Currently, my not so little man weighs about 17ish pounds, is 28 inches long and is sitting up and rolling around like crazy. He is trying so hard to crawl! I think a tooth is in the near future as well. He love love loves all three of his puppies and thinks that bouncing in his jumparoo is way fun. He eats rice cereal, oatmeal, and any kind of #1 or #2 baby food as well as gerber puffs, cheerios, or mashed potatoes and other soft foods from Mommy and Daddy's plates. He is still nursing. I have outlasted many of the other Moms that started with me. For someone who feared nursing as much if not more than an epidural, I'd say that's pretty good! He is generally very happy, even though he has had a pretty rough cold and a case of thrush that he and Mommy have shared. (Ouch!)

Since I have returned to work full time for the fall semester (with tears in my eyes) Isaac spends two days a week with his wonderful babysitter, Miss Alana and her son Nathaniel, and two days a week at Mother's Day Out at church. He spends Fridays at home with Daddy having "guy time". Going back to work after spending all summer at home was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I am praying for a way to stay home, but God has me at work during this season for a purpose. And I am trusting Him for guidance and provision. But I know that even on Monday mornings when I cry because of the long week ahead, I remember that I am so blessed. I have a baby to leave at daycare! I would have given anything for that a few seasons ago.

A girl that Ryland went to high school with lost her little girl this morning. Her baby was a few weeks younger than Isaac and suffocated in her crib because of a blanket. I cannot even begin to fathom that kind of hurt. I literally had no peace until Isaac was in my arms today after work. It has taken me several hours to write this entry because I just couldn't put him down for very long tonight. As I have read "The Power of A Praying Parent" Stormie Omartian reminded me of something that I struggle with now more than I did. It was so much easier at the beginning of my pregnancy to put Isaac in God's hands and to recognize that Isaac IS God's. He is on loan to me, and I have no control over how long that will be. My prayer is that he grows up to be a man who follows God and lives to a ripe old age. But I have to daily put Isaac back into God's hands. I don't have what it takes to raise him the right way on my own. I can only protect him from so much- I have to trust God to do the rest. It's not easy when everything inside of me wants to micromanage and protect and control. Please keep the family who experienced loss in your prayers.

Isaac is going with Miss Alana and Nathaniel to the park tomorrow. Alana home schools Nathaniel and they have a show-and-tell day tomorrow with other home school families. Nathaniel asked me at church yesterday if he could take baby Isaac to show-and-tell. So Isaac will be on "display" tomorrow for a cute little group of home schooled kindergarteners. Nathaniel also informed me today that Isaac is his brother. He told me very matter-of-factly that he already has two sisters and he needs a brother. I told Nathaniel that Isaac could be his brother since Isaac doesn't have a big brother and he loves Nathaniel so much. It's great to know that Isaac is well looked after not only by his babysitter, but by his pseudo big brother.

My friend Miriam is traveling back to Guam tomorrow with her 7 month old son and two year old daughter. Her mother-in-law was sweet enough to make the 32 hour trip with them. You may remember her from an earlier post. Her son was at risk for having hemophilia and there are no hospitals capable of handling such a delivery in Guam. But baby William came out perfect and without hemophilia. Please keep them in your prayers also. It will be a LONG trip.

I hope you enjoyed Isaac's 6 month pictures that were once again done by my friend, Ashley Ofosu. Visit her at http://www.ashleyophoto.blogspot.com/ book her! She is amazing.

Love to you all. I'll try and visit blog land more often. It would be easier if the beautiful blue-eyed boy in the picture didn't spend so much time stealing my heart. :)

Mindy

A Super Summer Indeed

I am sitting in Marshall, Texas on a college campus in a four bedroom shoe-box apartment listening to Pandora radio. I am munching on a pop-tart and I have just put Isaac to sleep for the night. It is 9:27 PM. The last time I was on a college campus at 9:27 PM my night would have been just beginning, on the best of nights it would have included good friends, a walk on campus, a little studying and probably a trip to IHOP. Life has come full circle in four years......



Ryland is leading worship for a session of Super Summer Texas. This is a dream come true for him. And I am so proud that me and Isaac got to witness it. I started crying during worship tonight. Ryland was doing his song "A Thousand Singing". (It's Amazing! Buy it on I-TUNES! - SHAMELESS PLUG!!!) I looked at the little man in the stroller and the big man on stage and I was just overcome with how generous God is. Ryland is so talented and more than that, his heart is in it for all the right reasons. He genuinely desires to worship God and to help others do the same. Good singer/musicians that seek their own glory and a paycheck are a dime a dozen, I know a few too many of those unfortunately. Ry, you are fantastic and I am so proud of you- but mostly proud of the heart inside you. I can't wait to see what other adventures that God has for you. I am so glad that I get to do life with you, my best friend.



We took Isaac to the doctor for his 4 month check-up last week. I cannot believe that we have had this sweet boy for 4 months already. Time flies. He is 25 and 1/2 inches long (75-90%) , He weighs 14.7lbs. (just under the 50% mark), and his head circumference is in the 90% range. The doctor said his brains must be growing a lot. :) He got shots which always hurts me to watch. And we got the green light to start him on rice cereal. He sleeps a 10-12 hour stretch through the night starting at about 9 Pm. He has also learned to roll from his tummy to his back, and uses his exersaucer to practice for the day when he will walk. He babbles a lot, we talk all the time. And EVERYTHING goes in his mouth. He is happy, full of laughs and smiles and absolutely charms me. I know all Mommas arfe probably enchanted by their children but I just look at him and melt. He is the most special thing I have ever laid eyes on, this side of heaven. I just wonder what God has planned for him. I pray that I get many years to watch and be a part of his life.



Our pastor spoke recently about using your gift to share the gift of salvation with others. I don't really know what my "gift" is, but he mentioned blogging specifically. I don't know who is out there in the world that reads my blog. I don't think that I write anything that is too terribly interesting that would make anyone outside of my friends and family take notice, but on the chance that there is, I just want to throw this out to the universe: There is a God, the one and only. He sent his son, Jesus into the world. Jesus was perfect. He never gossiped, or got snippy with his spouse. He never lied, cheated, stole or hurt anyone. He was without sin. He came to be a servant and to bring love. He died in the most heinous way imagineable. He did it because he loves me. He loves you too and wants to know you. He paid for every bad thing that you and I have ever done and will ever do. If you are interested in knowing the creator of the universe, please respond to this blog. I'd love to share with you. I am not crazy. I won't come to your house and make you wear a robe and shave your head and throw away your beer. I just want you to know and share in the best thing that has ever happened to me. I want to share the secret to eternal life with you. Interested???



On the topic of salvation, I have never quite thought about it as much as I have since Isaac was born. Obviously, it is the most important thing in this life, but it is the one thing that no matter what I do, or say, or buy, I cannot provide that for Isaac. But of all the things the world has to offer, it is the thing that I desire most for him. I pray all the time that even now, God shows himself to Isaac and whispers a call into his ears. While I was pregnant my Dad even made the point that Isaac can choose never to believe, never to follow. I can't even imagine the heartbreak that would overcome a parent that has to deal with an unbelieving child at any age. I pray that I never have to know how that feels, but my heart goes out to anyone out there dealing with this. Salvation is a precious gift, bought with a great price.

Good night with love from Texas. God is good and just keeps getting better. All my love,

Mindy :)

Mother's Day

I am sitting in my living room tonight watching a SNL rerun. It's 9:22pm and Ryland is putting Isaac down for the night. My sweet baby has been sleeping through the night for several weeks now. And it has been great! It is amazing what a few more hours of sleep can do for you. He sleeps usually from 9:30 to about 7:15. I am so blessed to have a baby that sleeps and good books to help me sleep train my little guy!

As you know, tomorrow is Mother's Day. MY first Mother's Day. A day to celebrate mothers like ME. The last two Mother's Day holidays were so hard for me. They just served to remind me of what I didn't have. And tomorrow, I will no doubt rush around my house like crazy, be stressed out, forget something, and probably be late. But I will be taking MY son with me, because I am a Momma. I am so thankful for the gift God has given to me. My friend Stepheny gave me a packet of forget-me-nots to plant in memory of my three angels who have gone on to be with Jesus. I will carry them in my heart but know that Isaac is the perfect fulfillment of God's plan for me.

To My Fellow New Mothers: I am so glad to be sharing this sweet time with you. May we never take for granted the wonder and the miracle that brought our babies to us. I love knowing that Joia, Claire, Elliana, Mia and so many others will be sharing life with Isaac. We have so much to be thankful for. I pray that God blesses and guides us all as we raise a new generation.

To My Mother-in-law, Cyndi: Thank you so much for raising such a wonderful son. I am the luckiest woman in the world to get to share my life day in and day out with Ryland. My prayer since I was pregnant was that Isaac would be the kind of kind, loving, generous man that Ryland is. You did a great job and I am receiving the blessings from all of your hard work. Thank you for all you have done and for all the love that you have given over the years. I love you and I am so glad you are in my life.

To My Momma: Mom, I could write a novel and I couldn't say enough. Thank you for singing bye-o, bye-o to put me to sleep, for taking a car load of kids to big splash every summer, for letting the whole neighborhood swim in our pool, for letting cold kids come in for good food during snow days, for sending me to camp every summer, for paying for cheerleading uniforms, for letting me go to Chickasha, for (finally) accepting that I am a slob, for loving my dogs and for helping me transition into being a Momma myself. I love you so so so so much and I hope I can be half as much fun as you were and still are.

To all Moms past, present and future. I am so glad to be in your club. How blessed we are that God let us be women and be present during the act of creation. Happy Mother's Day.

To My Momma- Thank you so much for 26 years of fun and love. I hope I can be half as good as you were and still are.

Where's the Instruction Manual?

The days just keep flying by and my baby boy just keeps growing and growing.......

At his 2 month appointment 3 weeks ago he weighed 11pounds, 11 ounces (50th percentile), and was 24 inches long (75th percentile). He is in the 25th percentile for head circumference. My Mom says he has the Clapp acorn head! I think he has flown past 12 pounds and just gets bigger all the time.

He is such a smiley face now. He is very generous with his big toothy grin and has charmed everyone from his great Grannie B to his babysitter with it. It is amazing to watch him react to things. He loves to play with the toys hanging from his mobile and will even smile and reach for our dogs if they get in his line of vision.

He is sleeping 6-7 hours a night. YES!!!! If he can do it for about 5 more days I am going to move him to his big boy crib and see if we can transition to it. I cannot believe it has almost been 3 months since I first met my sweet baby. I feel like I am going to blink and having a little boy and not a baby.

Going back to work has been very hard. I still have days when I cry after dropping him off. Fortunately, I have the BEST babysitters in the world and they love Isaac. That makes all the difference. They enjoy their time with him. I think they view it more as fun and less as a job, which is better for everyone!

(my apologies to any men who may be made uncomfortable.) I am breastfeeding. Before I had Isaac I told people that my biggest fears were the epidural and breastfeeding. Well, the epidural was FANTASTIC and I had no idea how wonderful breastfeeding would be. It just seemed weird and foreign to me. I decided I would try to do it until I went back to work. Now my goal is to do it for a year. God blessed me with a baby who is a good eater and I have a very abundant supply. The last week has been hard. Isaac went on a "nursing strike" where he didn't want me, he just wanted to the bottle. My milk supply started to wane a little and it hurt my feelings! It made me so sad that he would cry and push away from me. After calling a lactation nurse who suggested ways to help. I had a breaking point, and it happened to be my breatspump! My friend had given me a breastpump and I was the 7th person to use it. And it was in the process of breaking causing it to lose suction and decrease my milk supply. So I used what was left of my Target gift cards and bought myself a $300 breast pump. So I need to have at least 5 more babies to apy for it. :) I never thought that I would fight so hard to keep breastfeeding. I enjoy it so much and God is so good to provide for us and give us a bond in breastfeeding. What a great thing to be a mammal mommy!

I am continually asked about Gurt, the child that we are adopting. Are we still doing it? Where are we in the process? Etc.? Well, to answer the questions, we ARE DEFINITELY STILL ADOPTING. But we are on hold for now and I don't know how long we will be on hold. That is a big matter of prayer. We do not feel that God has released us from the call to adopt, but we feel that for now we need to focus on Isaac. He is such a precious gift from God and we don't want to make him share attention yet. Also, there are some considerations that weren't there before Isaac came. And honestly, it is a lot of work and daycare for two would be WAY expensive. We just want to be smart and fair to all our children and more than anything, we want God to lead us to Gurt and right now we feel that God is telling us to be still and wait. So please continue to pray for Gurt and that we will be sensitive to God when He tells us to move.

My little blessing is calling! I must be off to shower him with kisses.

I am more blessed than I can possibly tell you.

Mindy

Dedicated

Yesterday we had parent/child dedication at our church. It was another emotional milestone that I am so thankful for.

We committed to raise Isaac to know and love God and to be examples of how to live. I know that I fall very short of being able to convey Christlikeness, but having Isaac makes me want to be better and to try harder.

You can watch the dedication ceremony on our church's website http://www.waterlooroad.org/live.html it will be on until sunday, after that you can view it on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/waterloo-road-baptist-church .

We were blessed to have several family members join us as well as several that had to watch live due to the lovely unseasonable snow storm that hit Saturday. One family member in attendance was Ryland's uncle Kent who has always held a special place in his heart. Kent and Ryland have never been a typical uncle/nephew relationship. It is something a little more special than that. Kent invested a lot of time and love into Ryland during his younger years and as a result Ryland was a state champion baseball player, a singer of great music (like the Indigo Girls), and in my opinion, a better man for having spent time with and another great man. Kent honored us by writing the following article for his two newspapers in the Augusta, Kansas area where he is a publisher for Gatehouse Media. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did:

When memories and activities converge it adds to the meaning of an event.As you turn the page at the end of a chapter of life only to reveal many blank pages still waiting to be filled, it leaves you anxiously waiting to see the story yet to be told.As my family prepared for a weekend trip to the Sooner State that would culminate with the dedication ceremony for the newest addition to our family, many items and incidents brought to mind the history that laid the foundation for the present.As a raging winter storm threatened to interrupt our plans to travel south, I looked in the closet for a coat and saw my leather coat that I hadn’t worn for years.That coat took me back to another winter storm that threatened to interrupt plans for two young lovebirds.About a decade ago, my nephew Ryland was at a Christmas dinner at my mother’s house while hoping a storm would leave his plans unchanged. But as snow began to fall, his parents were quick to tell him that his trip to see his girlfriend, who lived in the northeast corner of the state, was canceled. Crestfallen, the young man who always held a special place in my heart kept a smile on his face despite the circumstances that conspired to rob him of a rare opportunity to see his future wife.This was no ordinary uncle/nephew relationship. He sometimes called me Uncle Kent, but more often I answered to Buddy. It wasn’t a nickname, it was a title – like doctor or professor. I was his buddy.When his mother taught piano lessons, I watched her two children after I got out of school. We grew even closer as I coached his baseball team every summer.It wasn’t a normal relationship. So my response wasn’t normal when his plans were being short-circuited.I told him if his girlfriend could find a way to meet us half-way, I would get him there before the snow had a chance to pile up. Her mother agreed to leave a family Christmas dinner, as well, in order to complete the transaction. My future wife and I loaded him in my car and took him to his house to pack. He ran through his room grabbing everything he could to prepare for a few days snowed in away from home.We got to Stroud a couple of hours later as snow and the temperature continued to fall.As fate would have it, he had forgotten his coat. So much for any chance for fun in the snow.Thinking quickly, I took off my coat and dug through the trunk to find some gloves to help him keep warm.Needless to say, he had a great week and my position as Buddy was forever etched in stone.That young couple went on to marry and recently began trying to expand their family. The joy of pregnancy was snuffed out by miscarriage three times. The pain grew each time like an avalanche ripping through their hearts.Then came Isaac. He wasn’t affected by the same conditions that had hampered those who had come before. On February 3, he sprung forth as evidence of the faith that refused to die.As we prepared to spend a weekend in Oklahoma before his dedication ceremony, we rushed to beat the weather and saw that same old coat that had been part of this story from the start.As freezing rain and snow hit the windshield Friday, I thought about that night so many years ago.As I sat in their church, worshipping with so many friends and family members, that sweet little face seemed to overshadow all of the times in the past when pregnancies ended in sadness.His name means “laughter” and that laughter erased all of the tears that fallen before.I hope he continues to bring joy like his father brought me.He’s off to a good start.

We love you Kent- thank you for being there on Isaac's dedication day. We look forward to a new generation of fun memories.

Isaac Hates His Carseat

I am officially the mother of a six week old baby. Time has flown and the days seem so short...

One week from today I head back to my classroom, only this time I won't be taking all of my heart with me. I swore I'd never be one of those mothers who got all bent out of shape having to leave their child to work. But I never knew that I'd worry every single minute about his health, safety and happiness and whether or not his caregiver would know what his cries mean and how he likes to be snuggled to fall asleep. I am one of those mothers and when I cry my way to work next week I will try and remember to thank God for my job and that I am in fact a mother to begin with. I am still amazed that Isaac is here at all, that I actually have the baby I always dreamed of.

Isaac smiled today. It wasn't a gassy smile, or the oh-so-cute " i'm falling asleep" smile, no, he looked at me wide awake and smiled a beautiful, toothless, smile. It surprised me so much that I squealed and it startled him enough to make him jump. It absolutely melted my heart.

Isaac went to church for the first of many times last Sunday. I heard so many people speculate on who he really looks like. Most of the time I hear Ryland or my brother, Lane. The truth is, I think that if God let me put Isaac together myself I couldn't have done a better job. I know he is mine but sometimes I just stare at him, he is so perfect, so healthy and beautiful. And I am obviously not biased at all.

Isaac hates riding in his carseat. He screams the majority of the time he has to be in it. But tonight as Ryland and I endured a 30 minute cryfest I just couldn't help but think how happy I am. After all this time, I have my baby in the backseat, and the crying just reminds me that he is here. And I am so blessed.

I love this kid.

My Beautiful Boy

Isaac in his blankie basket.
Asleep in Daddy's guitar case.

Listening to a lullably.

Getting mad.

Peaceful.

Wide eyed.

Under his name in the nursery.

Bentley can't be left out.

Sleepy face.

Look alikes.

His favorite snuggle spot.

Our happy family.

Talking to momma.

How blessed we are.

I cannot believe it has almost been three weeks since I first held my sweet Isaac. I was told that time would fly as soon as he got here and that is so right. He is getting big so fast, eating well, sleeping decently well. I have never wanted to freeze time so badly before. I live in fear of March 25 and going back to work. I left Isaac with Ryland for 2 hours the other day and thought my heart was going to break. I love him so much. My Aunt Glenda described it as watching a piece of your heart parade around outside of your body. I am trying to savor every sweet moment that I can while he is little. We had our wonderful Ashley Ofosu come and take Isaac's pictures last Friday. Enjoy them and continue to keep us in your prayers.

Mindy

Also Congratulations to two other new mommies of sweet boys - September Wade with her son Jonas and Jessica Marshall with Jason.