Chains

Have you been over to Us Three Birds lately? If not, you should.

In Chelsea's latest post "What's Got You In Chains?" after being inspired by this passage:

Acts 16:25-34 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and  every one's bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said,  “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them  the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he a was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.


Go check it out for yourself, there is lots of prayer goin on over there, don't deny yourself of carrying another's burden!

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So then I had to ask myself...What are my chains?  "What area of your life do you need to see God moving the most?"


Usually the first thing that comes up, even if you don't want to write it down is the one you know is true. So immediately, I thought of my bitter heart. My heart that tends to judge, tends to hate, tends to be the ugliest part of me. Being a SAHM doesn't help matters. I spend most of my day cleaning up after my toddler with the internal dialog that reflects that of the utmost lost sheep. It shames me. A few months ago I started working on this, started digging into the dirt, even though I was afraid of the worms and bugs that were about to surface. 
My friends, not only did I dig to the bottom of that well, but I found the water!! It was gritty, earthy, and alkaline at first, but after I crawled out, let the water fill up this hole that had trapped me for a lifetime, and let the sediment drift to the bottom...It tasted delicious.


But this well is one that I'll be tending to for a while, so even though the hardest of the work has been done, I still have a little ways to go. While looking for a verse to put on my chalkboard this week, I came across this. 

It was a very gentle reminder that my work was still unfinished.

I, like Chelsea want to open up the comment section of this post for comments & prayer requests too. If you need prayer, I want to  pray for you & so would the readers of this blog. Feel free to leave them anonymously if you want to get personal. Feel free to leave a comment of encouragement in response to a prayer request if you want to lift someone else up. Please share what God is teaching you or a way that he's answered a prayer lately. Also, feel free to just continue this on Chelsea's blog.

Now, I'm off to try and catch a nap before Lily wakes up ;] Hope your week has started off GREAT!

Mae

Sticks & Spit

I'm in hardcore [I just saw someone else on another blog say "Hard Cord" and lol'd pretty good] nesting mode. It's been kind of hard with both babies building a sufficient nest not knowing how long we'll be in this apartment, or the next one, or the next house. I kind of feel like I always have to keep everything in a condition to where it is easily picked up and moved out. It sucks.

But today I got some things for me and Baby to make our nest a little cozier

We got this rocker [on sale, what what!] for our room. We didn't get a rocker with Lily til she was many months old, and it broke right under my big fat butt a few months ago. It's been something that Eamon's really wanted me to have for Lily, and now Baby.

It'll be nice to have a quiet little space for the two of us that's not in my bed.

Speaking of bed...

Eamon told me before we had Lily that we could get a new bed set...but that never happened. So we've had the same "Bed in a Bag" set that we got from Walmart the night we got married so we could have something to sleep on [it's HIDEOUS!] But since we have a California King now [Thank you Katie and Dusty!] Eamon and I decided that we definitely need to get new sheets and such because these don't fit and will get ruined during the birth since they are currently the biggest sheets/blankets we have. SO I was given permission to buy this lovely set from Target [again, ON SALE!] today to have ready for after the birth. 

I'm already pretty excited about getting into clean, new sheets [in my sexy Depends] holding my sweet, squishy new baby after our herbal bath. *Sigh....*

I've also been taking inventory of gender neutral onsies and pj's, all of our cloth diapers, covers, and wipes, making list after list of what needs to be done [freezer meals, laundry, activity plan for Lily & Eamon, bills] before Baby gets here, and trying to Baby proof Lily the house before we have another tiny one scooting around here.

In all of my list making, I've realized something though-You don't need a lot for babies. You really don't!! With that in mind:

What do you get for a new sibling when you don't know the sex? Does it really effect things that much? [I think it might] What are your essentials for your newborn baby?

Hope you're having a great weekend!!!

Mae

Fruit of the Womb

Do you see these chubby cheeks?

That's my baby ♥

After a good, long look at Baby's heart, we found out- yes, it's irregular, no it's nothing to worry about. She said that it should auto correct itself before birth, and that we don't need to make any changes to our birth plan and can expect a nice, healthy baby [girl? boy?] in March :] 


I can't tell you how thrilling it was to see our little baby hiccuping away, yawning, and routing around [a lot! this baby's gonna have me nursing non-stop!] while we checked it's heart. I swear the technician said girl multiple times, but Eamon's hell bent that she said boy, so [even though I caught both of us squinting when she looked at his/her belly button and feet] we still have two more months to find out if this little squirt is a Rhys [or Sean] or a Norah. I'm glad we didn't find out, the anticipation is such a big part of labor for me!


While we were prepared to see a specialist after this if anything was wrong, and to change our birth plan, and to ready ourselves for whatever this Baby's needs may be, I cannot express how overjoyed I am that the Lord not only heard our [and your!] prayers, but answered them in a way that has comforted us so much! 

 Hosea 14:8

"..I am the one who answers your prayers and cares for you.

I am like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from me."

Praise God for His fruit!!!

Mae

I want to especially thank my birth team- Angela, Ann, and Leila, Keri, Morgan, Michelle, Katie, Esther, and Whittney for walking me through this since last Friday. You ladies have been so encouraging and loving. So incredibly blessed to have you supporting me!