Recently we put a new banner up on the Blog. Have you noticed it? I wanted to announce our new addition at 12 weeks, but because I obviously am showing and people were guessing we put the banner up early.

I am now 11 weeks.

Many questions, WHAT? You are pregnant? I thought you were done? I thought you could not/should not have anymore.

Let me answer some of those questions the best we can.

God has graciously given my husband and I the privilege of having 9 living children. I have enjoyed each one that God has given me. But you will notice that I DO NOT brag, or make a big deal about  the number of children we have. I’m not saying it’s wrong to talk about how many children you have in your home, but I’ve talked to so many grieving ladies who would love to have ONE baby or they have one, but have never been able to another…that my heart grieves for them.

We never sought to have a lot of children, God has truly given each one of them to us.
My prayer is that each one will learn the reality of salvation, God will change their lives, and because of Christ in their life, many others will SEE Christ and learn of the Saviour.

Many of you know that my husband is on different medications for certain illnesses God has allowed him to have. He has bad days and good days. One particular medication he is taking is not good for pregnancy. I AM NOT supposed to get pregnant or be able to have another little one…because the medication could harm the baby.

I am.

God has given me another.

Yes, we were surprised.

Yes, we did use prevention.

I also believe that MY God is the giver and taker of life. He is the Creator of every life, including the little one that is growing in my womb.

John 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Paul writes:
.But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,"
Galatians 1:15

God knew David before he was born:
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. ~Psalm 139:13-15

God knew Jeremiah:
"Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." ~Jeremiah1:4-5

I love how God sees children. Unfortunately the world sees children in a negative light, but God LOVES each little one.
"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward. ~Psalm 127:3

Scripture even tells us that we are created in the image of God. What an awesome thought!

Bottom line:

God has given a beautiful little life for me to carry these nine months. Please pray for this little one.

Because of Michael’s medicine: God could call this little one home, God could allow us to have a special needs child, or God could give us a miracle.

It is not an easy thing to wait on Him. Believe me, the blogging world may look like a world of perfectly decorated homes, great dinner ideas, loving families, and a home that runs smoothly in every way.

But reality looks completely different. Not one person or family is perfect or “has it all together”. Only through the Grace and Mercy of Jesus can the reality of a Godly home even start.

The truth is my house is not clean... No one has been harmed. My homeschool is running... But the kids are being VERY self sufficient. Meaning, they have been on their own, and I don't feel great, yet life still continues. People are still being fed, no one is starving, yet it is not gourmet meals. I am getting grumpy and irritable…

The truth: my attitude is really what matters in the whole scheme of things. I need to keep my focus on Jesus and not my imperfect life.

If I'm spiritually out of sorts because my life is out of sorts, then my children suffer. If I’m grumpy because I’m sick of being sick, then my husband suffers. If I care more about the lack of organization of my home and less about my own starving spiritual soul…I suffer.

But however, if I call on God and trust His empowering work of victory over sin in my life in spite of my feelings, and follow that through with GRATFULNESS, gentleness, and kindness that only comes from God, the home has the peace it needs, despite the mess and mommy being exhausted and sick. It really does make a difference.

Pray for me. I want to be the grateful loving mom that leans on Jesus and NOT the complaining grumpy mom that takes it out on my family.

Someday soon the snow will melt, the sun will return, I'll feel better, and my house will be clean. Until then, I'll bask in the love of my savior and my family. I will enjoy this new normal…

My prayer is that as I continue this journey of life with this little one, God does a great work in my life as well as in each of my children.

Serenity Grace turned nine on Saturday February 15th!! 

*Disclaimer: I realize most of these pictures are blurry. I've found out it's really hard to get a nice pic of people who are moving really fast. So...most of the pictures are blurryish. I have a setting on my camera for moving things, but it wasn't set on it. Lesson learned:)

Those up there ^^^^ are known to us as 'dough things'. I have no idea what they are supposed to be called. They're made of bread dough, filled with taco meat and cheese, and baked in the oven at 350*F. Very delicious!!

shhh...Don't tell Sis, but I've broken into the blog! :) I just thought that I'd say HI! :)
 

Our family celebrated Mom's birthday on Thursday by going to Chipotle! Then we came home for some homemade chocolate cake.

Birthday's are a very special occasion at our house!! Most of the kids make cards and buy gift at the dollar store for the birthday person.  You never know what you might get, but its usually something you've "always wanted" :)

Autumn

We don't usually celebrate Valentine's day, but this year the little kids had enough of us telling about exchanging cards and making mailboxes and getting candy when we four older kids were in a Christian school. So this year we saved all of our oatmeal boxes and shoe boxes and made mailboxes.

I'll try to get as many pictures up, but our internet is not being nice today so I might not be able to get all of them.

So Happy Valentine's Day a day late!!!!!

Btw, it's Serenity's birthday today so don't be surprised if you see another post tomorrow or something. I know, shocker, I wrote two posts in the same week!!

CarissaFaith:)

These days have been very, very busy!! Last week we three older girls went to a birthday party two hours away so we had to make arrangements. We left the day after the Great Snowstorm.

I was just about to add a picture, but I forgot I left my camera at church. So, pictures later:)

Anyway, we invited the church family to watch the Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham debate at church on Tuesday. There was supposed to be some snow, but the weather guys kept changing how much we were going to get and we rarely get tons of snow anyway.

It started snowing even before the debate started and didn't let up for a very long time.

We had some guys plowing the driveway (our church is on a big hill) and then someone directing traffic to make sure no one slipped. The snow was coming down so fast, they basically plowed, let a car go down, and plowed again.

Here's a picture I found on my iPod.

I can't remember which big snow that was....it was either the first one before the debate or the second one. My brain is fried:)

Anyway here's another one. Actually, the roads are plowed in this one so it might have been the first snow thing. Oh well, it is pretty anyway!!

Like I said, we went to a birthday party two hours away. Our mom took us and then she went to our grandparent's house (her parents) to visit.

We had an awesome time! We went sledding down an amazingly steep and bumpy hill. We went shopping, except without the money:) And we played in the snow and did lots of other fun stuff!!

We have three important holidays this week!!

Mom's birthday on Thursday, Valentines Day on Friday, and Serenity's birthday on Saturday. Busy week:)

I will get my camera tomorrow and have pictures sometime....maybe not Thursday, but maybe Friday or Saturday or Sunday or something like that.

But we had to leave:( and now we're home again.

But mom isn't here so it's a little harder to do everything...like school. I don't think I've done an entire day of school since last Tuesday. But that's ok cause I have a Biology test I haven't exactly studied for yet:)

I will take it eventually though. Maybe Friday.

Happy almost Valentine's Day!!!

CarissaFaith:)