Different Plans

I went in on August 2nd after my "water broke", which turned out to be leaking amniotic fluid and alot of it at that-so my doctor decided that due to the fact that she was estimated to be big, and my water rupturing, he strongly advised that I do a c-section right then and I agreed.

So Audrey Hope came 8 days ahead of schedule, and 15 days ahead of her due date, weighing 8 lbs 3 oz. Not as big as they thought she was gonna be, but not bad for 37 weeks 6 days.

More to come on handling a 10 year old, 6 year old, 12 month old and a newborn!

Almost there....AGAIN!

Last Thursday, we celebrated my daughter's FIRST birthday....and now, I'm 12 days shy of giving birth! This has been such a strange, FAST, hectic experience! I am tired, so very tired....sore, nervous, and in shock. LOL


Because my Husband and I make big babies, this little girl is going to be delivered by c-section. This will be my first c-section, and I am VERY nervous about it. I can't imagine trying to recover from this surgery with 3 kids, including one who is 12 1/2 months old and is walking. But God is good, and He will get us through it! She is estimated to be around 8 lbs 8 oz @ 36 weeks 6 days. And this doctor was RIGHT ON with our last baby, who was born at 41 weeks weighing 9 lbs 1 oz. So it's safe to assume this girl will be 9 1/2 lbs. Due to complications with my last labor, they just don't think it's possible to deliver this baby vaginally without serious complications, so c-section it will be-


August 10th, 2010.

SCOOORRRREEEE!!!

Ok can I just say that I scored like NO OTHER today at our favorite thrift store?!

I got(either for our 11.5 month old or our new baby girl)-

*2 baby gap denim skinny jeans
*1 regular baby gap jeans
*3 Target Cherokee embroidered pocket jeans
*1 Old Navy Jeans
*1 newborn jean hot shorts
*Small Paul pink skull hoodie
*Old Navy pink velour hoodie
*Old Navy heart sweater
*Carter's fleece long sleeve top
*Target Cherokee button up dress

All for $15!!!! I was so happy. Every pair of Jeans were $1 a piece! When the skinny jeans alone retail for $24 dollars!!! So so excited! I just live for thrifty finds!!!

So that made my day! *grins*

3 more weeks until our FOURTH kiddo will be here! And NINE more days until our baby's FIRST birthday!

I'm sure I don't need to tell you what a crazy life we live.

Oh, God is just so good to me :)

We found out today that we're having another little girl :) I'm still so shocked! I remember in Feb. of last year being absolutely floored that we were having a daughter...and now we have another daughter joining our daughter and 2 boys! Imagine! What a perfect blessing- 2 boys and 2 girls. I am just so elated.

God is so good. 7 months ago, I didn't think so. I was so angry, hurt, and bitter towards the Lord. Things weren't going as planned; it looked like we were going to be homeless, for crying out loud! All we wanted to do was support our family-we felt like we were doing and had done everything God had asked us to do. Nothing made sense. I felt so hopeless and depressed....I had our sweet boys, and then this 2 month old baby that I hadn't gotten to enjoy because I was so upset and anxious about our current circumstances. But God, in His perfect timing and sovereignty had this all worked out-even before I was formed He knew me and knew what the outcome of this certain trial would be! I'm starting to see that life is so much more than these trials or periods of abundance-that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can compare to the glory of Jesus Christ. When we made that commitment to take up our cross and follow Him, it meant all or nothing. Your savings account doesn't matter; your 401k means nothing to God...what car you drive, what house you live in, what things you have-meaningless. The ONLY thing that matters is your complete and utter dependency on Him. He wants YOU-not YOU and all your crap. Oh God, please don't let ME lose sight of this!

That last trial was HARD. And I'm sure it won't be my last-but hopefully in the next one, I can practice what I preach and rely solely on God alone, KNOWING that He is working it ALL out and that I can trust Him that whatever comes next, it is exactly His will and where we're supposed to be.

I never could have imagined that after the last trial ended, we would be expecting another absolutely AMAZING gift to our already beautiful family and serving in a fantastic youth ministry. Exactly what we wanted to be doing...I'm just in awe.

Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward!

Just another manic Monday!

Or not. Pretty uneventful over here, besides the baby grunting at me and the boys being restless. We're gonna hop over to the park soon, so I can't be too long here.

I wanted to share another exciting thing going on in our lives-Jon has started an internship as a Youth Pastor! We are SO excited about it :) It is our heart's desire to be in youth ministry, and to get an opportunity like this is just INCREDIBLE! When I came to know the Lord, In no time I discovered my calling working with youth-and funny enough, the same thing happened with Jon! Shortly after he gave His life back over to the Lord, HE realized HIS calling to youth ministry, and plans on being in YM as long as the Lord continues flaming the passion in his heart for them!

We left our home church because we really felt the Lord calling us away from the church. I really didn't want to(I was having some heart issues and let's just say the Lord was NOT my top priority at that time), so I was hesistant and even ANGRY about leaving. However, my Husband knew what God was asking of him, stood firm and continued being led by the Lord alone-and shortly after(we were looking for a new home church visiting a few different local churches), the opportunity opened up out of nowhere!

I felt really bad for not trusting my Husband while he was trusting the Lord, and realized that God was surely trying to get my attention in many ways: getting my attention back on Him, and learning to follow my husband as he follows Christ. Doh! How embarrassing!

It makes me realize what a blessing my Husband is-even when we came together in sin and lived for years in sin, God still had a wonderful, delightful plan for us that we never could have imagined!

Romans 8:28-30

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

I stand in awe of our awesome God who can transform lives and make all things new! PRAISE HIM!

Welcome!

Well hello there! Thanks for stopping by to see what our blog is all about! If you know us, AWESOME and Hi! If you don't know us, nice to meet you and I hope you'll stay! Nevertheless, the obligatory intro is due, along with some fantastic information about who we are, what we're about and what God's been doing in our lives so far.

I'm Janet, married to my bestfriend and constant companion, Jon and together we have 3 1/2 kids! We have Carter, who is 10, Collin, who is 6, and Vaden, who is 7 months! We found out when she was 4 months old that we were expecting again, to our huge surprise! So we're a family of six, and although we're exhausted, we really are having fun!

I became a Christian 4 years ago, and Jon has been a believer since he was 4, but has been walking joyously with the Lord for almost 3 years now. We have had a really difficult time when it came to our marriage but by God's grace, we have recommitted to eachother and are living a life as ONE for our Lord!

These past 4 years have been the most difficult in my life; living for God and not for myself is hard, considering my flesh wants me to do just the opposite. To submit to your Creator and trust that HE has everything worked out for your good(Romans 8:28) is a nearly impossible task for me-but I'm learning through each and every trial that life would be so much easier if I'd just do it and stop resisting :)

2009 was an insane year. From August until the last week of December, I had said many times that this has been the worst year of my life-which, in retrospect, is not true. But dangit, this year was so incredibly painful that I thought it impossible to keep going. I started to doubt the sovereignty of God, more importantly the very existence of Him-I did not understand why everyone else's lives got to go on without a hitch while mine just seemed to be in disarray more often than not! It seems that it's most always the issue of a job that tries us. Jon will get a job, and then some weird thing happens to the company and He's laid off. And then we have these long bouts of completely relying on the Lord to meet our every need, down to what we'll eat that night.

But He has NEVER failed us-NEVER.

So in 2009, we had our first daughter who had an unknown health issue that kept her in the NICU for a bit, lost a job, stressed out beyond measure, cried out to God, YELLED AT God, doubted the Lord and fell into pits that were impossible to get out, found out our daughter had a rare condition called bilateral vocal cord paralysis (which means her vocal cords are paralyzed in a locked position), struggled to cope with the fact that she might need a tracheotomy, got even ANGRIER with the Lord for allowing all this to fall at once, Found out we were expecting our FOURTH child while still being in this trial, and then at the very end of the year God blessed Jon with employment.

So can I say that 2009 has been the worst year of my life? No. The Most FRUSTRATING year of my life? Oh, definitely. Scariest, yes.

But how can two babies, a healthy family and children who love the Lord equate to the worst year of my life? IT CAN'T!

It was a good year-a year of blessing; a year of trials; a year of GROWING. Isn't that what being a follower of Christ is all about?

So far, this year has been good. Tiring, but good. A LOT of exciting changes that I'll talk about, and interesting things coming up.

Thanks for coming, and stick around!