January Challenge

I know I know, it's not even Christmas yet and I'm already talking a challenge for the New Year, but hear me out!
We have the best friends in the whole world. Anyone that knows Ryan and Melissa Matlock know what I mean.  Melissa throws baby showers, wedding showers, parties, and give birthday/christmas/house warming gifts to people like its going out of style. Her friends, her co workers, her sister's friends, her mom's friends, people she barely knows! She has one of the most giving hearts I've ever known.  She has taught me a lot about serving.  Ryan has been such a solid friend to my husband for many years.  They are just flat amazing people with hearts for the Lord....

One thing I want more than anything in the world is to see Melissa become a mom. I always joke that she is a better mom to my children than I am. Seriously. I just wait with such anticipation for the day that they bring their child home from Bulgaria.  She's already a mom in my opinion.  She prays for her child, loves someone she hasn't met yet so much to pursue them, and has taken the hours and hours of time filling out paperwork, going through home studies, dr visits, consultations and anything else that is so labor intensive to adopt overseas. She has spent more time "in labor" to deliver her child than many of us ever did giving birth.
I wish I could just write them a check for the thousands of dollars it takes to adopt, but I can't.  But one thing God has laid on my heart (especially through reading Jen Hatmaker's book 7...ouch) is that I can do something.  I can give up something for a month and give them the money that I would have spent on myself and silly pleasures to help go toward their cost.  It may not be much, but it will be a sacrifice. It's not so much about the money as it is the sacrifice. I feel God calling me to make a very hard sacrifice....drum roll please.....COKE. I started to go through my bank statement last month and calculate the money I spent on buying a fountain drink..... but even the thought of doing that horrified me because I knew that it would be embarrassing. Every time I get the urge to go to happy hour (umm....everyday) and treat myself, I won't.  It's that simple.  I will not spend any money on Soda in January.  If I order a meal out and it comes with it, that is the only acceptable time to have my Coke.  I need your accountability, I need your help! Anyone who knows me knows how much I love fountain drinks..Sadly, this will be hard.  That's hard to even write or say out loud because it is such a first world problem.

Here are 3 ways you could help me during the month of January

• Go along side me. Is there something you splurge on that you could give up for 30 days? Starbucks? Happy hour drinks? Fast food? Buying something for yourself that month? I encourage you to join with me in sacrifice during the month of January. What a temporary time to make such impact for 1 couple seeking to do God's will. Think about if 25 people came together and gave up something that means something to them for the sake of helping one couple reduce the orphan population. What a statement to Ryan and Melissa of support! and think about the $$$ (25 people x $30 = 750!!!!!) 
• Match my total.  I am going to tally every time I would normally purchase a coke or get the urge and embarrassingly announce it at the end of the month. (I used $30 just as an example if you spent $1/day on something) Maybe you don't want to give something up, but would you be willing to match my sacrifice? If I got 5 people out there to match my $$$, instead of ME giving them around $30 WE could give them $150.  If 25 people that choose to sacrifice get 5 people to match them we would then have 25 people x $150 = 3,750!!!!!! 
• Pray! pray for me, pray for my poor husband having to endure a Coke-less wife for an entire month, pray for others that might engage in this challenge in january, but mostly pray for Ryan and Melissa and their child in Bulgaria.  They are in the waiting phase being matched with a child. 

Let's let God teach us through sacrifice during the month of January!  If you feel led to join me, please message me and let's get the details worked out and accountability set up!

Fostering: Should young families with small children do it?

Home study is Thursday, we get our license to foster-to-adopt next week! It is a reality that we could feasibly be expanding our family (again!) in a few short weeks! Our son turned 2 1/2 yesterday and our daughter is 5 months old today, so understandably we are getting some mixed responses to this call that has been placed on our life.  So, let me back it up a few years for you! 

When Jake and I married, one huge concern and priority on our hearts was how God was going to call us to engage in the care of the orphan, or the least of these.  We know that God calls all Christians to do this, and we know that it looks differently for everyone. I think both of us originally thought that maybe overseas missions to orphanages might be the route God wanted to use us in at this point in our life, but when we started popping out our own kids quickly, we each barely scraped in 1 overseas mission trip each before realizing God might be calling us to something more domestic for the time being.  We have felt the call to add to our family through adoption since we were engaged.  We weren't sure if we would do it domestically, internationally, privately, or through fostering really. It wasn't until last year when God made that pretty clear to us. 

Through prayer, seeking out our options, and really just God wrecking our hearts for little ones that come from hard places, God has called us to foster to adopt, but many are asking why now? Why when our own children are so young and we have 3,927 other things on our already full plates? Quite simply put, because God said so.  We aren't promised tomorrow, and right here, right now this is what engaging in orphan care looks like for our family.  We have discussed what engaging in orphan care might look like down the road in every other stage of our life, but for now, this is what we feel God calling us to do. I give you, 5 reasons I think fostering is a great idea for a young family with small children! 

1. Fostering as a young family gives a child coming into your home a chance to feel like they really belong, and are not out of place generationally.  Not knocking kids that are being raised by their grandparents (major respect for grandparents doing this!), but why in the world can't our own generation rise up and take care of the children of our peers instead of expecting the older generations to pick up our slack. Grandparents should get to be grandparents! One day, I look forward to being a grandparent as well, but for now, I am in full fledge parenting mode!

2. We might as well get all the exhaustion over with at once! Right now God has given me the gift of raising my babies, as exhausting as it is sometimes. I think it is a natural thing to add to our family while we are in the thick of this stage of our life.  Since we were given bio babies close in age, why not throw in some more and just enjoy the chaos of little children all at once :) People always approach me and sigh and say "Enjoy it while you can, it doesn't last long, I would give anything to be back in your shoes right now" This comment is usually said while I am wrangling my uncooperative 2 year old through some store, lol. I usually mumble under my breath, "Dear Lord, are they stinking insane?" But I know deep down I will miss this too one day. 

3. To set an example of the gospel to our own children.  What better way to teach your children to actually live out your faith than by doing it, day in and day out.  A sweet friend of mine sent me such an encouraging text today that said "Landry and Norah will truly be blessed by parents who demonstrate what it looks like to lay down you own life and desires to serve the least of these." Exactly. This ministry belongs to our family, this is a family calling, and I hope that Landry and Norah can take ownership of this endeavor as much as we do!

4. To set an example of Christ in our world by DOING what the Bible says. In the world of social media and information at the drop of a hat, words are starting to mean less and less. You can tell everyone you know anything you want anytime you want to say it.  But DOING, that is entirely different.  I don't want people to have to ask if we are Christians, I want them to see it.  What better way than to give a child a home that desperately needs one? 

 

5.  Because God is bigger than our fears.  Am I terrified to take on another mouth to feed? Another human being to be responsible for 24/7? The baggage this child entering our home could potentially bring with them?  To disrupt our own children's lives? Absolutely.  I'm scared to death. But what better way to allow God to stretch us, grow us, sustain us, and prove himself faithful time and time again.  How exciting to get the opportunity to rely fully on God, because I will tell you people, this isn't happening without him! 

Please pray for us in the coming weeks to come.  We are nervous, but anxious to begin a new chapter.  Do we need another thing on our plate? No. But I don't really consider loving and taking in a child that needs a home "another thing on my plate." I call it the gospel.  

Sweet Norah Mae

I find it hard to wrap my mind around all that God blesses me with.  An amazing supportive husband, a beautiful boy that is 2! rambunctious, macho, silly, gentle, and tender all in one! And now the latest precious blessing, our sweet Norah Mae.  Norah's name means woman of character; light and that is our prayer for her life. My hope is that God will use her and mold her to be a woman of character that will shine brightly in an increasingly dimming world.  I just wanted to record the special story of her arriving into the world before the details grow foggy and distant.

I had been praying and doing everything possible to go into labor on my own for the week before I had her.  My patience, my 2 year old, the summer heat, the 2 times a week monitoring her movement+biophysical profiles+dr appts, and our move to Lubbock was starting to wear on my very preggo body! The dr had set the induction for Tuesday, July 2nd if she didn't come on her own before that.  Late Sunday night/early Monday morning, I began to feel some strong contractions. I got up early, went for my routine 2 mile walk, and when I got home from my walk I told Jake that I felt like I might need to go in and see what was going on, so we headed up to the hospital! I was in early labor, but wasn't progressing enough to warrant them keeping me, so I was sent home with a dr appointment later that afternoon. We get to the dr appointment and was told that I was being admitted just a few hours later instead of the next day like we thought! Such a relief! 

We got to the hospital at 9:30 that night, and they gave me a little medicine to jump start labor some (the nurse was convinced I didn't really need it though because I was in labor all on my own!  she was right!) The nurse explained the "plan" to me.  She said that they would wake me at 5, give me more medicine, and the dr would come in around 7 and break my water, and hopefully we would have a baby by afternoon.  Sounded very textbook, very different than my labor with Landry, and exciting that we would be meeting our baby girl so soon!

 Norah had other plans! The contractions kicked in very strongly after that and by 3 am, despite the ambien, I asked for an epidural.  Once I got that, I went to sleep for a few hours, was woken up around 6 am by the sweet nurse to get everything started for the day. I was 6 cm dilated at 6 am.  Before she got off at 7 am, my epidural was wearing off, so I called her back in to give me another dose. God bless the inventor of the epidural :) The new nurse came in and introduced herself, and the dr came in at 7 am, according to planned. We chit chatted about the possibility of having a baby around lunchtime! She was going to break my water, make her rounds, and return in a few hours to hopefully deliver! She went to break my water, and got this panic look in her eyes and said "No, we are going to have a baby right now actually!" followed by "Do NOT push!"  Right then, everyone kicked into high gear, nurses running, shouting, pulling things out, running in and out.  The room filled with people, she broke my water at 7:15 am and Norah was born at 7:17 am.  The dr barely had time to get her gown on :) All I remember really about the moment was this feeling of disbelief! I kept looking at Jake in shock! I think he was just as shocked, he was still in his sleep clothes!  I couldn't believe how fast she came, considering her brother's delivery took 32 hours.  I don't even really remember some of these moments because it was such a whirlwind! 

Norah Mae Edwards

July 2, 2013 (shares a birthday with her grandma)

7 lbs 3 oz, 20.5 inches long

here are a few pics of the fast and furious delivery!

 I think this was seconds after she was born...I think I was looking at Jake in disbelief and joy :)

Love the skin to skin moment :)

7 lbs 3 oz. 20.5 inches long... perfect! 

Norah making her debut. 

Daddy completely smitten 

Mad about her bath 

Wow. That was crazy! Daddy never got to change clothes or shower, and I didn't even have time to brush my teeth. I remember saying "I can't believe it, I didn't even get to brush my teeth this morning and she's here"

Life Unplugged

A few months ago when I went to the dotMOM conference, 3 different mom speakers touched on cell phones, social media, and the growing need for kids, moms, and families to experience life unplugged from electronics in a world that seems to be more focused on the virtual world than reality.  Each spoke differently, but it was a common theme throughout!

I listened, God tugged at my heart there, and I kind of began my own observations of what these women communicated, trying myself to make more of a conscious effort to be more present in reality.  It surprised me at first, because I never realized how connected I was to my phone.  For months now I have just sat back and observed; at the playgrounds, at dinner times, around family, different events.  What I observed not only fascinated me, but devastated me.  I took Landry to an indoor playground on a yucky day one day and just watched him play. I also watched as every single parent with a child playing there had their head down, looking at their cell phone instead of their child. I don't know them, or their circumstances, and I certainly am not judging any one of them. I answered a few texts and a phone call myself, but I tried very hard to just leave my cell phone in the diaper bag as much as possible.  Up until this conference, I didn't even realize that was a problem, which means that I was more engrossed in checking txts, emails, and Facebook than watching my own precious child.  Jake and I watched a dad at Chick-fil-a not long ago barely look up from his cell phone as his son desperately tried to get his attention and got angry with him for "interrupting" him. Again, not judging, just another observation of how God has taken a tug at my own heart to teach me through the art of observation.  I have put Landry to sleep many nights rocking him or sitting beside his crib with him with one hand on him and one hand scrolling through facebook or texting. That sentence actually brings tears to my eyes now, because I never even knew I had such a problem being present with those sitting in front of me. I think about all those missed opportunities to pray for him, or sing to him, or just watch him and soak him up because I was "boredom surfing"

Almost anywhere I have gone or any situation I have been in lately has presented these kind of situations again and again. And the more and more I observe, the more and more my own phone, computer, or electronic whatever seems to repulse me. I have asked God to make me more conscientious of my electronic usage, especially around my children and family.  I never want my children to have to think that whatever I am doing on my cell phone is more important than they are. Ever. And I have found that it is hard to not get "bored" with the monotonous; whether it be reading the same book 100 times in a row, or watching Landry shoot a basket for the 50th time in a row.  I am now learning to find joy and humor in that kind of stuff now.

There are definitely times where you have to take care of business. I had one of those days the other day where I felt like I spent the majority of the day on the phone instead of playing with Landry and it brought me and him to frustration and tears.  In our world today, it is very hard to distance yourself for too long from your cell phone, but God is teaching me so much.  It is ok to not answer every text, every phone call, or catch every facebook status update.  It is ok to leave your friends hanging for longer than 10 minutes in words with friends or whatever other social media game you are addicted to. It is ok to leave your cell phone in your car, diaper bag, or at home if it means you get to enjoy the conversation of others in reality.

I just felt led to explain maybe why you may find it harder to get a hold of me, but also to encourage everyone else to live a more unplugged and reality intentional life! Let me encourage you to just be fully present with those in front of you. Landry just woke up from his epic nap, so I am getting off of here!!!

Quirky Landry

Every kid has their quirks.... that's what makes them hilarious and unique. I am finding that little man Landry is no different, and he is especially quirky and hilarious these days.  He is like a little sponge, soaking up everything these days it seems.  It's so fun! AND challenging! While this past week held a lot of cuddling and waaaaay too much cartoons due to the nasty flu, I LOVE teaching him new things and watching him discover.  I began to think about all his recent learning, and wanted to record the things he knows, not because I want to brag (well, maybe a little :) but mostly because as I was thinking about the things he knows, I couldn't help cracking up at the little quirky things that have come along with it all, and I REALLY don't want to forget all that!

• ANIMALS- By now, Landry is able to recognize about 15 animals by either their name/sounds/or what they do.  For example when I say elephant, he covers his mouth with his arm making a trunk and goes "bbbbrrrr," or when I say kangaroo, he says "hop hop hop"...and then there is the fish.... For whatever reason anytime he sees a fish, he calls it a "bee" In a book, in a pond, any fish now a days is officially called a bee? Well ok then! 

• COUNTING- The other day I discovered by accident playing with some stacking cups that Landry can count to 6... when he cooperates. Cooperation and toddlerhood don't really go together very well though, so I don't push it. Of course, we almost always skip saying 1, and the other day we had the numbers 1-9 in front of us and he pointed at number 6 and said  "six." I about fainted, and then that of course set me out on a mommy mission to see what other numbers he can correctly identify.  And then answer is.... he can only pick out the number 6 :) Weird. 

• SHAPES- He has circle and triangle, sometimes square.  But of course, when being silly, mostly a circle is a "ball." EVERYTHING is a ball to this kid. He is obsessed. You should see our house. One.Big.Ballpit.

• COLORS- He can identify yellow and blue consistently, sometimes green.  Silly Landry says that EVERYTHING is "yewo"however. We noticed when he was little that he always gravitated toward any yellow object, so this doesn't surprise me haha. Quirky boy. 

Other quirky things about Landry- 

• DANCING- Most of his dance moves we have named because they are so ridiculous.  He used to do what we called the "dead arm drop." This is where he would drop one arm to his side (thus the dead arm) and turn himself in a circle in that direction, with a little jig going. :)  He also began doing "The Carlton" not too long ago... We were at six flags at holiday in the park and he was sliding down a slide, came out, jumped up, and started swinging his arms and head just like Carlton did on Fresh Prince. It was one of those moments where you want to say "who is that kids parents?" but we were a dead giveaway because Jake and I were both dying laughing.  He also does some delicate little ballet moves that crack us up all the time as well. Music or no music, this boy LOVES to dance. 

• TV- Anybody who has hung with Landry for more than a day knows exactly what his favorite TV show is...LITTLE EINSTEINS! He will grab the IPad, the IPhones, the remote, and say  "Steins?" .....He is relentless too, he repeats it OVER and OVER again until we either say no which results in a fit until we find a distraction, or we turn it on.  Jake and I had to come up with a nickname in reference to the show because we can't even say the name in front of him without him losing his mind! We refer to them as the Alberts :) 

• OUTSIDE- Just like with the Steins, we have an obsession with being outside.  Many times a day, we hear "outside?" Many times a day we have an attempted escape through the doggie door. Usually barefoot and minimally clothed, when it has been 30 outside :) He has begun to do this awkward (very obvious) side shuffle sneak towards the door until he reaches a certain point and then he makes a fast break for the door. If only he could whistle and put his hands behind his back, then it would REALLY throw us off ;) It's hilarious. 

Anyway, I could go on forever about all his little quirks, but our little boy is hilarious and keeps us on our toes everyday. I just had to record some of his silly traits before I forget or he stops doing them!