Last Sunday we started at a new church called Cathedral of Praise. Because of its size I was certain that I was going to feel uncomfortable. But...I was wrong! When we walked into that church lobby we were suprised by the amount of people who greeted us, talked to us, showed us where in the nursery our children went and then where we could go to sit so we could be close to the baby(who was not happy to be left with strangers). We felt like we were home. When I say that I mean like we had found where God had wanted us. I always prayed that whenever we went to a new church that if that was where He wanted us that he wouls give kevin and I a peace that was undoubtedly from Him. Well, He did!
Anyway, the service was wonderful. And one of the points the pastor had made was about forgiving others no matter what. Easier said than done for me because I can only take so much before I feel like if I forgive you again then you hurt me, my family, etc again I cant or wont forgive that person. But I learned that its not really about me. Its about living by the Word of God. I cant begin to feel and see what He has for me and my family if I have grudges and unforgiven issues between me and God. So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, especially with the holidays here. I have a yerning for God to show me what His love feels like and all along I have not known that I wasnt feeling all of what He has for me. How awesome is our God!
I guess in the past I have been like "God, if you could just heal Danielle, fix whats broken in my marriage, help my family , etc...then I will have a greater faith." Fact of the matter is, that is not how it works. He asks us to take step of faith. If I knew how to link the site of the sermon to this blog I would because I left that church on a misson. I have continued this week to take baby steps but I know I need to take big steps of faith. I guess I just need the reassurance of the faith that my baby steps build. I dont know. We plan to continue to attend this church. Our spirits were "fed well "as I have had several people tell me about this church. I cant wait to see what this week brings. I know this past week has been a week full of "God moments". Where I know He has been or is there in certain moments. He has shown me that He is there always teaching me!
Well I guess with all of that said I should give you all an update on the family!
The Kids: They are doing very well. We enjoy ,and so do they, our fmaily worship time! It is so heart warming to see my children with thier child-like faith. Danielle is doing well. Her therapist believes that she might be entering a manic phase so we are watching her very closely. But other than that she is awesome! Rylie is and has been very fussy and clingy but I think if she could sleep(take her naps and sleep at nite) she would be a much happier baby! But again she is doing good too!
The mommy and the Daddy: We are doing well also. Other than being a little sleep deprived from Rylie Having a reaction to the Flu shot, we are good. We have been spending a lot of time talking about what we want out of our church experiences and what our walk will look like outside of church. It has been a wonderful week of discovery to say the least! I hope that every week will be a little more exciting and inspire us to want more for our family! :)
Thanksgiving: Was wonderful! A lot of good conversation and food and of course fun too! We have a lot to be Thankful for!
Well I am off to start the clean up process...
Have a blessed day.
Love,
Jacki
PS: I will post pictures later today!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Giving Thanks...
Well Thanksgiving day is only hours away now and soon we will all be eating and deep in conversation with our families and friends. I just wanted to write a post to everyone who has been praying for us and especially Danielle! Your prayers were answered and my sweet girl is doing soooo much better and is functioning a lot sooner then they said she would. Praise God, the Honor and glory is Yours!
While everyone is having thier Thanksgiving dinner I want to share that I will be praying for each of you! It is my way of saying thank you.
Off to start the festivities and setup! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! GOD BLESS YOU ALL ON THIS WONDERFUL HOLIDAY!
Love,
Jacki
While everyone is having thier Thanksgiving dinner I want to share that I will be praying for each of you! It is my way of saying thank you.
Off to start the festivities and setup! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! GOD BLESS YOU ALL ON THIS WONDERFUL HOLIDAY!
Love,
Jacki
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Rest for the weary! Hallelujah!
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
--Matthew 11:28 NIV
This was the verse that the radio station we listen to talked about a few days ago and it sparked some interest for me. I have been incredibly tired as of late and have had zero motivation to do anything. The kids and I haven't done anything outside of this house (except going to Target & grocery shopping) in over a month and I felt like I was doing a diservice to my kids. I having been feeling kinda blue for about a week or so because of this but have zip motivation to fix the problem.
So like I said I heard the this verse on the radio and it struck something in me. So I did exactly what Jesus asked me to do. I came to Him in Prayer and I prayed. That night I fell asleep easily slept most of the (which means so did Rylie) and woke up completely refreshed (which doesnt happen frequently). I chalked it up to just being exhausted, of course we slept, our bodies had no other choice. But then last night the same thing happened. Rylie never sleeps through the night. That girl still gets up 2 times to nurse and let me tell you she puts up a fight if she doesnt get to. I will eventually give in so she doesnt wake the whole family up though. Well this morning I was thinking about what great sleep I have had and realized that certain things in our house are running smoother. That must be why I can rest peacefully. Not because Jesus put me into a deep sleep ( well maybe He did, I dont know) but becasue He helped resolve somethings around here.
A few examples:
1. Kevins job was giving him so much hassle about having to take time off for Danielle's appointments and having to come home if she was raging. Big stressor! Well they have an understanding now and been very supportive about whatever he needs to do to help Danielle.
Praise be to God!
2. Danielle, as you all know had a terrible medication reaction which landed her in the hospital and caused us a huge amount of stress and tears. Now her medication is working. No side effects(except weight gain). No fighting with her to take the medication(which most kids do). No rages!
Praise be to God!
3. I have and still do hate giving Danielle her medication because it has caused me a lot of anxiety. That anxiety has come from my own thinking that I some how failed her as a parent. That I couldnt make her better with just a kiss on the boo-boo. I have also been wondering what God thinks about my parenting and the decsions that we have made regaurding her care. We have seeked Him through it all to lead us to what He wants us to do but we always look back and say "Is that what God wanted us to do or what we wanted to do?" I am sure more often then not we have done what is comfortable for us weather He wanted it or not. Thank goodness that our Father is a forgiving father.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."--Philippians 4:6 NIV
I have been repeating this verse to myself whenever I am feeling anxiety about the medication and that maybe she is just having another side effect. Every little thing that happens to her, every sniffle, cough and sneeze. Every tummy ache and headache. I am always thinking that it has got to be the medicine. I now have a peace this morning that all of these things are NOT the medication!
Praise be to God!
4. Rylie, like I said already, has been sleeping mostly through the night. She has never done that. We believe that since the raging and loud unpredictable behavior from Danielle is ceasing that now Rylie has a peace that allows her to sleep restfully. We know where that peace comes from! Now we have to work on getting her out of our bed! :0)
Praise be to God!
Here are the few that I can think of right off the top of my head. I know after my rest that I can and will be able to serve the Lord today and everyday that I seek Him.
Have a blessed day!
Love,
Jacki
--Matthew 11:28 NIV
This was the verse that the radio station we listen to talked about a few days ago and it sparked some interest for me. I have been incredibly tired as of late and have had zero motivation to do anything. The kids and I haven't done anything outside of this house (except going to Target & grocery shopping) in over a month and I felt like I was doing a diservice to my kids. I having been feeling kinda blue for about a week or so because of this but have zip motivation to fix the problem.
So like I said I heard the this verse on the radio and it struck something in me. So I did exactly what Jesus asked me to do. I came to Him in Prayer and I prayed. That night I fell asleep easily slept most of the (which means so did Rylie) and woke up completely refreshed (which doesnt happen frequently). I chalked it up to just being exhausted, of course we slept, our bodies had no other choice. But then last night the same thing happened. Rylie never sleeps through the night. That girl still gets up 2 times to nurse and let me tell you she puts up a fight if she doesnt get to. I will eventually give in so she doesnt wake the whole family up though. Well this morning I was thinking about what great sleep I have had and realized that certain things in our house are running smoother. That must be why I can rest peacefully. Not because Jesus put me into a deep sleep ( well maybe He did, I dont know) but becasue He helped resolve somethings around here.
A few examples:
1. Kevins job was giving him so much hassle about having to take time off for Danielle's appointments and having to come home if she was raging. Big stressor! Well they have an understanding now and been very supportive about whatever he needs to do to help Danielle.
Praise be to God!
2. Danielle, as you all know had a terrible medication reaction which landed her in the hospital and caused us a huge amount of stress and tears. Now her medication is working. No side effects(except weight gain). No fighting with her to take the medication(which most kids do). No rages!
Praise be to God!
3. I have and still do hate giving Danielle her medication because it has caused me a lot of anxiety. That anxiety has come from my own thinking that I some how failed her as a parent. That I couldnt make her better with just a kiss on the boo-boo. I have also been wondering what God thinks about my parenting and the decsions that we have made regaurding her care. We have seeked Him through it all to lead us to what He wants us to do but we always look back and say "Is that what God wanted us to do or what we wanted to do?" I am sure more often then not we have done what is comfortable for us weather He wanted it or not. Thank goodness that our Father is a forgiving father.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."--Philippians 4:6 NIV
I have been repeating this verse to myself whenever I am feeling anxiety about the medication and that maybe she is just having another side effect. Every little thing that happens to her, every sniffle, cough and sneeze. Every tummy ache and headache. I am always thinking that it has got to be the medicine. I now have a peace this morning that all of these things are NOT the medication!
Praise be to God!
4. Rylie, like I said already, has been sleeping mostly through the night. She has never done that. We believe that since the raging and loud unpredictable behavior from Danielle is ceasing that now Rylie has a peace that allows her to sleep restfully. We know where that peace comes from! Now we have to work on getting her out of our bed! :0)
Praise be to God!
Here are the few that I can think of right off the top of my head. I know after my rest that I can and will be able to serve the Lord today and everyday that I seek Him.
Have a blessed day!
Love,
Jacki
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Family Time!
My, my we are lagging on keeping this blog up! It just seems as if we are so busy all of the time! I wonder if we will ever sit down as a family and have dinner again...
Well once again we have had another wonderful week with Danielle! She is doing better in a lot of areas! The biggest one for us is the raging. It is awful to hear her talk the way she does when she is raging. It's like the evil one is posessing her. Is that possible?? Anyway, now that we are on week 4 of the medication that I dread giving her, she is much better. We have found that we have had a lot more fun in the evening (minus daddy because he is at work). The girls and I have started dancing around the house to the Christian radio station for about 20 minutes every night. It is so amazing to me that Danielle at age 5 knows the words to the songs and for the most part understands what they mean. Rylie has been just wild! She does more running and a little bit of turning around in a circle! She contributes to our laughter and that whats counts!
The other thing we started is talking more about Jesus in a way that is simple for the girls to understand. I love that Danielle attended JICC Preschool because just those 3 precious years have built a foundation for her that I think no diagnosis will shake! I praise God for that! Danielle recently gave Rylie her preschool Bible and told her "Rylie, You have to listen to this book. Its really good!" I laughed. I smiled. Danielle still has a really hard time with sharing anything but because Ms. Shandy did such a wonderful job teaching her the stories from this book she thought Rylie needed to have it so she could learn from it too. That is excellent progress.
Now on to Thanksgiving. It is going to be here before we know it! We are hosting it this year and I couldnt be more excited! I have made invitations and the menu(pretty much) and just being able to spend the holidays with the family is a blessing. The kids have been really excited too! They are going to help as much as they can, which isnt a lot, but its enough for them to learn a lesson about being helpful! I love being a mommy! I cant imagine my life without my kids. I find myself considering going back to work as a nurse because of finances, but after I hear that "mama" from the baby moniter or Danielle telling me that she loves when I come to her school, I cant imagine any job more rewarding! After all, God entrusted these children to me and it is my job as a mommy to raise them up in the Word. No amount of money in the world is worth more than that!
Well I am off to the house work! And hopefully my Bible study for today! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!
Have an awesome day,
Jacki
Well once again we have had another wonderful week with Danielle! She is doing better in a lot of areas! The biggest one for us is the raging. It is awful to hear her talk the way she does when she is raging. It's like the evil one is posessing her. Is that possible?? Anyway, now that we are on week 4 of the medication that I dread giving her, she is much better. We have found that we have had a lot more fun in the evening (minus daddy because he is at work). The girls and I have started dancing around the house to the Christian radio station for about 20 minutes every night. It is so amazing to me that Danielle at age 5 knows the words to the songs and for the most part understands what they mean. Rylie has been just wild! She does more running and a little bit of turning around in a circle! She contributes to our laughter and that whats counts!
The other thing we started is talking more about Jesus in a way that is simple for the girls to understand. I love that Danielle attended JICC Preschool because just those 3 precious years have built a foundation for her that I think no diagnosis will shake! I praise God for that! Danielle recently gave Rylie her preschool Bible and told her "Rylie, You have to listen to this book. Its really good!" I laughed. I smiled. Danielle still has a really hard time with sharing anything but because Ms. Shandy did such a wonderful job teaching her the stories from this book she thought Rylie needed to have it so she could learn from it too. That is excellent progress.
Now on to Thanksgiving. It is going to be here before we know it! We are hosting it this year and I couldnt be more excited! I have made invitations and the menu(pretty much) and just being able to spend the holidays with the family is a blessing. The kids have been really excited too! They are going to help as much as they can, which isnt a lot, but its enough for them to learn a lesson about being helpful! I love being a mommy! I cant imagine my life without my kids. I find myself considering going back to work as a nurse because of finances, but after I hear that "mama" from the baby moniter or Danielle telling me that she loves when I come to her school, I cant imagine any job more rewarding! After all, God entrusted these children to me and it is my job as a mommy to raise them up in the Word. No amount of money in the world is worth more than that!
Well I am off to the house work! And hopefully my Bible study for today! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!
Have an awesome day,
Jacki
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Family
My family, as most of you know, is my life. Everything I do is for them. With Thanksgiving coming up I have been doing a lot of studying in the Bible about what family looks like in God Eyes. Since I never grew up in a "Christian Family", I stumbled upon faith by accident. Well, I am sure it was no accident. God had a plan for me, this much I do know. However, Kevin was raised in his faith and knew all along about what Gods Plan for family was. Lately we have been talking alot about what he knows about it and what we want to know about it. We have discovered that there is a lot about family that we dont know. We wanted to go to the Family Driven Faith confrence in September but we were all sick. We felt like this would have answered a lot of our questions and helped us realize what Gods Will is for our family. Since we werent able to attend we decided that we are going to rewatch the visionary parenting and redo all of the worksheets that accompany the DVDs. We hope to find what we are looking for.
Part of me thinks that we are missing out on a lot that God has planned for us and the other part of me wonders why when I pray for a peace and an understanding of what is happening in my family He hasnt fully answered my prayers. I know He has been giving us the strength that we need to get through what we are going through, but what about that understanding. Maybe the best is yet to come...if I always knew what ws to come life would not be fun! So for now I will continue to read and study Deuteronomy 6. This has answered a lot of questions that I have. My girls seem to love it too. Danielle has asked me to find it in her Childrens Bible so we can read it at bedtime. It makes me smile inside to know my children already know about a book that I knew nothing about and like to hear the stories inside of it.
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:5-9 NIV
These are my favorite verses from that reading. I think that He is trying to show me one part of being a parent. Showing them unconditional love as He shows us. I dont know though.
Well here is the family update: We are all doing pretty well. Danielle has had some bad days this week with anxiety. Rylie has been wheezing a lot lately. We think that her behavior is a result of that. And so does her pediatrician. So thats about the only bad news I have to report. Good news is that I am doing better and so is Kevin. His job is allowing overtime right now so he is working his day off to earn some extra money for the hoildays. Then hopefully we will be going to get our Christmas pics taken today! (appt pending)
I wanted to post some pics of the kids. They are getting so big! So enjoy....
She has learned how to climb on the oven door....totally not safe.
We love hanging out on the hammock in the back yard while Kevin is grilling our dinner!
Ther's my girl Danielle! Cute as can be!
So off to love on my children....
Love,
Jacki
Thursday, November 13, 2008
...at home recovering...
good evening,
Just wanted to let everyone know that I am home and recovering. They gave me more medication in the injection this time and it caused some yucky side effects. I am feeling better from those but I am really sore! Hopefully I will be better soon.
Danielle update: She is having some huge anxiety issues this week. I hope its not a medication side effect but we shall see. She hasnt been to school in 3 days because of this. So please continue to pray for her. Thank you!
Well I am off to bed now. Good night!
Jacki
Just wanted to let everyone know that I am home and recovering. They gave me more medication in the injection this time and it caused some yucky side effects. I am feeling better from those but I am really sore! Hopefully I will be better soon.
Danielle update: She is having some huge anxiety issues this week. I hope its not a medication side effect but we shall see. She hasnt been to school in 3 days because of this. So please continue to pray for her. Thank you!
Well I am off to bed now. Good night!
Jacki
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A short & sweet update!!!
Good morning,
I thought that I would share with you all that today I am going to have steriod shots put in my shoulders today. It is definitely not pleasent but it helps over a period of time. I will be relying heavily on prayers and my husband to help me with everyday tasks. One thing I doubt he will do is update our blog...which is fine with me, it just means that it might be 3 days before I can lift my arms enough to type. So I will give you all a little update.....
Kevin and I are getting good reports from the therapist and family members about us having a peace about us and our kids. That is definitely what we are trying to accomplish. Ms. E. is also very proud of Danielle for her very controlled bouts of anger. That means that she still gets angry but she is able to better control herself. We see that as progress. Praise God!
Danielle and Rylie are playing a lot better together. They are sharing toys and books and mommy too. It is a much happier home these days and that makes me very happy! We are hoping for a stablized mood by the new year!
Well we have to start the day now! Have a blessed day!
Much love,
Jacki
I thought that I would share with you all that today I am going to have steriod shots put in my shoulders today. It is definitely not pleasent but it helps over a period of time. I will be relying heavily on prayers and my husband to help me with everyday tasks. One thing I doubt he will do is update our blog...which is fine with me, it just means that it might be 3 days before I can lift my arms enough to type. So I will give you all a little update.....
Kevin and I are getting good reports from the therapist and family members about us having a peace about us and our kids. That is definitely what we are trying to accomplish. Ms. E. is also very proud of Danielle for her very controlled bouts of anger. That means that she still gets angry but she is able to better control herself. We see that as progress. Praise God!
Danielle and Rylie are playing a lot better together. They are sharing toys and books and mommy too. It is a much happier home these days and that makes me very happy! We are hoping for a stablized mood by the new year!
Well we have to start the day now! Have a blessed day!
Much love,
Jacki
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