The Holy Family

The King in her womb made her visibly great with child. She had grown beautifully large with Grace himself. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Her skin streched thin over the coming Christ child.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

The Savior was knit together within her, now a living tabernacle.

And I wonder at the anticipation she must have had. Much like the anticipation all women feel

who have carried a babe. But this...this was different. This was the Son of the Most High. The heir to David's throne.

But her very life sustained his.

And she loved Him as I love mine.

And her Joseph...

I have often thought how my Joseph was appropriately named. My Joseph is much like this Godly man. A quiet hero, who needs no aknowledgement though he deserves much. A man who sacrifices all for his family. Who is obedient without a big display.

And this family is so beautiful.

I pray that our family would grow to be more like this one.

Lazy Saturday

Yesterday might have been the perfect day. I love lazy Saturdays hanging out with my family! Joe has started a new tradition with the boys in the last couple of months. He lets me sleep in on Saturdays and they all get up and watch a movie and make a big breakfast. Yesterday was pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Yum-0. I got up at 9:30 (which was AMAZING!) and ate breakfast while I watched them chase each other, laughing and roughhousing for quite a while.

Then we got all bundled up and headed out to play in the snow (for the first time this winter!) We actually didn't have that much on the ground...maybe an inch? But it was enough and it was about 25 degrees so the boys weren't freezing. They had a blast. I took some pictures that I'm excited to post soon...you'll notice there are more of Judah, though, because he was the only one I could get to stand still for longer than .3 seconds. I also took some hilarious video...I will tell you that Joe got very creative with some snow activities using things that we already had in our garage...but I won't say any more than that. I'll leave you in suspense because it will be better to just see the video! SO funny.

We had lunch. The boys both napped. We watched some TV. I knitted.

The only downside to yesterday was that we ended up with blizzard conditions by the end of the day. 50 MPH winds made for lots of blowing snow and white out conditions. I was supposed to go to Ames and have dinner with some friends. I tried to go, but I ended up turning around just outside of town because I couldn't.see.anything. I was really disappointed I didn't make it to see those girls! But, better to be safe. SO, came home and ate dinner with the boys. We got into some PJs and watched "It's a Meaningful Life" (which is the current favorite in our house. I have only seen it approximately 30 times now.) :)

Tucked the boys in. Had a pomegranate (have I mentioned that they are FANTASTIC? They are such a yummy winter treat). Watched Community. Watched The Office.

Good day.

I have some really fun stories about the boys to share one of these days! But, Judah just woke up, so I better go get him! I also have to figure out if we'll be able to make it to church today! Hoping the weather is better soon!

The Name

So, as I said, I need to fill you in on how Silas got his name!

I first suggested the name Silas months ago. And, as you will recall, Joe was not a fan. Not a fan at all. So, we dropped the name and didn't talk about it much after that.

Well, didn't talk about it much seriously. Occasionally I would bring it up again just to see his reaction. That's when Joe told me that if I named our son Silas he would call him Kevin. :) If you happen to be in women's Bible study with me, you'll recall that (when he joined us for dinner one night) Joe made some other extreme comments about how much he disliked the name Silas. I'll leave it at that.

In my mind, it was totally off the table. I stopped thinking of it as an option at all.

But then, one night, we were telling the "Silas/Kevin" story to some friends and Joe asked them to vote between the names Josiah and Silas. They both chose Silas without a second thought.

Joe got all flustered about that and then started asking people to vote between Elijah and Silas and Silas kept winning out...much more often than he had anticipated.

Fast forward a couple of weeks (we still hadn't been talking about Silas as a name option at this point). Joe comes home from some late appointments and the boys are in bed. Pretty much the first thing he said when he came in the door was "I have a surprise for you".

...and the rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: "....ok..."
Joe: "I've been thinking about it a lot"
Me. "....ok...you're kind of freaking me out...just tell me"
Joe: "I think his name is Silas"
Me: "no you don't! You hate that name!"
Joe: "No, I'm serious. I think that's his name."
Me: "What?? When did that happen?"
Joe: "I don't know. I just keep thinking about it and the more I say it and the more I hear other people say it the more I think that's his name. So we can make it official now."
Me: "Uh, no!"
Joe: "What? Why?"
Me: "Because now I've been trying to convince myself that Silas is not an option. And how do I know you're not going to change your mind again in 3 days??"
Joe: "Okay, we can think about it for a few more days"

A few days later we were all calling him Silas. Roman too.

And Judah saying "Si-yes" is pretty much the cutest thing you've ever heard in your life.

And, in case you aren't familiar...here is the story of the Silas.

To me the name Silas brings images of a man of strength, a man courageous enough to speak the truth regardless of the circumstances or of the consequences. It seems to fit this baby given our situation during this pregnancy.

And I pray that he, my third son, will be that sort of man. A man who walks with the Lord and who boldly brings others to know Him.

We have chosen David as his middle name. My dad's name. The name of a king, who, though sinful, was called a man after God's own heart.

We are so excited to meet you, Silas. We have already been on quite the journey together and we can't wait to share more of life with you!

Silas David

Yes! That is his name!! I am so excited to finally be able to call him by his name! (In case you are wondering what changed since this post....I'll write more on Joe's change of heart soon! :))

***

All I could think this morning, from the moment I woke up was

"only say the word and I shall be healed".

We have been praying so much for our precious baby boy. We have had so many more praying on our behalf and we are so thankful. As I got myself ready to go to our ultrasound this morning, I just kept thinking "God, you can. Only you can. All you have to do is choose to heal this pregnancy, it will happen."

Please, Father.

***

Don't ever let anyone tell you that God doesn't perform miracles. Two months ago, this was a "hopeless" cause. We were told that the placenta was not likely to move. We were told to prepare for bed rest and a C-section. They said we should work on finding people who would be able to help us. Be sure to watch for any spotting, come in right away if there are any contractions. Be careful. Nothing strenuous. If you begin labor on your own, this could quickly become a very dangerous situation.

We said "We'll be praying". The doctor and the ultrasound tech both said "I think that's nice".

Nice? Well, I suppose.

Powerful? Yes. Most certainly.

Our God is a warrior.

***

I also want to say that I know there are some mamas out there who have prayed for their babies and their prayer was not answered the way that they had hoped. There are some people who have begged and pleaded on behalf of some more dangerous, more pressing matter, and have walked away disappointed.

I don't have answers for all of that.

But, here's what I do know. We serve a God who is good all the time. Even when we don't understand what's happening around us or to us, He is good. Even though we live in a fallen world where death and destruction and disillusionment are daily occurances, He is good.

***

I came across this verse in Deuteronomy just a couple of weeks after we found out about this complication in our pregnancy. And it was one of those times when I knew that God was speaking. Not like I could hear an audible voice, but I knew. In my heart I knew this verse was meant for my eyes and my soul at that particular time.

And I knew that either way, no matter how God chose to move or chose not to move, that this verse, this truth, would be the only thing we needed. We only needed Him.

Deuteronomy 4:35

All this you were allowed to see that you might know the LORD is God

and that there is no other.

Now, obviously, Deuteronomy wasn't talking about Ruth Ann's placenta previa. This verse is referring to the way that God revealed himself to the Israelites as he freed them from Egyptian captivity...by testings, signs, and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors. (v.34)

But, as soon as we heard, "Yes, you see this? The placenta is no longer covering any part of the cervix. This means that you can consider this a normal pregnancy from here on out". Oh, the relief. And immediately, I thought, "yes, the Lord is God, and there is no other".

God has heard us.

He has saved us.

He is a compassionate father with fierce loyalty.

He has intervened on our behalf.

Praise Immanuel! God is with us!!

Shutterfly, My Hero.

Do you ever get to December and then realize that you haven't even thought about Christmas cards? Or realize that you didn't budget for Christmas cards? Or fret that, now, you probably don't even have time to send Christmas card? Or finally come to the conclusion that you don't have the energy to even think about Christmas cards along with gifts, and parties, and baking, and Advent activities?

That's me. Every year.

We have literally not sent out Christmas cards...ever.

I know, I know. I'm a huge slacker.

I'm always really good at thinking that I'm totally going to do a cutesy little letter and include beautiful photos of my cherub-like children, and then none of it comes to fruition. You already read the why part. (This is also why I am not a scrapbooker...I have so many delicious ideas... and then I get started. And then I get overwhelmed. And then Roman's scrapbook only goes up until he's two months old. Don't judge me.)

ANYWAY, all of this is to tell you that I am SO excited about Shutterfly! I mean, LOOK. HOW. CUTE.

They have adorable Christmas photo cards like the ones you see above, AND they have lots of other very affordable gift ideas like photo books or calendars (both of these items are buy one get one 1/2 off right now!)

AND...right now they are running a promotion for bloggers. Read more here to get 50 FREE photo cards!