Far Above Pearls

Hi friends and readers of Far Above Pearls,

I am very excited to announce the launching of my new website/blog at www.echoinghim.com!  I hope you’ll come on over to visit me there and make sure to switch over your blog subscriptions to my new rss feed.

Thanks so much for reading and looking forward to hearing from you at my new site!

Jacquie

Today is our 5 year wedding anniversary and I thought I’d share a few thoughts on our marriage up to this point:

We are not perfect.  (No kidding!)  I might have thought we were both pretty close before we got married but marriage is a good way to reveal those hidden flaws.  However, I would much rather have those things revealed so that the Lord can work on them!  “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)  We are better together because the Lord uses us to sharpen each other and cause each other to grow.  I am so thankful for Joe’s gentle sharpening through the last 5 years and for the ways he continually challenges me to go deeper in God.

 ”Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  (Ephesians 5:25)  I am continually amazed, blessed, and grateful for the ways my husband seeks to love me with the same love that Jesus loves His bride, the church.  Over the last 5 years, I have watched him grow in selflessness as he joyfully serves me and our children, putting our needs before his own. 

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:22)  I have learned that I have trouble submitting to the Lord – I tend to lean towards the mantra, “I do what I want, when I want, how I want” – and I learned about this area of weakness through discovering that I didn’t really want to submit to my husband either.  Apparently, these to go hand-in-hand with each other, so I’m praying that as I grow in one area, it will also translate to growth in the other.  I’m a bit of a slow learner, so maybe ask me in another five years how I’m doing and hopefully I’ll be able to say that I have too have grown in selflessness and have learned how to submit to my earthly husband and my heavenly Bridegroom.

 ⁹  Two are better than one, 
      because they have a good return for their work:
 ¹⁰ If one falls down,
       his friend can help him up.
       But pity the man who falls
       and has no one to help him up!
 ¹¹  Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
       But how can one keep warm alone?
 ¹² Though one may be overpowered,
       two can defend themselves.
       A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
(Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

Yes, I realize I’m using a lot of cliché marriage passages, but it really is true!  “Two are better than one” and I’m so glad I have someone next to me as my partner in life, to help me up when I fall down, to keep me warm (yes, I made a good cuddler out of him!), and to fight alongside me in the battles that come our way.  I am immensely grateful for a husband who listens to the voice of the Holy Spirit and who is intensely in love with Jesus – “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken“.

Thank you honey for five amazing years and may we share many more!

Time for the monthly update on the kids!  In November, we had the opportunity to fly with our kids to Alberta to visit Joe’s family for a week.  This was the first flight for both of them and they both did really great!  Rayah slept for both flights and Justice was pretty good at keeping entertained with daddy for the flight there & then he also slept for the flight back.  Since we both had the kids on our laps and there are only 4 oxygen masks per row, we had to be separated and I sat in front of Joe, but it was all okay, seeing as it was only a 2 hour flight and perhaps it was better that way anyways, since Rayah would probably have been a distraction to Justice.

Our week there was really great and it was awesome to see Joe’s parents, sisters, one brother-in-law and his nieces and nephews!  None of them had met Justice yet (besides Joe’s parents) and of course none of them had met Rayah yet, so that was really nice.  While we were there, Justice got to do lots of fun things with daddy, like going swimming with his Auntie and cousins, going on his first (of many) quad ride, going to a tractor show, going on the trampoline and swing, and playing with the many dogs, cats and horses on the farm.  I was inside most of the time with Rayah, but I got to go out a bit too to play with Justice and go on what may have been my first quad ride and go for a fun walk in the bush with Grandma, Joe & Justice.  A funny thing on that walk was that Justice touched a live electric fence wire a couple times, but I guess the current isn’t flowing consistently but rather goes in pulses and he was just lucky enough to touch it when it wasn’t shocking!  There were also lots of fun new toys to discover and play with and a new house to explore and get into trouble, so Justice had a great time!    Rayah was having some gas issues while we were there, but it was fantastic to have so many willing hands to help out and I got lots of breaks, which was really nice!  They even took care of both kids for us for an evening, giving Rayah her very first bottle (expressed milk), so that Joe and I could go on a date.

And now for the regular update on the kids – and even though most of you probably don’t really care about all the little details that I record here, I’m still doing it for me so that I can remember them!  If you’d like to see recent videos of the kids, you can visit my youtube channel.

Justice

Cute and funny things:

• We’ve noticed that he sings when we are driving in the van and one time, Rayah was crying in her car seat and I looked back and saw Justice singing with his fingers in his ears – lol!
• One day when I was having a really rough day, I had a moment of frustration where I covered my face with my hands and was on the verge of tears, when Justice came up to me with his arms reaching up and said “hug?”  It was so sweet!  Then, later that same day, I was sitting on the floor having a cry and he was in my lap and he gave me a kiss on the nose – it was exactly what I needed and made me smile.
• He throws EVERYTHING!  He has a new fascination with throwing things high up in the air.  He’ll also throw all his many balls that he has in the basement (tennis balls, basketball, volleyball, and football) and he’ll throw them at the walls, so sometimes they come back and hit him.
• He claps and says “happy” when I dress him to go outside.
• It was probably only funny to me, but we had a moment where I was trying to put him down for his nap and he kept turning his soother around so that it was upside-down and I couldn’t help but laugh and then he started giggling and we were both laughing and I couldn’t stop!  I tried to sing him his bedtime lullaby, but I kept giggling and we both had a good laugh together.

New things:

• First plane ride – loved looking out the window at the city lights.
• First quad ride.
• First time visiting a church nursery – it didn’t go so well and he ended up crying for his mommy.
• First visit to his Grandma & Grandpa Engbrecht’s and first time meeting his aunts, an uncle, and his cousins.

Eating and drinking:

• Eating time is still quite messy and he is constantly getting his clothes dirty and food all over himself and the floor!
• He is now showing signs that he understands hunger and thirst as he has started saying his words “munch”, “eat”, “food”, “drink”, “mo” (more – with the hand sign), etc.  He will run upstairs when I say it’s time for a snack and he often asks for more food “peeze” (with the hand sign as well).

Talking and comprehension:

• He can now talk in a whisper which is terribly adorable!
• Of all his new words below, you can pretty much replace every “r” or “l” with a “w” or sometimes he just doesn’t say them at all :)
• Things: “shoe”, “bunk”, “phone”, “farm”, “stick”, “bucket”, “jacket”, “blanket”, “onesie”, “hockey”, “chiangle” (triangle), “circle”, “plane”, “flashlight”, “football”, “bump”, “buckle”, “laundry”, “vee” (the letter), “zuppo” (zipper), “tree”, “nap”, “towel”, “name”, “spanking”, “job”, “cookie”, “cracker”, “side” (outside), “muffin”, “mitts”, “brush”, “mess”, “broom”, “bike”, “hammer”, “jammies”
• Animals: “panda”, “sheep”, “hen”, “bunny”, “horsie”
• Body parts: “foot”, “cheek”, “chin”, “mouth”, “back”, “eye”, “toe”, “ow” (ear), “nose” (that’s his favorite one to point to on everyone)
• Numbers: “one”, “two”, “fo”, “fi”, “sick”, “eight”, “ni”
• Colors: “red”, “yellow”, “green”, “orange”
• Bathroom words: “poop”, “pooping” (appears to be saying this as he actually pees or poops in his diaper), “change”, “diaper”, “dowty” (dirty), “clean”, “showee” (shower), “potty”
• Eating words: “drink”, “juice”, “cheese”, “mink/mook” (milk), “food”, “chew”
• People: “Jake/Jacob” (cousin), “Angie” (auntie), “Cole” (auntie Nicole), “Chloe” (cousin), “Justice” (yay – he can finally say his own name!), “Jesus” (so sweet when he said this for the first time as we prayed for his lunch), “me”
• Verbs, Adjectives & Other words: “windy”, “peeze” (please), “run”, “kick”, “nummy” (yummy), “gone”, “funny” (inevitably what he thinks is funny is not something I think is funny!), “careful”, “gentle”, “crying” (says this about Rayah a lot), “welcome”, “come”, “mo” (more), “whining”, “good”, “fluffy”, “bounce” (says this about balls), “sleep”, “in”
• Phrases: “cheese peeze”, “drink milk”, “baby Rayah”, “hockey stick”, “thank you”, “ni-night”, “munch eat food”, “wake up!”, “come on!” (our personal favorite), and any combination of the words “bum poop stinky”!

Development:

• He can open any door in our house now, including our outside door, which we now have to dead bolt to keep him from taking off!  I also some times keep the bathroom and our bedroom doors locked so that he thinks they are always locked and inaccessible.  Since he has seen me using a kitchen knife to unlock these doors from the outside, he has attempted to open them with his play screwdrivers – lol!
• He has temper tantrums daily – whether it’s just whining and crying or full-on thrashing on the floor screaming until he dry heaves!  We are learning of different ways to handle these outbursts and meltdowns, but it is definitely challenging to keep your cool when he’s freaking out!
• We’ve noticed that he learns a lot of things by just observing us – for one, putting on hand lotion – he’ll play with the lotion bottle and then rub his hands together – very cute!
• He is learning the concept of putting things back where they belong, but thinks that it’s a game.  So he will constantly pull clothing and diapers, etc. out of Rayah’s dresser and then sometimes he’ll put them back on his own, or we have to go and make him put them back.  He’ll also close the drawers and doors when asked (not usually on the first request though).
• He is learning how to do other things we ask of him, like finding an object and bringing it to us.
• He’s still doing awesome at playing on his own while I’m busy and he’ll even let me take a nap on the couch in the basement while he plays with his toys, which is really nice!
• He’s learning how to go down the stairs forwards!  He’ll try to hold onto the wall or onto the steps and sort of go down on his bum, but mostly actually stepping down on his own!

Health:

• He’s had lots of injuries as of late, all of them involving falling!  He fell into the corner of a wall at our house, leaving a line on his cheek and a bloody cut on his chin.  He fell forwards, hitting his gums on the corner of a guitar case – this one bled A LOT and looked pretty nasty for a couple days, but healed up well.  He fell into a doorway at our house, hitting his nose and causing it to bleed.  He fell into a laundry basket and somehow cut two of his fingers on the plastic – more blood!  Jeepers!!

Brotherhood:

• He accidentally dropped a metal pot lid on Rayah’s face, giving her a small cut under her eye.
• He likes to pretend to kick Rayah in the head when she’s lying on the floor.  I don’t doubt that he’d actually do it if we weren’t paying attention, but I don’t think it’s out of malice – it’s more like he finds the idea funny and maybe thinks her head looks like a ball that’s nice for kicking.
• Still loves to give Rayah LOTS of hugs and kisses!
• In addition to constantly taking Rayah’s soother, he will also attempt to put her soother in her mouth for her.
• He constantly wants to rock Rayah’s bassinet when she’s in it, but his rocking is way too exuberant!

Rayah

• She still nurses about every three hours, but she’s had several great nights where she slept for 5-6 1/2 hours in between feedings, which was glorious for me!!
• She is still quite the pooper, but doesn’t poop with every single feeding any more.  Still, she likes to push out her poops and today she had a diaper blowout that went all the way up her back, almost to her neck!!
• She’s getting better at nursing and generally nurses for about 15 minutes, plus the time it takes to burp, change her diaper, etc.
• She has been having some gas issues, so once again I am trying to not have any dairy or caffeine to see if that helps.  I’m not entirely convinced that it’s the issue, but it does seem like she’s maybe a bit better since I’ve been off those things, so we’ll see.
• She spits up ALL THE TIME!  She spits up multiple times on herself, on her change mat, in her crib, in the bassinet, on me, on the floor, on the couch – everywhere!  And large quantities too!
• She had her first plane ride, first visit to Grandma & Grandpa Engbrecht’s and meeting her aunts, uncle & cousins.
• She had her first visit to Grandma & Grandpa Thiessen’s house.
• She had her first bottle (expressed milk) and has had formula as well – so far, so good!  She’s just getting the hang of it and has drank 2 oz.  Hopefully giving her the bottle on a regular basis now will help make the adjustment easier later on.
• She has been having gas issues, much like Justice did, but thankfully not as bad.  I’ve been trying to not have dairy or caffeine to see if that helps, but it’s really hard to tell what causes her gas pains. 
• I had her on her stomach one day and she was NOT happy about it and before she was even a month old, she managed to roll over onto her back!
• She has given us quite a few really big smiles that are so adorable and is also beginning to coo and gurgle and “talk” to us – so cute!
• She’s also a little porker just like her brother and has chubby cheeks and lots of rolls!

Sometimes I just need to dump out the various things swirling around in my mind and heart, so I now give you my first “Brain Dump” and perhaps it will become the first of many – we’ll see.

Rayah’s had a lot of gas issues lately and cries A LOT.  This can really wear a person down.  I had my first meltdown of tears yesterday since I became a mommy of two.  I was frustrated by my circumstances, but also feeling like a failure as a mom for all the anger and terrible thoughts I had inside.  Thank God that His mercies are new every morning and that He sees the sincere desires of my heart to be a lover of God and a better mom to my children.  I’m also glad that all the expectations I put on myself to be a “supermom” are not ones that God places on me – His yoke is easy and His burden is light!

In light of the spiritual awakening happening at the International House of Prayer (check it out here), I have begun to read the book “Hosting the Holy Spirit”, written by twelve different authors including Ché Ahn, Lou Engle, John Arnott, Cindy Jacobs and several other ministers who have been blessed with visitations of the Spirit in their churches.  I really enjoyed the first chapter by John Arnott about valuing the anointing.  I must confess that since I had participated in a spiritual renewal when I was a teenager, that I somehow reached a place where I was taking the anointing and touches of the Spirit for granted and I would sometimes hold back from really entering in because I thought I had moved beyond that stuff.  I thought I would just sit back and observe and let others experience His anointing who perhaps hadn’t experienced it before.  Perhaps I thought I was too mature or didn’t really need it or made other excuses for not entering in.  But I want to value and honor the moving of the Spirit in our midst and have a hunger and desperation and realization of my need for more of Him.  I want to be open to receiving His touch any time, all the time, every time!

Along similar lines, I was watching the webstream of the IHOPU Student Awakening when one of their leaders David Sliker shared his testimony of what the Lord had done in him.  He shared about how he had made peace with his barrenness and become content with not having God’s touch on his heart.  He also shared about how in his attempt to put aside childishness, he had also put aside childlikeness and lost that innocent joy, but how God had restored to him the joy of his salvation.  As I was identifying with his testimony and praying about this, the worship team began to sing a prophetic song about receiving the love of God.  The Lord then began to speak to me about this, since I seem to struggle with asking Him for more of His love.  I’ve had really amazing experiences in the past where I’ve felt the love of my Bridegroom Jesus and my Father God, but I think I was believing a lie that I needed to live off of those experiences and that I should just be grateful for them and not ask for more.  But then I thought about my relationship with my earthly husband and how I need to know and feel his love for me on a daily basis, whether it’s through a word or action or touch, and he does not begrudge me those things and gladly shows me his love every day.  So why would Jesus be any different?  Does He not long to show me His love and want me to ask Him for more?  It’s simply doesn’t seem right for me to not feel the love of my eternal Bridegroom every day.  Not once a week, not once a month, not once a year – I cannot live on yesterday’s experience!  It would seem ridiculous for Joe to say to me that him telling me he loved me once a year was good enough, yet that’s the lie I was believing about God!  The same goes for the love of the Father – it would be terrible if Joe said to our kids that they should be content with feeling his love only every once and a while!  It’s the exact opposite – Joe really loves to show our kids how much he loves them and I believe it to be the same with our Heavenly Father.  So, while I may have known this to some extent already, it was still a new revelation for me and touched my heart in a way that I needed, which was awesome!

Along the lines of the Father’s love – lately our son Justice has become very affectionate, always asking for hugs, which is terribly sweet and cute!  But he has also started asking for hugs during mealtime when he is inevitably covered with food.  Of course, our instinct is to say to him that he needs to be cleaned up first before he can have a hug, but doesn’t that sound horrible?  What if God said to us that we needed to get cleaned up before He would show us His love?  What if the prodigal son’s father had made his son have a bath first before he was willing to embrace him?  I’m so glad the Father is not like that!!  Joe was a great father and let Justice give him a hug, getting food all over his own clothing as Justice patted his back.   I was a little more reluctant and cleaned him up first – lol.

And one more testimony from what God has been doing in me as I’ve been watching the IHOPU Student Awakening webstream.  Last night, a girl was giving her testimony about how God set her free from self-hatred and rage that had come as a result of being molested as a little girl.  Now, they’ve had several ministry times regarding self-hatred in the last couple weeks, but I’ve been reluctant to engage my heart and have had walls up.  But finally, something broke and what she was sharing caused my defenses to fall as I recalled wounds from my own past.  Then Wes Hall, the person who was facilitating the meeting, had a word of knowledge about a wife who had never told her husband about what she was going through and I knew I needed to tell Joe some things and have him pray for me.  So, I shared with Joe about some things that happened when I was a pre-teen and early teen, where I felt violated by a man and objectified by my male peers.  These were things I had never told him and I don’t even know why I had kept them hidden, but it felt really good to get them out in the open.  We then prayed together and I felt the Lord touch my heart with revelation about how He feels about me and I broke off the the bondage of self-hatred and my agreement with the lies of the enemy regarding my appearance and my body.  One of the things the girl sharing her testimony had said that really touched me was when she said that she realized that her body had not been made for man, but for God.  This was totally freeing for me and I felt life in the revelation that my body had been made by God to be a bearer of His image and a vessel for His Spirit and that it doesn’t matter what people might think!  So, I feel like there was a breakthrough and that I received freedom and healing in this area – praise Jesus!

**I wrote this post over 2 weeks ago, but haven’t gotten around to publishing it, so read this post as though I published it on time.  Much more has happened since I wrote this, but it’ll have to wait until my next month’s update. :) **

On November 4th, Justice turned 20 months old and Rayah was 2 weeks old outside of the womb. The first week, I had the joy of having Joe at home with me, which was so great to have his help!  We also took a trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota for a gathering of my mom’s side of the family for a weekend, which was fun, but also exhausting with a toddler and a newborn in a hotel.  The second week, I had almost 4 full days on my own with both kids and it went pretty good.  I definitely don’t get a whole lot done besides making sure we all get fed, dressed, and rested, but we are beginning to get into a good routine that works for us.  So, here is a look at the last month with our two awesome kids!

Justice

Cute and funny things:

• With his newfound ability to jump, he has started jumping in his crib and on the couches.
• While eating fruit sauce, he brought he spoon too close to his nose and ended up snorting it up his nostrils – lol!
• He loves to help put his dirty diapers in the garbage can and “help” me vaccuum.
• He likes to give Rayah kisses on the head and hugs – very sweet and adorable!
• He will hold his doll or a stuffed animal over his shoulder and pat it’s back, like I do when I’m burping Rayah.  He’ll also come help burp Rayah and pat her back.  He’ll also pat our backs when he hugs us – so sweet.
• He picked Rayah up and carried her – scary!! 
• He climbed into the baby swing and enjoyed a ride in it.
• He was playing outside and was sitting on the ground, playing with rocks, when I all of a sudden noticed that he had fallen asleep – lol!

New things he discovered:

• I didn’t know which category to put this under, but a new experience that Justice had was the pain of having his mommy slam his arm in the van door.   I felt SOOO terrible after and his poor arm was bruised and scratched up – thankfully he recovered fairly quickly and it wasn’t as bad as it could have been!
• With the unexpected early snow we had in October, Justice got his first experience of playing in the snow in his winter boots.
• That his finger fits quite nicely up his nostrils and inside his ears!
• How to take off his pants – I’m hoping this doesn’t become a regular habit!

Eating and drinking:

• He feeds himself most of the time and often makes a pretty good mess, but is becoming less willing to have us help him.  Not too much new in this category.

Talking and comprehension:

• New words: “munch” (lunch), “wee” for the baby swing (and he pushes the swing when Rayah is in it), “ba” for the sheep’s sound, “nack” (snack), “drath” (giraffe), “biddie” (birdie), “bzzzz” for the bee’s sound, “jack” (jacket), “egg”, “sock”, “hug”, “poop”, ”burp”, “hands” (says this when he grabs Rayah’s hands), “knee” (and points to his knee), “Rayah” (he picked this up right away & he has still yet to say his own name!), “rain”, “empty”, “hello”, “fo” (4), “fi” (5), “eight”, “ni” (9), “eat”, “Joe”, “Jacquie”, “wake”, “fun”, “grampa”, “aunty”, “Nick”, ”fish”, “jeans”, “pants”, “boots”, “sauce”, “truck”, “bus”, “water”, “bath”, “stinky”, “dinky” (lol), “ball”, “shhhh”
• As you can see, he is saying new words all the time and he has become quite the chatterbox!  He is constantly babbling and talking very expressively!  He loves to be loud and to scream, but he has also learned to whisper, which is terribly cute.
• His favorite words to yell multiple times daily are “Joe”, “Jacquie”, “daddy”, “mommy”, “baby”, ”grampa” and “Nick”.   He can also point out these people on the pictures on our fridge.

Development:

• He got a mallet & peg board toy from Grandma & Grandpa Engbrecht and he has amazed us with his hand-eye coordination and his ability to hammer those pegs down!
• Had his first temper tantrum in public at the doctor’s office – yay!
• He got his second haircut ever & it was a drastic change from his cute shaggy hair to a very short cut.  I had been wanting him to get it cut for a long time, but when it was actually done, I got all weepy and cried because he looked so different and so grown up!  He is still just as cute as ever, but my little baby is definitely growing up, which was hard for me to realize.
• He can now open our doors at home – shoot!!  I really don’t want to get those babyproof doorknob thingies – I think they’re such an eye-sore, but we’ll see how crazy he drives me with this newfound ability.
• We are definitely having to discipline him more often and are having battles of the will with him to get him to obey us – this is certainly a learning experience!
• He is doing really great at playing on his own while I’m nursing Rayah or preparing meals, etc.  One day I found him sitting amongst his stuffed animals and talking to the kitty.
• I think he’s doing very well at adjusting to Rayah’s arrival and being a big brother!  He doesn’t always fully comprehend how to be gentle with her, but most of the time he does great at just stroking her hair or touching her nose.  He tends to want to steal her soother from her or pull off her socks (which he thinks is hilarious), but mostly he seems happy to just come look at her or give her a hug or kiss every so often.

Health:

• He’s been a healthy boy!

Rayah

• She nurses about every 3 hours, following the general routine of 7-10-1-4, with the occasional longer gap during the night.
• Her bowels operate practically like clockwork and she seems to poop almost every single time while I’m nursing her.
• She PUSHES out her farts and poops and they come out very loudly and explosively!  On one occasion, her poop exploded all over my stomach – lovely!
• She has a little swirl of hair front and center on her forehead that I think is incredibly adorable, but which will probably be a source of angst and frustration when she gets older – lol.  Her hair also sort of spikes on top and then she has her thick mullet at the back, so she sort of reminds me of an 80’s rocker – ha!
• She makes the cutest and funniest faces when she’s just been fed and is content and asleep – she will smile lots and her smiles are so sweet!
• Nursing her is a challenge sometimes, because apparently she cannot multitask – if she needs to burp, spit-up, fart or poop, she absolutely must finish those tasks before she will even consider eating!  I cannot convince her to nurse if there is some other business to take care of!  She is also a very sleepy baby, so getting her awake and alert enough to eat can also be a challenge, but I’m finding she’s getting better and better at nursing as we go along.
• Similar to her brother, she appears to have gas issues – as she’s working it out, she makes lots of squawks, grunts, groans, and other noises, so I call her my “little piglet”.
• One of her ears looks slightly elven to me – we’ll see if it stays that way.
• Unlike her brother, who has several birthmarks, she is completely free of any markings.
• She will sleep pretty good in her crib, but she also really enjoys the bouncy chair and the swing.
• She’s pretty much the cutest, most beautiful little girl ever!

So, I’m a little late in writing this post, but I want to tell you the wonderful story about our daughter Rayah’s birth.  If you read my last post, I was expecting our daughter Rayah to arrive early, since I was already dilated and effaced and she was sitting very low, but the days kept passing by with very little activity to report and I was beginning to get rather impatient!  I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks, but they failed to ever become regular or grow in strength.  On my due date, October 19th, I was able to go out to girl’s night and as they were praying for me that Rayah would come, I felt like it wasn’t going to happen that day or the next, but that she would be born on the 21st.

The morning of the 21st, my mom came over to help take care of Justice, since I had an appointment with my obstetrician.  When she checked me at about 9:30 am, I was 3 cm dilated and she asked me if I wanted her to sweep my membranes and even though I didn’t know exactly what that meant, I was game if it would help get things moving!    She then told me to do lots of walking and to expect labor to start within the next day or two.

So my mom and I decided to do a little shopping so I could get walking and we bought some material for receiving blankets and a cute going-home outfit for Rayah.  It was almost immediately after my appointment that I started to feeling some cramping in my back and then as the morning went on, I began to feel the occasional contraction as we were walking around the mall.  We got back to my house around noon, fed Justice lunch, put him down for his nap, had lunch ourselves and then I lay down to try and rest as well.  Since we had been running around doing stuff, it had been hard for me to focus on what was happening in my body, so when I got to lie down, I was able to start taking note of how often the contractions were coming and how strong they felt.  It was around 2 pm and they were about 15 minutes apart and I felt the need to breathe through them, so I knew things were progressing, but I felt like I still had some time, since they weren’t very close together yet.

Around 3:30 pm I called my friend Kristi to let her know where things were at and I also called Joe at work to give him the heads up.  But once I actually got up from my nap and started walking around the house and doing stuff, I noticed that my contractions were all of a sudden coming much closer together – more like every 4 or 5 minutes!  I decided that quick action was needed, since I had been warned by my obstetrician that my labor would likely be very quick again, as it had been with Justice.  I called Kristi again and told her to come get me & called Joe back and told him to meet us at the hospital.  It also worked out perfectly that my mom was already there and could stay at my house to take care of Justice!  By 3:55 pm, we were on the road and contractions were regular, close together, and I could no longer talk while having one.

When we arrived at the hospital, we were pumped when we were greeted by pro-life activists who were participating in the 40 Days for Life campaign, walking outside with signs that said “Pray to end abortion” – so awesome!  Joe was only minutes behind us & he actually stopped to pray withthem before coming inside and even went out and marched withthem later on during our stay.    He met us right there in the entrance and we went up to triage together, where they checked me and found that I was now 6 cm, which was the same thing that happened with Justice – this was around 4:20 pm.  Also, like with Justice, we discovered that they did not have enough staff to admit me to the LDRP (Labor/Delivery/Recovery/PostPartum), which has the bigger, nicer rooms, but it just so happened that my obstetrician stopped by and saw me there and then went to pull some strings on my behalf – lol.  So that was a total blessing and it helped too having Kristi with us, since they knew they could get her help if absolutely necessary, seeing as she is a nurse who works in labor and delivery at another hospital.

I think I threw up a little while still in triage, which also happened with Justice, so I lost the Chai Tea Latte that my mom had went to get me, since I had thought I still had lots of time to have a nice drink – lol.  Soon I was admitted to my room and now I just got to spend some time laboring and breathing through my contractions.  This is where it felt different from my first experience, since there had been a lot of activity and switching rooms and I barely had any time to think about what was happening when all of a sudden it was time to push and Justice was born.  This time, I actually had time to think and be aware of what was taking place and had to consider how I wanted to cope with the contractions, which for me was difficult, because I’m super indecisive!  Kristi and Joe would ask me if I wanted to try different positions and the nurse would ask if I wanted anything for the pain and I just didn’t know!  I didn’t feel like I had the brain power to make decisions and probably would just prefer to be told what to do – lol.  

When they checked me again, I was fully dilated on one side of my cervix, but only 7 cm dilated on the other side.  I didn’t know this could happen, but then they got me to lie on my side so that the baby would put pressure on the one side and hopefully cause it to dilate more.  At that time, I felt a little discouraged that I was still at 7 cm and I was wondering about how long I was going to have to labor, hoping it wouldn’t be too long!  We tried a couple more positions and there were definitely some difficult contractions, but Kristi and Joe both did a fabulous job at coaching and supporting me through them and I felt like I was a little bit more in control this time than I did with Justice.  I threw up a couple more times, so I’m pretty sure I also lost my entire lunch.

I started feeling a lot of pressure and the urge to push, so they checked me again and I was now 9 cm, so almost ready!  At this point, the resident doctor – a young female – decided to break my water for me and she told me that I would be able to push soon.  I was so relieved to hear those words and was very encouraged when she said that I’d be having this baby very soon!  At about 6:30 pm, I pushed a couple times during one contraction and then the resident said that it would only take a couple more pushes!  On the next contraction, I think I pushed 2 more times and just like that, within seconds Rayahwas born at 6:35 pm!  She weighed 8 pounds and 10 ounces and had dark hair and dark blue eyes.  They immediately put her on my chest and I would say that was definitely the highlight for me – it felt so incredible to have her warm body skin to skin with me and to hold her and feel her breathing.  She was beautiful and perfect in every way and it was so amazing to finally see her and have her in my arms!

It’s funny, because during labor, the nurse, Kristi and Joe were joking about how I was made to make babies, since I have had very good pregnancies and amazing labors, and at the time, since I was still in a significant amount of pain, I said, “I don’t want to have any more babies!”  While in labor, it felt so hard and painful, but when it was all over and Rayah was all snuggled up against me, all those months of waiting, all the discomfort of pregnancy, and all the pain was forgotten and all so incredibly worth it!  She is such a treasure and we absolutely adore her!

Her full name is Rayah Hope and I’ve written about the meaning of her first name, which is “intimate companion” or “friend of God” and which obviously speaks about having an intimate relationship with our eternal bridegroom Jesus.  But her middle name Hope is also significant and we chose it from the scripture Titus 2:13 which says, “…while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ…“  This world is currently filled with much sorrow and pain and there are so many who do not have hope for their future.  Yet for us who believe in Jesus, we have this incredible hope that comes from believing that He is coming again in all His glory and power and majesty as our Bridegroom, King and Judge!  He will judge sin, make all the wrong things right, remove all pain and sorrow from the earth, restoring it to the way He intended it to be, and bring us into His glorious presence forever and ever!  It is our prayer that both intimacy with Him and the hope of His return will strengthen her with courage to face trials, fill her heart with joy, and also strike her spirit with the urgency of the hour that we live in, moving her to intercede and live a life of holiness, passion and obedience to Jesus.

For those of you who aren’t on Facebook, here are a “few” of my favorite shots (it’s so hard for me to narrow it down!) from a maternity photo shoot we had done last weekend!

So, Justice turned 19 months old on October 4th and Rayah will be 39 weeks in the womb come tomorrow, granted she does not decide to make her big arrival before then!    Same as last month, I will give a point-form synopsis of Justice’s exciting developments lately!

Cute & funny things:

• He has been dancing a lot – spinning in circles and jumping around like crazy – so cute!
• He noticed dust particles floating in the air in the sunlight and was trying to catch them.
• I was watching some old videos of Justice from when he was really little and Justice was laughing at himself as he watched with me.
• He managed to escape from Joe at SHOP (Sanctuary House of Prayer) while I was on stage playing piano, doing a devotional worship set and he got up onto stage long enough to play a short duet with me before someone grabbed him!

New things he discovered:

• I bought a somewhat life-like doll from Value Village to help introduce him to the idea of having a baby in the house, which he has really grown to like.  He will stroke its head, give it kisses, hug it, put his finger in its mouth & ears and poke it in the eyes.
• We got a sand & water table set from our neighbors and he LOVES it!  He mostly loves to dig in it with his shovel and dump all the sand out of the table onto the ground or into the water side, but even though he makes a big mess, all that matters is that he’s having fun!
• Joe finished the basement this month, so Justice was thrilled the first time he got to go and play down there – he just kept running back and forth from end to end!  It has definitely been a great play place for him!
• Daddy got him a foam sword & shield so they could fight together, but he likes to chew on the sword and hold it by the blade instead of the hilt – lol.

Eating & drinking:

• Has fed himself Kraft Dinner, spaghetti and various other casseroles, as well as fruit pieces, oatmeal, yogurt, apple sauce, etc. with a fair amount of success! His method is usually to get as much as he can into his mouth from his spoon or fork and let his bib catch what falls, then he cleans out his bib afterwards or uses his hands when necessary.
• Both Joe and I had a scary choking incident with Justice where he was unable to breathe and thank Jesus, we were able to help him recover, but this prompted me to take a First Aid & CPR course so that I would be better equipped to handle that type of situation should it ever happen again!
• In addition to begging for our food, he has also started to offer to feed us his own food.

Talking & Comprehension:

• New words: guy, dry, bum, nana (for banana), eat, uh-oh, book, walking, mink (milk)
• He is learning several animal noises and some names:  he’ll make an elephant noise, say “nay” for the horse, say “moo, moo” for the cow, say “pig”, “duck” and “monkey” – although I’m not entirely sure he’d be able to associate those names with an actual picture. He will also say “doggie” when he hears the Canadian geese honking as they fly overhead.
• When he “kisses” or blows kisses, he’ll say “ma!” as he does it – so cute!
• He’s beginning to learn to understand & follow simple commands like bringing us things, putting things away, closing drawers and doors, etc.  It’s so great to feel like you’re actually communicating effectively with him!
• He’s getting better at doing the sign for “please” when prompted.

Development:

• We tried to transition him to a “big boy bed” this month, starting off by removing the bumper pads in his crib and lowering the guard rail, followed by replacing the crib’s railing with a smaller plastic guard rail, and eventually moving him to the bed.  However, after a couple weeks of rough sleeps, we decided he wasn’t quite ready and moved his crib into his new bedroom and purchased a second crib for Rayah, who is taking over the nursery.
• He is still climbing every opportunity he gets – this month he somehow managed to climb over & behind our piano!  He also climbed up the side of his toy shelf, like a ladder, causing the whole thing to fall over on top of him.  After that, the toy shelf was dismantled.   He also managed to climb onto my desk by using the drawer handles as footholds!
• He’s learning that he can push the dining room chairs up to things that he wants to get at, so now we keep them in the living room most of the time to try and prevent him from climbing up on things he shouldn’t!
• He has totally amazed us with his ability to do some puzzles we got at a garage sale – the kind with the shapes that have little pegs on them & fit into holes – all on his own!  It didn’t take him long at all to figure them out & we think he’s just the smartest kid ever!

Health:

• Caught a cold from mommy, which thankfully only manifested as a runny nose and didn’t seem to run him down too much, but also meant that his snot was constantly being wiped on my clothing and his hands and the furniture and everywhere but the Kleenex, which he hates!
• He has had some exema on the back of his knees, which didn’t appear to bother him before, but now I often find him scratching it, so we need to try and treat it more regularly.
• Got a misquito bite on his nose that swelled up like crazy and caused his whole eye to swell up.

As for Rayah, my obstetrician thinks she will also come early, like Justice, since I am already 2-3 centimeters dilated and about 60% effaced.  I’ve been rather eager for her to come already and have been dreaming about being in labor, which has been a little confusing when I wake up in the night and don’t know what’s reality.    But, it has also been good to have these last few days to not be working and have the time to get all the little things done & prepared before she arrives.  Her crib is set up, clothes are in her dresser & hung in her closet, rocking chair and swing are set up in her room, and for the final touch – Joe cut out the letters of her name, which I painted so we could hang it above her crib!  We figured she’s been waiting for that to be in place before she plans on coming. 

And here is my last picture that I can do the comparison for – 37 weeks for Rayah and 36 weeks for Justice.

It’s hard to believe that my little guy is a year and a half!!  At the same time, it’s super hard to believe that I only have 5 weeks until my due date for Rayah! 

August was a fun month, even if it wasn’t as warm as often as we would have liked.  Joe’s parents came to visit us for a weekend, which is always great and Justice totally loved being with them!  Joe and I also celebrated our birthdays this month – Joe turning 30 and myself turning 28!  I also started keeping a new daily journal where I jot down brief notes about the things I’ve read in my devotions, prayers, and also all the little things Justice does and says that I want to remember.  So this time I don’t have to try and go back into the recesses of my foggy memory to recall all these extremely fascinating facts that I know you’re just dying to hear! 

Cute & funny things:

• walking on his tip toes
• still using random objects as a phone, like a piece of cookie
• dropped one of our cordless phones into a glass of water – okay, so not so funny at the moment, but it was fine
• trying to put on my shoes – he actually managed to walk around with one of mine on for quite a distance – it was very cute!
• he likes standing in the bay window in our living room and will knock on the glass and wave at people as they walk by
• attempting to brush or comb my hair

New things he discovered:

• how to push the trigger on Joe’s drill
• the buttons on the dishwasher
• helium balloons – it was funny to watch because he seemed rather confused when he’d try to throw it and it would go up instead of down!
• how to turn on the piano by himself – he will often do this and climb up onto the bench and play the piano
• flushed the toilet by himself for the first time, but hasn’t done it again yet
• all the fascinating and wonderful buttons and dials in the van!  He’ll also crawl up on the driver’s seat and play with the steering wheel, turn on the wipers, lock and unlock the doors, etc.  Don’t tell anyone, but Joe took him for his first driving lesson down the back alley
• coloring!
• mud!  Joe let him play in some mud in our back yard in just his diaper

Eating & drinking:

• LOVES nectarines & will eat an entire one, only to cry when it’s done!
• LOVING bread – stuffs it in his mouth – definitely a favorite snack for him
• has started begging for our food and reaching out his hand saying “Oum?” which seems to mean “more” or “give me that right now!”
• had his first taste of grilled cheese
• learning to eat on his own with a fork – he does really well with Kraft Dinner and soft fruit pieces like peaches or pears.  He really loves using his fork and will get upset if we take it away or try to help him, but thankfully he still lets us feed him all the messy foods.  I’m trying to let him eat on his own more, but we’re taking it slow

Talking & Comprehension:

• Will answer “No” when asked if he wants a time out
• Will answer “Yeah” when asked if he wants a spanking (don’t think he understands that question yet)
• Will sometimes talk very expressively, pointing and making hand movements to communicate his story to us
• He’s beginning to understand some of his body parts when we ask him, like ear, eye, nose, hair, mouth, toe, and belly button – it’s still sort of hit and miss, but he’s learning  
• He’s saying “mommy” and “daddy” a lot more now – usually when he says “mommy” it sounds like a question with a high-pitched ending, so I will answer him and say, “Yes? What would you like?”  and he usually answers back with some gibber-gabber
• New words: baby, toe, eye, drum, yeah, Joe (no idea if he knows that’s his dad’s name, but it’s super cute when he says it), happy
• We’ve been trying to teach him to use the signs for “more” and “please” and he has actually done them on his own when asked a couple times, but we still often have to help him do them – he’ll often get upset when I ask him to say “more” or “please” because it means he’s not getting what he wants right away!

Development:

• has been teething & his top eye teeth have cut through, but still working on the bottom ones
• runs ALL THE TIME – there is no walking, which means he continues to fall often because he’s just careless when he runs and doesn’t always pay attention to where he’s going
• he LOVES to climb up onto anything and everything possible – we are continually having to move furniture around to try and keep him safe
• he’s pushing chairs around, but has thankfully still not figured out to push them up to things like my desk or the kitchen counters in order to climb up higher!
• he’s been desperately trying to learn how to jump and will practice often!  It’s so sweet to see him trying so hard to get his feet off the ground & I think I may have seen him actually be successful once or twice!
• has learned to open some doors at our church where the knobs turn easier, but thankfully hasn’t been able to do it at home yet!
• he has entered the stage of tantrums, screaming and yelling and getting very upset when he doesn’t get his own way – oh dear!  This has been quite challenging and we are trying to learn how to discipline him and teach him how to manage his emotions, but this is no easy task with a one & a half year old!
• getting him to go to sleep at night has been difficult as of late – he often doesn’t get to sleep until 8:00 or even 8:30pm, even though we start the whole process around 7:00pm!  But at least he’s usually sleeping until 6:30am in the morning, which is when we have to get up anyway.

For videos of Justice, check out my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/echoinghim!

As for Rayah, today she is at 35 weeks and according to my obstetrician, she is head down and has “dropped”!  I certainly can’t complain too much about this pregnancy, which has really been quite great, but I must admit that I’ve had a significant deal more pelvic pain this time around.  I had some with Justice towards the end of that pregnancy and after he was born, but this time has been worse.  I thought it was all my fault for not doing my Kegel exercises, which may be part of the problem, but I also found an article that seemed to perfectly describe what I was experiencing and made me feel like I wasn’t alone.  This pelvic pain is definitely something that I am looking forward to getting rid of once Rayah is born!  Other than that, she is moving and kicking LOTS and we are just getting super excited for her to arrive and to meet her and see what she looks like and get to hold her and all that wonderful stuff!  Here is the most recent belly picture I have, which is only at 32 weeks.

I wanted to write a blog post to tell you about some dear friends of ours who are in our thoughts and prayers these days.  Roger and Rose are one of the most delightful and beautiful couples you’ll ever meet and who we had the joy and privilege of connecting with when we lived in Calgary.  When Joe and I were leading the young adult prayer ministry back then, they were kindred spirits who, for a time, joined their hearts and intercession with ours for this generation and were such an encouraging support to us.  Over the years, we got to witness their incredible hearts of generosity and love as they repeatedly took people into their home, even as newly weds and new parents, sharing what they had without restraint. 

When they took in Rose’s younger brother Timothy, he was in a rough stage in his life and in desperate need of some guidance and a touch from the Lord.  Because of their willingness to open up their lives to him, we got to see the mighty workings of the Lord in Timothy’s life as he was delivered and set free from the addictions of his past and also healed miraculously of dyslexia – finding that he could read for the first time as he opened up his Bible as a new believer!  Again, we were blessed to observe Timothy growing in maturity and passion for Jesus and his testimony was an encouragement to us all.  We were also often blessed by Roger’s worship leading as the anointing and intimacy in his songs brought us into God’s presence numerous times. 

Around the same time that we moved from Calgary, Roger and Rose and their two girls had the opportunity to live abroad, due to Roger’s work.  I have been following Rose’s account of their travels as they first lived in Kaula Lampur, Malaysia, and now in Lagos, Nigeria, Africa.  I have thoroughly enjoyed Rose’s poetic story-telling of their many adventures and have been touched by her depictions of the poverty she witnessed and the orphans she would minister to.

But just a couple days ago, Rose shared on her blog the difficult news that her brother Timothy (now 24 years old) has been diagnosed with brain cancer.  So, if you read this, I am inviting you to join with us in prayer to contend for his healing!  We know from before, that the Lord has his hand on Timothy’s life and that He loves to deliver and heal his kids, so we are anticipating that He will do it again and reveal His glory and might in new ways, that we may again be in awe of His goodness!  If you would like to follow Timothy’s progress as he fights this disease or if you simply want to be blessed by reading the blog of a beautiful woman of God, then please visit her site at http://rogerandrosaleen.blogspot.com.

Roger, Rose, Timothy and your family – we are thinking of you and praying for you…