We are NEVER the same after we encounter the love of God!

Azalea bushes and gazing out the window

Here are pictures of our azalea bushes. Cool story...When we had our miscarriage Chris's mom had 2 azaleas sent to us and we planted them in the front of our house in IL. They were bright pink. I contemplated digging them up before we moved to Cleveland and chose not to. This time last year we moved into our house and sure enough what was in front of our house...a bright pink azalea bush (along with 2 purple ones and peonies....I carried peonies in our wedding). He knows! Thanking Him for our reminder of making all things new.
Also, Nataleigh has been enjoying our front window. She could stand there and look out all day long! I just had to get a picture of her! :)

Playing a game with daddy

Nataleigh has been under the weather the past week and we think she finally has come around! She enjoyed playing this little game with daddy tonight :)

In Memory of our baby we never got to meet...

2 years ago today, April 17, 2008 we had a miscarriage. I was about 5-6 weeks along.
Today as I reflect I am filled with peace and hope that God restores and turns our mourning to dancing. As I dance with our blessing, Nataleigh I am reminded that God gives and takes away. Blessed be His name!
This is a post I wrote at 35 weeks of pregnancy with Nataleigh (a year ago today)...
Many people refer to the baby as a "bun in the oven." I was thinking yesterday how much I love to bake and was thinking about people referring to a baby in the womb as a "bun in the oven" and thought about how I constantly check whatever I have baking-just to make sure it's not going to burn, see if it's done...I get so impatient. I'm going to be honest, there have been many times I haven't been patient and trusting in this pregnancy and have wanted to check on my "bun in the oven" but really couldn't. There's only so much you see/hear at the doctor's and apparently that hasn't been enough for peace of mind. So once again I was reminded by our loving, graceful, compassionate Father that He's got it all under control, and I don't (and never will).
At the beginning of this pregnancy it was even more tough to give all control over to God because 5 months before we got pregnant with Nataleigh we had a miscarriage. There are probably a few readers out there that don't know this and that's because we didn't feel it necessary to tell the whole world at the time. But now that it's been just over a year ago since it's happened much growing and healing have taken place! I can't begin to tell you how much Chris and I have grown closer together through this loss and even better yet- how our journeys with God have taken huge strides. And for this we are blessed and thankful!
So, at the beginning of this pregnancy with Nataleigh it was VERY HARD to let go and let God fully take this precious life into His hands and do with it what He had planned all along. I will never forget the overwhelming peace that came to me the night before we went to our very first doctor's visit. We would get to see her via ultrasound and hear her heartbeat just at 6 weeks and a few days! We got to so early because of having a previous miscarriage. The doctor wanted to see me every 2 weeks during the first trimester to closely monitor her.
The peace that I had was from God speaking directly to me about our baby's life. He asked me if I believed she was His child and I said yes. He asked if I believed she was His child even before we knew she was in my womb and I said yes. He asked if I believed she was His child even before we let her go out on her own and leave our nest. I said, yes, she's always your child first, we just get the priviledge of raising her on earth with Your help. So, knowing the truths of our daughter, that she is a child of God first gives me the biggest peace, knowing that she is ours to love and raise on earth and God will take care of everything if we let Him. I don't know how He is forming her everyday in my body, I can read all the books about what she might look like right now and read about her developments but I don't know fully how He is forming her right now...that's His miracle, that's part of His mysterious self. I shouldn't have to question His greatness! He is great!
So, we give her to You, God and we pray that she sees You and desires, chooses to walk with you on earth when she's old enough to grasp and choose this for herself. Thank you for our miracle! We look forward to meeting her and loving on her! We give her to you now and always. Help us be everything to her that you desire us to be.

This pregnancy has been nothing but healthy! Her growth is right on and she's even head down right now (all ready for her arrival). Praising God for so much!

This was a life growing inside of me and will never be forgotten! One day we will meet you, baby!
Love,
daddy and mommy

A fun day!

Today we got a babysitter for Nataleigh-her first (non-family) babysitter! She did wonderful! :) That's our girl! We went to the Indians game then with Chris's dad, brother and his brother's friend. It was a beautiful day for baseball! And the Tribe won! :) We then topped our afternoon off with free ice cream (thanks to tax day) and our evening was a wonderful time as we had Fuel Group at our house! Thanking God for a much needed time away from our baby! ;)

10 months old!!!!

...and yes, I FINALLY started her scrapbook...thanks to my sister for the wonderful shower gift...the scrapbook and kit for making the pages fun! I couldn't do it like this w.out the kit! :)









To say this out loud is very tough...our baby is growing too fast for me!
Nataleigh is a joy! I am SO thankful that we have chosen that I would stay home with our kids! I love watching her learn! The most recent thing she has learned is putting the balls in her ball popper and pushing the button to watch them pop out and then goes to collect them and puts them back in... and today she was trying to put other toys in there too. Also, she is really gearing up to cruise any day now! She is walking along furniture and just recently started pushing her "stand and ride" toy while walking. I will get it on video soon! Hmmm....she's also giving kisses, waving "bye, bye", saying "all done", "bath", "book" (baba), "dada," "ma,ma", "nana" (sometimes I think she is referring to "night, night") and just overall jabbering ALOT! Such a girl! :)
She's quite the social butterfly. She loves to be around adults, kids. She loves being outside. Just last week we took a walk to the park with my friend and her two girls and Nataleigh swung with me and also swung by herself for the first time! :)
I would say her personality so far seems sweet, social, independent, funny, fun loving and curious.

One of my friends just recently made this statement that she is "realizing more and more each day that the hardest, greatest, most rewarding job I have is being a mother" This pretty much sums up what motherhood has been so far! I would say lately it's been hard! Since a few weeks after her birth we began implementing the principles found in the book "Babywise." I will just say that this has been difficult for us to just read the book (because she is not a by the book baby to a T) we needed more answers and support from others that don't have "by the book to the T" babies. I had found a blog "babywise.blogspot.com" early on but never was consistent about reading it until a few weeks ago...and oh my, had I read through her blog I would have learned so much. But it's ok...we are getting back on track and I'm just calling these few weeks "getting her stabilized again" and then introducing disruptions here and there. As you know, we are on the go, go, go and I've learned that this first year doesn't last forever and is SO important to get established before she is pre-toddler and toddler and have realized I can't do everything I want all the time...sacrifice He's teaching me! :) So, anyway if you are reading this and are wondering what this babywise stuff is all about you can check out the blog (listed on the right hand side of my blog) called "Chronicles of a Babywise mom." --Good stuff! :)

Her day typically is like this at the start of 10 months:
-waking at 7 (trying to work to change this to 8)
-5 nurse feedings a day (3 with solids)
-2 naps-1 in am (around 1-2hours) 1 in pm (around 1-2 hrs)
-sleeping through the night (7:30pm-7isham)

Happy 10 months, baby girl! You are a special gift that has taught us SO much about God...to name a few...love, sacrifice, patience, faith, hope...and more.

Easter 2010

He is risen! Hallelujah!!!!!!
We celebrated Easter with Velocity and Grandpa, Nona and Uncle Ray!