Whitty's New Haircut

I thought that I would let you all see how big our Whitty has become. What a little man we have now. It is hard for me to believe that we are about to start all over again with Harper. If Harper is anything like his big brother we will be so blessed. Whittaker is so excited to see Harper and he is getting the concept of being a big brother more and more each day. He loves to give his little brother kisses on his mommas tummy, and tell him "I love you Harper." Here are some pictures of Whitty's new faux-hawk. He was so brave to let me use the clippers on the back and sides of his hair.

Love you all

Preg-O Brain

So, these are my parents Oscar and Glenna, or better known to Whitty as Abu and MaMo. They live in Bolivia, where my dad is from, and have been there since 2002. Both are retired teachers and come back to visit us about every 6 months. When they are in the US, they stay with Glenna's mom, but we usually get to host them for a week or so at our house.

Dad is an avid golfer, currently ranked 3rd in the senior amateurs in Bolivia. He is the captain of the Bolivian National Team and is likely to reclaim his #1 ranking after making up some tournaments that he missed from his last visit to the US in the fall. Most times their trips are scheduled around his tournament dates, so with the birth of Harper coming before the end of May, I was super disappointed to find out that one of Dad's biggest tournaments was also at the end of May. He had sent an email that they would try to make it here in May and that he would have to travel to Panama for the Bolivariano tournament at the end of May.

So, I had emailed back to Abu and MaMo pleading that if all possible that they flip-flop their trip and come here after his tournament so that they wouldn't leave before Harper was born. But, WooHoo, I received an email from MaMo today clarifying that they are trying to make it here before May 18, Whittaker's birthday, since they haven't been here during that time before and that Abu will travel to Panama for a week for the tourney while she stays here and then they won't return to Bolivia until the end of June, or possibly not until after the beginning of July!!!

Most of the time my preg-o brain does not work in my favor, but today it made for an outstanding surprise to defeat the disappointment due to my lack of understading. It is going to be a fabulous summer!

"Easter...and Wisdom From Bonnie Raitt"

Well here we are the week before Easter...as a pastor this is like our Super Bowl coming up. There is a real excitement in the air around the church. But the crazy thing is that we are so willing to invite our friends to things we are excited about like our favorite band or concert coming to town or our favorite speaker coming to town, but let's face it it is so easy for us to get excited about those things but we tend to not get excited about the message of Christ's death, resurrection, and the opportunity to live forever. WHY???? Because we have forgotten as our salvation experience and how powerful it was as it gets farther and farther in the past. We forget how excited we were to have a God who never gave up on us in our ignorance.

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Paul’s Gratitude for God’s Mercy

12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, 13 even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. 14 Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus.

15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. 16 But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.

We have an amazing opportunity to bring people to hear how their life can be changed forever by the God who CAN and WILL change our story. That is something truly great so.......in the wise words of Bonnie Raitt, "Let's give 'em something to talk about."

Why do I Love this so much?

I am in a meeting wondering why I love coffee so much. What is it about this sweet nectar that makes life so sweet?

To See and Know...

I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul- Psalm 31:7 (NAS)

Before I write about our most recent update on Harper, I wanted
to just let all of you who read our blog how very thankful we are for your
prayers and lovingkindness you have shown for us and for Harper and how very
blessed we have been to watch the Lord's provision unfold. From the first
visit with the specialist, the enemy has wanted nothing but to steal the joy of
Life and that ended with a decision to share what was going on and not just keep
it to ourselves and fret and worry without the support and care of those we know
and love, and even some that we maybe don't know, but who love the Lord enough
to visit back and check on the progress and continue to pray. We give
entire credit to the Lord for growing our Harper beyond belief and giving us a
peace that surpasses all understanding. But, we'd love to know who you are
that have been such a great source of support for our family so that we may give
even greater thanks to the Lord for allowing others to see our affliction and
soul troubles and let you know how much we appreciate you.

Quick Recap: I am having scheduled sonograms every 3 weeks currently and scheduled check-ups with my doctor every 4 weeks...therefore, they don't always coincide with each other.

My last sonogram was on the 28th of February and I was waiting to post until my visit with the doctor which was scheduled for last Friday. However, the doctor's office follows school closings and delays (I know...I thought this was crazy). So, because of the snow storm that hit last Thursday, there was a 2 hour delay in the Grapevine/Colleyville school district and since my appointment happened to be at 9:30 and the office wasn't going to open until 10:30, I at least did receive a 7:43am call from the office to let me know about this procedure and that I would have to reschedule my appointment. Thankfully this was before getting up and ready and trudging through the crazy, North Texan freak-out about driving in some snow traffic, and I got to sleep in on a Friday morning (plus my sweet hubby let me really sleep in). So...today I had my visit with the doctor. She confirmed that the sonogram was good, at the time of the sonogram I was at 25 weeks 3 days and Harper measured 26 weeks 3 days...so yet again, the Lord extravagantly showed His might with a gain of 2 more days since the last sonogram. Right now I am at 27 weeks and my doctor confirmed today of how my visits will progress so they can closely monitor Harper.

I have another sonogram scheduled for next Thursday, the 20th and my next doctor's appointment will be on the 4th of April. Sonograms will continue every 3 weeks unless there is a concern. In April, my doctor's visit will go to every 2 weeks. She did tell me that at about 34 weeks, she'll want me to come in twice a week until delivery to monitor Harper with a sort of "stress test" to measure his responsiveness and monitor his heart rate. She was saying it almost apologetically about the amount of time I'll be in the office. I told her how rather than feeling put out by the visits that it just gives us another opportunity to see the Lord's faithfulness and how it has put us at ease rather than being anxious. She also said that full term pregnancy is 38 weeks and that is the max that I'll go. So we have just under 11 more weeks before getting to hold our Harper and offer praise back to the Lord once more.

"Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?" #1

Do you ever feel like screaming this out loud to your children? Now don't get me wrong I absolutely adore Whittaker, but lets face it, some times the boy don't listen. I guess that is the run of the mill 2 1/2 year olds parenting experience.

So I find myself talking louder and louder like I am speaking to my moms 3rd cousin at Christmas dinner and still no response. To make it even worse Whitty is looking right at me, and low and behold he decides it is best for him to go ahead and lick my eye glasses just one more time. Sound familiar to you...well I will tell you who it sounds like the most.....Barrett! (I had to tell on myself)

How is it that as a parent we tend to forget that we do the same things that we ask, tell, and eventually yell at our kids about. The only difference is that God somehow never seems to yell at me. He just sits back and adores me licking his glasses. Although I am pretty sure that I have never done that to Him when he was standing in line waiting to vote for O'Nunya Business.

So to say the least I find myself blowing up and doing things I said that I would never do like clapping or snapping or well......YELLING!

After you have found yourself in the position of "What am I doing?" you feel like crap but great things can come out of our impatience with our kids when you let the Lord in to guide you even after you have blown it. I am going to post a video of a song I wrote as soon as I can get it formatted. Let me know what you think.

That Taste's A Whole Lot Better

Today I went to lunch with a friend of mine as we usually do on Monday's. I have always enjoyed this time because we engage in a lot of great conversation over our Taco Bell. (Mmmmmm!) But let me tell you what I love the best about this lunch, can you say 2 dollars! Why does food this cheap always taste better? Is it just me? But today was incredible, we went to one of those 3 in 1 restaurants you know a Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut type of thing and let me tell you a Leg a thigh mashed potatoes gravy and a biscuit all for $2.15, now that was an amazing meal. Anyone got a cheaper option?

Praying for Snow...

This is a video from my cell phone that I got in the drive from Argyle, Texas while we were stuck in the car on the highway for 2 hours for a drive that is normally 20 minutes. The snow at our house is all gone today, but wow, was it a down pouring!

On Monday afternoon, Whittaker was watching a cartoon called the "Backyardigans" and the episode was the characters playing in the snow. Whitty had not experienced snow until this past Christmas when we were at my in-laws house in Edmond, Oklahoma and it snowed the day after Christmas. While watching the show, Whitty turned around to me and said, "Mama, I want snow."

I replied to him, "Baby, you're gonna have to ask Jesus for snow 'cause Mama can't do anything about that."

Well, Monday night, we actually did have a bit of snow falling so Barrett took him outside to show him that Jesus heard his prayer. I guess Whittaker just wanted some more, because yesterday was some snow like I hadn't seen in years. Thanks Jesus for letting my Whitty's faith grow this week...and for letting ours grow as we watched it unfold.