Holy Day!

WOW...what an amazing church service today. It marked the end of the 21-day fast that our church participated in along with nearly 1100 other churches worldwide. Not everyone fasted, and not everyone did the same fast. This year Jay and I didn't fast, although I learned a lot about it and am thinking about applying it as needed throughout the year. With medication I'm on I dont think it would be wise to do an absolute fast, as I usually feel sick if I don't eat at least a little something with my medicine. So I believe the Daniel fast will be something we participate in. Jay and I are so ready for a change in our lives in regard to his job that this may be what we need to do to focus our energy into praying for God's direction.

I am SO thankful that I was in service today (and not working in the nursery). As much as I love serving in the church, today was a service to remember. So many breakthroughs happened for people during the past 21 days. I really can't wrap my mind around all that has happened. It is only by the grace of God that people had breakthroughs, blessings, and pure MIRACLES occur. You could just FEEL the Holy Spirit in God's house today; it was so intense.

Tonight I watched the Duggar family special on the birth of their 19th baby, Josie Brooklyn. She was born at just 25(ish) weeks and was 1 lb 6 oz. She is so unbelievably tiny. I simply can't imagine! We went through so much with Olivers feet but I will forever be thankful that I had a wonderful birth experience and we were able to come home with our beautiful baby boy. My biggest fear was having him taken to the NICU and I couldnt bear the thought of having to leave him and come home without him. He had been part of me for 9 1/2 months and I was sick with the thought of ever having to come home from the hospital without him. God has truly touched the Duggar family and is putting  His protection around baby Josie. We continue to pray for the Duggars. I told Jay tonight when I first watched their show I thought they were crazy for having so many children but I found them fascinating. Now I DVR every episode of theirs and admire their faith. Sometimes I wish I was brave enough to just let God take control of how many children we have. But the thought of having another baby right now is so overwhelming! I want to get in a better place in our lives; pay off some of our debt (we are on our way!) and move to a bigger place. I'm not looking to move to a big house right away...I don't want to get into a mortgage that overwhelms us. But I want a place where we can have a backyard and more living space. I mean, Oliver hardly has room to run around as it is, much less if we had any baby stuff laying around! But back to the Duggars, they are an inspiration to how they raise their children, infusing God's word into their daily life. God bless their family...

Well...shoot.

Darn it all! Jay found out on Monday that there is a very good chance of him going back to second shift. He has been on first shift since the middle of April last year.

I hate his work. They treat their people like crap. They are changing his position so that it is based on seniority instead of being a position you interview for and everything, like when Jay got it.

I'm trying VERY HARD to be thankful that he has a job, to be thankful for all that we have in our lives. I just thought we were past this phase of our lives. Jay really wants out of that place anyway, so this may be God's way of encouraging him to look elsewhere. Who knows but God, right??

Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise. I know that God is watching out for us. This is just hard.

::Sigh::

Nigh-Night

I soooo need to go "nigh-night" as Oliver says, but instead I am blogging. I was just looking back at pictures in my blog from last year and its so hard to believe how little Oliver was just a year ago. Plus, how little hair he had! His hair has become so much of who he is, everyone comments on it and its just so funny to see my little "bald" baby...even though he never was bald and I always thought he had such pretty hair.

Tonight we went to Fort Wayne after Jay got off work. I wanted to get a couple things at the cake store, and we went to Cheddar's for dinner, and then stopped at Target. To say the least, going out with an almost 17-month-old is NOT easy! Maybe it was because it was at the end of the day, although usually he is still pretty good...today was just not a great day for us! He just wants to be on the go, so sitting in a high chair, or in a shopping cart, goes against everything he wants to be doing. I love this age so much but there are definite challenges!

For example, Oliver is starting to talk so much and its so sweet. This past weekend we were at my mom's house and she has this little Elmo Kitchen and it has a "microphone" you can talk into. Mom was talking into it saying "oliver, oliver" over and over and he went up and said "Oliver!" plain as day into it! It was the cutest ever!! He also LOVES to dance, especially to Handy Manny songs and his favorite, the Mickey Mouse Hot Dog song! its the cutest thing. He loves stomping his feet and turning in circles, bouncing his head, and shaking his little booty and clapping his hands. He is such a precious gift from God. Oh, how I adore him!!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Oliver got to play in the snow for the first time the other day. He loved it!! The first day he just bounced around on his knees in it (lol) but by Day 2 he was allll about treading through it. I haven't played in the snow in so long but couldnt pass up the chance to let Oliver experience it. Oh, it was so fun!!