It's been a long time!

Life is CRAZY! How many of my postings start off with that (or similar statements)? Must be true.

A nutshell recap: Evan is bottle fed, recovering from critically low hemoglobin, crawling, cruising, standing, talking (Mama & Dada), puts everything in his mouth, got salmonella, has two (bottom front) teeth) and is adorable in Aaron's 12-18 month hand-me-down clothing!!
Aaron is a TALKER. So smart. Tonsils out and breathing amazing (silent sleeper now!), eating like he had starving (probably was!), loves the bible, green eggs and ham, Jesus, and says he is black... Don't know where that one came from! He makes me laugh every day and, though he picks on and tries to thump Evan pretty frequently, always needs to know where Evan is and definitely loves his baby. He say he's a big boy, and He's right! I love these little guys.

Joey is amazing (as always). He's hot and I'm so glad I married him. Can't believe it'll be 7 years in December! We are having a really good time being in awe of our boys. He also got a new car! So happy for him (and the fact that a new car for him is something I get to enjoy too of course)!

This year we went to the beach with he Marquis family. Don't remember if I posted photos. We hope to do that yearly.

Lets see... What else. I feel freedom like never before. Hear from The Lord more often than ever. Pray in my prayer language daily. Love teaching ISR lessons (just ended a great season). Am enjoying this season immensely. Am satisfied in The Lord and the family he has provided me with!

On a separate note Rachel is gonna have a baby any day now (SO EXCITING!) and Kreshelle has been out of town for a week! Feeewf. Ok. Time for bed! Hopefully this blogger app will mean more frequent updates!

Blessings!

Easter

We had a beautiful first Easter as a family of four. We decided to skip all the festivity options and just spend our time together for the most part. The boys (Ari and Aaron) had a Resurrection Easter Egg Hunt our yard on Sunday, and we all attended two passovers this year- the Marquis' and the Leightman's. It was such fun! Somewhere in this pile of photos (some of which are upside-down for lack of editing time) is our Miguel too! He is a little boy in Latin America who we are sponsoring. The plan is that someday we'll go visit him and in the mean time the boys can grow up writing letters to him. I also included a shot of Aaron, Joey, me and Lori's feet all adorned with our new bare-foot-shoes! I can't get over how thankful these pictures make me. To have such beautiful healthy boys and to be able to spend my days with them is such a blessing.

~Find Rest My Soul~

I am reading a book right now called "Invitations from God." It's really incredible. It is making me realize how I have set myself for failure in a lot of ways. Given myself unrealistic tasks that I was never really ment to tackle alone and in this way.

We have stopped having a Sabbath day of rest in our family... when we had one we didn't even really feel it was restful. We have so strayed from the idea of rest. We have taken on the work work work identity that gets you recognition, attention, and acknowledgment and put aside the rest work rest mentality that we were made to live with. We were made to work and to rest and to follow the rhythm setup by the Creator.

When God created the world he made it in 7 days. He could have taken one I assume. He could have "powered through" and "pressed on." He choose to work in the day, "and then there was evening and morning." I work day and evening, and morning, and Sabbath too! I work work work because that is how I think I will be happiest. Then my body aches with neck and back pain and I feel overwhelmed and unhappy and I wonder why!

We are starting an intentional journey into resting again. I have to figure out (pray about) managing things like chores, phone calls, emails, facebook, ISR business stuff, etc. without keeping the backbreaking and ungodly pace at which I have been traveling. I need to rest!

9 Weeks Old is so Much Fun!

It's like he fully woke up this week! He has long periods of alert time now where he just looks at you and smiles! His gassiness is so much better, he hardly grunts if at all! He smiles and looks for me when he hears my voice if I have been out for a little while. It's such a wonderful feeling to have your baby respond to you in such a loving way. It's incredible how I already forget things too! I already forget what it felt like when they first handed him to me in the hospital- it already seems like he was always the size he is now... I can't remember holding him being smaller... how do we forget so quickly? Anyway, I am enjoying every minute I can- soaking it all up! I love my boys!

Healing Prayer

The past few months I have been learning a lot about the Lord, and myself, and how to hear His voice more clearly and to trust Him to know what is best. I have been meeting with a friend for Inner Healing Prayer. It's pretty simple when you look at it from afar, but it's intense... and pretty amazing to experience. Basically my humble description would be that it is a prayer meeting, usually one on one, where you have someone who is experienced in this ministry walk you through praying to the Lord to ask for the roots/memories/reasons-behind something you are feeling or going through. The other person is basically there to intercede for you in prayer or to help you focus or lead you deeper into asking the Lord for more clarity about what you are praying over.

It's amazing the things the Lord has revealed to me, and especially the fruit in my life from getting healed of things. Sometimes I will have a memory come to mind and I think "this can't possibly be from the Lord, it's a pointless memory," then I'll have another memory come to mind and little by little as the Lord reveals things, as we pray, I realize that it is all connected and it all makes sense! It's incredible. As a result I am beginning to trust myself more and more that I do indeed hear and know the voice of the Lord. Sometimes I even think it is my own thoughts and it's actually the Lord speaking... it's hard to explain something so deeply personal, but it's amazing.

I think everyone should have this experience. I think we should all be seeking the deepest possible level of spiritual healing. In this way we are less offended with one another (because we recognize that where others are acting out, they too are wounded and in of healing just like us), we are less co-dependant (because we learn to lean on the Lord for our emotional needs), we stop looking for and fishing for approval from others (because we learn to listen for the voice of truth about who we are and what He thinks of us). I can imagine what it would like to live in community with people who felt healed and whole and did not depend on one another in an un-healthy way, but leaned on the Lord and enjoyed the blessing of what community was supposed to mean. With no expectations on each other, with abundant grace, with understanding and forgivingness flowing like a faucet rather than at a drip. Where people felt free to be themselves- faults and flaws and all. Where we can say "no" and "yes" to the thousands of invitations that come our way each day (babysit, watch TV, pray, have lunch together, call me back, text me back, take a nap, clean the house, run errands, blog... whatever) without wondering if we still seem "Holly."

I am thankful that my God heals. That salvation means more than "getting into heaven." So much more than that- it means healing and freedom and "kingdom-come" life even now. We are all missing out on so much when we miss out on being healed. My prayer is that the enemy will not have His way. That instead we will all unashamedly admit that we are in need and seek out the healing that God so generously gives.

Evan brings in the New Year!

I am in love! I have two beautiful boys and 2012 couldn't be off to a better start!

Evan was born at 2:32am on January 12th 2012 after only 2 hours of labor! I woke Joey up at 12:30am, not convinced that this was "it." My water broke (I assume) when I felt a POP in my belly like a balloon at 1:30. Then we worked on getting out the door to the hospital. By the time we arrived we had about 10 minutes to "settle in" before Evan was in my arms! What a wonderful blessing!

Aaron is adjusting well as far as we can tell! I think he really loves his new brother. He is changing daily and growing so much in maturity (as well as physically). We have started "homeschooling" now and he knows a little bible memory verse from 2 Thessilonians "Stand Firm" and it is precious. He is learning his letters and their sounds, mostly from The Letter Factory on Leapfrog. He is learning shapes and colors and we are adding in calendar time and the weather to our school day.

He speaks full sentences and talks all the time! "Common Mama, sit down" he says when he is watching a movie and wants me to sit with him. He is such a compassionate boy. He loves to pray for his friends and family. He is tender hearted and sweet. I am so blessed to be his Mom. He knows Joey and my names now, so if we don't hear him calling us he will switch from "Mommy" to "Jen!" and it cracks me up! I am in awe of him. He is sleeping in his big boy bed (again). He used to sleep in it, but I just wasn't ready to have him in that bed with all the unknown and intensity of waiting for Evan to arrive and being pregnant and a little emotional about how big my "baby" is getting. But now I need him to be in that bed, and feel ready for it, since soon Evan will need the crib. The last thing I want is for Aaron to feel he is being kicked out.

The next big thing on our schedule will be this weekend! We are potty training Aaron on Sunday! I am so excited for him! I really think he is ready! We will go buy some special underwear this weekend and then on Sunday is the "Big Day."

Evan is a sweet heart! I am so smitten with him. He was born 7lb 1oz (smaller than Aaron was) and is already 14lb at 7 weeks! What a good eater! His cheeks are amazing and his rolls are wonderful! I love my little chub-ster. He is a gassy boy, so we are working on trying to find a solution to that so he can be more comfortable, but otherwise it has been a smooth transition. It is amazing how in 7 short weeks life can be so routine after so much change! I am really getting the hang of having two babies (yes, I still consider Aaron my baby... probably always will!). Potty training Aaron will really (potentially) help make things a little easier (and cheaper!).

The boys looked so much alike at birth and as newborns, it's unbelievable! Check it out!

(Left) Evan...

(Right) Aaron...

Evan...

Aaron...

I love those boys! And just for good measure- here are some more pictures of sweet little Evan!

Well, off to bed! Who knows how much sleep will be in store for me tonight! I am so thankful that I have a child to keep me awake. Not everyone has that blessing! I am thankful that I have messes to clean, dishes to wash, toys to put away and diapers to change. It all means that I have a family and the season that I am in right now I would not change or fast forward for anything!

Peace that Surpasses Understanding Comes from the Lord

I have always felt a connection with the verse "...and the peace of God, that surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus." I am so thankful for the Lord's peace. As I await the pending arrival of our second son, Evan Hyson, I realize that peace only comes from Him.

There is no way of predicting when labor will begin. You can try, but you can't really know. I don't know what time it will be, what day, where I will be when it starts, how fast the intensity of the contractions will progress, or what twists and turns this labor will have. I don't know if it will be nap time for Aaron, the middle of the night, while we are playing at home or around town. I don't really know anything. So what do you do when you don't know the answers? You ask the Lord!

So I asked the Lord: "Lord, what will labor be like? When will it happen? Will I need a C-section? Will I be able to get through it without an epidural? Will I be joyful? Will Evan be healthy? Will there be any complications? What time will it be? Will I labor at the hospital much- or at home?..." the list goes on. The Lord answered my questions in this way:

"This is what you need to know, I will be with you. I will be in control. You can trust me."

I don't know if you realize what amazing provision this is and what peace it brings. It means that I do not need to know the details. Whatever is going to happen is not for me to worry about or consider. I get to rest in the knowledge that my Abba Father is going to take care of me. Not the nurses, the midwife, the OB's, or even Joey, but the Creator of Life- the Author of it all! The one who designed the very essence of my being, my body, my mind, my soul, the world I live in- He has a plan, He will be with me every step of the way, and He is so very trustworthy! This brings me peace more than anything else could have.

In the mean time He has been so gracious and generous to me with Aaron, our first son. We have had many holy, special, incredible moments this week just being in each others presence; some of our last times as mother and only-child. Tonight he ran to my bedroom while I was finishing up cleaning the kitchen and climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to his chin and sat patiently waiting for me. When I came in he shouted "Mommy!" and smiled his big, beautiful smile. I crawled into bed next to him and we talked about everything we did today. He repeated each event after me- his way of telling me he remembered it. And we sat together, just talking and enjoying each other's presence. He was not ready to go to sleep (I can't say I blame him, even I felt like this was such an enjoyable time that bedtime seemed like an invasion of the beauty), so I asked if he wanted to go read his bible with me--- this always gets him! He jumped up and climbed out of bed, asking me to hold his hand as we walked together to his bedroom to read the Word of God and prepare for sleep. He went right to bed afterward and I couldn't help but praise the One who made that precious boy and gave him to Joey and I, for a time.

So many moments this week- the past [almost] two years really- so many moments that I will cherish forever. I hope I never forget. I hope I never forget the feeling of Aaron climbing into our bed in the morning and snuggling up right to my face, throwing his arms tightly around my neck, "Mama!," and wiggling as close as he can get. I hope I remember how it feels to be his Mama at every age and I hope I enjoy every minute of it. I hope the Lord allows me to always be a part of his and Evan's life and I hope they live long lives with days, months and years of passionate Love for Christ because of their knowledge of His love for them.