Snow, Surprises and Shots. . .

It has been a very busy week in the Garland home.

Jake enjoyed his first snow last Wednesday and we had a wonderful time as a family.

On Saturday we hosted a surprise party for my mom and that was absolutely insane, but hey, she was surprised so that's all that matters, right?

Then yesterday, Jake got his six month immunizations and I'm not sure who cried more, me or him. It was terrible. Anyways, all that to say this:

Jake has been doing much better with naps and sleeping at night and I am thrilled. I decided about a week ago to skip Jake's last feeding of the night and just see how long he would sleep. So now, his last feeding is at 9p.m. and he wakes up around 6:30 a.m. It is a wonderful schedule because I am in bed close to 10 p.m. each night and it does wonders for me.

There is more I wanted to post about today regarding political campaigns, and an amazing song about the Name of God, but it will have to wait till another day. My son has called. . . .

Going with the flow makes the flow actually go!

I have realized something that has absolutely revolutionized my life. It's called flexibility!
Actually, to be totally honest with myself it is submission to God's good and sovereign control of my life.
The past several weeks, I have struggled every day with figuring out what Jake is up to. He had been sleeping through the night and taking very predictable naps, and then, he started napping very haphazardly. (I can hear some of you now - if you are in charge then you can determine how and when he naps) But see, I disagree. This is not a little boy that is demanding his way - he will just lay in there and talk, or whine, but not necessarily wail or scream. He just simply isn't tired. He also seems hungrier. So we tried the cereal thing. I tried keeping him up longer, waiting till I thought he was really tired. I tried every approach and method I could think of to help Jake nap.
Then, late last week, I gave up. I decided to just watch him and try to read him and follow his cues for when he was tired. And you know what? He is very happy and very content and very healthy and he just doesn't need as much sleep as he used to. He is still sleeping through the night (other than when he was sick) and he is not fussy.
(I remember praying when he was younger and not sleeping through the night that it would be ok if he was awake during the day if God would just please help him sleep through the night - it seems that prayer has been answered)
In my giving up I decided to just go with the flow and the beautiful thing is that life is flowing along so much more smoothly because I am NOT trying to make everything happen on my terms and my way. God is giving grace because I am humbly accepting what He is bringing.
(I Peter 5:5-7) I am learning submission and it allows me to be flexible. It is truly a gift I do not deserve!

Laughter is the best medicine!

This made me laugh, so I wanted to share it! = >

20 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don 't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It 'In.'

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write 'For Smuggling Diamonds'
7. Finish All Your sentences with 'In Accordance With The Prophecy.

8. Don t use any punctuation

9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

10.. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat with a serious face.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go.'

12. Sing Along At The Opera

13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don 't Rhyme

14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance , Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In Mood.

16. Have Your Coworkers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.

17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won!, I Won!' (I think I'm going to do this! I love it!)

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!'

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'

20. And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity.......Send This E-mail To Someone To Make Them Smile.

"Fathomless love"

Two of my most constant reminders that I am loved by God.

Recently I have wrestled frequently with questioning God about situations, circumstances and His overall Sovereign orchestration of my life and even the lives of others. It may partly be a by-product of my life circumstances and experiences right now, but regardless of why I have struggled to believe that God is good and loves me, I have struggled. There have been nights where I have cried out to God in anger, in frustration, and then other times in pure desperation that He would prove to me that He is good and that He does love me. The problem was that many times the condition for belief was that He answer my prayers on my terms.

I struggled with commands like: "Rejoice always" and "In everything give thanks". I knew there had to be a way to do that, but I could not comprehend how I could thank God for a friend's pain caused by someone's sin. How did I rejoice when another friend miscarried for the third time in a row? How could I give thanks for the offense a spiritual authority caused to a teenager trying to do the right thing? For the first time in my life I was wrestling with issues that made me understand why people struggle with believing that God is good. I was there.

Then, I was confronted with Psalm 136. The Psalm portrays God's Sovereign ochestration of every event in Israel's history and each verse concludes with the phrase: "For his steadfast love endures forever". Each action of God is based on His love, is a demonstration of His love.
The first thing I realized was that even though I didn't understand it I had to believe ( and many times beg God to help me believe) that every thing He did was a demonstration of His love.

Psalm 136 concludes with the verse: " Give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever." That was the conlusion my heart longed for. How do I give thanks in everything? How do I rejoice always? I thank God for his love; for the truth that His love is the basis of every thing He ordains.

So, last night as I thought about these truths I began to make a mental list of the ways God has shown me His love.
I want to share a few of those with you.
1) My husband and the story of how God brought our lives together is an amazing testimony of God's love and goodness to me.
2) The birth and gift of my son, Jake, is a constant reminder of the greatness of God in our smallness; of the grace that He gives in every circumstance.
3) The undeserved friends and family God has blessed me with.
4) My health, mental ability (I know some of you may be laughing at this one - I'm not claiming brilliance, just realizing that I clould have brain damage, dementia (think I may have a little already), or some other mentally disabling condition, and I don't.) , and resources are all a direct result of God's provision for me.
5) Finally, and really foremost is the gift of my salvation. How great the love of God, how completely uncomprehendable that he would love a sinner!

The point is this: The next time you find yourself wanting to question God, or even questioning God and His love and goodness to You, remember Calvary. See Christ leaving Heaven's glory in exchange for this world FOR YOU! See Christ living a sinless life FOR YOU. See Him hanging on a cross FOR YOU! See Him taking YOUR SIN. See Him being raised to life again FOR YOU!
This love of God is greater than any circumstance. It is the very foundation upon which our lives are designed. This love of God is the ink in the pen with which God writes the story of our lives.
It is indescribable and truly amazing!

The words of this song express it so accurately.

Fathomless Love
by Steve and Vickie Cook


"Lord, what moved your heart to love lowly man before any star could herald your praise and why did you come abasing yourself veiled in a robe of frail human clay?
Why would You, the pure, give your life for the vile; the Innocent seeking the guilty to be reconciled?

I can't comprehend this fathomless love; I'm gripped and amazed at what You have done.
Why would the Adored become the despised to bear all the furious wrath that was mine?
How awesome this mystery of your fathomless love for me!

Why would you adopt and take as your own those who would crush your one precious Son?
Why mercy and grace towards your enemies? Your name they had cursed and Your throne they had scorned.
Lord, how could you choose to show kindness to these, the ones who would mock you and hate you - the ones just like me?

I can't comprehend this fathomless love; I'm gripped and amazed at what You have done.
Why would the Adored become the despised to bear all the furious wrath that was mine?
How awesome this mystery of your fathomless love for me!"

Learning the ropes. . . or learning the love. . .

Learning the ropes as a mom is sometimes so frustrating because honestly I don't think it ever gets easier even though everyone says that it does. Maybe I would say that it gets a little more enjoyable, but definitely not ANY easier. The ropes continually change.
Just when you begin to kind of figure something out, like say a feeding schedule or a sleep routine, your baby goes through a growth spurt, or starts teething or gets sick or has gas. . . or something.
Today is one of those days in my home and I am in here blogging to keep from killing my child or myself. :) Kind of a joke, but not totally. I am very frustrated to say the least. :)
Jake has not taken a nap all day. He'll act tired so I put him down just like I always do and he fusses and screams and cries. I wait and wait and then I go in and check on him, pick him up and comfort him. He'll stop so I lay him back down and the whole cycle starts over. He'll do that until its time to eat again. Then he falls asleep while he's eating. I wake him up and get him to play thinking that he'll be tired and take a nap later (because you're not supposed to let them nap right after eating, right?)
Well, we have been doing this for the 3rd time today since 2:30 p.m. It is crazy!

I share all of this only because I am not going to be a fake on this blog and only share the good days and make it look like I am wonder woman and like my child is a cherub. We have problems. We are sinners and I want to portray who and what we really are. Sinners saved by grace and seeking to grow in that grace.
One thing I know for sure is that God is using my son to cause me to seek Him and His strength more than I ever have before in my life. I am so aware that any good thing I do is because of God. I see my natural tendency to respond wrongly and to think wickedly. If Jake grows up to love and serve God it will only be because God has drawn Him, not because of me.
Oh how I pray that God would work in his heart despite the mother he has.

I praise the Lord that He loves me as I have portrayed myself today, not because He accepts my sin, but because He is God and He is love and I am accepted in His Son Jesus who paid for my sin.

Praise God who brings Himself glory by loving me and working in my life. The basis of everything He brings into my life is love. (Psalm 136)
Amen to a God who consistently and unconditionally loves.

The beginning

I think this whole blogging thing will definitely grow on me, but right now, I feel completely at a loss as to what to write and how to begin.

My life has drastically changed over the last two years. I got married to the most perfect guy in the world for me and moved from South Carolina to Florida. We lived there for almost a year while I taught preschool at his home church and he led the youth group. It was a hectic and most definitely not your typical "first-year-of-marriage". We have joked since then that we jumped right into our 3rd or 4th year of marriage. Looking back I believe God was preparing us and accelerating our marriage since He knew that we had a surprise in store during the second year of our marriage. . .

In August of 2006 we moved back to South Carolina since we sensed the Lord leading us to to mission field and Rob believed he needed to get more training. I taught a Special Ed 2nd and 3rd grade Learning Disabled Self-contained class that year at Chandler Creek Elementary School in Greer, and Rob went to school first time.

Two days before I turned 25 I found out we were expecting, despite using contraceptives. :) We were thrilled from the very first moment of realization! We kept it a secret for almost 12 weeks and told the family on Christmas Eve. Jacob David was born on July 24, 2007 and has been the delight of our hearts ever since. I cannot conceive having more children and being able to love them as much as I love him. I guess God just grows more room in your heart or something. . .

Jake is 5 1/2 months old and he already sits alone and tomorrow we are going to start eating cereal. He loves to smile and talk and desperately wants to be able to crawl, but hasn't quite figured that out yet. He loves his Baby Einstein Exersaucer he got for Christmas from Granmommy and Grandaddy and enjoys bouncing in it and playing with all the different gadgets on it.

Well. I think that's a start. . . we'll see if I get better at this. :)