finally

I'M HOME!!!!!
& on bed rest until Josiah arrives. But bed rest is a-okay with me as long as I'm home!!!

If you know me very well then you know that I am not the most organized of all but I do have my own system & it works quite well for me. I know where everything is and everything has its place; its just that its not its most logical place but it all makes sense to me. Well, since I'm on bed rest, Charlie is taking over the household duties. Yesterday he was trying to figure out some things and was so confused by my organizational skills; I was laughing hysterically. He finally just started cleaning out closets and drawers and making his own system. Last night he said, "I have a lot more respect for what women do".
Its a different world around here now. Charlie has taken over everything: cooking, cleaning, caring for Hannah. One would think that it would be a nice break, but its really driving me crazy!! I'm dying to get up and clean things, not that he is not cleaning well - he is actually a very good cleaner, but I like things done a certain way. Example, after I use a dish I put it right in the dishwasher; he on the other hand will stack the dishes up in the sink until the end of the day and then put them all in the dishwasher. Drives me batty. I use to say something about it, when I was the cleaner, but now that he is cleaning, I let him stack them up and then put them away at the end of the night. I mean, come on, he is bringing me breakfast in bed - how could I complain??
I'm sure I will LOTS more time to blog so check back often. Thank you so much for your prayers. Keep praying; I'm home but not everything is out of the woods yet.

Also, in my last post I asked that you pray for my little friend Katie Jordan. She went to the doctor on Friday. All of her blood work came back fine and they discovered by doing a full CT scan that the alleged tumors were really in fact infection!!! What a miracle!!!! Seriously, a miracle. We can't stop praising Jesus for His goodness!!!! His mercies are made new every morning.

Improvements

Things are improving with each day, it seems. My bleeding appears to have stopped! Praise God!!! I am still in the hospital and am waiting. The doctors are keeping a close eye on me to make sure the bleeding doesn't start again. Maybe home by the weekend - we will see. It will be bedrest for me until Josiah arrives. Please pray for us as we continue to wait. And pray for Hannah, that she will find stability in coming to the hospital each day to visit her mama and that her mind will be at ease. She certainly doesn't like my boo-boos (my i.v.). I think that for me the most difficult part of all of this is not being able to crawl around on the floor with my baby girl or when she is crying not being able to reach down and pick her up, just having to sit and watch every one else take care of her. Its really difficult.
The Lord is gracious and provides strength, more than enough strength.
I do have another request to ask of you. My little friend Katie Jordan, who is 10 years old, has been very sick the past few weeks - running fevers as high as 105 degrees. Yesterday a CT scan revealed a tumor on her neck and possibly one in her lungs - she also has a swollen lymph node. She and her parents go back on Friday to have another CT scan and meet with some doctors from St. Jude's. Please pray for this family.

I Peter 1:3-9

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

from my hospital bed

This day has flown by, yet as I lay in my hospital bed at 1:40am, unable to sleep, I can recall & feel every moment that has been presented to me. I woke up feeling nicely recovered from the stomach virus Charlie & I had both suffered from over the weekend. (Hannah, poor baby Hannah, had it earlier in the week & proved to be quite the champ, handeling it much better than her parents). We had decided on Saturday evening to not attend church on Sunday since we weren't sure if we were still contagious. So after a barely eating breakfast, looking forward to lunch, clean up the house a bit morning, we decided to head out to Wal Mart to puchases new toothbrushes (because seriously, people, who wants to use their stomach virus toothbrush any longer than necessary!!!) & after Wal-Mart came my favorite time of week- lunch with my parents. And today's lunch was to be extra great because Hannah had been with my parents all weekend so Charlie & I could rest. We were so anxious to see our baby girl. But before all that, before we even left the house I had to go to the bathroom. Cut me slack, I'm 7 mos pregnant - when don't I have to go to the bathroom. But when I went to the restroom, I noticed I had been and still was bleeding. Not profusely but enough to send me in to slight hysterics, forcing me to call the doctor. He advised me that since it was not an overabundance of blood, it was probably caused from my dehydration from said stomach virus. His recommendation was to drink lots & eat. And so, he being the doctor & not I and I knowing the dangers that lie in googling said bleeding, I heeded his advice. Off to Wal-Mart and then Outback we go. Only when we arrived at Wal-Mart & started from our car to the store, I noticed that I was still bleeding, pouring (for lack of a better term) blood. I raced to the bathrooms and sent Charlie to get toothbrushes because a clean toothbrush, people, is and always will be high on my priority list. My feeling was correct, I was bleeding - profusely bleeding. I went & found Charlie just as he was checking out, telling him my grimm discovery and we hurried outside where I called the doctor again. This time there was an urgency, a panic in my voice that I hadn't shared with him on the 1st phone call. He advised to head straight to the hospital & within 4 minutes we had spoken with my parents (who were meeting us at the hospital at this point) and had arrived at the hospital. Even the doctor was amazed with our quick time. All I could say is that you don't get between a baby & his mama & something was trying to get in between us. Upon examining me the doctor concluded I had suffered from a partial placenta abruption and had a golf size pool of blood gathered outside my placenta that was actively bleeding. That was 13 hours ago. We do not know much more beyond this. In the 13 hrs the pool of blood has decreased 2 cms and praise the Lord for that. They will do another ultrasound in the morning & we are praying the bleeding will have stopped. When (if) bleeding stops, they will keep me in the hospital for up to 24 more hours to ensure I am stable. Then I will be on bed rest till labor begins, which we pray will be the end of January, his doctor appointed due time. However, if the bleeding does not stop, we trust whole-heartedly in his God appointed due time. (Some trust in chariots, some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God)Charlie chose our first baby boy would be named Josiah long before Josiah was being knitted in my inward being. We have clung to person Josiah in the Old Testament, believing God to raise our Josiah in to a true man of God who would lead his generation in to a reformation, a turning of way-ward hearts to the One True God; believing wholeheartedly that his message would be the meaning of his name "the Lord saves". But my dad, my wise father, who speaks to my heart in ways I thought only Beth More could (tee-heee), brought something to our attention. The salvation in the meaning of Josiah's name is a healing salvation & as we looked closer we discovered "Jehovah heals" is a much better interpretation.And so, it is now 2:40am, the Ambien has failed to work so far but that's okay because tonight I'm calling out to the Jehovah that heals.

*Will keep you updated as we know more. Please pray*

how cute is this??

Yesterday my dad had to have a root canal so Hannah & I had prayer for him a couple of times together throughout the day. I would say to her "Come on, Hannah, we need to pray for Poppie, he's sick", and then we would fold our hands and I would pray.
Well today she has already come to me twice with her hands folded saying, "Poppie, poppie". She is asking to pray for her Poppie. Isn't that soo cute?? Needless to say, the man's tooth is covered in prayer. :)

prayers requested

Please pray for my 6 year old friend Gideon. Last night he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
His mom, Shannon, I'm sure will keep her blog updated with regular posts.

peas, peas, peas

Last week I, along with the rest of America, sat on the floor glued to the television watching a helium balloon floating through the air that we all believed contained a little 6 year old boy. I listened to the news reporters giving out all sorts of details about how this scenario would not end well if there the little boy truly was in the balloon. Certainly he has passed out by now from all the helium fumes, they said; there is only a plywood board holding him in the balloon so when it lands, there is no way the plywood will keep him safe. On & on they went describing tragedy. And so I sat there staring at the television, silently praying for a miracle. Hannah & the little boy I babysit were playing around me. Once we saw the balloon descending to the ground, my prayers became audible. I sat there with 2 babies crawling over and around me, with my hands clasped together saying, "Please, Jesus, keep him safe; please keep him safe, please keep him safe". I heard Hannah saying something repeatedly and so I stopped my prayers and looked over at her. There she stood with her hands clasped saying, "Peas, peas, peas" (translated: please, please, please) over and over.
Thankfully, as we all now know, there was no little boy in the balloon. He was safe in his home.
But later in the day as I was retelling the story to a group of ladies from my church, my heart was struck. I suddenly became so aware of my responsibilities to my children and even to the little one I babysit. My actions are going to impact their lives. And as I am raising a little girl, she will become what she sees in me; she will imitate me.
And so the Lord began to show me that I need to pay more attention to my actions in order to display my faith and trust in Jesus. I need to be actively, daily, constantly teaching her about the goodness of God (Deut. 6:7-9). I need to pray out loud more often to display to her what it means to pray and why we pray. I need to read the Bible daily to her in order for her to know that I truly do believe that the "word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit..."
I need to allow God to control our days together, because we all need to learn"to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psalm 90:12) I refuse to raise my children with the mind set of "do as I say and not as I do". The Lord has placed these children in my watch care & I better make sure, with the Lord guiding me and controlling me, that they are raised to fear the Lord and to know His goodness and His justness, to know His wrath & His never-ending mercy, to know the love of the Lord, "to taste and see that the Lord is good".

Psalm 78:1-8
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, 3 things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. 5 He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, 7 so that they should set their hope in Godand not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; 8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

confession

okay, internet, i have a confession. i have been waiting a full month to report my experiment to you so i would have good, reliable results. (and i do so hope you will still be my friend after you read this.)
i haven't worn deodorant in a month now and guess what: i don't stink!!! isn't that amazing!!
i ran out of deodorant a month ago today and i used some of Charlie's boy deodorant & i smelled like a boy all day long (didn't like that). and i just haven't remembered since to buy deodorant and apparently that's okay.
i mentioned my experiment to charlie last week and he gave me a strange look and went on as if i hadn't just confessed to him that i hadn't worn deodorant for almost 4 weeks. but i'll take that as a good sign because if i was stinky he would have told me.
i suppose i just won't wear deodorant until i smell myself.
but it got me thinking, what if none of us stink. what if the deodorant company (obviously proctor & gamble) has just convinced us that we stink. i really think, internet, that you should try this. its been really fun (i live a sad life, uh?).
these pregnancy hormones must be doing my body good, uh?