Birth announcements

Announcing the birth of Lela Anne Blakeman and Isaac Daniel Blakeman into the Family of God today sometime around 2:30 pm. It was amidst many tears of joy and all their siblings were present! Yes, I am rejoicing!

Ok, so I'm not trying to fake anybody out...lol...but I thought it highly appropriate since we are awaiting the birth of one baby and get blessed with 2 of our children being born again.

It started as the most mundane day ever. Breakfast, chores, then I herd everyone to my room for some quick scripture reading while I trim nails for everyone. (Yeah, I know you totally wanted to know that. We have our mani/pedi's en masse around here. =) I had the oldest take turns reading and then we moved on to folding clothes when Isaac started asking me questions about dying...what happens, etc. (He's been doing that alot lately.) So it led to talking about salvation and what salvation means and how you get saved and why. We have never wanted to push any of our children into a false profession or anything. As much as we desire their salvation, we wanted it to come from their own recognition of their need. So I guess you could say I was expecting the conversation to be over when he asked if we could pray before we do any more laundry. It took me by surprise and I asked him " Do you mean you want to pray to be saved?" and he said "Yes, ma'am". So of course I said yes, and then Lela immediately spoke up and said "I want to be saved too", and that just completely did me in. I have really been burdened about her for some time. I knew she understood and she is always talking about salvation like she had already been saved and loves to read her Bible but she had never come and spoken to us about it if she had. So I have been praying specifically for her recently and for wisdom to know if or when to approach her about it. So, needless to say, I was just overwhelmed to have 2 such blessings heaped on me at one time. By this time, we were all crying, so we joined hands and Lela prayed first and then I prayed and then Isaac prayed. Even Aaron and Alyssa were crying their eyes out. Levi and Ky were the only 2 that weren't and they couldn't quite figure out what was going on. lol. Apparently Aaron and Alyssa have really been pushing Lela about salvation themselves recently and she would keep putting them off saying she wanted to wait until "Papa was home" or something like that. Well, she told me later that, today she didn't want to wait anymore, she figured she could call Papa later but she want to be saved NOW.

I let them call Ed right away and tell him the good news and he, of course, was as overjoyed as the rest of us and wanted to hear all the details. He told Lela that "his eyes were leaking too". =)

Did I mention that I have sooooo much to be thankful for! How can we find enough words to express what all God has done for us! My 4 oldest children are now all saved. How great is our GOD!!!!

Thanksgiving Time

Here it is Thanksgiving time, one of my favorite times of the year, and all I've been thinking about it how miserable I am feeling right now. I am truly ashamed of myself...

Since I try to keep my blog honest (as well as providing news) I guess I'm going to have to share.

I'm to that point in my pregnancy where I wake up every morning hoping that the baby will surely make an appearance today and it keeps putting me in a bad mood when every day I'm still huge, and achy, and clumsy, and miserable. I'm so distracted I can hardly focus on getting school done, and my feet swell when I'm on them for any length of time cleaning. I've done everything I can think of to get ready for baby (many times over) and now it's just a waiting game. The most frustrating part is that I feel like my life is on hold while I helplessly wait for whatever is coming....long labor, short labor, hard, easy, soon or a week from now?

Now that is probably all just hormones talking but it is very real for me. I guess the best medicine when you are feeling like nothing can go right and you are counting all the "wrongs" in your life, is to read about someone who has had it worse and been through more. Then suddenly things don't look quite as bad as they did.

That is what has happened to me.

I've been reading this other blog this evening (that I will be adding to my blogroll) about a mom w/4 kids, and she was telling how her last son was diagnosed with heart failure early in the pregnancy. Anyway, I'll let you follow up on that story later if you want. The link is here http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ and I've really enjoyed it. I agree with her perspective on soooo many things, but what moved me most was her son's story. It made me stop and realize how much I take for granted that I should be consciously and consistently thanking the Lord for. We all have rough times in our lives, but instead of dwelling on the bad and letting the devil drag us down into defeat, we should be counting our blessings.

So I want to end this with listing some of mine:

-I'm thankful for my Lord Jesus Christ, without Whom I would have nothing

-I'm thankful for my wonderful husband, words can't describe what he is to me

-I'm thankful for my 6 sweet, healthy, active, beautiful children...who keep my life full and interesting and love me unconditionally

-I'm thankful for the little one who will be making an appearance soon...I can't wait to meet you

-I'm thankful this has been a healthy pregnancy

- I'm thankful for loving, supportive family and friends who are always ready to help and encourage

- I'm thankful for the wonderful church the Lord has put us in and the blessing it always is

--I'm thankful for my home and health and food and clothing...

and all the other material and spiritual blessing that my Heavenly Father showers me with each and every day. I have a framed print on my wall that reminds me "In Everything Give Thanks". Now I need to remember to do just that.

Check out this link

I have been busy this evening doing some blog surfing and my husband put me on to this website, and in consequence I found this particular post. Because this speaks to a topic that is very near to my heart (and, might I add, one I needed some reminders on just now!) I wanted to post it here for you to enjoy as well. Hope it is as much of an encouragement and blessing to you as it was to me.

http://www.mycharmingkids.net/2008/12/submission-is-not-four-letter-word.html

A peek through my window

Thought some of you might like to see this shot Ed just took of our living room. I thought it came out pretty good as long as you ignore me in the corner. =)

Trust

Ok, so I keep starting posts and then not getting to finish them and they end up in drafts and my blog is still not updated....

This is just some thoughts running through my head lately....reflections on my own life as well as stuff shared from others, conversations, etc. ( Are you scared yet? Run while you still can. =)

But it's just about trusting the Lord and the ways He teaches us these lessons. I hope I can express what I'm thinking here without coming across the wrong way. I know, for many people, the way we live is hard to understand. We have a large family, don't really practice birth control, we homeschool, have our babies at home unassisted, and try to live as naturally and self-sufficiently as we can. In a large part, I guess you could say that it's because we are trusting the Lord, but, for me, in some of these cases it's something that I just feel comfortable with doing things this way. Particularly unassisted homebirth. I don't guess I've discussed this on here much, if at all, but I guess now is as good a time as any to share my thoughts and perspective on this issue. With my due date getting closer and closer (and my belly getting bigger and bigger=) this is on my mind alot.....but, let me go back to the beginning.

I first got interested in homebirth before I ever met my husband. We were attending a missions workshop in a little town in TX and while there, one of the ladies we knew had her baby. Ok so not AT the workshop literally, but they had a trailer and she had it at home and her husband delivered. I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever heard of and hoped that one day maybe my husband could do the same thing. (No offense to anyone, but I'm not a huge fan of Dr.'s or hospitals. =p) Anyway, fast forward a couple years, I'm just married and pregnant with Aaron. We knew right away we wanted a home birth and started doing tons of research. I read every book the library had on birth, pregnancy, etc....medical or otherwise. And I researched online too. We wanted to know what we were talking about. AND I got hooked. I absolutely love reading about and studying birth. To me it is one of the most miraculous/exciting/emotional/lifechanging experiences there is. The more I read the more excited I became and the more convinced that I wanted to have this baby at home with just Ed to deliver. Well, the Lord had other plans, Ed had gone on a quick mission trip and was going to be home before my due date, but I ended up going into labor before he got home. Thank the Lord, Mom was there and (as we had already agreed on if this did happen) took me to the hospital. It was a quick, fast, natural labor and delivery, but I did have to fight for it(or rather Mom did for me). Long story short, I know the Lord worked things out like that for His own reasons and I have no regrets, but it definitely reinforced the idea that homebirth was best. I believe that birth is a natural process that our bodies were uniquely designed for and (in most cases) it's not a medical emergency. Just as you wouldn't go to the Dr every time you ate to make sure your food was digesting properly or just in case you choke, neither is it necessary for a healthy pregnancy and birth. Well, 15 months later we had our first homebirth. A waterbirth. And I could go on for each one... We've had a total of 5 unassisted homebirths and 1 unassisted (late) miscarriage.

Every pregnancy and birth has been unique, but they have all been relatively healthy and each one a learning experience. I don't ever want to get to the point where I think I have learned it all and don't need to study anymore. I try to research more every pregnancy and see what I've missed with other ones, more health, nutrition, exercise tips. Whatever. I want to keep learning.

Now, I said all that to say, having our babies at home is not a responsiblity we take lightly, nor do we object to medical care if it's needed. (My husband is an EMT after all=) But we feel this is the direction the Lord has led us in, and let me add, it's not for everyone. The Lord leads each of us differently, and we all have different circumstances so please don't get the idea that I'm preaching everyone should do things the way we do. Not at all. My whole point here is about trust. Do we trust the Lord with our lives and all of the little details? This is something I have to keep asking myself. Why do I/we do this....or anything...the way we do? Is it because it makes us feel better, to prove a point, or because we believe it's God's will for our lives. Hopefully it's the latter. But it's a good thing to keep asking. And I think that God brings things to our attention to remind us to refocus on Him.

I love to talk about birth and enjoy sharing my own experiences, but I know that not everyone shares my passion so I hope this wasn't too boring. I purposely kept the details out as I know they might not be universally enjoyed.

Anyway, as always I like feedback, so give me your thoughts.