Dylan's Room Makeover

Our baby girl is now 7, she's had the same basic room since she was two, we decided to give her a big girl room for her 7th birthday. We sent her to Nana's along with Lennox for the weekend and got to work.  Here's what she came home to.  Dylan struggles with change so after much prayer, we brought her in and she was delighted.  For days following, Lennox walked in her room and in an uber-cool voice exclaimed, "Niiiiice."  We think he liked it too!

Blogging Fail

Wow.  I literally haven't posted anything since my token baby announcement in November.  It's not that I haven't had a steady stream of things to post on.    My daughter is smart and learning more and more about the state of her heart before a righteous God.  My son is well... Lennox.  Or as he refers to himself, "Boy."  He's our entertainer.  He is talking and talking, and did I mention talking?  Campbell is just precious.  A pretty laid back baby, this one is!  He's very sweet and is all smiles.    I have lots to be thankful for and I know who I need to thank, so why is my prayer life lacking?  Why has my personal study time slacked off?  Oh, I could blame it on adding another calf to the herd.  I suppose I could add in that I'm tired.  Campbell started sleeping through the night at 2.5 months and then quit again recently because he can roll over one way, but not the other.  This seriously disturbs his sleep and well, mine.  But I make time for other things, in place of prayer and reading, just as I do with my blog.  But my blog isn't where I go to meet my God.  I know why. It's a battle with the flesh.  The God who made me, saved me and sanctifies me ought to be the only one on a list of "To Dos" but my flesh fights hard against the Spirit.  When my body is free from sin in Glory, I will not have to worry about this, but until then He's reminding me of my dependence upon himself to do all things.  He's given me power over sin IN HIM, yet I settle for much less. I can spend countless hours finding other things to occupy my time, and I do!

Or Does it?

He deserves so much more from me.  And I ought to give it, no matter how many times I fail.  I don't want my kids to obey me because they are afraid of me or because it's the law; I want them to obey me because of my love for them, and their love for me.  God demands this from us.  Not as a cruel task master but a loving Master that owns our heart already and wants us to put it forth to bring Him glory in delighting in obedience.  I don't show my love when I can't even give him back the time he's blessed me with.  I can't tell my kids I love them and yet never spend time with them.  Jim would NOT be okay with me telling people I love him yet never taking the time to show him, spend time with him, let alone even tell him.  If my husband deserves that from me, how much more does my God?

Praise the Lord for his patience and grace and mercy!  He doesn't leave us where we are, but draws us back into the protection of his will.  He is a good Master. Thank you Lord for your gift of Repentance!

Campbell is Here!

Campbell Coker Carlson

born on

November 17, 2011

at 2:21 p.m.

weighing 8 lbs. 15 oz.

20.5 inches long 

Challenge your beliefs!

Boys!

On Wednesday,  we were able to see a healthy and already fast-growing baby boy at my sonogram!  Come November, Lord willing,  we will have another little boy in our home.  This will make the first time in both mine and Jim's lives that we live in a house where the males outnumber the females!

Let me tell you,  I started writing this blog entry this morning but barely got out "Boys!" when I heard a loud bang followed by a holler and cry from Lennox.  I found him on the ground next to the couch that he presumably fell off of and he had a mouth full of blood! Ahhh!  I suppose a lot more of that will be in my future if my next son is anything like Lennox!  He's okay.  He needed a quick hug from Mom and the he was off to the next adventure.  That is the biggest difference I see between my son and daughter.  Sweet, sensitive Dylan would have been huddled up next to me needing consoling for a good 20 minutes after an escapade like that,  Lennox was over it in a matter of seconds, literally.

Well, I better go, I hear change clanging around and Lennox likes to "re-arrange" my wallet.

In closing,  I am thankful for another child, regardless of sex.  I am thankful that God remains faithful even as my faith waivers. I am thankful for a good report at the sonogram and beautiful view of the creativity, wisdom and power of God.  Boys and girls are different.  God made them that way.

Saying you believe something and living like you believe it...

...are two totally different things.  I say I believe and trust God, and know what his word says about trials, his purposes and his sovereign hand; but standing and living on those promises are different than saying you believe them.  I have a sonogram tomorrow.  I try to act really tough and confident- trying to be super excited about possibly finding out if it's a boy or a girl, but in reality, my reality, my sinful, unfaithful natural state, I'm pretty much in "freak out mode."  I don't have the luxury or history of living in the blissful, carefree pregnant state that I so often envy.  I have had way more "bad" sonograms than good ones.  My eyes and my heart automatically scan the screen in a panic mode trying to see movement, a heart beat, anything that says "life" instead of "death."   I know that what ever the outcome of everything God has laid out before me is good, regardless of how it makes my flesh feel, because he is good and I do believe his promises and they have been tested and proved in my own life.  But I am still this fallen creature that tends to want the easy way out, the shortcut, the bed of roses that my flesh longs for on the way to glory.  I have seen the glorious things God does in my life with brokenness and despair.  He makes me to look to him, to cry out to the only one who can help me.  It is not a bitter place to be, it is sweet.  Yet my flesh still presses against it, flees from it.  My prayer is that whether there is weeping or rejoicing in life or death tomorrow, that I would take joy in the God of my salvation and never let my circumstances steal my joy in HIM.

8 weeks ago...

Eight weeks ago we were waiting for THE call, you know the THE ONE we could say yes to! 


Eight weeks ago we were waiting for THE little person to come into our lives, to potentially enlarge our family through adoption of the Lord so chose.


Eight weeks ago I was one day late for my period and God laughed at our plans.


Eight weeks ago we found out that God indeed answers a little girl's prayers for more brothers and sisters but he doesn't need us to help him along by attending a bunch of classes we were supposed to or getting recognized by the state to be fit to care for foster children.


Eight weeks ago we found out that God still wants us to foster and adopt children, but he had a plan to give us another via the womb!


Eight weeks ago a second little line on a pregnancy test didn't quench our desire for more children because we got "one of our own."


Eight weeks ago God showed his mercy, his grace and his sovereignty to our family who knew we believed in those things but now have more evidence of these glorious truths.


Here we are, eight weeks later, 12 weeks pregnant, puking my guts up, and I am praying and hoping that when I quit being so sick, we can get on the list to get a call to take a child into our home.  Call me crazy,  but I just so happen to think that we weren't wrong about God's will for our family- because he has called us to care for orphans, and not just if you can't have kids of "your own!"