Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Increase







Here are a few pictures of Preston's arrival! I'm so sorry for the delay in posting! We have had a beautiful and very busy few days once arriving home from the hospital and I am still trying to recover as well as make sure every single heart is doing okay here and isn't feeling left out in any way....that is so important to me.






Minutes old with Big Daddy. He is overwhelmed by the Father's love and bursting with gratitude!






These tiny feet have increased our household made a permanent impression on our hearts forever.......







I was worried about our youngest and how he would respond since he has been the baby in our house for 2 years and 5 months.....






We brought him in first and alone to meet his baby brother for the first time.....





This was his immediate response. All worries were put to rest and there were lots of tears of joy.....






The baby girl in our house took to Preston like a mother hen. She was SO sweet to him!!






Big brother had the same response. Grateful. Thankful me.......






And sweet Bella with baby brother.....oh the joy of these two together.....sweetness magnified.




Big brother and big sister gifts for all the kids hand delivered by my sister.......I have always wanted my sister to be present for the births of my children and the distance separated us and she was never able to be present.  But God is so good.....she was able to be present this time and she blessed my family in such beautiful ways. It was like Christmas for my babies! She picked out multiple gifts for each child based on their likes and interests and blessed them so much!!! My heart was bursting with joy.......





Big Daddy and the girls with Preston....







Meeting brother for the first time.......





Little Mama Bears.....






My beautiful niece....she loved holding and cuddling baby Preston!




Toy city in my hospital room thanks to YaYa! We even had a tea party!






My first born and my youngest gifts.......His grace poured out......





Mae~ Mae and Preston.






My three sons!!!!!




My beautiful sister, me and the Prince!






The tiniest feet....





Our sweet boy......





Leaving the hospital!





I hope to post again soon with more pictures and things to share. Trying to rest and recover this week. Thank you again for all of your love, support and prayers! It has meant so much to our family....



Friday, January 21, 2011

A Beautiful Birthday

Our oldest and our youngest!



Sweet baby Preston Grant made his arrival today at 4:24 p.m.! Weighing in at 8 pounds 12 ounces and is a beautiful 20 inches long! He is healthy and whole in every way and we are overjoyed and so very thankful in a thousand different ways tonight!

Most importantly we wanted to thank each and every one of you who prayed and interceded for us! We've had a long day and a long labor due to the position he was in but your prayers helped bring him to us beautifully!

So a million thank yous. My heart is singing and I am holding a great big, beautiful, bouncing baby boy.

Glory to His precious name....

I will try to post pictures in the morning. Mama is tired and so very thankful.....


Baby Day




Our little prince is making his arrival today!!! Be still my heart....

We arrived at the hospital to be induced early this morning and my water broke on it's on for the very first time ever shortly after we arrived.  Thank goodness we were already here! Just wanted to give you a little update and ask you for your continued prayers. We can feel them!

Mae~ Mae and her sweet friend Andrea are with all of my babies and the schools are closed for a snow day today! So all of my little pearls are well taken care of and I am beyond grateful for that. It couldn't have worked out any better!

We are praying for a supernatural day and hope to have pictures to post along with the good news before the end of the day today!

I can hardly wait to hold this precious promise in my arms.....

Thank you for your love and prayers.....




Thursday, January 13, 2011

Still Waiting


Photo Credit: Martha Stewart



Oh I wish he was here! Soon but not today. I can hardly wait for the day!

I was sent to labor and delivery yesterday. We thought for certain he was making his arrival!

After several hours at the hospital this mother of five children was sent home.

Contractions still 7 minutes apart and only 3 centimeters. Apparently that is not considered active labor.

 Alrighty.

You'd think I would know that.

So we are nesting today and I have changed around the furniture and washed tiny baby loads of
laundry in lavender detergent and arranged the diapers and the changing table goodies at least 3 times.

I've been busy doing those very important kinds of things instead of tending to the mountains of regular laundry that awaits me. Which means I may have had to "break in" to my hospital bag to steal a pair of clean undies this morning.....giggles.

My bag is almost packed.

The call list is almost finished.

The kids outfits are ready.

The cameras are charged.

The blue polka dot delivery down is ready!

And I'm praying for the sweet Lord to go before us and prepare every detail in advance.

He's so good at that.

I have taken some pictures of Prince Preston's nursery and will share those with you in my next post.

Even though we are awaiting his arrival with great anticipation I am enjoying these last few moments of pregnancy. It is the most miraculous time. And I absolutely love every second of it.

Thank you to each and everyone of you for your prayers, emails, messages, comments and support....

You all are the loveliest.


May He be glorified.....





Tuesday, January 11, 2011

From Our House





Hello Sweet Readers!

I wanted to give you an important piece of information that I left out of my post for Edie by mistake.

She is receiving mail. If you would like to send her a word of encouragement or a gift card or any wonderful thing you feel led to do, please do so!!

Edie has mentioned that she is being very well taken care of and her needs are all provided for, but her sister has offered her address if anyone would like to reach out during this difficult time.

I just know it would mean the world to her.

Here is the address:


Gina Williams
506 Helton Road
Maryville, TN  37804
We love you Edie!!!


Let's see what else.....

We moved. About 13 days or so before Christmas.

Let's just talk about that for a minute. I don't ever want to do that again. Moving or moving right before Christmas. Or moving right before Christmas almost 9 months pregnant. No thank you.

And let's add in a birthday for a very special little girl. And Nutcracker rehearsals down at the City Ballet.

And then, just to see what I'm made of. Let's see what happens when that very special little girl comes down with pneumonia in both lungs and almost ends up in the hospital.

My sweet girl has never been so sick. She missed the entire last week of school, her school Christmas performance and 4 out of her 5 Nutcracker performances. We had also just moved and so our home wasn't exactly organized just yet.. I have never felt so out of sorts.

And then, the rest of the family was hit. Ear infections, the flu, labored breathing, the croup and I ended up in the ER with bronchitis. I lost count with how many times we visited the pediatricians office and the hospital. But I'm pretty sure we paid the equivalent to a huge car note in insurance co-pays.

Lovely.

It wasn't our best Christmas. But we were so thankful that we were all together and on the mend by the time Christmas Day arrived.

The move is over. The holidays are over. And I am still expecting! I absolutely love pregnancy. Love it.

We are so anxious and excited to meet our sweet Prince Preston.... and after my appointment this morning it looks like it's going to be any day now!

I don't think that he is going to be as big as his brothers were. Thank you Jesus.
I would rather not deliver another almost 9 and almost 10 pound baby again!!

We are praying for a beautiful, healthy and supernatural labor and delivery and ask you for your prayers too. We are grateful for every, single one and it means so much to us to know that you will be holding us up during this time.

There are some logistical issues that keep me up at night. As you can imagine with a family this size.
And with trying to get our oldest home from college to spend the night with the little kids and to stay with them during my short stay at the hospital. And with trying to get everyone to school and home from school. Homework. Dinner. Ponytails. Dressing the Polly Pockets. Playing Star Wars. You know....the usual things.

All the things I love to do but just won't be able to for a day or two. Hopefully they can survive if their favorite Superman shirt isn't clean and they have to eat Macaroni and Cheese. Again.

Thankfully Macey has the sweetest friend in the world, Andrea (we all love you so) who just so happens to love babies as much as I do and has offered to drive Macey home from college to us no matter what. But I worry about the girls missing their classes and the long drive in this horrible weather we have been having and so on.

A Mother's love. We worry about them. No matter their age.

But God. He is bigger than all of our needs and all of our worries. I know that He will divinely orchestrate it all, even if it seems impossible right now.

I wanted to thank you all so much for your sweet comments on my New Years post.  I know that we have all walked through something similar to some degree and your encouraging comments and support mean so much.

It is amazing to me, the more transparent I am here on the pages of P and G, the more I open up and share the real. The true. The genuine. The good. The bad. The wonderful. The painful. The beautiful.

The more you seem to resonate and relate and respond. Grateful me.
The human spirit is an amazing thing.....

Some of you sent e-mails that caused this very pregnant woman to bawl her eyes out and I shared them with Mr. P and G and he was speechless. And teary eyed. Thank you for taking the time to write to me.
I want to write you back and know that I will when I can find a moment and the right words to respond to so many beautiful e-mails.


I'm piled up in bed with my babies right now on this special snow day and we are counting contractions......

7 minutes apart right now.

I'll write again as soon as I can and look forward to sharing tons of pictures.

Love and Miracles......


Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Pearls For Edie






I wanted to send some love and hope today to our amazing friend Edie. I know that she is loved by many and has a tremendous presence in the blog world.

I had the privilege of meeting her at Blissdom last year. And I loved her.

She came bearing gifts and hugs.

The mark of a true southern woman.

We love the same Jesus and the same cupcakes. The more frosting the better.

She is bigger than life.

She is real. She is true. She is genuine.

She has an inner radiance that shines outward and she is even more beautiful in person.

She is part Lucille Ball, part Beth Moore and part Paula Deen.

But looks like she could be on the cover of the latest issue of Glamour.

She is stunning.

She has a great, big, beautiful spirit and a magnetic personality that draws you in and leaves you
wishing she lived right next door.

As so many of you already know, Edie lost all of her worldly possessions in a horrible fire the week of Christmas. My heart breaks for her. She has written about her experience and shared her heart so beautifully and so humbly that there is no denying that she knows Him.......

In a very real and very tangible way that goes way beyond just sitting in church on a Sunday.

She will make you want to know Him too, in more ways than one.


Today is Edie's birthday and the blog world is celebrating her post by post. Maybe you would like to join in too...

There is so much to say. So much to share. So much to offer her.


Dearest Edie,

We rejoice over you today with singing and with words of hope and life and encouragement!
We celebrate the incredible gift that you are and trust Him that He is bringing you through and giving you beauty for ashes. We all love you and honor you today and wish we could be with you in person....to light your candles, to share some cake, to offer a gift, to listen in love, to whisper hope, to sing your praises, to give back to you in some small way the many ways you have given to each one of us.

Happy birthday beautiful Edie... You are His pearl.... Romans 8:18

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us."



Saturday, January 1, 2011

A New Decade



Photo Credit: Martha Stewart


A happy and blessed new year to each and every one of you! I am so thankful for new beginnings. For the chance to start again. A fresh start. For another opportunity to do those things that I think I cannot do. To push through. To learn from what I thought were limitations. To rise above the obstacles, adversity and incredibly painful experiences that tried to take up permanent residence in my life and in my heart over the past year.

2010 is the end of a year that we are thankful to let go of but more importantly it is the end of a decade.
The end of a ten year long lesson on overcoming. Rising above. Coming undone. Being unraveled.
And most importantly learning, growing and becoming closer to Him through it all.

I have clung to Him. In ways in which I could never write about here. Through experiences that I am saving to share about in the book that I believe He is bringing forth. Things I never dreamed I would have to walk through.

But I am thankful that I did.

Over the last ten years I have been pressed down so hard I didn't think I would ever recover. We have walked through so much and our testimony has grown so wide and so deep that at times, our circumstances caused us to question our faith.  Do we really believe what we say we believe?

Yes. We do. I do. I know that God is good and that He is for me and not against me no matter what the circumstances look like. I trust Him still . Even though He has allowed untold hardship and adversity. Many years of it.

I know Him to be good, and loving, and faithful even when our lives and situations do not match His promises.  He is still good.

He has blessed me with a family of my very own and woke me up this morning and gave me the start of a brand new year with each and every one of them.

I can't sing His praises enough for that and that alone.


Last year during this time I prayed a prayer that changed my life. I asked in that prayer that God would fulfill His purpose. That He would have His way. That His will would be done- no matter what. And that He would remove any and all hindrances. That He would unravel any false beliefs or anything that was keeping me from Him. That also, He would remove any person from my life who was not really for me and my family. Who was not the real deal. That He would show me - clearly- so that I did not waste any more time and energy and effort with things, situations and friendships that were not from Him or that were not of Him.

Not everyone is meant to be a part of our destiny. There are just a few. The faithful ones.

And I wanted so desperately to know them.

I wanted the divinely orchestrated in every single area of my life.

I have such a big family whom I love caring for that I no longer wanted to waste any time away from them on friendships that weren't at all what He had planned for me.

I wish someone would have warned me what was about to happen when you pray a prayer like that.

He is faithful.

Talk about unraveling my life. Talk about revealing the hidden things. Talk about showing me clearly who was really for me and my family.

Imagine how heartsick I was when my own Mother walked out of my life. Again. There are days that it is still so hard for me to believe. Especially after all the years that the Lord restored. Or so I thought.

There have been days over the past year that I could barely stand because the process that I prayed for was just too much. I wanted it to stop and did not want to know another thing. I pleaded with Him as one by one He uncovered betrayal after betrayal and mean spirited hearts. I was being unraveled as He revealed the hidden things in my life......

Sweet Jesus.

He showed me friendships where I had given way too much and was just being used over and over again. He showed me a friendship that was so one sided and was completely for the sole benefit of the other person- who seemed to have developed a hobby of copying every single thing I did. Whether it be my clothes. My children's clothes. Things in my home. The way I write. The way I talk. The way I give gifts and pull things together in my home.  The way I decorated my nursery- as humble and minimal as it was.  Everything and made no apologies about it. She was relentless.

It was heartbreaking for me to feel so used after giving so much.

He even allowed my cell phone to ring by mistake one afternoon and allowed me to hear a conversation between two "friends" who were with one of my children on a play date. I sat and listened with tears streaming down my face as my "friends" criticized and judged me up one side and down another about the size of my family, among other things.  I remember hanging up the phone,  going straight to the play date to pick up my child and never mentioning a word to anyone. I was thankful for the knowledge as painful as it was but I was so hurt and felt like giving up on ever finding a single divine friendship.

He showed me very clearly exactly what I had asked Him to .....He also allowed me to even discover someone doing her best to impersonate me on line- even stealing my posts and highjacking my spirit and doing her best to emulate me. Someone who caused a lot of problems for me in real life was now attempting to do the same thing in the blog world. A true enemy.

And He challenged me to pray for them. All of them and so many others and other situations that I haven't even mentioned. They are too numerous to even mention.

I pressed through praying for them one by one. All of them. Through tears and what felt like a pain inside my bones, I have spent the last year praying for and blessing those who have hurt us, rejected us, wronged us, betrayed us and who have spitefully used us- just like He asked us to.

And it has pressed me and challenged me in ways that I never knew were possible.

All of this and so much more made me want to never write another post again. Go private or close it down and retreat to simply be alone with my family.

Exactly what the enemy wanted.

From the very first post ~ the very first day~ over three years ago,  I have given Him the glory and written about Him and my own personal experiences that have tied me to Him.

It wasn't something I saw someone else doing- and then tried to copy it. I knew no one in the blog world and I knew of no one in real life who had a blog.

It is completely and one hundred percent original. So it is painful when someone tries to steal what He has done. It cuts down to the bone and marrow. And has made me want to stop writing. Completely.

It is and has always been His original idea~ and I have always felt humbled and honored to be the vessel typing the God-breathed words out on the keyboard. I have always loved writing here and am very passionate about it and have felt such despair over what I have walked through this past year personally.

It has definitely been reflected in my lack of posting.

And so after spending some time with Him and receiving those things that only He can give....

I am going to press on and press in and refuse to retreat or shrink back or write less in the new year. I am keeping closer to Him than ever before and refuse to be less than who has called me to be but desire to continue on no matter who or what tries to stop what He wants to do.  I hope and pray at the start of this brand new year and brand new decade to receive every good and perfect gift that He has for me and my family and nothing less.

And the book......my hearts deepest desire. ......I am believing this is the year.

I pray that this would be the year of the fulfillment of His promises and that ALL we have experienced and walked through and survived during the last decade would become the raining down that He talks about so beautifully in His word. That we would receive the former rain and the latter rain and every beautiful thing that He has stored up for those who love Him.

We have been praying for the raining down of recompense in the spiritual and in the natural. So you can imagine my heart singing when I woke up this morning, on the very first day of this new year to ....
the rain absolutely pouring outside. Only He could do that.

May you receive it all in the days and weeks and months to come sweet friends.

Happy New Beginnings...