Magdalena is 9 months

Didn't I blog about Maggie being 6 months just the other day? How has 3 months gone by already?

When you have your first child, many many people come up to you and tell you to enjoy it because it goes fast. And while I have always believed it, it's crazy to be living it. The next time Maggie goes to get professional pictures she will be one year old... but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Here is Maggie at 9 months:



What can Maggie do? Well, she is sitting up unsupported, she is nearly crawling on her hands and knees. She can go about 3-4 hand crawls, then she usually ends up moving her arm/hands and half-dragging her legs. She can pull-to-stand!! This is so neat, but it really shows that the end of her "baby days" are very near. {Trent can hardly wait!}


She can also get herself into the sitting position from the crawling position, but not every time. At about 8 months Magdalena started saying "II", which I thought sounded like "Hi!" Just a couple weeks ago she started waving when she says it, so we confirmed that she really is saying "Hi!". When we are at the store she likes to wave to people and say, "III!" It's very precious.



Magdalena continues to be a poor sleeper. She is usually waking up 1 or 2 times in the night to nurse. Thankfully she goes right back to sleep after I feed her. A couple months ago we had taken her off all food to determine whether she has a food allergy. So, we are very very slowly reintroducing food. So far, she does well with applesauce and sweet potatoes. This week we will try pears. She still cries, but not nearly as much as when we first started food.

*evidence of Maggie crying*

Maggie also has (almost) 2 teeth on the bottom. I say almost because one is fully through and the other is very nearly through.

*Teething*

Magdalena likes to crawl around and find all sorts of fuzzies, string, and other random small things that she shouldn't have, and tries to put them in her mouth before I can get them from her. (I know, I know, you're thinking 'sheesh, Emily, clean your floor!')



So, we're living life. We're loving on each other every chance we get. I adore Maggie's chubby cheeks and arms, especially since she started out just so so tiny!!

*don't you love those chunky arms?!*

I am definitely thankful that Maggie is here, and healthy, and we aren't going to endless doctor appointments full of stress and uncertainty. I'll take the waking up in the night over hellish doctor appointments any day. Though, I suppose you must have one to get the other....

And the best for last:

Can she get any cuter with that spiky hair?!

Special thanks to my mom who made Magdalena's dress and matching headband!! Love you, mom!!

Oh, and she has a 9 month check-up next week (I think), and I'll post her height & weight then!

Adoption: Sacrifice

Adoption has been on my mind quite a bit lately. I thought I'd share with you a "revelation" I had this week. . . Adoption is going to require sacrifice. Here is what I mean:

We have two different countries that we are looking at adopting from: 1. Ethiopia and 2. Honduras.

Let's start with Ethiopia. Originally, we thought this would be our only option because of our age (many countries require you to be 30 years old or older), and because we have three children. If we adopted from Ethiopia we would use Bethany Christian Services. When adopting internationally you are always required to go to the country to pick up your child. Ethiopia requires 2 trips, each 5-7 days long. So, part of the sacrifice would be leaving our three children behind for that time to go Ethiopia to bring home our fourth child. The other part of the sacrifice is that on the first trip to Ethiopia, you meet your child, then go to court to testify that you will indeed parent that child, and then you leave your child in Ethiopia until you return for the second trip to bring your child home. Can you see how a mother's heart would be torn in this situation?

How we found out about Honduras adoption was definitely a "God thing". We were having our house re-wired and our electrician "just happened" to be adopting from Honduras through a new program with Living Hope Adoption Agency. Again, for me the greatest part of the sacrifice is the trip to the country because it means leaving my three little Hess girls behind. The trip to Honduras is just one trip, but it is a minimum of two weeks up to four weeks. I think I could handle two weeks, but four weeks? That is so scary. How would we manage on so many levels (our children, our home, our bills, etc.) for that long away from home.

Sacrifice.

Dictionary.com describes it this way, "the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim."

Once again, I am realizing that I want to do things when they are easy.

Of course, there is the sacrifice of money. Somehow I am not as concerned about this. Isn't it strange how one can have such faith and confidence in one area of ones life and be utterly fearful in another?

As I thought more of this I realized that I will have to depend on someone else to take care of our children, and that is a scary thought for me. I love being home with our girls and the thought of leaving them for 2-4 weeks is awful.

Of course, Trent's concerns are different from mine. "Oh, the girls will be fine" he reassures me. But what about work? How can I leave work for 2-4 weeks? The girls are my work, BCF Group is his work.

Psalm 37:3-4 "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

I would love it if you would pray for our family in the coming months. We have decided to pray about this and consider our options until Magdalena turns 1 in August. I'm sure I'll post more about our progress before then!!

*Magdalena on the front porch while I pulled weeds.*

This morning I had the pleasure of waking up unusually early (for me) and meeting with four other women for breakfast and to share with them a little about what is on my heart.

I started by sharing a bit about lifting up our eyes which I blogged about here back in January.

Our conversation then turned to adoption and children which was so exciting and encouraging to hear these young women's thoughts on some of my favorite topics.

Since I had some thoughts already floating around about lifting up our eyes, I thought I'd go ahead and share them now.

I asked the women why do you look up, what would cause you to look up? Some of the answers were a plane, a sunset, etc. Something has to get your attention in order to make you look up. When we think of someone who is not confident or with low self-esteem we often picture them looking down. Looking up takes effort.

There is a familiar hymn that says this, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."

What strikes me in this chorus is that common theme, when our eyes are fixed upon Jesus, worldly "things" do not matter to us anymore, or as the hymn says, the "things will grow strangely dim".

Hebrews 12:1-2 says this, "Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and protector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

*Annie in typical attire. Cowboy boots and a dress.*

I am a problem-solution type of girl. I see that this is frequently my problem: My eyes are too often fixed on the things of this world, instead of on Jesus. So, what is the solution? What can we do in our lives to continually be looking to Jesus?

Well, one thing I thought of is memorizing scripture. Annie and Abbey are so good at this. Just today we were going over some verses that we had memorized and I said something wrong and Annie thought it was just hilarious that I said the wrong thing!

Okay, so we memorize Scripture to have the Word of God continually on our brain. Definitely reading the Bible everyday is helpful because you are spending that time in God's word. Of course, in dept Bible studies are awesome. TALKING about God and "spiritual" things on a regular basis, with your kids, with your spouse with your neighbors, with everyone!! One thing that I love about living in the USA is that we have access to Christian radio. I try to have either WDAC or WJTL playing on the kitchen stereo during the day. The girls even sing the theme song to "Walk in the Word" and know that when Dr. Tony Evans comes on we should be eating lunch. =)

*Abbey enjoying a bubble bath in her swim suit*

Something else that I really like is having some "rules" to use as guardrails to keep us straight everyday. I got this idea from a woman who came to speak at my mom's group last year. Click to see her "List of Rules to Live By". I made one of these lists of rules using the same scripture Bonni uses from Romans 12. Our "Hess Rules" say: love must be sincere, Hate what is evil, Be devoted to one another, Honor one another above yourselves, Never be lacking in zeal, Be joyful in hope, Be patient in affliction, Be faithful in prayer, Share with God's people, Practice hospitality, Live in harmony.

I keep this hanging in our dining room and I glance at it several times during the day. As I read over this list I am reminded of things that I need to model for my children. Specifically "Practice Hospitality". When we first remodeled our kitchen we did so well with having people over on a regular basis, but that stopped after we had Magdalena. I know that I need to get back in to the habit of having someone different over each month.

So thanks to the Airport Diner ladies who invited me to come and share with them. I probably learned more than you. :)

*Seriously, can this girl get any cuter??*

All About Abbey

Another milestone. Abbey turned two on April 18. I realize this is belated, but that is the way things are in our house these days.



Abbey's Stats: She is 32 1/4 inches tall (5th percentile, only grew 1/4 inch in the past 6 months), and she weighs 21 pounds (5th percentile, 1 pound gained in the past 6 months).

*Don't you love those toes??*

Things Abbey loves: her sisters! She loves following Annie around and imitating everything big sister does. She likes talking to baby Maggie and as soon as Maggie wakes up from a nap Abbey will say, "I go talk to her!" and will run upstairs to climb into Magdalena's crib to talk to her. Abbey loves The Berenstain Bears (books & videos). Her favorite character is "Brother Bear" and often when we say, "Abbey, it's time to get in your seat to eat" she will say, "No, I'm Brother Bear." Her favorite animal is an owl. My grandparents (her great-Nana & Grampa) sent her the book "Owl Babies" for her birthday. I never knew it but my Grampa also really likes owls, so they gave her one of his books. It's a really cute story about three little owls. You can read about it here. Her favorite part is when the little owl says "I want my mommy!!" =)




Abbey continues to wear her glasses. We have also had to start patching her good eye for 2 hours a day in order to make her weak eye stronger. She usually does pretty well with it, but sometimes I have to offer her a jelly bean to get her to keep it on the full 2 hours.




Abbey is very definitely in the "terrible twos". Just this morning she wanted to push the doll stroller that Annie was pushing. She kept saying, "I had it first!" but I was there, and she did not have it first. She was chasing Anne down and when Anne stopped Abbey bit her arm hard enough to make a ring of teeth marks. So, I had to give her a swat and put her in her room until she could tell me why she was in there. It took 2 or 3 times of me going in before she had calmed herself down enough to tell me that she was in her room because she bit Annie. Then she apologized, Anne readily forgave her, and they moved on as if nothing happened.



My least favorite part of parenting (thus far) is potty training. I was so terrible at it with Annie, and I'm not sure of the best way to approach it. My good friend told me that she would only use underwear, never pull-ups, because it confuses them. So, I know I just have to take the plunge, and do it, and deal with the pee and poop. I just love when they are 3 - 3 1/2 years old and can go themselves.... of course, they have to get there somehow. We'll make it!



Abbey can also write the letter "A". The first time she did it was a month before she turned 2. (And I thought Anne was a genius when she did it 2 months after she turned 2). She was coloring with markers and said, "up, down, across". And sure enough, I looked and she had already written about 5 "A"s all over her paper. When I got really excited about it she quick colored them all in! What a little stinker!! But, she does them willingly now. I love that I can be at home and celebrate each little thing that my kids do. What a blessing!



We are definitely enjoying every moment with our little Abigail Frances and are looking forward to the future years of watching her grow and mature. My prayer for Abbey is that she will grow in her knowledge of the Lord and that one day she will receive Him as her Savior!



And, finally, a special "thank you" to my sister, Stacy, for taking Abbey's wonderful pictures! Gotta love those "candid" photos!!

How do you Love?

Our very rainy Spring...

I promise I haven't forgotten about blogging, but (can you believe it??) sometimes life with three little ones leaves very little time to sit down!

There have been several thoughts floating around my mind which I would love to sit down and work through and think about more.

I had one of those "woe is me" days a couple of weeks ago. I found myself thinking, "man, I'm so tired of being a Pollyanna. . . Always looking on the bright side is exhausting." And just as quickly as I thought that, a verse came to me. (Courtesy of the Holy Spirit, I'm sure.)

Galatians 6:9 (NIV) "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

2 Thessalonians 3:13 (NIV) "And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right."

As I was finishing up a week of study from Beth Moore's "Living Beyond Yourself" it *just so happened* to be on love and *just so happened* to coincide with Easter. One thing that I love about B.Moore's Bible studies is that she uses a ton of Scripture. I'd like to share some with you. Keep in mind that these verses, when using the word "love" is referring to "agape love".

From page 67 of the study guide: Agape is
~a divine capacity to love. Only God is capable of agape.
~more a response than a feeling.
~fueled by the needs rather than the desires of self or others.
~expressed through me when I surrender to the empowerment and temperament of the Holy Spirit.

1 Peter 4:8 "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."

Psalm 145:8 "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love."

John 13:34-35 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another"

Remember, this is not love of the romantic nature or love of the friendly nature, but love that humans are not capable of unless the Spirit is empowering us to love.

Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us." (emphasis mine)

1 John 3:16 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

John 17:4 "I brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do."

There are several more verses that struck a chord with me that I would share, but I can't at this time.

I wanted to end with the Scripture from John 17. Look at it again.

This passage is Jesus praying/talking with God.

It made me think about my own life. How am I bringing glory to God? What work has He given me to do? Am I completing it? How am I demonstrating love for my brothers?

It's something I'm still working through. I'd like to leave you all with a challenge to think about your own lives, ask yourselves the same questions. I would love to hear how you demonstrate love for your "brothers". One example could be preparing a meal for a person who just had a baby or is ill. I have had the pleasure of doing this several times in the past 5 years, and am looking forward to bringing a meal to a family with a new baby this week! =)

And just for fun... a couple pictures.

Abbey in boots.

My mom "Mema" and Magdalena at my sister's bridal shower.

Life Through Annie's Eyes

Two precious girls all ready for Sunday School.

In honor of Mother's Day next month, all of the young mothers at church are being asked to finish this sentence:

The most challenging part of being a mother is. . .

To me that seems like book material, not sentence material. But here is my best go at it. The most challenging part of being a mother is finding the balance between love and discipline.

**These two will never need disciplined, right??**

I find that I am often very strict with my daughters. I have high expectations for them. Sometimes I need to remember that they are only 3 and 2 years old. (Maggie doesn't really need disciplined yet!)

As I considered this thought more and more, I realized that is why grandparents enjoy their grandchildren so much. They can allow themselves to be swallowed up by the joy that young children bring and aren't burdened with the responsibility of training them up and disciplining them.

Have you heard this quote before? "If I knew grandchildren were so much fun, I'd have had them first!"

It's amusing and cute and witty at first glance. But why should parents miss out on all that fun?

I am trying very diligently to find that balance. To truly enjoy the special, simple, fun moments with my daughters. I don't want to wait until I'm a grandparent to experience that life and fun that young children bring so naturally.

**Enjoying a warmer day with a picnic on the deck**

So just for fun, I'm going to share some photos that our Annie has taken. She loves to use the camera, and actually takes some great pictures. Sure, some are blurry, and some have heads cut off, but she is a joy to watch. She will run in place and jump and do all sorts of crazy things to get her subjects to smile! I love watching how she processes life. It was fun for me to look through the pictures she has taken over the past couple of months to see what she sees.

So with out further ado, here is "Life Through Annie's Eyes".

*I love this one!*

*artsy elmo*

*dork*

*gross! she shot this at just the 'right' time.*

*pretty good, right?*

*best dad in the world*

I guess she wanted to see what it looked like up there?

*Maggie looks shocked!*

I told you, she's good!

Can you tell who Annie's favorite "subject" is? Clearly Abbey is not nearly as cooperative as Baby. Hope you enjoyed!!

Humbled through Children

Have I mentioned on here before how God uses my children to teach me?

Regardless of whether the children know it or not, they are God's messengers to me.

For the past almost 3 weeks Magdalena has been crying. A lot. A lot as in sometimes 3 hours at a time. Now, those of you who had babies who cried may or may not be sympathizing with me. Because Magdalena hasn't always been a crier. She was doing quite well sleeping through the night, going to bed at a reasonable hour, and all that jazz. I thought I had it all together. Until she started crying.

Would you believe it took almost 2 weeks of her crying before I told anyone (other than Trent, of course)? Why wouldn't I tell anyone?

P-R-I-D-E! I didn't want anyone to know that I was losing sleep at night and couldn't get my own 7-month-old child to stop crying for long stretches of time. I truly was feeling like I was not a good mother, that I was doing something wrong, that I (dare I even say it) needed help!!

Pride.

PSALM 10:4 NKJ "The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts."

I got behind in my daily Bible readings, and the crying got worse. Perhaps not worse, but at least less-easy to handle.

PROVERBS 11:2 NKJ "When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom."

So I "gave in" and told a few girlfriends, and asked for prayer. I took Maggie to the doctor to make sure she wasn't ill. I asked for more prayer. I prayed and prayed. I napped when the kids were napping. I slacked on my devotions and Bible reading and would sleep instead.

I prayed often for strength. As I was praying a couple evenings ago I was reminded of how Jonathan encouraged David and helped him to find his strength in the Lord. This started me thinking.... If I am not in the Word of God on a daily basis, how can I find my strength in Him?

So back to my Bible I went. I'm getting caught up on the days I missed. I am back in my Bible study. I am so encouraged by the Scriptures. If you ever want to read an awesome "sermon" about our flesh versus the Spirit, just read Galatians chapters 5 and 6 out loud to yourself with passion in your voice.

And Maggie slept through the night last night for the first time in weeks. Thanks to all of you who have been praying. And thanks to my little girl, who through not sleeping for a few weeks taught her Mama that she is not perfect, far from super-mom, and needs Christ more than she needs sleep or a cup of coffee.

Now I just pray that the sleeping continues and I'll be thankful that I'm not walking through the desert with a crying baby like the Israelites, or worrying about high fevers and no doctors like mothers had to do 100 years ago (and still do in many third world countries). It's all about perspective, isn't it?