In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth Genesis 1:1

In my Bible study I am participating in we are focusing on prayer.  Today was praising God through prayer. Ironically, my verse today was Genesis 1:1 which I think flows perfectly with my Bible study passage Psalms 8. 
 

God is the Creator (Gen.1:1), the Master Craftsman (Proverbs 8:22-31), the Gardener (John 15:1-2), and He is worthy of praise (1 Chronicles 16:34).  Ashamedly, I fail to acknowledge this on a daily basis.  Like my friend, Paula, that is leading this Bible study, I often don't pay any attention to God's beautiful creation when I open my blinds and curtains. I don't even look outside.  And when I do I notice all the flaws and imperfections of our yardwork.   

How often it is that I take His beautiful handiwork for granted.  I just assume that it is always going to be there.  I even feel silly talking to God about His creation.   But it is beautiful and if He rejoices in it, then shouldn't I?   The green, lush trees that are gently swaying in the breeze, the colorful palette that He uses in the beautiful roses outside my window, the different shades of green in the grass, leaves and trees, the tickle on my feet from the grass, the perfect blue sky and the white puffy clouds.  I can't believe that God controls all of this and He has allowed us to enjoy all of  it.  Today, after reading the passage and devotional, I tried to remember these glorious wonders.  I tried to tell my little baby girl about them and how blessed we are to be here, breathing the air that God has given us, and to look at his artwork everyday. 

Father, forgive me for not treasuring your creation.  Forgive me for taking these beautiful plants and animals for granted.  You are so creative.  Father, give me eyes to see Your wonders and Your majesty everyday.  Thank you for trusting us with Your creation.

Psalms 8
"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.  From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and avenger.  When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man t: all flockshat you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.  You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (NIV)

Ava Elizabeth 

 5 months

 on May 5, 2013

 

Time flies!  Ava is getting so big.  This has been a month of many new discoveries.  Ava is very alert and giggles a lot!  She is a very happy baby and so laid back.  She will placate herself for an hour and sometimes more on the floor playing with her toys.  She loves her toys and she loves to grab at anything and everything.  Her babydoll, elephant, balls, stacking rings, jingling elephant and butterfly and her linking rings are her favorites right now.  She has several more toys waiting to be introduced to her.  I am sure she will find those to be great fun too!

 

 

Ava is eating rice cereal and prunes, pears, apples and applesauce and squash so far. The girl loves to eat.  We are getting the hang of eating from a spoon now.  She gets excited when I put her in the BUMBO because she instantly thinks its feeding time. She eats her prunes the messiest!

Ava is holding her own bottle now.  At first I was excited because I kind of have my hands back, but then that was soon replaced with some sadness because it also means she is growing up.  It is still cute, though. 

Ava is also rolling from both back to belly and belly to back. 

She will often roll herself around whatever room she is in.  I have quickly come to realize I am not ready for her to be mobile. 

 

We have also discovered our feet.  I have been waiting on her to notice those.  It is so cute to watch her pull and suck on those toesies! They provide instant entertainment for her and us!

 

 

The month of April we were priviledged to be able to go to a memorial service for a dear young man who passed away a year ago from cancer.  If Ava was a boy, we were going to name her after him.  While we were there, we finally met Wendy.  She is a therapy dog that daddy has told us a lot about.  He knows her from working at Levine's Children's Hospital.  Wendy spent a lot of time with Josh while he was sick.  We got to love on her and thank her for being a dog who brings such joy those precious children in the hospital. 

Some of my favorite things about Ava this month are:

~cuddling before naps and bedtime

~smiling when she sees me and getting excited when I am about to pick her up

~her sweet smile at daddy when he gets home from work

~playing with her toesies

~her giggles when her mommy is being silly

~the way she talks herself to sleep

~getting her mind set on grabbing whatever she sees

~watching her bounce in her exersaucer

~when she makes excited noises when I feed her and smacks on her food



 

Ava 4 Months old!!!!

Ava is 4 Months old!!!!

 

 

I can't believe Ava is 4 months old.  I think I say that every month...I almost say it every day.  She is growing so fast and I love watching her grow, but oh, how I wish she would slow down a little!  However, I do want her to be growing and developing like she is suppose to be.  I can really tell a difference in this picture from her 2 months picture.  She is getting bigger than her bear now...

 

Ava is such a happy, giggly baby.  She laughs and smiles throughout each day.  She smiles first thing in the morning as soon as she sees my face to get her out of the crib.  She smiles at me at night when I go to put the pacy back in her mouth when just seconds before she was fussing because she wanted her pacy.  And then she just smiles in between those times!  I know I am her mommy but I just love that smile and it warms my heart to see it...and to see it so often. 

 

She is such an active child.  She is such a squirmy wormy.  She cannot be trusted on high places anymore.  She just jiggles herself all over the place.  When she is on the floor on her back she will end up somewhere totally different than where I put her. Yesterday I went to the kitchen to get dinner together.  I left Ava on her play mat and I looked over and she had scooted herself under the table with the TV and had a wire in her mouth!  YIKES!  So she has to be watched like a hawk now and she can't even crawl! 

 

She is able to sit in an exersaucer now.  She enjoys that.  We have one she can touch the ground with and one that she can't quite touch the ground in.  She loves them both.  She finds them very entertaining.  When I am doing my Zumba she sits in one and just giggles....I think she is giggling because mommy looks ridiculous doing Zumba! 

She also likes to sit in her BUMBO.  She likes to hold her ball and chew on it. Sometimes she gets frustrated with her ball because she can't always finagle that into her mouth likes she wants.  Speaking of getting things into her mouth...she tries just about everything.  We think she is getting a tooth on the bottom....she is very drooly.  We cannot put her in the BUMBO right after she eats because it pushes all her food back up.  Yuck! 

Ava is also a talker..not sure where she gets that trait from...

Anyway, she just chitchats to herself in the car seat and she chitchats to us all the time.  She even sometimes has to talk herself to sleep by making these grunting noises...she is definitely my child!  Ha!  She has become fascinated with so many things...everything she sees now is something she wants to get her hands on.  She likes to grab things (or try to) and its really funny to watch.  I have a feeling this girl is going to be a handful!  She will certainly come by that rightly.  She also likes a certain video of herself.  If she is crying, I can put that on and she changes to all smiles...such a turkey! 

 

One of her newest favorite toys is her baby doll from our friend Mrs. Brantley and her daughter Mackenzie.  We had a scare and I thought I lost it at Olive Garden, but thank goodness it was just at Grandma's and Grandpa's.  Phew! 

Well, Ava is such a blessing.  I am so thankful I get to stay home and be with her all the time.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.  She has brought such joy to our lives and she has completely changed my perspective on life.  I cannot imagine our lives without her now.  We prayed for her for many years and we couldn't be happier! 



Contentment

Contentment...
I have struggled all my life with being content.  I always wanted more, or some other person's life.  I thought what I had wasn't good enough...that a different life would be more fulfilling..better.  I have learned now that I have been given the life that God has purposed for me to live.  I have been able to look back and thank Him for protecting me from what I thought was best for me.  Even though it is the life I am living in, I only see what is right in front of me.  God sees the whole picture...He is way up there looking far below on me.  In fact, God knew what me life would be like before I even came into existence. " For you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. "Psalms 139: 13-16
I wish I would have trusted God from the beginning.  I wish I wasn't constantly questioning Him on the different roads my life would take.  I think about Paul who was in prison.  He had been beaten, scorned, starved, etc. and he was in a cell surrounded by feces.  And yet he says, "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4: 11-13
Contentment is not a feeling, its an attitude. Contentment will not be gained when you get everything you want, it comes when you are grateful for the things you do have.   Contentment is not happiness...in fact God never promised us happiness.  He doesn't care about our happiness...He cares that we find contentment....contentment in whatever circumstance we are going through during that time. The only way to true contentment is staying in God's word.  His word speaks truth and love to us that can bring us joy and peace and...contentment.  We have to stop looking at what every one else has and being jealous of them...being jealous depletes us.  It gives us hopeless feelings. Envy destroys us physically...In Proverbs 14: 30 it says, "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." It destroys us spiritually, " For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." James 3:16  What a waste of my life I have spent wishing for different, better things and the damage it caused while I dwelled on it.  Therefore today I am choosing to be content...for there is joy in this life I am living! 

Ava is 3 Months Old!!!

 

Ava is growing up soooo fast!  I cannot believe its been 13 weeks since she entered into this world.  Time flies, but I am enjoying every minute of it with her.  Ava has brought such joy to  our lives.  I love being her mommy and hope that I am doing my best all day, every day.  She is smiling and laughing a lot.  She is a pretty happy little thing.  She likes to eat and that is usually her grumpy time, when we aren't fast enough getting the bottle to her or we stop to burp her.  She is a little bit more spitty uppy than I would have chosen for her to be.  :)

She is starting to show an interest in toys that jingle and make noise.  She likes to hold on to blankies and sometimes she would rather suck her thumb than suck on a pacifier.  I'm not sure how to feel about the thumb sucking since you can't get rid of those. 

 

 

She is also holding her head up very well when she is on her belly. 

We are really enjoying reading books.  We read 3-4 every time right before we go down for our nap or we go down for the night.  At night, I still sleep in my swaddle and lay on my back.  When we put her in the crib we say our prayers and she smiles at us the whole time.  Then she just lays in her crib for about 20 minutes and talks to herself and eventually she falls asleep.  Watching her smile during prayer time is one of my favorite things! 

Ava is 1 Month Old...already....

Ava is one month old.  I can't believe how time flies.  Everyone told me that you blink and they grow so fast...and they were all so right.  It makes me sad to see her no longer fitting in her newborn clothes.  However, I have enjoyed watching her experience new things.   She is weighing in at 10 lbs. and 6.5 oz. and she is in the 98th percentile in height.  She is just getting so big.  She is already wearing some 3 month old clothing...CRAZY!  She is a very sweet baby.  She loves to snuggle and we have lots of snuggle time at night. She is still sleeping in the pack n play next to my bed at night.  She sleeps in about 4-5 hour stretches most nights.  She smiles a lot more now.  Her smiles at me seem purposeful, like she is attempting to communicate or mimic me.  She is holding her head up very well, but she has no control on her forward head movement..  She bonks me on the head a lot.  She likes to look around and be wide awake at night and wants to give mommy and daddy cute little faces. 

We feel so blessed to have this little girl in our lives.  God is good and produces amazing things! 

Looking back on year 2012

I have done a lot of thinking the past week, ever since our daughter, Ava Elizabeth Alford, entered our lives.  2012 has had some whirlwind changes.  I feel blessed beyond measure.  I am so grateful for everything, especially because I am so undeserving. 

The best thing that has ever happened to me happened on December 5, 2012.  Her name is Ava Elizabeth.  She came into this world a week later than she was supposed to and would still be in there if she could I am sure.  She was 9lbs. 6 oz. and had to be delivered by c-section.  Doctors talked about me being induced for 2 days if it took that long.  I wasn't thrilled about the idea.  I didn't want to go through 2 days of labor and still end up having to have a c-section.  We were admitted into the hospital Wednesday evening and I started pitocin.  I had pitocin all the next day until about 4 pm and they had given me the max amount.  I was in a lot of pain because I ended up trying to do as much as I could naturally.  After many hours of pitocin, I was not dilating at all and it was time to get my little girl out.  I was sent in for a c-section.  I was terrified.  I knew it was a possibility but when I was told this really is the only option I was emotional and extremely anxious. 

They took me back and separated me from Curtis for a while.  I was not really thrilled about that because Curtis is the calm one in situations such as these.  I got a spinal tap at this point and that was the hardest part.  I was pretty difficult for the anesthesiologist.  Finally, they brought Curtis in and a sense of calm came over me.  I remember asking the nurse if the doctor had cut me and she said that the baby was almost out.  I wasn't feeling a thing.  My doctor did such an excellent job at the surgery.  Everyone in the OR was like rock stars.  Then, at 5:08, my little girl entered this world.  She was so pudgy and I instantly fell in love.  Ever since meeting her, I have had a whole new perspective on life.  If I go back to teaching, I will not be the same teacher I was before I had my own child.  I totally understand a parents desire to always protect their children.  The protective instinct kicks in instantly.  Being a mommy is the best job I will ever have.  She is the best part of me.  I am so happy to have this little girl in my life and I love her so much.  Even though I am extremely exhausted, emotional, frustrated with feeding times occassionally, I wouldn't trade one second of it. 

Thank you God for the many blessings You have bestowed on me and my family.  I am not deserving of any of it, but You have provided it for me anyway.  You have given me Your little girl to raise and it's not a job I take lightly.  Thank you for trusting me and Curtis with one of Your little angels.