Going Home

I had mixed emotions about leaving the hospital with Lilly Faith. I would have loved more time to spend with her one on one and to rest, and yet it is always exciting to go home and begin life with a new family member in the mix. The hospital booted me out, like it or not, after two nights. I really think mommies of more than three children should be allowed a third night. :) Wouldn't that be nice. Well, here are some pics of our preparations to go home. Here I am holding Lilly Faith right before dressing her in her going home outfit.

Here she is in her little sister onsie. I bought size newborn which fit her really well.

Here we are shortly before leaving. Just waiting to be discharged.

The children were so excited to see their new sister come home. I have heard, "Can I hold her?" over and over since returning home. I am glad they love her.

Since returning home I've been consumed with the normal newborn care many hours each day. I'm also trying hard not to overdo things too much this time around. I'm trying to get more rest than I did the last two times. Also, in any spare moment I've been preoccupied with unpacking boxes and planning out our new school year. Yes, there is never a dull moment around here. Not even in the wee hours of the morning. With a new baby we even have lots of activity going on all through the night. We are tired, but we are also feeling very blessed. It has been a huge blessing that Matt was able to take this past week off of work, and my mother has been coming out everyday to help as well. I am thankful for all the help they have given me with the children and around the house. What a blessing they have been to me.

Growing Family

Lilly Faith was born on July 8th at 10:59 a.m. She weighed 7 lb. 7 oz. and was 19" long. She has been our smallest baby.

Our family sure has grown over the past nine and a half years when we were blessed with our first baby.

Here is a picture of us with my parents and brother and sister in law.

In My Arms at Last

I have had the privilege of this kind of special moment five times now. There is nothing like holding a new baby and meeting him/her for the first time. Time stands still and joy is in the air. I got to watch Lilly Faith get comfortable with opening her eyes and adjusting to her new environment. What a miracle new life is. How privileged I am to have had this kind of moment not once, not twice, not three times, not four, but five times. Thank you, Lord, for your precious gifts to us!

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord." _Ps 127:3

It Is Time!

I wanted to do a big post on the birth of Lilly Faith, but I have been a bit preoccupied and it hasn't happened. Maybe I will just do several shorter posts. The picture below is of me at about five a.m. on July 8th. Matt and I were about to leave for the hospital for the induction. I was sooooo beyond ready to have sweet Lilly Faith. I kept praying that she would come early, but the Lord had other plans. Looking back I see His perfect timing. The birth was the easiest yet; things went really well. I give Him the praise for that.

We had a scare the night before we went in. The phone rang just as we were getting ready to go to sleep. It was the hospital asking us to call first thing in the morning, before going in, to make sure they had an available bed for me. So, I went to bed praying once again for God's perfect timing and that if it be His will our induction not be delayed. He heard our prayers; Matt called at four a.m. and the nurse said to come on. I got up at 4:15 and we left around five. This put us at the hospital at around 5:30 when the induction was immediately started. Our sweet Lilly Faith made her appearanc at 10:59 a.m. We are so thankful for the Lord's faithfulness.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." - Lamentations 3:23

A Mother's Paraphrase of James Chapter One:

I just finished reading a small booklet by Holly Elliff, a frequent guest on the Revive Our Hearts radio broadcast. She is the mother of eight children and authored this booklet called Turning the Tide Having More Children Who Follow Christ! One thing I thought was really neat was a paraphrase from James chapter one that was paraphrased for mothers.

"My sisters, when children of all ages crowd into your life, don't resent them as intruders but welcome them as friends. Realize that all of your children have come to test your faith (and your patience!) and to produce in you the quality of endurance. Let them grow up, accomplishing their purpose. Then you will be mature and complete and lacking in nothing. If, however, during the years you invest in them, you find that you lack wisdom in any moment, you have only to ask God, who is the source of all that we need, and He will give you abundant grace for the task at hand without making you feel foolish or guilty."

What I am Looking Forward To:

If I am honest here I will have to admit that I am on the last stretch of this pregnancy and feel like I am hitting a wall. We have been through so much intense transition in our family and much hard work resettling in a new home and adjusting to life on land, etc. Nothing about the whole blessed event has been easy, and I'm finding myself really running out of stamina.

In all honesty I have been less than desirable to be around this weekend. I must be having huge hormone swings as I have felt very edgy and frustrated. I think I am getting to that point where my whole body hurts, and I'm just tired of being tired. I'm tired of being huge and so limited in what I want to accomplish. Our sweet Abbie Joy is heavy to lift at nineteen months, and she has been very demanding upon me with my back feeling the effects. I'm just worn out and really wanting to feel better.

I've found myself very frustrated that I have never gone into labor early without an induction. Every pregnancy I have thought maybe this will be the one where I go early but it has never happened. Now we did induce the last two babies a week early and plan to do that this time too. Even so I still have a little over a week and a half left. I find myself constantly having thoughts of what if my water breaks and I go early, but day after day rolls by and I am not having that thought come to any actualization. Yes, I have periodic painful contractions, but they never amount to anything except discomfort. Basically I just feel agitated with all the hard work, lack of rest, and with waiting. Well, I guess the Lord is trying to teach me patience and endurance. I think it might help me to list some of the things I am looking forward to with a new baby as it will take my mind to another place other than how uncomfortable I am. So here are some of my musings about what is to come in the near future.

• Another soft, tiny, limp little baby to hold in my arms
• The joy a new baby will bring to Daddy, Mommy, and Siblings
• Seeing Lilly Faith's first smile
• Hearing her first sounds
• The sweet smells of a clean baby after a bath
• Our new family dynamics as each new baby has always brought much change to our family
• Having four girls!
• Watching Gabriel fall in love with yet another baby sister he wants to protect
• Her clasping my finger with her little grasp
• The closeness of holding her while nursing and wearing her in the sling
• Watching the other children delight in her every new milestone
• Watching her Daddy fall in love with another baby girl
• Precious baby clothes
• Watching the children mature as they have yet another little one to help take care of
• Seeing Abbie Joy learn a new roll as big sister to Lilly Faith
• Here is a silly one, but I have a tradition of drinking grape juice over ice in the hospital. There is something refreshing about the juice on ice after all the hard work of giving birth.
• Seeing my baby rolled in and holding her during each visit during the hospital stay
• First baby pictures
• Coming home with new baby
• Seeing what she looks like
• Kissing her sweet, smooth little head
• Tiny little diapers again; you forget how TINY the newborn size are
• Watching the Lord grow us all as our whole family makes room for yet another blessing; I truly believe that each new baby helps strip layers of selfishness off of each of us. Even the children realize there is someone else who needs attention and love, and everything does not revolve around them.
• Having two nights in the hospital to get away from all the demands at home and just fall in love with this new little girl we are expecting.
• Watching her personality blossom as she moves through her first year

These are just some of the many things I look forward to. I put them in a random order as they popped into my mind. It helps to think ahead to the gift that is on the way so as not to think so much about just getting through the next several days. I may have to come back and reread this to help myself along. Thanks for sharing in my ponderings, and I would appreciate prayers for us as we approach this very BLESSED occasion. I truly believe that children are a BLESSING from the Lord. I am eternally grateful for the five blessings the Lord has given us.

Gratefully,

Ruth

Life in our new home

Here are a few pics from our new home. There are several peacocks that roam our street. They visit us everyday. Abbie Joy has a limited vocabulary, but one of her words is now, "peacock."

This peacock is sitting on the balcony off of our homeschool room.

There is no shortage of messes already being made with a nineteen month old in the house.

Here is our cat. The children named her LUV. She really is very sweet. A cat that puts up with her tail being pulled is pretty easy going. :)

Stair Railing

The house we bought in Fulshear was built the year I was born. I guess I will never forget how old the house is. :) There are MANY projects to be done, but some HAD to be done immediately for safety reasons. The stair railing was one of those projects. The slats were spaced so far apart that Abbie Joy could go through them. Also the railing was insanely short. A HUGE safety concern. So, here are pics of the change from the old railing to the new one. Matt pretty much designed the look of the new railing. I thought he did a great job!

An Answered Prayer!

It has been a LONG time since I last blogged. A lot has happened in our family, so I have much to report. The Lord has faithfully answered our prayer to provide us with a home in the country. We have prayed for a home where we can raise our children and give them room to run and play. Matt and I have prayed long and hard about this and have searched far and wide. Our dream of having land for our children to grow up on often times seemed impossible. We basically looked for a new home for two years, and during that time the Lord shut one door after another. Some of the homes we prayed over we really felt were what we needed. It was very discouraging for us to see one door after another shut. Over the last year we lived through having our house on the market for about a year. It was a huge burden to our whole family trying to show a house, being pregnant with baby number five, trying to keep homeschooling going and be ready at any time to show the house. Many times I cried out to the Lord to deliver us from what felt like such a huge inconvenience. All the while the Lord was preparing the right home for us, but we had to be patient and continue to trust His Sovereignty even when we could not see or understand His perfect plan. Basically the searching, praying, trying to sell a house, etc. went on for about two years.

Finally the night before Easter Matt and I decided we had probably wasted the past year and that we were going to have to give up on selling our house. For one we had received NO offers on it and secondly we could not find a home on land that was big enough for our growing family. We went to bed discouraged and heart weary over the matter. Well, the next day we pulled ourselves up and dressed the kids for church. Right before the service began I reached down into my purse to turn off my cell phone. That is when I saw that an offer had come in on my email. Since church was about to begin I could not open the attachment, so we waited until after church to open and read the offer. The Lord had resurrected our hope on resurrection Sunday. Isn't that just like Him to work in meaningful ways like that? We went home that afternoon and started searching homes on the internet again. The following week we spent many hours searching and searching. As it turns out there was a house that we had previously seen and driven by, but it was out of our budget. Well, that house had been on the market for about the same amount of time as our home. The owners kept dropping the price of the home as our house sat not doing anything. The Lord was having us wait until the price of the home was within reach for us. As He would have it to be the house dropped in price again about the same time that we received an offer on our house. The Lord was completely in control of all circumstances and timing. The rest is history. We went through the contract stage and closed on our new home.

We have been in our new home several weeks and are busily trying to get things set up and functioning. We have been blown away by the help that family and friends have provided. People have helped us move, watched our children, helped with unpacking and on and on. We have really been touched by the outpouring of help that people have provided. Moving onto 3.5 acres, in a house that needed a lot of work, with things that are not functioning correctly, during the last trimester of this pregnancy............has been a huge challenge. If it were not for the gracious help that so many have given I don't know how we would have made it. We are deeply appreciative.

We have seen the hand of the Lord in a miraculous provision of more than we thought possible. We would have been happy with one acre, but the Lord has given 3.5 acres. We did not pray for a pool, but He provided a pool. The whole family is loving it! The house feels huge, the location is ideal and much more. The Lord even provided a kitty for the children that came along with the house. :) He has just taken care of us day by day. No, none of this has been easy, and we have been bone weary many times but God has been faithful! He continues to help us day by day. Our children have been gone during much of this time staying with my parents off and on just so that we can try to get on top of things.

We know that big adjustments are ahead with Lilly Faith joining our family SOON and the kids coming back home, getting back to homeschooling, etc. Things still seem overwhelming, however, when I reflect upon how far the Lord has taken us I know He will continue to lead us through all the settling in and adjustments ahead. I share this story in hopes of encouraging my readers in the fact that our Lord is in control, He can move mountains, and He always answers prayer in His time and His way. We would not have chosen any of the trials over the past two years, but it is sweet to see the faithfulness of our Lord and what He has done for us. We do not deserve His goodness, but He delights in His children and in giving good gifts. One more thing, when we were going through this whole ordeal the Lord made it crystal clear that the house situation was a mountain that only He could move. Matt and I knew that there was NOTHING within our power to change the situation. The Lord ministered to me through the song that says, "Savior He can move the mountains; my God is mighty to save." Well, He did work in a mighty way, and we are so thankful. We want to use our new home/land to raise our children in His ways and to bless others who visit us. We pray that our home will reflect His goodness and be a blessing to many people. I will post pictures in the next post. :)

I have been listening to a fabulous series on modesty at www.reviveourhearts.com

Nancy Leigh DeMoss is doing a beautiful job of conveying the truth that modesty starts first in our hearts and then overflows into the visible way that we dress. She is not just laying out a dress code but is addressing the heart attitude behind how we dress. She is challenging christian women to evaluate the message their clothing is sending to those around them. She read this the other day. It was written by an anonymous man to try to help christian women understand how important modesty is in helping our brothers to not fall into sin. It is called The Sin of Bathsheba: One Man's Appeal.

“Your brethren in Christ may be weak, and the devil does all he can do to weaken them further. They’re forced to live in a world where they are continually bombarded with sights, which are designed by the enemy of their souls to weaken their morals and destroy their purity of heart, and must Christian women help the devil to do his work? Must they make themselves a temptation to their brethren, even in the congregation of God?

“Oh that you women could understand the fierce and bitter conflict in the souls of your brethren when you arouse their desires by the careless display of your feminine beauty. Never again would you plead for your right to dress as you please.

The fact is you have no such right. You have no right to destroy by your careless dress, the brother for whom Christ died. “You were bought with a price and are not your own” (see 1 Corinthians 6:20).

You are duty bound to glorify God in your body, to clothe that body not as you will but as God wills, and a little love for the souls of your brethren would remove forever from your heart the desire to dress as you please.”

The Whole Family on Easter

To add to my last post here is a picture of our whole family including my brother and his wife and my parents. We are all standing inside the new building where my dad is the pastor of Fellowship Bible Church. My dad moved our family to Houston when I was eight and a half years old. I have watched him and my mom faithfully serve the Lord all these years. The whole time the church has either met in our home, rented rental spaces, or met in schools, etc. The Lord has blessed these many years of labor in ministry and provided for a beautiful new building. I am so happy for them!

"I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad." - Psalm 34:1-2

Easter Sunday

Here is a picture of us right before we left for church on Easter Sunday. We ended up going to my parent's church and meeting my brother and his wife there. It was a planned surprise that we all show up and surprise my parents. It was our first time to see the new church building that Fellowship Bible Church just moved into. We were so happy to see the way the Lord has blessed the church with a beautiful facility after many years of meeting in rented spaces. It was good to see family and see how the Lord is blessing and growing Fellowship Bible Church.

Strawberry Picking Time!

Who is that cute boy in the red cap? It is hard to believe, but our one and only son is seven years old now!!! How can seven years go by so fast?

We had the opportunity to take a family field trip to King's Orchard on Good Friday. The kids had a blast picking juicy, red strawberries.

It was fun to walk the long rows between the patches of strawberries.

Abbie Joy even joined in on the fun. We were supposed to wait until we purchased to eat any, but I must admit Abigail could not help herself. I did catch her take a bite out of one!

Here we are at the end of the row ready to go eat our picnic lunch. This was a really great family outing.

Laura Ingell's Wilder Heart of the Prairie

One surprise I had for Lauren's ninth birthday is that I took her on a special outing just the two of us. We went to see the AD Players put on their production of Laura Ingell's Wilder Heart of the Prairie. It was a treat to have time just with my oldest.

I think Lauren enjoyed the garden almost as much as the play. She is a girl who loves nature. We are enjoying the beautiful spring days!!!

Nine Years Old

Our sweet Lauren had a birthday earlier this month. She is nine years old now! Annagrace helped me prepare these cupcakes for her.

Lauren's Daddy crowned her as Queen of the Day!

One of Lauren's gifts was a story from Vision Forum about a girl aboard the Titanic named Nan Harper. She also received the Nan Harper dress for her doll.

This is a cute armoire from Target. Lauren can store her doll clothes and shoes inside. Such a sweet picture of Lauren and Gabriel together.

Congratulations Gabriel!

Well, I am a super duper proud Mama of my little man. Gabriel began Kung Fu lessons in January and has worked really hard making great progress the last couple of months. Last Monday he took an examination and passed all the skills evaluations for advancing to a gold belt level. He was super happy. He immediately wanted to call his Daddy and tell him about it.

Here he is being congratulated by one of his teachers. You can see the red stripe of tape on his white belt. That shows that he has passed his evaluation. When the school holds another graduation night he will be awarded his new gold belt.

Gabriel has developed a lot of physical strength and stamina through his Kung Fu lessons. It is good for him to have this outlet as something just for him. He is surrounded with sisters and all their feminine interests. Kung Fu has been good for him, and he is happy to have skills to protect his sisters should the need ever arrive. I am so happy to see him accomplish this first step. :)

A Seamstress in Training

Lauren has had a burning desire to learn to sew for some time. She loves anything she can make with her hands. She is definitely a very crafty girl. So, we recently attempted a very simple skirt, and she did a fantastic job on it. She enjoyed wearing it to Classical Conversations to show for her presentation and also for her daddy when he came home from a recent trip to Germany.

The pattern we used was a learn to sew pattern made especially for young girls. There was only one pattern piece. We just sewed up the side seams, put in a waste band, and hemmed it. Lauren picked out her own fabric. I thought she made a nice choice. The sear sucker material comes out of the dryer without even needing to be ironed.

I remember when I made my first skirt with my mother's help. It was a red calico print. I remember how proud I felt to wear it to church the next Sunday. It was special to see Lauren have the same joy in her accomplishment. Hopefully this will be one of many skirts to come from my budding seamstress. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's to you from the Adams family!

We had a Valentine's breakfast complete with blueberry heart muffins and fruit

Our daddy made the muffins for us and did a great job!

Gabriel was excited to receive a new Star Wars color book.

Miss Annagrace was given a new Miss Patty Cake video; look at her smile!

Abbie Joy is trying to be a big kid too. :) I was proud of the children for waiting patiently to open their gifts.

I have working on memorizing I Corinthians 13 this month. This chapter sets the bar high for what true, Christ like love looks like. I realize I often times do not love the way God wants me to love. I need the Lord to continue growing me to love as He loves. I think some of the most convicting parts of the passage for me are where it talks about love not being irritable and bearing all things patiently. Here is a little bit from the chapter:

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." I Corinthians 13:4

My Little Miss Patty Cake

Annagrace recently became the recipient of a very cute little dress. It is a Miss Patty Cake dress that belonged to our sweet friend Ella. This is very special as it came from a dear friend, and Annagrace adores Miss Patty Cake. She likes to put it on and run around the house saying, My Friends are Here! That is a line Miss Patty Cake uses on her video.

We put on the video so that Annagrace could enjoy the movie and dress at the same time. Even Abbie Joy got in on the action marching around the room with Annagrace.

This new dress made Annagrace's day! Thank you, Ella! You are so special to Annagrace and all of us!

Our Second Attempt at Homemade Laundry Soap!

Last year the children and I made our first attempt at homemade laundry soap. It seemed to work o.k., but I realized that I made a mistake in the recipe. I am using the Duggar family recipe which calls for Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda. Last year I used Baking Soda instead. Also, last year we used a Zote bar, and this time we tried Fels Naptha. We will see if there is much difference. I can say that the Fels Naptha is harder to grate. The kids think it is a blast grating it though. The Duggars say that the Super Washing Soda works much better than Baking Soda, so we will see how this mixture differs. Here are some pictures below.

Gabriel is holding the grated Fels Naptha soap. It looked like grated cheese.

Here my fascinated observers are checking out the soap after we melted it in four cups of hot water. I love the look of curiosity on their faces!

At this point, we filled up a five gallon bucket half way with warm water, added the melted soap, mixed in 1/2 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Super Washing Soda. Then we mixed all up and finished filling the bucket with warm water. My last step was to add in some peppermint essential oil when the mixture had cooled. It is supposed to sit overnight to thicken up.

Here you can see the ingredients we used. I will add that the Super Washing Soda is not easy to find. The only place I found it was at Kroger's. That is the whole reason I used Baking Soda last time. The Duggars say not to use Baking Soda, so I am excited to see how this recipe compares. Below is the recipe as I found it on the Duggar's web site. Now I have five gallons of laundry soap for a few dollars maybe. Think of the savings!

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda" - in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!

Homemade Burp Cloth

I love seeing all the cute crafts many bloggers post on their blogs. I do not think I have ever posted any of my own handiwork. I think that is because I never do crafty things anymore. :( I LOVED crafts when I was young with time on my hands. However, the last few years have not been the season for this sort of thing for me. Well, I'm hoping that will change a little as my oldest daughter, Lauren, is now at an age where she is showing lots of interest in homemaking skills, sewing, crafts, etc. So, recently I found a little white table at the Goodwill store and brought out the sewing machine again. I thought if it is out it will be easier to get to, and we will be more prone to try some small projects. This week I did put my hand to a very small project, and I am so happy that I actually accomplished something. :) There is a baby shower for a mommy in our church, and I decided to fancy up a burp cloth. Here is a picture of the finished product, and below you can see the supplies I used to make it. I bought the cloth at Hancock's for $1.99. It was a little square, and I feel sure there is enough left to make two more of these little cloths. I also bought some other squares of fun prints for some more baby gifts. Also, while I am at it I will have to make a few for our own new baby due in July. :)