Thankful and Blessed

The days are swiftly passing as we await the arrival of our new baby girl Charlotte. Although during the day it seems time has slowed down to a snails crawl, the anticipation of the labor and delivery is almost overwhelming. Malachi and I share the same excitement of holding Charlotte. I can see in his eyes that he is over the moon to be the father of two precious daughters. It is such a blessing and brings peace to my heart to know that the Lord has given me a husband who puts his family first.

This pregnancy has not only been demanding on me, but on Malachi as well. There have been days he has had to sacrifice a day’s work to be at home to take care of me and Sofia. I have heard that I am “lucky”, however I say that I am blessed. Although my husband’s employment is important and he should never take it for granted, it certainly does not take priority over taking care of his wife and children. The Lord provides for our every need, and has been faithful to my husband throughout his faithfulness to his family. The Lord truly does honor those who honor Him.

It is such a comforting thought that the Lord knows the end from the beginning. He knew that struggles we would face through this pregnancy, and gave my husband a job that would be sympathetic to our situation. I also love that my husband not once makes me feel guilty for when I need him. I do my best not to call him away from work unless there is no other option. Yesterday was such a day. My hips have been popping and aching lately. Yesterday I went upstairs to get Sofia when she woke up and as I picked her up and turned around my hip gave out and I fell…Sofia and all! It startled her to say the least, but scared me more because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get up and make my way downstairs. The pain in my left hip was horrible. I managed to carry Sofia down the stairs though. We do not have phone service at the moment, so I could not call for help had I needed it. Luckily, my husband is on MSN Live Messenger throughout the day and I can contact him that way. So I told him what had happened and that there was NO way I could take care of Sofia or even get up out of the chair without sharp shooting pain. So without missing a beat, he emailed his boss in Washington and came home soon thereafter. He walked through the door ready to help where he could. He washed sheets, diapers, and cleaned the kitchen for me. He also watched Sofia and played with her to allow me to take a short nap. Not for a moment in the day did my husband make me feel as though I had inconvenienced him in any way. He was more concerned with me and keeping me safe from falling rather than the money we lost in pay that day. I am not lucky, I am blessed.

We had an added blessing yesterday from our Pastor and his wife. They have an extra cell phone on their plan and brought it to us yesterday to use until we have our phone service restored. We are finding that NOT having a phone is NOT an option when we have a little one and I am this close to having Charlotte. So praise the Lord for our Pastor and his wife for taking such good care of us!

Today I am feeling better. I stayed on the couch the entire day yesterday. Malachi has given me strict orders to “take it easy” and not worry about the house being cleaned or clothes being washed. This as many of you ladies know, is very hard for a pregnant woman in her last weeks of pregnancy to do. The “nesting” part of this pregnancy has made me a cleaning freak! I told Malachi it was so very hard for me to just sit on the couch and do nothing. The good side to doing nothing was that I got to watch Anne of Green Gables most of the day! Again, I heard not one word of complaint from my dear husband.

I did have a chance to catch up on some blog reading. My friend Jess over at “Making Home” posted some great new blogs that I think are worth the read. Malachi and I know that we are commanded to “train up our children” and yes we do have a few Christian books on parenting. However, the BEST book of them all is God’s Word. With a second child on the way we are curious to see what her personality will be like. Each child is different and I agree with Jess that we shouldn’t be seeking some “cookie cutter’ way of training our children. Here are the links to the two posts I read today that I thoroughly enjoyed!

“Successful” Parenting –By: Jess at “Making Home”

Thoughts on Sheltering – By: Jess at “Making Home”

Also check out Mrs. Fuentes over at “A Wise Woman Builds Her Home” and her recent post of “A Mother’s Touch”.

For those of you who are expecting a baby soon, here are some great links that have been very helpful to me:

Nursing and Child Care –From “Raising Godly Tomatoes” (LOVE THIS SITE)

Meal-Planning after birth, and other questions –From Tammy over at “Tammy’s Recipes”

Non-Traditional Birthing? –From Crystal Paine over at “Biblical Womanhood”

Thank you all for the love, support, encouragement and prayers!

Serving God and My Family,
Crystal <>< (SAHM)