Tired | Isaiah 40:29-31

I am so glad that she posted the Five Minute Friday word early because I am up very late and extremely tired, though looking forward to it :) Ironically, the word we're writing about is ... TIRED.

December has crept up on me this year and no wonder. This has been a REALLY busy year. Last December, we moved into our "temporary" house (long story) just days before Christmas and having the baby. My family arrived, from out of town, just in time to open presents, eat an amazing Christmas dinner, clean up and take me to the hospital to have our baby.

We moved again just a few months after I had the baby and it has taken all of these months to settle into our new home and community while nursing baby, homeschooling, unpacking, entertaining, cooking, cleaning and working my behind off (wish it was literally) on client and personal projects. It has been a busy year and I am tired.

Not nearly as tired as before ...

Not as tired as when I moved to Florida and started all over.

Not as tired as when I was as a single mother trying to do it all alone.

Not as tired as when I was of fighting and crying over a rebellious son.

Not as tired as when I was when I worked two jobs as a mother and in school.

Not as tired as when I was pleading for special support classes for my son.

Not as tired as I was when I finally got tired of taking the bus, in the snow, with my son, and begging people to help me get my drivers license at 25.

Not as tired as I was as a new mommy on welfare trying to make ends meet.

Not as tired as when I left home as a teenager.

Not as tired as when I used to lay in bed and wonder about my mom.

Now that I think about it, I am not nearly as tired as I thought that I was ...

How could I not praise the Lord for such a difference?

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." ~ Isaiah 40:29-31 (NIV)

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child


This blog post was inspired by
Five Minute Friday: Grateful

Grateful For The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

"Grateful" is the word for this Five Minute Friday and so appropriate for the day after Thanksgiving :) I am grateful for the good, the bady and the ugly :)

I am a grateful person by nature, but I am feeling even more gratitude for all of the blessings in my life. I am grateful for my beautiful family; this includes the new family members my husband and I have acquired through marriage. It really has extended the value of "family" for all of us; especially for my baby and 12 year old. We are all now related; Moms, Dads, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Parents and Grandparents shared where they were missing before in someone's line. This is not uncommon for my husband and me as our families were extended this way during childhood, but this is a special blessing to my tween son that gets all excited when we hear from the Uncle Bob or Cousin Rachel that he did not have a few years ago. Cousin Rachel had a baby a few days after Max was born, so he has a cousin to grow up with and they live close to us. It is so endearing and I am grateful for all of their loving spirits.

I used to be a hard head ... I am grateful for God's grace and lessons.

Although my life has had SO MANY challenges, the Lord has always and continues to provide abundantly; especially in love, compassion and necessities. Difficult times have been drowned out with contentment and understanding that situations ARE how they ARE because of God's will and not mine. My spiritual walk has included knee dropping times where I used to "freak out", though have learned to embrace with a humble spirit. I am grateful to have had those experiences, too, because they have made me the woman, mother, friend, associate ... that I have grown and continue to become to others in my life. Not always easy, but times of learning and change; not to freak out and lose hope, but to pray and be grateful that my Father in heaven loves me enough to take me through and see me through to the end.

Yep ... Grateful!

P.S. On a lighter note, I am grateful that I am not Black Friday shopping today ... LOL. I've been watching the nation go crazy while I sit back and plan how to help another mom make this a successful 2011 holiday season or 2012 business year ... this is exciting to me. I am very grateful that I work from home and can do this while being there for my children.

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child


This blog post was inspired by
Five Minute Friday: Grateful

Watching Him Grow

The Five Minute Friday word of today is "Grow" and many memories come to mind ...

The most profound is when my oldest son was just a few weeks old. My step-father, mother and I had just finished dinner. My parents got up from the dinner table and headed into the living room where my son was sleeping as sweetly as the newborn baby that he was at the time. I cleared the dishes from the table and was ready to help my mother clean the kitchen, so that I could get back to my baby. My mother never made it back into the kitchen, so I ventured on out to the living room to see what she was doing.

As I walked into the room, I could see that my step-father was watching Jeopardy. I looked towards my mother and she was squashed into the corner of her huge sectional. I walked a bit forward to see that she had my newborn baby in her arms. I said "Mom, what are you doing? Don't you want to clean the kitchen?"

She looked up slowly and said "I AM WATCHING HIM GROW" ...

I was a very immature 21 at the time and really didn't understand what she meant. I thought that she was being smart with me because my mother is on the cynical / sarcastic side at times. I was REALLY upset the whole time that I was cleaning HER kitchen while she was holding MY baby ... LOL :)

5 1/2 years later, I gave birth to my second son. I had matured a bit, though the "watching him grow" experience hit home a little bit when my 2nd son was a newborn. Now that I think back, I was very selfish about the time that anyone spent holding him because I was trying to "watch him grow" as I had seen my mother doing that day. In fact, I tried to carefully watch my first and second sons growing up, but I find that I forget a lot of the stuff my 2nd son asks me about when he was a baby "what time was I born?" ... "what was my favorite baby food" ... etc.

As a single mother of two boys, it is not always easy to watch your children "grow" in the same way that a happy nuclear family or grandparent can see because there are obstacles; many that others overlook and do not understand. They can distract a watching mother at times.

Regardless, as I sit writing this Five Minute Friday blog post (where we write freely for 5 minutes based on one word), I am overwhelmed with the opposite emotions that I felt 18 years ago when my mother said, "I am watching him grow". My 3rd child is almost 11 months old and I am just a few years shy of the age that my mother was when I gave birth to my first son. As I watch this little baby grow, I am flooded with love, joy, sadness, pride, hurt ... a potpourri of emotions that I possess for all 3 of my sons and how it felt watching them grow, but that oldest son is a young man that has moved off on his own.

It is hard to remember that we do not raise our children for ourselves; we raise them for God. Our reward is that we get to "watch them grow" spiritually, emotionally, physically and then they are off on their own with God to continue to watch over them.



In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child


This blog post was inspired by
Five Minute Friday: Grow

Unexpected Love

"Unexpected" Is The Five Minute Topic This Week

As a single mother, I never would have expected that God would bless me with another child and a loving husband that would make the package complete. I laugh as I sit and remember how my sons were trying to set me up with Adam Sandler. They decided that he and I were most compatible, and that he would make the perfect Dad because of how cool he was in the movie 'Click'. Yes, they wanted me to marry Adam Sandler :) I tried to laugh that one off, but my one son was much younger at that time and was VERY serious about it. My older son was just worried that I would be alone when his brother and he moved out of the house. Little did we all know that God would step in and answer their prayers; although it was not Adam Sandler and they were pleased with the unexpected match that God made for us.

I really did not and do not mind being alone, because God has always been there for me, but it's so much nicer to have a husband that loves me. A man that thought it was important to be a father and role model to my sons. A partner in every respect. This was very unexpected ...

My Aunt would always explain that God promises a spouse (Isaiah 54), but I did not care like she did. I couldn't understand why she was so worried about it. Her marriage did not work out with my Uncle, so I kept telling her to just move on in life and be happy with being alone. Like me! One of my close friends said that I was her inspiration because she always felt hurt that her marriage did not work out and that she was a single mom. She really struggled with being alone. She said that I was a rock that she wanted to be.

That was unexpected ... I didn't realize that I had become so stone cold and had made myself not want something that I grew up dreaming about. I now realize that I had just lost faith in that one thing to the point that I did not turn to God about it at all.

In my heart, I figured that I had just messed up too much for God or had blown off the nice guys he sent my way, and this is why I was a single mother and not married again. I had totally set my mind that I was fine being a single mother. I told my older son not to worry about me; that I would be just fine if I was alone later in life. By the time I met my husband, I was all business at work and business at home. I was totally uninterested in being in a long term relationship or married (had been like that for years).

My life took such an unexpected turn ... I am glad and thank God for loving me enough to show me that I am worthy of this type of love, too :)

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child


This blog post was inspired by
Five Minute Friday: Unexpected

Remember Love Your Brother Unconditionally As God Wants You To Do | Five Minute Friday

"Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves." Romans 12:10

I have a lot of pictures of my children (as most moms do), but these are some of the most recent and favorite pictures on my computer. I love looking at them because they make me remember that my children do love one another. This is not so much of a concern between my two younger boys, but my oldest and middle son have had a "bitter-sweet" relationship through the years. It has gotten better, but I still pray that they remember to love one another unconditionally as God has instructed. It is an important change for all of us.

My oldest son will turn 18 this month. He has already graduated High School (I am so proud of him) and is transitioning out on his own (which has been his dream since he was in middle school). We've had some troubles over the past few years, but he has "shaped up" so nicely thus far with help from a program that worked with him. I have "shaped up" from the experience and hurt. Anyways, he was 5 1/2 when I had my second son, and although he was proud to be a big brother, he took it hard and started to resent having a brother. He felt as though he needed to compete for my attention (well both of them did), although he did not need to. They were such different children and still are; like oil and vinegar some would say. My second son loved the oldest son unconditionally. He used to say, "I want to be Nate". Nate would say that he wanted to be "an only child" and do things that would hurt him. Regardless, they had a lot of great times through the years and do love one another. It just took and still takes a lot of reminding.

Things are different now that Baby Max is a part of our family. He makes us remember that there is a 3rd brother that loves everyone unconditionally and that is a beautiful bond from the start. Regardless, as I look through these 4 pictures that make me remember 4 things:

Picture #1
No matter how much you fight and get jealous of one another, REMEMBER that you are brothers. I will always remember the day we took this picture because this was one of the only times that you did not give me a hard time about taking pictures and you got along. You were genuinely happy to participate in this family photo session. Your innocence and happiness shown through this day.

Picture #2

You don't look much older, but years have gone by. Remember how much fun you had together this day (hunting alligators, spending quality time together and sleep deprived because of your new baby brother). Remember that you are not just 2 brothers anymore; you are 3 brothers now (3 amigos) and that if I should meet my maker tomorrow ... remember that you will always have one another.

"Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them." ~ 1 John 2:9-11

Picture #3

Now you get to be the big brother. You get to be an example and share the unconditional love that you receive. The same love that you have tried to share with your brother over the years ... it is now yours back and it is beautiful to watch. I will try to remember that - to you - this is all of our baby and that you enjoy having a little responsibility during the process, but you need time to be the tween that you are and the teen that you will become in the next few months.

Picture #4

You cut the umbilical cord when this little brother came into this world. Although you are 17 years apart, there will always be a bond between oldest brother and baby brother; this has strengthened the bond between Jonny and you, but remember that Jonny still needs you and looks up to you. Fortunately, he no longer wants to be you and is happy being himself, but he still looks to you for the unconditional love that he gives Max and will always need from you.

I sit and remember the love, hurt, excitement, disappointment, struggles, blessings ... I remember teaching them to turn the other cheek; that God loves us unconditionally; that God wants us to love our neighbor as he loves us; you must love your brother ... As I sit and I remember that God has blessed me with 3 remarkable little boys at stages in my life where I needed to learn and remember his unconditional love. The same unconditional love that he has for us and had for us when he gave his only son, Jesus, to save us from our sins. Thank you for answering my prayers dear Lord. I now understand and will always remember.

It is really hard to sum this all up in 5 minutes, so I will end with a reminder that I can only pray that my sons will love one another unconditionally as God loves us and instructs us to do.

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." ~ John 15:12


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child


This blog post was inspired by
Five Minute Friday: Remember

Wang Yue / YueYue Has Died | China Beyond

"Beyond" for Five Minute Friday Blog Post

Beyond the refuge of my little life, is a family that is mourning the loss of their child because of negligence, lack of empathy and honor. 2 year old Wang Yue / YueYue died today. Her poor little body to weak to fight; her brain dead from the traumatic incident of being run over by 2 vehicles and left for dead by 18 people that were afraid to help the child.

Afraid to help a child .. WHY ???

Her body laid there until one compassionate old woman stepped up and did what was right for that child. My heart is so burdened and my thoughts are far beyond my daily activities as all I can think about how devastated her mother and father must feel exactly at those times that I am thinking of this situation.

I watched the video and my heart broke. I hugged my little baby and wondered why the Chinese people live in such fear that they will not help an innocent child ... a toddler ... someone's baby girl abused and left out in the street?

I cried. I prayed. I blogged.

Others cried. Others prayed. Others blogged.

God's wisdom puts me at a loss for words when I understand that this is just one example of how people - all over the world - neglect their social responsibilities - spiritual responsibilities - humanitarian responsibilities - all of the time.

The "lack of morals in modern society" that the Chinese people feel they've lost, because of fear, is not far from where the United States and other countries have been for years as well. The difference is that they were noted for their Chinese honor code where our morale fiber has never meant much to the rest of the world.

Will we all ever get beyond this shame?

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Luke 6:37 (NIV)



In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child


This blog post was inspired by
Five Minute Friday: Beyond