Children are a blessing

I shared these thoughts with a friend and mentor today. She asked me if I had a blog, encouraging me to share the gifts of these insights. Admittedly, I loved being able to share my thoughts, feelings and insights, and used to do so on this blog with less reservation. Maybe sharing freely became too easy and I shared too much, opening myself up to criticism and exposing too much to the world. And then I said less, which turned into saying almost nothing at all. I want to take a stab at sharing my heart and thoughts again....

I found myself this week in a place where I had things I wanted to do, a task to be accomplished. I included my children in this task, as I do with most things I do. But due to some outside circumstances, and maybe an effort to do too much, these kids were getting tired. They were not cooperating. They were even beginning to whine about being there at all...

We were on day #2 at Grandma and Grandpa's house (guaranteed to wear them out) and we decided to go pick blueberries outside of town. My desired task was to fill every bucket that we had brought with us. But my kids were getting tired and bored. I found myself vacillating between encouraging them to hold out longer and being in total frustration with their lack of cooperation with MY desired task. And then, I had this thought...

Short of our Salvation in Christ, which is a free gift, blessings are rarely an easy gift to receive. God will bless us because he wants better for us, which will require us to change for the better, grow, generally through challenges. So yes, Children are a Blessing! God has intended that I would be blessed by how my heart is changed.

I LOVE the challenges of motherhood. I don't always LIKE the challenges in those moments, but I know that as I work through those challenges, and even make mistakes in my chosen response to those challenges, that I am changed and grown.

Summer with a bang

Once summer kicked off, it has not slowed down, almost as if it was the start of a sprinting race...

On your mark...

Get set...

BANG!

The first week of July marked a great time to see how the berry fields were faring this year. Last year was a pretty miserable crop. We went to Hoffman Farms in Hillsboro and came home with an almost full flat of blue berries and 1/2 flat of raspberries.

Not too bad, considering they weren't officially supposed to be open for blues for another 5 days, but they let us pick anyway. We also got to enjoy the company of my lovely friend Julie and her youngest daughter Katie. Katie's sisters were off at a camp, but it seemed fitting to embark on our "berry" favorite part of the year with these girls... Last year Julie's daughters' first outing after being adopted from Haiti was berry picking with us. I hope this means its a tradition!

Even Maggy got the hang of the pickings. She only needed to eat a few handful of green berreis to figure out that it was better to have the blues in her bucket. Not a single one of the berries we picked made it to the intended destination of the freezer, as they were all consumed by the handfuls and in milkshakes within several days.

The Fourth of July was a hot one around here... first hot 4th I remember in all of my years in Oregon. It got up over 90. We spent the first part of the weekend rearranging the kids rooms to accomidate for the twins to be in the boys room. By afternoon we were ready to kick back and enjoy the holiday with some friends.

Darin and Jennifer provided a lovely little BBQ and evening of enjoyment, which included

a kiddy pool,

this is why swim diapers are a wonderful thing

hoses,

squirt guns

fudge pops,and a night of memories!

As the sun set and darkness pulled in, we pulled out the lawn chairs and blankets to watch the sizzle, pop, screetch and boom of fireworks.



Even the twins enjoyed the show!

Latest Ultrasound

I can't believe how delinquent I have been in updating! I hope to catch up soon, but, it is summer and despite all efforts to kick my feet up and do less... which I am still managing to do... we are still going and doing alot. I hope to share some of these things with you soon.

Here are the pictures from our ultrasound on the 16th of July - 24 weeks. Everyone is doing really well. The babies are measuring the same size, 24 weeks - which apparently translates in to 1 lb 9 oz.


This is good news, as some twins tend to grow at different rates and one baby can end up stealing nutrients from the other. This week at my OB appointment my belly was measuring 31 cm, which would translate to the size of a standard 31 week singleton pregnancy.

If you would like to be praying for us and with us, please continue to pray for strength through out this pregnancy and for protection and safety for all three of us. Also, as of right now, Baby A, which would be the first to be delivered is in a breech position. If he does not turn, the hospital and doctors would not allow for me to attempt a natural delivery and we would go straight for a c-section. We are praying that the baby will flip to head down in time for delivery. Whereas there are methods for turning a breech baby prior to delivery, those methods can not be used when twins are involved. A c-section would not be the end of the world, but it isn't my desire.

You can see that the pictures and features are becoming more defined and clear. The hardest thing for our wonderful ultrasound tech, Amber, was to get profile pictures with out someone else's foot or arm swinging in the way. :-)