If You Give a Fox a Sirloin...

If you give a fox a sirloin - well maybe the fatty bits of sirloin...
she will come back and want some bacon scraps.
The bacon scraps will entice her to come back
for some baked chicken skins
which will lead to leftover pork roast
from a picky toddler the next night,
and she will know that you know
she has three little kits just down the road,
and that you're in a weakened state of pregnancy,
and cannot resist her chocolatey eyes
and expectant ears and shabby coat,
so she'll come every night for some little tidbit,
which you may or may not warm in the microwave
much to the mockery of your husband,
but you won't care
because there is a sense of companionship in motherhood
and you are friends in a small sort of way
even if she scares the bejeebers out of you at night
by jumping on the table and staring at you through the window.

Twinkie Time!

The Gospel Coalition Women's Conference '12 will take a much longer post but I simply HAD to share pictures of my adorable nephews I visited after the conference! 

I've shared about my sister and her husband Michael's paralysis through Guillian-Barre Syndrome, a trial that started over two years ago.  Progress is slow, but it is still coming.  He can breath on his own for starters (the trach was removed after about 6 months) and that improvement has continued all the way to teaching full-time, driving and changing diapers.  He is still pursuing walking but that has been the longest and steepest learning curve.  Oh, and he's going to start his second Master's degree this fall, because he's bored or something (haha).

On May 3rd, after a rough pregnancy, Marie and Michael welcomed twin boys - Joram and Simon!  Simon was in the NICU for two and a half weeks due to his heart not working properly but they are now both home and hearty little fellows.  I couldn't wait to see them and was extremely blessed to be able to fly up from Orlando after my visit with Heidi & the conference to spend two wonderful days with my Garreaus.

Isn't it almost to much preciousness???

 Here is Tobias.  He is two.  

His favorite pastime is to spell out every word he sees.

He called me "Nan-nan".

 This kid is a hoot.  Here he is watching Muzzy.  

He's bilingual: French and English.

  Joram is cuddly and outgoing.  I caught a smile!

Simon is sweet and quiet.  He is 9 minutes younger than Joram.

 Such amazing little boys!  You can see how different they look.

Joram Scott

 Simon Clark

I'm one blessed Auntie.  I can't believe my little sister has three boys!

See me holding three boys? 

This only motivated me more to build a commune in which all of my siblings and their families would live.  

I guess that will have to wait until eternity, but in the meantime we're all pursuing eternity where God has placed us :-)

And We're Having a...

We had an ultrasound on Wednesday.

Everything looks great!  Baby #3 is happy, healthy and wiggly.  

And it doesn't like ultrasound dopplers, either.  It kept kicking it.

Here's the bump!

Going with the trend, we decided to have a "gender reveal" party after church.  (If someone comes up with a better name, it might become more popular - ha!)  Since we already have one of each, this baby didn't have any pressure.  Neither Doug or I could tell from the sonogram but we had the sonogram technician write it down on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope.  I stuck it in the car's glove box and tried to forget about it - which turned out to be easier than I thought since I promptly flew to Washington for a dear friend's wedding.

Anyway, I stressed about this cake a tad because I didn't trust a baker (my sister's sister-in-law got a blue cake when the sonogram and note from them clearly said "girl").  So I decided to trust it to a friend!  To make it easy, I purchased an angel food cake along with some blueberry filling and strawberry filling.  I had my friend fill the center with either strawberries for girl or blueberries for boy and then slather the top with whipped cream, blueberries and strawberries.

So after church...

 ...we had BLUEBERRY shortcake!

 Yay!!!

Charissa is smiling down there.  She's a happy little minority.

Brandt is obviously excited although I'm not sure he quite gets it.

 Hello Baby Boy Fourtner!

 We should have known it was a boy with those big guns ;-)

I do love blueberries.

Here's the note!

We're all so excited and can't wait to meet this baby around November 10th!

God Gives Us Rainbows

It's been a while since I last posted.  I miss blogging.  The reasons I haven't come here are numerous.  They have caused me to sit down to type and words either can't come or I am so honest what I say scares me.  It's been a hard past few months.

But when God brought this to our sky this morning I knew I had to share because His love and faithfulness simply overwhelmed me.

Because I prayed for this rainbow.  This exact rainbow.  I knew it was mine right when I saw it.

We read the story of Noah's Ark three days ago during night time devotions.  Charissa sighed when she saw the picture of the rainbow saying she missed seeing rainbows.  We haven't seen one since moving here to Cooke.  I prayed silently that God would give Charissa a rainbow.  I knew it was a little thing, there are so many more important things for Him to do.  But He gave us a rainbow this morning.  Charissa was excited, but I was so full of wonder it hurt.  God answered my prayer so quickly and right in our backyard.  I stood in my pajamas on the porch watching as the colors intensified and then split into a double rainbow.  I was spellbound.

Early this winter I struggled so much with my own inadequacy for what God has called me to as a wife, mother and our ministry.  I was stretched thin, filled with depression and guilt as my arms ached for the baby I would never hold. 

But God has only wooed me through His Word, His faithfulness, His love.  Now the bird's sing outside as a new little person flutters with life in my womb.

This rainbow reminded me to keep looking up with expectation.

I just saw this link up and I knew I had to share :-)