Yes, I know it’s been awhile.  Things are just too crazy and special to find time to blog.  The only time I get a chance to be alone is when the girls’ naps overlap, and all I wanna do at that time is relax.  Sorry.  I will continue to post, but it’s not gonna be every day– or maybe even every week.  If you want to subscribe with RSS, you’ll be able to keep track of my posts better.

Here’s my lazy way of recording memories . . .

• We went to a concert by Josh Wilson.  He is a friend from High School and has now made a name for himself in the Christian music world.  I’m so proud of him; he’s ridiculously talented and a great Christian guy.  So, do yourself a favor and check out his music.  Below is a picture of us in HS and a picture of him at the concert.

• Our family was on the second page of our city’s newspaper last Friday.  Out of the 95 pictures they took at the concert, they chose ours to be featured in the newspaper.

• Abi is potty training.  She’s gone a few days of being completely dry- but we’re having issues with the pooping.  Any tips!??

• Abi melts our hearts lately with the stuff she says about God.  Yesterday, she said, “I’m gonna get the monkey baptized. It goes like this. He goes under the water.” Then 10 minutes later, “I’m gonna lie Rachel down and get her baptized.”  She can say all the New Testament books by herself and sings tons of “adult” Christian songs by herself.

• Lydia is 4 months now and sleeps 11.5 hours at night.  Yesterday, I had to wake her up for church.  Thank you Lord for happy sleepers who fit into our scheduling plans.



• I’m gonna start making Lydia baby food in the next few weeks.

• I’ve frozen my Amish bread starter, so I’m done with that for awhile. I’m happy to say that with 5 different times of making it, I only threw away one starter.  And really, I made Jonathan do it because I can’t stand to waste food- or well, anything.  It’s a blessing . . .  and a curse.
• I’ve been doing lots of crafty things lately

• Jonathan and I are starting to read Crazy Love.  I just finished reading The Last Song, so I’m ready for a new Nicholas Sparks book to come out.  I’m also gonna start reading a Jodi Picoult book and an Ann Brashares book.  They’re on my desk right now, begging for me to pick them up, so I think I will.
  

I don’t know how to write this post.  So many thoughts going through my head and tears flowing from my eyes.  As a mother of two young girls, this story has really impacted me.

[On July 10] Preslee fell into a canal in Rigby (Idaho). About 2 miles down the canal a farmer who was working in the water saw her and immediately started CPR. His brother was with him and called 911. She was air lifted to EIRMC (Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center) and then flown down to Primary Children’s Hospital. . . Her body is healing . . . but her brain is swelling.

Please join me in prayer for this sweet 18 month old little girl.  I’m praying that she grows stronger to live a healthy life with no brain damage.  But above all, I’m praying for peace, strength, and joy for her family and for the doctors to make wise decisions and for God to show mercy and grace to this family.

I have the best daddy.  And my girls have the best daddy, too.  How is that possible when they’re two different men?  I don’t know, but it most certainly is.

I often see someone’s status update on facebook saying, “I have the most beautiful kid” or “my husband is the best.”

I used to think, “What are they trying to say: that my child is not cute, or that I don’t have a good husband.  Do they think that?”

Then, I realized that it’s so awesome that Emily S. and Ryan & Jess love their kids so much that they’re the cutest.  And it’s terrific that Jennifer and Audra, can say they have the best husbands.  It’s great that those men can be best friends to their wives; it’s awesome that there are enough men out there who love their wives and enough parents who love their children, just as my Dad and my Jonathan do.  Thank you God for this.

Sooo, all that to say that when I tell my daddy, “You’re the best daddy,” I in no way mean that Jonathan is not the best.  He is!  He is the best for my girls, and I love that.

To my daddy: As the church song goes, I love you because “you first loved me.”  And I mean the real agape love.  You have always displayed a Christ-like attitude.  It was very rare that you got upset.  You are known for your good humor, patience, gentle teaching, kind words, and knowledge.  I admire all these things, and I want to be a good parent as you were (and still are) to me.

To my husband, my baby daddy: Just as I am confident God matched us up perfectly, I also know that he made you to be the best daddy for Abigail and Lydia.  I adore seeing you play with Abigail’s baby doll house.  I love the look on your face when Lydia smiles at you.  Abi loves riding horsey on your back, reading books with you, giving you butterfly kisses, and going to get pizza with you.  You are the best Father for them.  Thank you!

To all the good daddies out there, like my brother Joshua and brother-in-law Travis and Father-in-law Rob: Thank you.  Thank you for raising your kids up in the Lord.  Thank you for helping out with the dishes and giving baths and kissing boo-boos.  Thank you for being good examples so that your kids know what to look for in a spouse.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and know that people appreciate your hard work.

Happy Father’s Day!

For over six years, Jonathan and I had one baby girl name and one baby boy name picked out.  We wanted the first names to be Bible names that had special meanings.  We didn’t want anything that was overwhelmingly common, nor did we want a name of a person who had made a bad decision that was recorded.

We had always tried to keep our baby names a secret, but since we’re not planning on more kids, today’s your lucky day.  Now, keep in mind though, if we do adopt or for some reason have a son, we will name him Josiah, regardless of if he will have cousins by this name.  You have been forewarned.

So here’s how we came up with our names . . .

Abigail: “Abigail . . . was intelligent and beautiful in appearance” (1Samuel 25:3).  She was a queen, a wife of David.  Her name means, “A Father’s Joy,” and our Abigail definitely is that!  For Abigail’s middle name, we figured since she already has Jonathan’s family name (Towell), that we could have her middle name represent my family.

Josiah:  “Josiah removed the mediums and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah. . . .  Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to tall the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him” (2 Kings 23:24-25).  Josiah means, “The Lord helps”.

During my last pregnancy, we wondered what name we could choose for a girl that was uncommon, a bible name, and had a nice ring to it.  In my daily bible reading, I came across Lydia.

Lydia: found in Acts 16 was the first Christian convert in Europe.  Her name means, “Nobel kind.”  We also wanted a middle name that would be special and knew that even through my suffering of pregnancy, we would have Joy.

Late in pregnancy, when I was told I had Cholestasis and that possible risk would be still birth, I thought about changing her middle name to Grace.  For about 2 days, I really wondered if I’d ever see the perfect gift inside of me grow up.  Very scary.

Whether our baby’s middle name is Joy or Grace, we know that God has given us both of those.  We love holding our miracle baby.  We praise God for our indescribable gifts.

Ever since I stopped nursing Abigail, Jonathan and I have had a night time routine with Abigail:

• Give bath
• Brush teeth
• Sing a few songs
• Read “Goodnight Moon”
• Pray
• Sing “Goodnight [Abi]“
• Say “I love you,” give kisses, and put her in her crib.

For the past 5 nights or so, we started having her “repeat” a prayer, which is so totally cute to hear her.  Due to her MeMe’s suggestion, we recorded this video of her repeating a prayer.  Notice this sentence,” Thank you [BURP] for today.”  What a cutie.

So tonight, when I said, “Are you ready to say an Abi prayer?”  She jumped right in and said (not repeating) . . .

Dear God  [Jonathan and I both looked at each other like, "WHOA"],

Thank you for Sissa (what she calls Sabra).

Thank you for Sissa.

Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for PapaBon.

Thank you for GramB.

Thank you for Pa Pa.

Jesus Name, Amen.

Jonathan and I were dumbfounded.  We didn’t know she had it in her.  It was so precious to hear her!

[I know I have tons to update on: like Halloween, Abi reading books, pregnancy, etc, and I will try to get around to those posts soon.  Maybe tomorrow while she's napping?  Stay tuned.]

Tonight, I had a fairly discouraging night at church.  Abigail was not being too pleasant: wanting to move around, talking, fussing, even starting to cry a few times.  Halfway through church, I looked to the elderly lady down the row, who I didn’t know, and gave her “the my daughter is a troublesome, cutie smile,” and the lady glared at me.  Can you say, “ouch!”

But I kept thinking, I’m not going to take her out because that’ll just teach her to act up, and she’ll get her way, and she needs to learn how to sit still in church (she does amazingly well on Sunday mornings, but for some reason, she’s not so great on Sunday nights).

So, fast forward a few minutes, and I glanced in another section where another old woman, who I know somewhat, gave me the stink eye, too, TWICE!  Is this not rude, people?!  I wanted to cry right there.

After church, Jonathan and I left without really talking to anyone, and I told him about the meanies who made me feel like a bad mother.  I talked about writing an email to our ministers, saying that they need to give a little “talk” to people who make parents of young children NOT want to go to church.  I mean, seriously, if I didn’t have strong ties to the church . . . if I were visiting or faltering in my faith, I would NOT be going back.

Anyway, then when we got home, Abigail would not eat her dinner.  Needless to say, I was not feeling very good vibes with her, rather I was feeling like a terrible parent.  Kind of in a downer mood.

So, we went on our walk, gave the bath, read the book, and said the prayers with Abigail.  After I said my prayer, Abigail said, “Aaa-nan” (for the first time).

“What?  Amen?  Did you say, ‘Amen’ Abigail?”

“Aaa-nan.  A-nan.  A-men.”

She made her Mommy smile and turned her night right-side up.  Praise God for giving us blessings from our children when we feel down.

“People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them.  When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them.  But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” — Luke 18:15-17

For those of you who are Beth Moore fans, you can watch a 30 minute “Life Today” lesson from Moore every Monday for free.  If you don’t know about Beth Moore, check out her website here.

Jonathan and I are finally sponsoring a child in Mexico.  We haven’t gotten the details back from the organization, but I’m really excited to learn who our child is.

We’re working with Christian Relief Fund, based in Amarillo, Texas.  CRF was started back in 1971, and their sponsorship programs provide food, clothes, medical care, schooling, and Bible teaching to 33 countries for only $30 a month (or $35 in Africa).

If you, too, would like to be a sponsor, you’ll receive a packet with your child’s picture, personal history, and an information sheet on his/her country.  You can send and receive letters and pictures from your sponsored child, too.

In addition to sponsoring a child, you can also sponsor a family, sponsor a school, give money for disaster relief, or contribute to other ways of service.

God’s Mighty Power

Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place? . . . Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? . . .  Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?  . . . Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail? . . . What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? . . .Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?  Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?  – Job 38:12-32

The following song “Indescribable” is by my favorite Christian artist Chris Tomlin.  It speaks of God’s awesome power with nature.

How great is our God that He sees our sinfulness and still loves us.  He wants to help turn our lives around and give us fresh starts.  Amazing.  Beautiful.  Awesome.