Prematurity Awareness Month

November is Prematurity Awareness Month. And for the next two weeks the March of Dimes is pulling out all the stops.

So I'm going to post each and every day. They're going to be short. Basically just facts about prematurity. But I hope that it will remind each of us, at least for the next two weeks, about the fight so many babies fight every day.

If you want to see/take part in the activities March of Dimes has planned for the next two weeks, go to marchofdimes.com/fightforpreemies.

And November 17 is Prematurity Awareness Day and purple is the color of March of Dimes. So if you feel called, wear purple that day and let everyone see that you're thinking of preemies.

NASCAR & A Deep Thought

This past weekend Doug got free tickets to the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. He's been trying to convince me to go to a race for quite some time but being out in all that heat just didn't appeal to me. Well, with free tickets and the cool weather of November, how could I say no?

We did have a lot of fun so maybe I'll let Doug take me back someday.

Now on to another subject. Doug and I are reading Crazy Love with Bloom. Every week they do chapter review videos. And this week they mentioned something that blew me away. Their pastor said a couple of weeks ago that the phrase "God never gives you more than you can handle" is NOT in the Bible. The pastor said that God does put us in situations over and over again that we can't handle without Him. But each and every one of those situations forces us to turn to Him and have faith in Him. WOW... I'm just going to keep thinking about that for a little while longer.

And while I'm thinking about having faith, I'm also thinking about the faith that Stellan and his family are being forced to have right now. Stellan and his mother are going to Boston today and most likely Stellan will be having surgery on Tuesday. Please keep them in your prayers.

Random Recipes & the Death of a Monkey

My sister moved in with Doug and I the day we got married. And she's a little picky about what she eats. So for the past 3 years, I've been cooking pretty much exactly the same things week after week. Now that she's engaged, she eats at her fiance's house every night, so I decided to do a little something different.

I was given several cookbooks when we got married. So last week I went though each cookbook and picked out the recipes that I thought sounded edible. I wrote down the name of each recipe on a slip of paper and put all the slips in a big bowl.


Then we drew one out and ate this for dinner.



And it was actually pretty good! I'm learning a lot already. For example, oleo is really just margarine. And this week we're going to be having Hamburger Stew.

Now, about the monkey. When Doug and I buy dog toys, we never know which ones are going to be loved to death and which ones are going to be ignored. A few weeks ago we bought this monkey for the dogs.

It got destroyed very quickly. And Doug swore that it was my sister's dog that did the destroying. Which was believable, because she LOVES to destroy squeaky toys. So we bought a second monkey since they loved the first one so much.

And now we have photographic proof of the violence:

Levi, who has earned the nickname The Beast because of his size, is now The Destroyer as well!

Challenges of Faith

I'm sort of afraid of heights.

So this was a BIG deal for me.

My life A few of my never-broken bones were completely relying on a rope and some nylon strips to remain unbroken.

If you're not afraid of heights this little obstacle course I ventured on recently probably seems like no big deal. But for me it was a challenge.

The obstacle course consisted of three levels of various obstacles separated by little platforms. On the first two levels you got to choose which of two obstacles you wanted to tackle, one considered "easy", the other hard. The third level consisted of all of the hard obstacles from the lower two levels and you didn't get to choose, you had to complete them all.

I didn't do the third level.

But it got me thinking about faith in general and faith in God. Here's how I see it. When God created us, he tied an invisble rope to us that binds us to him until we go back Home. We can't see the string so sometimes it's hard to believe it's really there. But it IS there, and it's a really thick rope. Just like on the obstacle course, oftentimes we get to choose the "easy or hard" path. We have rest points throughout our journey. And if we DO stumble and fall, that thick rope holds us up. It protects us from broken bones.

And our faith is challenged every single day. Sometimes you feel yourself start to fall and you think the rope must not be there because you're falling so far. But in the end, the rope always catches us. And it always will.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

I just wanted to remind everyone that today is Oct. 15th, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. If you have been touched by the loss of a child, please light a candle for that little angel at 7pm. If you're lighting a candle, comment on this post so I can see who is participating.

Catch Up

Not much is going on that I really want to talk about so I'm just gonna do a little catch up post to quickly tell you about some things going on in our lives.

-Last Tuesday Doug and I got to go to a Troy football game as fans! We didn't have to work, we got to tailgate and just enjoy the game. And let me tell you, it was awesome!

-And speaking of tailgating, I made a Rainbow Cake for the event that I got from here. Mine wasn't quite as bright as that one, but I think it's because I got the generic food colors. It did taste really good though :)

-Doug and I are over halfway through our Bible and trucking right along. The devotionals for each day are usually inspiring and they're showing me how to be a better person, spouse, and Christian.

-We've also been reading Crazy Love with Bloom and this week's chapter was called Serving Leftovers to a Holy God. What I found amazing is that the author talked about this verse, which happened to be part of the Gospel that we read at church on Sunday. I'm sure there's a message in this for me but I haven't quite put my finger on it yet. The message in this verse is pretty obvious, but I feel like I'm missing part of what God is trying to tell me by putting it in my life twice in one week.

-While we were visiting my parents this weekend we went shopping and saw this. All I have to say is WHAT A DEAL!

-Then when we got home on Sunday, we had a card from Toys R Us in the mail. It was a Happy 1st Birthday card. Oct. 11 was our due date last year and I guess Toys R Us just sends these out when you register at Babies R Us. It kind of sucked :(

October 15th

October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. It's a day most people don't even know about. It's a day to remember all the babies that are not with us. Not just the ones who died from prematurity, disease, or SIDS. On Oct. 15th we'll remember every tiny heart beat.

So many times, when a baby is lost to miscarriage or stillbirth, people seem to act like that baby never existed. People who miscarry early are often told to try again in a month or two, that next time they'll get their baby. Thankfully I was never told that, because I can tell you, that no baby can be replaced. It doesn't matter if that baby only lived 2 weeks inside it's Mother's womb and then died, that baby LIVED! That baby was unique!

"...All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139: 16

Last Oct. 15 I lit the unity candle from our wedding in memory of Logan. This year, I will be lighting Logan's birthday candle in memory of him and ALL of the lost babies.

I will be praying for the all the families. If you have one of Logan's candles, please light it on Oct. 15th for as long as you can. If you don't have one, I have a few left if you want one, or you can light any candle. The most important thing I'm asking you to do is pray with me, for the families, for the mothers who aren't acknowledged because their babies died so soon.