Dove’s Eyes

When I announced what we were going to name our daughter after we found out we were having a girl, I told you all that Rayah comes from a Hebrew word in the Bible used only in the book of Song of Songs, which is usually translated as “my love” or “my darling” and which literally means “intimate companion”.  We feel like Rayah has a special invitation from the Lord for intimacy and friendship with Himself that we are excited to teach her about!  My favorite verse where it uses this sweet term of endearment is found in Song of Songs 1:15…

“How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.” (NIV)

“Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes.” (NKJV)

Along with our desire for Rayah to experience deep intimacy with her Beloved Bridegroom, it is also our hope that she will have a deep understanding and revelation of her beauty before Him.  My prayer is that she will not have to struggle with issues of self-esteem or insecurity, but that she will be confident knowing that the very Creator of the universe says she is fair, flawless, and captivating to His heart!  In my study of this verse, I have also learned that “when a dove fixes its gaze upon its mate, it is not distracted by any activities around it.  Therefore, it is often referred to as being a ‘love bird.’” (Wade E Taylor) I pray that Rayah, too, will have this singleness of vision that has her eyes fixed upon Jesus at all times. 

Just days before Justice was born, I made him a painting, which I will perhaps share in another blog post, but when it was coming time for Rayah’s arrival, I decided to paint her this picture as an image of her name.

Rayah – 4 months

Well, it would seem that Rayah is in the beginning stages of teething, as she constantly drooling and soaking her clothes and bibs. She also enjoys munching on her fingers (her thumb being her favorite), chewing on her tongue, sucking in her top lip, and on mowing down on her clothing and blankets.  Here she is chewing on the fabric of the exersaucer, just like her older brother did.

Apparently Justice is teething too, as I’ve seen a couple of his 2-year molars poking through, so I’m hoping that was the reason he decided to take a big chomp on Rayah’s delectable-looking arm.  The poor girl wailed and the bite marks were so deep that they were still apparent the next day, when I took this picture…

Rayah has been very off-and-on with her sleeping habits and I really cannot predict what she will do from one day to the next.  She has had a few really bad nights where she seemed to be struggling with gas issues and we had to go to her several times to try and comfort her, but then she’s also had several good nights where she’ll only feed once and sleeps fine the rest of the night.  She’s also had days where she’ll nap for 2-3 hours and then days like yesterday where she has 5 catnaps that were only about 40 minutes each!  One of my problems is that when she has a really good day or a really good night, I always start to fantasize that this is the way it’s going to be from now on and I expect the same wonderful sleep the next day, so when it doesn’t turn out that way, I get all bummed out.   I just need to learn to take it one day at a time and realize that she is always changing and that nothing ever lasts forever - good or bad!

Rayah has been smiling lots and so on the verge of laughing!  I might say she’s laughing already, but it’s hard to say – she is definitely squealing and shrieking with joy and cooing and ahhing.  She can get quite chatty and loud when she’s happy!

Rayah is also really starting to grab things – she’ll grab her toys, blankets, clothing, the change mat, my hair, strings on my clothing, and she loves grabbing my sleeves when I’m trying to change her diaper.

She’s getting the hang of standing on her feet and seems to enjoy being in the exersaucer or the Jolly Jumper, which is quite nice, since Justice didn’t really like them very much at her age.

At four months, she’s still a chubby monkey and weighed in at 16 lb. 13 oz., measuring 26 inches long!  Her onesies all get too short since she has a long torso, but her arms and legs are kinda stubby – lol.  She’s got lots of rolls, as you can see in this video where she shows how she loves splashing in the tub!

It has also been so great that Rayah can take a bottle!  Joe and I have been able to go on a couple of dates without any kids and I’ve had a chance to go out with friends and have Joe take care of Rayah for me – so nice! 

Rayah also enjoyed our visit from two of my old roommates, Jen from California and Lisa from Toronto, who both came bearing gifts of adorable clothes for her!  Isn’t she beautiful??

 

Book Review: Abigail by Jill Eileen Smith

I recently had the opportunity to review the book “Abigail” by Jill Eileen Smith, which is the second book in the series “The Wives of King David”.  This book follows the Biblical story of Abigail who was married to a foolish man named Nabal and became the third wife to David after Nabal died.  It begins at the time when David was fleeing for his life from King Saul and continues until he becomes King over both Judah and Israel, uniting the conflicting tribes, meanwhile acquiring four more wives in the process. Understandably, it centers around Abigail’s struggle with sharing the man she loves.

The first thing I really appreciated about this novel was Smith’s obvious effort to accurately portray the time period and the culture of the Israelites.  I felt like I was getting a closer, more intimate look into the lives of the characters and how this story could have potentially played out.  It is often difficult for us to imagine what it may have been like to live in that day and age, but I found myself intrigued and drawn in by Smith’s description of what it was like for David and Abigail in the difficult years of running and hiding, followed by the years of success and the fulfillment of God’s promise to David that he would be king. 

Another thing I enjoyed about this book was how Smith took the limited amount of detail that the Bible provides about Abigail and used her creativity to bring her to life.  This woman who was described as having wisdom, beauty, intelligence, discernment, and a heart after God became real and relatable as the story took us into her personal struggles and weaknesses as a woman who wrestled with being one wife of many.  Similarly, David who is so easy to put on a pedastal as a picture of perfection is revealed as having his own struggles with the burden of responsibility as the leader over a divided and disgruntled people, the difficulties of balancing his roles as a husband and father, along with his desire to pursue God wholeheartedly.

Smith succeeded in capturing my attention with her intriguing storytelling, yet I did find my interest waning towards the end as I waited for her to bring resolution to the story’s conflicts.  Also, since Abigail’s primary struggle was with jealousy of the other wives, the subject of which wife would succeed in gaining access to David’s bed became an overriding theme that I probably wish didn’t have to be so dominant.  It was perhaps unavoidable, since that was reality for them, and I believe Smith was tasteful in her writing about it, but it unfortunately made for a slightly less enjoyable read for me personally.

Overall though, I found this book to be well-written, challenging, and it definitely piqued my curiosity about the other books in Smith’s series on the wives of King David.

Book is courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.  Available at your favourite bookseller.

Help Haiti Live

Several weeks have passed since Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake, yet this nation is still in desperate need of aid.  In addition to our prayers here is another opportunity for you to help Haiti with an upcoming ticketed concert event taking place at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN, on February 27th, 2010 to benefit Compassion International’s Haiti disaster relief fund. The event will also be streamed live at HelpHaitiLive.com for those who cannot attend the concert in person.

100% of on-line donations through HelpHaitiLive.com will go to Compassion International’s Haiti disaster relief fund as well as 100% of net proceeds from ticket sales!  “Help Haiti Live” is a production of Shaun Groves and  Synergy Production Group for Compassion International.  Some of the artists who will be performing include:

• Big Kenny
• Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas
• Jars of Clay
• Mat Kearney
• Brandon Heath
• Dave Barnes
• Matt Wertz

Compassion has been assisting children and families in Haiti for over 40 years and have been distributing relief to the Haitians after this disaster with water, food, cooking items, hygiene kits, medical supplies, temporary shelter, blankets and more!  Most importantly though, they have been doing it unashamedly in the name of Jesus Christ, working through local churches and ministries to show the love of God to those in need.  I would encourage you to consider how you can give and partner with Compassion in this benefit concert in order to support their relief efforts in Haiti for months to come!

Also, on a sidenote, I’d like to bring attention to a personal friend of mine, Kristi, who is going down to Haiti to provide medical care to those suffering in Haiti – please check out her blog and consider supporting her financially in this outreach – thanks!

Justice – 23 months!

Well, I can hardly believe that my little boy is almost 2 years old!!!  He is not a baby any more and is quite the handsome young man!  Here he is sporting his first buzzcut.

One story that is worth sharing is the day in December when he accidentally knocked a WillowTree figurine off the windowsill in our bedroom onto my head, where I was laying in bed.  The pain was excruciating and I had two separate injuries – in one place it swelled up in a nice bump which later went down to reveal a dent in my head (which also eventually went away) and the other was a nice little wound on my forehead that bled and left a permanent scar!  Ah, the battlescars of motherhood!

Justice has come to love movies and asks to watch one almost daily.  He mostly just watches a lot of Baby Einstein and one Baby Faith DVD that’s about how “God Made Music”.  We are continually amazed at how much he absorbs and learns from these movies – he knows so many words, animals, shapes, etc. and it’s really cute observing him watch and talk along with them.  I especially love it when he’s watching the Baby Faith movie and says things like “Lord”, “God”, “Bible”, “praise”, “singing”, “dancing”, ”music”, “wuvoo” (God loves you), “special” (God thinks you’re special), “David”, etc.  He is learning about worshiping God and how God loves him, which is so great!  He also really enjoys watching the IHOP prayer room webstream on the computer since he loves instruments and music.

There’s really no way I could even try to list all of the new words he has learned over the last couple months!  His vocabulary is growin so fast every day – I try to write down the new things he says, but I simply cannot keep up or remember all them!  But a few of my favorites are “catar” (guitar), “bwess you” (when we sneeze), “wuvoo” (love you), “ni-night Rayah” (says it to her & waves to her before his naps & every night), “scu me” (excuse me – after burping or farting), “Ford mustang” (my dad taught him that one), “see you later!”, “SHACKA BOOM!” (he’s learning to speak in tongues at a young age ), “I get you” (when he wants you to chase him), “twinkle twinkle” (little star), “big truck/tractor/jump” (everything is BIG), “backo” (basketball), “karoo” (kangaroo), “Amen!”, “cown fwakes”.  I could go on and on – literally hundreds of words and he’s getting better at stringing them together into sentences too.  It’s really lots of fun growing in our ability to communicate with him and hearing all the cute things he says!  He’s also learning his numbers and ABC’s and will say random combinations of them – his favorite numbers though are “sick” (six) and nine.

He LOVES books!!  He has quite the collection now, as he got several at Christmas time and he learns a lot of his words from these as well.  Here’s a video of him “reading” one of his favorite books.

Some funny things he has done: I had started writing an email to Joe at work & left it open on my computer – Justice came and added some typing of his own & managed to send it!  Trying to give a hug to the animals in his books.  He likes to tackle my legs from behind when I’m standing – I’m kind of scared he’s going to take me down one of these days!  Said “jump” for the picture of Jesus’ ascension into heaven from his kid’s Bible (he’s obsessed with “big jumps”).  He’s trying (rather unsuccessfully) to put on clothes by himself and can alternatively be found trying to take off Rayah’s clothes!  Here’s a cute & funny video of him playing with a new Christmas toy from Joe’s parents.

He’s learning about getting “owies” and will come to get kisses to make them better.  When he falls or hurts himself, he can now usually tell us which body part he injured.  One day, when running around wildly as he always does, he fell as he usually does dozens of times a day, but this time he fell face first into one of the couches and got a rug burn of sorts on his face – our nickname for him for a few days was “skid mark”.

This has been his first experience playing outside in the snow this winter and at first he was quite unsure of himself and rather hesitant, but it didn’t take him long before he was having lots of fun – especially when daddy made a snowman and a snow fort with him!

 

Justice had a fun Christmas and loved opening the gifts – he just wanted to keep moving on to the next one, since it was so much fun to rip the wrapping paper.  Joe felt quite proud of himself for his gift choice for our son, since it was a definite hit and Justice loves his new basketball hoop!  He basically loves all balls in general and has quite the collection that he loves to play with – tennis balls, volleyball, footballs, soccer ball, basketballs, baseball – you name it!  He loves throwing them all straight up in the air and then he sort of cringes as he waits for them to fall down, hoping they don’t land on his head!

 

Justice is being a great big brother and loves his sister.  We’re very proud of him and the great kid that he is!

Rayah – 3 months

So, Rayah turned 3 months old a couple weeks ago already, but here is the update on her exciting life thus far.

Just like her brother at this age, she is loving sucking and chewing on her fingers and fists!  She has also been drooling a lot and occassionally biting while nursing, so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping she’s not teething.  Justice got his first teeth around 4 months, which was sort of early and I’d prefer not to have that again!

Rayah is also a little chubby monkey like her brother with lots of rolls and pudginess all around. At 2 months she weighed 12 lb. 13 oz. and at 3 months she weighed in at 14 lb. 10 oz. 

Rayah experienced her first Christmas, although she was pretty oblivious to all the goings-on and Justice opened most of her gifts for her and is playing with most of them too.

 

Rayah went with us on her second trip to the United States and her first long distance car ride to Kansas City, MO for a visit to the International House of Prayer and the onething conference.

I give Rayah a bottle of formula once a week, to keep her familiar with it and she does quite well, usually drinking about 4 ounces.  It’s quite nice too, because I get a little break on Sundays to enjoy myself at Sanctuary House of Prayer.

For quite a while, Rayah was sleeping really well at night, only waking once to feed – I was in mommy bliss and was so grateful, since it was so much easier than with Justice.  She even slept through the entire night a couple times.  Then everything went sour in mid January where she all of a sudden was cluster feeding one day and having a growth spurt or something and ever since then she’s been feeding twice in the night and having tons of gas issues, waking several times during the night and needing help to work out farts.  *Sigh*  I have no idea what went wrong, as I’ve been keeping away from dairy and caffeine and haven’t made any significant diet changes.  She has also been a fantastic napper until recently, suffering more gas problems during the day as well.  I wish I knew what was the cause so I could try to do something to help her.  So, her not sleeping well means I don’t sleep well.  

In happier news, she is giving us lots of smiles that just melt my heart and is “talking” and gurgling lots too.  She loves it when we talk her language back to her and she just lights up when we look at her & smile at her.  She has also started to smile at Justice and talk to him too, which he absolutely loves! 

She has also started to grab onto the occassional toy and will stare at the toys hanging from her playmat.

Overall, it feels like she is growing up way too fast, but I’m also loving watching her progress and learn.  I can’t wait for her to start laughing soon!  She is beautiful and the treasure of our hearts.

My Favorite Cookies

So, I’ve been wanting to post this recipe for quite some time because they are my absolute favorite cookies in the world and I feel that you are all greatly deprived if you have never had them!  Unfortunately for those with peanut allergies, you will have to remain sorrowfully deprived, but I will pray for your divine healing so that you can partake of their yummy goodness!

Chocolate Peanutbutter Chip Cookies

1 cup margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
2/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut butter chips

1. Cream margarine, sugar, eggs and vanilla together.
2. Mix dry ingredients and stir into sugar mixture.
3. Stir in peanut butter chips. Shape into balls and bake at 350F for 8-10 min.

If you can refrain from eating half of the cookie dough on it’s own, this should yield around 3 dozen cookies.

Inspiration

Just in case you care to know, my new website color scheme was inspired by this beautiful quilt that a dear friend made for my daughter Rayah. Isn’t it lovely?

What I’m Reading…

So, I have a really bad habit of starting a book, but then not finishing it and moving on to another book.  I kind of like having several books on the go at the same time, but I really need to actually finish them!  I thought I would tell you all what I’m currently reading and then maybe that’ll motivate me to keep at it and perhaps write some reviews on these books to let you know what I thought of them.

Mourning for the Bridegroom – Dana Candler
I just finished this book and it was really good!  It has definitely challenged me in how much I claim to love Jesus, since one measure of a person’s love is how much they miss you when you’re gone.  So how much do I truly miss and long for Jesus in his absence from the earth?

Spiritual Authority – Watchman Nee
So far, this book is totally kicking me in the butt.  It’s all about how submitting to and honoring authority is directly connected to submitting to and honoring God, who is the Ultimate Authority and has set all authority in place.

Sacred Parenting – Gary Thomas
So far I think this book would be great for anyone considering having children, as it tells you about how God uses parenting to form and shape our character.  I’m really enjoying it and there are definitely things that are touching my heart and that I can totally identify with.

Hosting the Holy Spirit – Ché Ahn (General Editor) and 11 other authors
I’ve had this book on my shelf for years and had never even really looked at it. But when a spiritual awakening came to the International House of Prayer, I decided it would be a good idea to discover how I can personally position my heart to host a move of the Holy Spirit. 

Once I manage to finish these books, here are some more on my shelf, waiting to be read next!

1. The First Judgment – Wendy Alec
2. The Culture of the Kingdom – Billy Humphrey
3. Book of Revelation Study Guide – notes by Mike Bickle
4. Until He Comes – Billy Humphrey
5. Babylon – Peter Herder with Benji Nolot

What books are you reading or would you like to read?