Maternity Photo Shoot

Thank you so much to my lovely friend Steph who took these maternity photos for us and to my parents for hosting it in their beautiful home.

**Note: In case you were wondering, yes – I did airbrush my stomach – it is no where near that perfect in real life! **

Longing for Eden

Today I am nearly at the 38 week mark in this pregnancy and the above photo couldn’t be more true – in more ways than one.

First of all, I am longing for my baby Eden to be born and am getting increasingly impatient for his arrival! As the end draws near, there is literal  discomfort and pain in the longing as my body aches from this journey of pregnancy, mixed with hope and anticipation and joy, knowing of the reward to come!

As I talked about in a previous post about how we came to name our baby Eden, part of the reason we chose this name was because it speaks of another, greater longing for the original garden of Eden where man lived in unbroken, intimate communion with God. This is the second longing which I think we feel more intensely even as we sense that His return to the earth is drawing near. This longing is also one of aching as we feel the pain of His absence, as well as joy as we look forward to the day when we finally get to see Him face to face!

In Ecclesiastes 3:11 it says that God has put eternity in our hearts – or in other words, a longing for Eden, our original home, to be restored. I believe that this longing exists in everyone, believer or not, for we were all created this way – with the belief that there must be more to life than what we are experiencing – whether we choose to acknowledge that or not.

I read a quote recently from the book The Longing for Home by Frederick Buechner, where he writes, “What is the connection between the home we knew and the home we dream?…The first home foreshadows the final home, and the final home hallows and fulfills what was most precious in the first.“  As another writer put it on their blog, “Maybe we have lost Paradise but our hearts long for Eden. A place of wholeness. A place where creation and the created ones coincide without incident. We long for the new heaven and the new earth. Creation groans and so do we. We long for things to be put back in place. Back the way they were supposed to be.” The new heaven and earth, our final home, is the fulfillment of the original home that man had with God and it is where all things will finally be made right again.

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)

Michael Milton, in his sermon entitled Longing for Eden, writes, “Every man and woman who ever lived intuitively longs for his or her eternal home. You were made for Eden…So there is a longing. That is the eternity God has placed in your heart — to be fully restored with God and to be home with Him. However, the longing is confused by sin. We cannot get home, we cannot identify or come to terms with the longing, much less fulfill it ourselves. We must have help to fulfill it. Jesus is the fulfillment. He is our way home…The longing inside of you, fulfilled in great part by the [first] coming of Jesus and the salvation of your souls, is going to be completely fulfilled at His second coming.”

And so, as I feel the discomfort and pain of longing for my baby to finally arrive and to get to hold him in my arms, I am reminded of the greater longing for my Bridegroom and to finally see Him and be with Him in Paradise.

“Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places.  And her wilderness He will make like Eden,  And her desert like the garden of the Lord; Joy and gladness will be found in her, Thanksgiving and sound of a melody.” (Isaiah 51:3)

Even so, Lord, come! (And you too, baby Eden)

Butterfly Princess

We gave our kids their presents this morning and one of Rayah’s gifts was a butterfly fairy dress and a jewelry set to go with it, complete with shoes, crown, earrings, rings, and a wand. Her Royal Chubbiness could barely fit into the dress – lol – but that was part of what made her look so cute. I couldn’t resist posting a few pictures…

Our Advent Experience

Yesterday we finished our 24-Day Advent Experience using the eBook Truth in the Tinsel and I’m so glad we did it! Having never celebrated Advent before, it was a new experience for both me and the kids and we all loved it. Justice especially loved retrieving the daily clue, reading the scripture passage with daddy and doing the craft for that day. Each one helped solidify his knowledge and understanding of the birth of Jesus and it all culminated with the message of the Cross and how Jesus came to die for us to save us from our sins and give us the gift of eternal life.

While I don’t know exactly how much Justice and Rayah comprehend of the lessons we are teaching them, I believe that these seeds we are sowing will produce much good fruit. I eagerly look forward to the day when my kids will make their own personal decision to accept Jesus’ sacrifice for them and make him their Lord, but until then, I am simply enjoying the journey of telling them, and hopefully showing them, who Jesus is and how much He loves them.

I love seeing these seeds of truth being planting in their hearts.

I love hearing them sing songs of worship to Jesus in the wee hours of the morning.

I love watching them pour over the Bible and becoming familiar with its stories.

I love hearing Justice drum to worship music and watching Rayah dance or lift her hands.

I love listening to these early, innocent, creative and sincere prayers that they offer up to God.

I love seeing and experiencing the story of Jesus’ birth through their eyes.

This Christmas, I am just so thankful for how much we have been given and for the opportunity to share with my kids what God has so graciously and abundantly given to me. My prayer is that this Christmas, my kids will receive revelation of who Jesus is and how He feels about them and that His love will go deep into their hearts in a way that will root them and ground them in Him for the rest of their lives. My heart is full.

  
  
  
  

A Toothy Accident – Part 2

For those of you who don’t already know, my daughter Rayah had an accident back in April where she fell down a couple steps off our deck and knocked three of her bottom teeth forwards. It was gruesome and a little traumatic and we feared the worst, that she would lose all three teeth, but God performed a miracle and the teeth were saved! Many times over the last few months, my husband and I have made remarks about how beautiful her teeth look and how amazed we are at how well they healed. She has such a beautiful smile, as you can see!

Well, this last Tuesday, the kids were playing football upstairs while I was working in my office downstairs. Justice especially loves to play “tackle football” and was chasing Rayah towards the stairs. It was only a few moments when I heard the dreadful thump, thump, thump and immediate wail from Rayah as she fell down several steps (I’m not sure how many exactly). I quickly scooped her up and saw her mouth full of blood yet again and immediately noticed a gaping hole where a tooth had obviously been knocked out. All I could think was, “Not again!!”

I managed to remain calm and not panic or call 9-1-1 this time, and after I was able to clean her up and assess the damage, I could see the slit down the front of her gums where the tooth’s root had torn through and I worried that she had swallowed the tooth. Once I had given her a little baby Tylenol and her soother and she had calmed down, I went back to the bottom of the stairs and sure enough, there was her tooth – root and all. I tried to get from Justice what had happened and he denied pushing her, but eventually it came out that he had thrown the football at her while she was going down the stairs, which is why she fell.

I then called the dentist who had treated her from the last tooth incident and they told me to put the tooth in milk and to bring her in. I was skeptical that they would be able to do anything to save the tooth and once we brought her in, my suspicions were confirmed. They do not try to save baby teeth, as it can actually damage the adult tooth growing beneath it, so they simply examined her and said she was fine and that her new tooth would grow in in 3-4 years.

I am so grateful she didn’t get hurt more seriously and that she only lost one tooth but I’m still a little sad. Of course, she is still as beautiful as ever, but I’ll still miss that little tooth.

Take Courage, Young Mother

“…God takes small, imperfect things and builds them into a habitation for his glory. O, how we should take courage in our little spheres of influence! And is this not the message of Advent and Christmas?

What more appropriate word could God have said to Mary as Jesus was growing up: Take courage, young mother, you build more than you see. And so it is with every one of us. Nothing you do is a trifle if you do it in the name of God. He will shake heaven and earth to fill your labor with splendor. Take courage, you build more than you see.”

Excerpted from Take Courage: You Build More Than You See (1982) by John Piper (bold mine).

A great reminder to me today as a mom, that I am building more than I can see in the little hearts that I have influence over. I am raising up the next generation of prophets, intercessors, worshipers, and lovers of God!

Naming Baby #3

I am just over 28 weeks in my pregnancy with our third child and at my 20 week ultrasound, I greatly anticipated the possibility of finding out our baby’s gender, as we had with our first two children. However, I was sent to a different hospital this time where they have a different policy about this and they would not tell me the gender at the appointment, though they would put it in the report that they sent to my obstetrician. I was totally bummed, because I really wanted to know right then and now I’d have to wait a couple more weeks to find out!

However, I believe the Lord designed it this way, because a few days later, Joe and I went on a trip to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, and I had the opportunity to pray for our baby and listen to the Lord speak to me about him/her without any preconceived ideas about the baby based on gender. I really wanted the Lord to speak to me about our baby’s identity and possibly about their name and He was faithful to show me some things.

Now, you’ll have to forgive me, but this is going to be a slightly lengthy story of how our baby’s name came to be chosen…

As I was praying, I recalled how many times in the Bible, babies were named based upon something that the Lord was doing personally in the life of the mother or even what He was saying corporately to His people. So I began to think about what the Lord had been speaking to us and putting on our hearts and He led me to Psalm 132:1-9…

¹ LORD, remember David…
² How he swore to the LORD,
And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:
³ “Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house,
Or go up to the comfort of my bed;
⁴ I will not give sleep to my eyes
Or slumber to my eyelids,
⁵ Until I find a place for the LORD,
A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob”…
⁷ Let us go into His tabernacle;
Let us worship at His footstool.
⁸ Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your strength.
⁹ Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness,
And let Your saints shout for joy.

Something we have been longing for in this season is for a greater realization of the reality of God dwelling with us. There are multiple facets and levels to the dwelling place of God, the first being the incredible truth that God desires to dwell and abide in us (John 15:4-11; John 14:16, 23; 1 John 4:13-14; 2 Cor. 4:6-7). We are carriers of His presence through the indwelling of His Spirit – jars of clay containing the infinite treasure of Jesus within us!

Secondly, we desire for God to have a dwelling place in our city, that there would be a literal, physical place where He could come and rest and manifest His presence and receive worship and adoration from His people. We long to see a house of prayer established in our city where we could go to worship and pray at any time of the day or night. We long to have His presence in our city, to enjoy being with Him and feeling Him in a tangible way, and so that our city could be transformed by His power to save, heal and deliver the people who live here.

Thirdly, we are eagerly anticipating the day when Jesus returns to the earth and we get to see Him face to face! When He comes, He is going to purge the earth from all sin and wickedness and He is going to make all things new so that He can once again reconcile heaven and earth, that God the Father may come and make His dwelling place on the earth permanently, bringing the New Jerusalem to earth so that we can dwell with God for eternity! (Revelation 21:1-7; Revelation 22:1-5)

As I was praying, I also kept hearing the word “joy”, but didn’t know how it fit in with the idea of God’s dwelling place. But as I read these various passages I mentioned above, I began to notice a common thread of joy throughout them all. When we abide in Jesus and He abides in us, we experience the fullness of His joy in us (John 15:11), when we are in His tabernacle and in His house of prayer, we shout aloud for joy (Psalm 132:9, 16; Isaiah 56:7), and when He comes to dwell on the earth, there will never be sorrow or crying every again – only the sweet, inexpressible joy of being with our God forever (Revelation 21:4)!

My prayer for our baby became that he/she would know the joy of God dwelling in their inner man, but who would also long for the dwelling place of God here on earth, and who would experience joy in the house of prayer as a priest who ministers before Him, as one who simply loves His presence.

A couple weeks later we finally did get to find out the gender of our baby, which is “inconclusively” a BOY!! While the ultrasound technician’s confidence in their opinion leaves something to be desired, we are thrilled and our son Justice is very excited to be getting a baby brother! However, this news presented somewhat of a dilemma in the naming department. We had a name that we liked for a girl, but nothing for a boy. Joe kept trying to convince me that the name could be used for a boy as well, but I was not budging. I was stubbornly insisting that it was strictly a girl’s name and I simply could not imagine naming our son this. Finally he gave up and threw up a prayer to God to speak to me if this was the name for our baby.

The very next day after he prayed that prayer (without me knowing it), I sat down during my morning devotions and I specifically set out to talk to the Lord about this name and ask Him to show me if this was the name He had chosen for our baby. I decided to look up the meaning of the name in the Hebrew, since it comes from the Bible. The name actually means “delight” or “pleasure”, which certainly seemed to fit with what the Lord had spoken to me about the word joy.

I then began to look at all the scriptures in the Bible where this name appears, and since it is actually the name of a place, I only discovered one person in the Bible who had been given this name. It just so happens that it was a man (a point for Joe’s argument), but also a priest who served in the temple! When I went to read the scripture in context, I found myself in 2 Chronicles 29, which is the story of King Hezekiah, who ushered in a season of revival, especially regarding the restoration of the priestly service. The temple was in disrepair and ministry to the Lord had been neglected, so King Hezekiah reopened and repaired the temple and then issued a call to all of the priests to consecrate themselves and the temple and return to the Lord. His charge to them was this,

“My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense.”

Coincidentally (I think not), this verse has been a prominent one that the Lord has given to us corporately at Sanctuary House of Prayer, where we attend. We have prayed this verse countless times, asking God to raise up men and women who would love Him wholeheartedly and who would be called to stand, serve, minister and burn before Him. I was stunned when in the very next verse it lists the priest with this name – Eden. He was one of the very first to respond to the call and to consecrate himself to God and who was among those who worshiped the Lord with the instruments of King David’s tabernacle. They worshiped, played music and presented offerings to God, praising Him with gladness and calling the entire nation to return to God as well.

Wow!! I was blown away that the one person in the entire Bible who is named Eden was a priest who also longed for the dwelling place of God to be established in his nation and who desired to minister to Him there. It quickly became obvious to me that this was in fact the name that God had chosen for our child and it also confirmed all the things He had spoken to me earlier.

Not only this, but the Garden of Eden also happens to be the original dwelling place of God where He first lived and walked with mankind before sin entered the world. Eden was truly a place of delight and pleasure, where man walked with God in unhindered, unbroken, perfect communion and this is exactly what Jesus is returning to the earth to restore!

If our baby had been a girl, I may have never searched out the name so thoroughly and discovered these things! But, an added bonus is that if the ultrasound technician’s prediction is wrong, our baby will still be named Eden.

The name is continually growing on me and I am falling in love with my little boy Eden and can’t wait to meet him! Another fun little tidbit is that my initials are JRE and the first initial of my three children – Justice, Rayah, and Eden – match my initials! So, that’s just a special little gift from my Father to me.

My First Advent Calendar

I’ve never had an advent calendar before or celebrated it, besides perhaps one of those cardboard boxes with the punch out holes with chocolates inside as a kid. However, when I got the chance to review Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands, I got really excited about counting down the days to Christmas with scriptures and crafts with my kids. Amanda, the author of Truth in the Tinsel, included clues that could either be chained together or ones that could be placed in an existing advent calendar. When Amanda posted several great ideas for advent calendars, I was drawn to one that required a bit of work, but looked like fun!

I chose to make the Recycle Bin Advent Calendar, though I modified the materials slightly based on what I could find. I didn’t have any large paper bags, so when I was at my local dollar store, I managed to finagle a large box for free that was being used to hold big Christmas gift bags and I cut it up to use as my backdrop – score!

I also don’t buy magazines or get flyers, so I had nothing to cut up for creating the pockets. When my mom’s place didn’t turn out to be a good source of material, we went to the thrift store in her smaller town, which is actually a very large and busy place, and I managed to snag some old Christmas themed magazines and Christmas cards for 25 cents a piece – another score! While I was there, I also found these large rolls of paper that are actually donated by the local newspaper and they are so perfect for doing crafts with the kids – this is what I used for creating the pockets themselves.

After much cutting, folding, gluing and taping, I am very happy with the final product and can’t wait to begin using it. Each pocket contains the clues from Truth in the Tinsel, as well as some green and red gummy bears for the kids. I even managed to match a few of the pockets’ pictures to the clue for that day. We also set up the small artificial tree that we borrowed from a friend today (we’ve been afraid to have a tree past Christmases with the little ones) and we are all set to begin our advent experience!

I am praying that this will be a memorable month of learning the story of how Jesus came to the earth to save us and to show us His love. If you want to join with the many other moms and dads who are going through Truth in the Tinsel, grab Amanda’s ebook for just $4.99 and join her Facebook page, where we’ll all be encouraging each other and sharing pictures and stories along the way!

**Note: Because I think Truth in the Tinsel is so great, I decided to become an affiliate, so if you buy the eBook after clicking one of the links in this post or by clicking the button in my sidebar, I will receive a percentage from the sale. If you buy it and love it as much as I do, consider becoming an affiliate too!**

eBook Review: Truth in the Tinsel

This is probably the most excited I’ve been to do a book review on a my blog! I got the opportunity to review Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands by Amanda White from ImpressYourKids.com (a great blog, by the way!), which is a 24-day eBook that counts you and your kids down to Christmas Day with an interactive telling of the Christmas story through crafts and scriptures and ideas for talking with your kids about Jesus’ birth.

This book is designed for preschool to early elementary school kids with a scripture passage, a Christmas tree decoration craft, and a simple guide for discussing it with them for each day. There’s also some resources for creating a simple Advent Calendar with clues that go with the story you’re reading. Amanda even blogged recently about some great advent calendar ideas, if you don’t have one already, but the advent calendar is totally optional.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that I’m not a super-crafty mom and only recently have I begun to stock up on some crafty supplies. My 3 1/2 year old son just began attending the children’s program at our church a few months ago, since we’re small and only just started having a children’s program. Well, usually each class has a craft for the kids and he got bit with the craft bug and now all he wants to do is color and cut and glue things ALL THE TIME, so I know he’s going to LOVE these activities! The book has a master list of all the supplies you’ll need & I found I had the majority of them at home and will only need to buy a few things (most of which I could find at the dollar store or the local thrift store) and I was even able to borrow or get many of the items by scavenging from my mom. There are also many ways to improvise and make these crafts your own if you don’t have all the supplies at hand.

Of course, the real goal is not to make perfect Christmas tree decorations, but to engage your kids in the Christmas story in a way that causes them to love Jesus more! I really enjoyed the simple explanations that Amanda wrote in the “Talk about it together” section, as well as the ideas she provided for ways to go deeper into the story, other scriptures to read, or other fun activities to do to help your child apply the story to their own life.

Now, if the idea of doing 24 crafts in 24 days overwhelms you, don’t worry! There are also alternate schedules for ways you can incorporate certain themes or days into the month that will touch on the key ideas, characters, etc. Regardless of how you choose to use the book, it is a fantastic tool for helping you to teach your child about how Jesus came to the earth for them, about His love, and the gift of eternal life.

So, not only do I want to highly recommend this eBook to you, but I want to let you know that for TODAY ONLY (November 25th – Black Friday in the States – just a regular day for us here in Canada), Amanda is selling Truth in the Tinsel for only $2.99 (regular price $4.99)!! Let me tell you it is more than worth the price and you and your kids will love it!

I am so excited to get started on this and if you get the eBook now, you’ll still have 6 days to get your craft supplies together in time for December 1st! However, I don’t just want you to buy it – I want to invite you moms and dads out there to join the Truth in the Tinsel Challenge! If you go and “Like” Truth in the Tinsel on Facebook, we want to come together to encourage each other to give our kids these first 24 days in December by posting pictures of the crafts we’ve made, sharing tips and ideas, sharing stories of funny or touching things our kids have said, etc.

I really want my kids to understand the true meaning of Christmas and that it isn’t all about Santa Claus or getting presents. I want them to know Jesus and to have the Word of God impressed upon their hearts and I think this is a great tool to accomplish that!

I’m joining the challenge – will you come along with me??

**Note: Because I think Truth in the Tinsel is so great, I decided to become an affiliate, so if you buy the eBook after clicking one of the links in this post or by clicking the button in my sidebar, I will receive a percentage from the sale. If you buy it and love it as much as I do, consider becoming an affiliate too!**

365 Project – September & October

Again, since I sort of fell of the wagon with my picture-taking, here is my update for both the months of September and October. Admittedly, there are several pictures in this bunch not actually taken by myself (mostly by my mom), but I included them anyway, because this 365 Photography Project has been more about capturing daily memories for me than about honing my own photography skills – which should be obvious, considering the majority of them were taken with my iPhone. This fall included memorable moments such as making homemade tomato soup with my mom, a visit from Joe’s parents and sister, a trip to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, seeing the ultrasound of our baby, a weekend family gathering in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and celebrating Rayah’s 2nd birthday!

To view larger images of my photos, you can visit my 365 Project blog at echoinghim.tumblr.com.

This month, I think my favorite picture simply has to be one of the many I took in my photo shoot of my daughter Rayah, but I couldn’t possibly choose just one – I love them all! However, I do also love the one of me reading a Bible story to both my kids in bed.

Do you have a favorite?

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