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.

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!**

Where Morning Dawns

“The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” Psalm 65:8

“Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”
Psalm 90:14

For the last couple months, I have been attempting to join with the “Summer Maximize Your Mornings Challenge” (aka “Hello Mornings”) hosted by Kat at Inspired to Action, which encourages moms to get up early before their kids wake up to spend some quiet time with God in devotions and prayer for your family. Though I have been far from perfect and maybe averaged 50% (that is probably a generous estimate) in getting up early, it has still been really good for me and I intend to keep going with it and hopefully make it a regular habit. Kat has a free e-book to help moms create an effective morning routine which was really helpful, even though I haven’t yet implemented all of her suggestions (like having a morning exercise routine - baby steps, people!).

Though I am definitely not a morning person and I used to LOVE sleeping in, having kids who wake up at 6:30am or earlier has required my lifestyle to change and I have sort of been forced to become a morning person. I never would have dreamed that I would intentionally choose to get up any earlier than was absolutely necessary, but I discovered that if I didn’t get that time in the morning with God, it was extremely unlikely that I would find the time later during the day with all the demands of work, motherhood, social events, ministry, etc.

I am still figuring out what routine works best for me, as I find it’s difficult to do all the things I’d like to do in just one short hour in the morning – like read my Bible, journal, pray, listen to teaching, etc. – yet, I’ve come to really enjoy that time alone with God. I am really blessed that my husband Joe was willing to work out a little deal with me, where I get up at 6:00am on just 4 days of the week, and he takes care of the kids and feeds them breakfast, etc. until 7:00am at which point I have my breakfast and then he leaves for work at 7:15am. Then, in the evenings, he gets to have some quiet time with God from 6:45-7:45pm and I put the kids to bed. This has worked out pretty well for us and I have usually curled up on a comfy chair in our living room and Joe tries to keep the kids from pestering me too much.

But, this last weekend we made a slightly impulsive purchase that we’ve been thinking of for a while, but we unexpectedly found a good deal on a second-hand patio set at a garage sale, so yesterday and today, I went out onto our deck in the backyard, all cozy in my pajama pants and housecoat, for my morning devotions. Most mornings this summer, the sun has been up LONG before I arose, but this week, it was just rising as I came outside and the sky was blanketed in beautiful warm pink and purple hues (my iPhone picture above doesn’t come close to doing it justice). There is something that is just so good for the heart when you’re outside as the morning dawns, before the sounds of traffic and the whir of the air conditioning unit kick in and all you hear is the wind blowing in the trees, the crickets chirping and the birds singing.

Watching the sunrise, I felt like the psalmist, filled with awe at God’s wonders and I felt a kiss on my heart of His unfailing love that filled me with songs of joy. He is truly worth getting up early for!

Processing Grief

Warning: this post is me processing and therefore it may come out as random ramblings and may be rather long.

I feel like it’s been so busy and crazy for the last month and a half that I haven’t had time to sit and think and process everything that has happened. I was barely at the beginning of my journey in grieving the loss of my baby girl Ezana when we got the terrible news about Angie’s death. Now I am trying to figure out how to mourn for both of them and it’s hard. People continually ask how we’re doing and I find it so difficult to answer that question. At times, I feel steadfast in my spirit and even though my life has been shaken, I feel like I’m still standing, by the grace of Jesus and His strength carrying me.

But that doesn’t change the fact that my emotions feel all over the place. I’ve had moments of great joy and laughter, many moments of tears, several moments of fear, a few moments of bewilderment, and some moments of numbness and just feeling overwhelmed. I feel like I don’t really know what to feel or how to feel it. How do I process all the thoughts and emotions? How do I capture the things that God is speaking to me and doing in me through this season of hardship? Is it important for me to capture them or is it okay if I simply take them in, in the moment and then let them fade away into the recesses of my lacking memory?

I had actually wanted to talk to my sister-in-law Angie about what she experienced when she had a couple miscarriages of her own, but we never really ended up getting the opportunity for that conversation before she passed away. I wonder now if she has her hands full in heaven with a couple kids of her own, as well as our baby there to welcome her? In some ways, it was actually comforting to think that my baby had an Auntie in heaven with her. It doesn’t really make any sense, but for some reason I think I thought my baby needed someone to take care of her and to love her, though I know that she was being more than abundantly cared for and loved by her heavenly Father already. Just silly thoughts, but I’m sure God understands my aching mommy’s heart and that He doesn’t mind letting Angie love on her – it’s all His love anyway.

It’s still really hard to let go of my baby. Maybe I’ll share sometime soon about the picture that God showed me as I released her to Him. I think that might have only been the first of many times that I’ll need to release her though. I don’t think I’m even ready to begin thinking about the fact that I actually have to let go of all my kids and release and entrust them to God’s care. It’s hard not to think of them as being primarily my kids when they actually were and will always be God’s first. I’m sure all moms experience this pain at some time of wanting to hold onto our kids so tightly and never let them go. Perhaps this is something too that will happen many times during their lives – as they go to school for the first time, as they get their drivers, as they go on their first date, as they move out of the house, as they get married, and the list goes on. Maybe if I can practice letting go now, it’ll be a tiny bit easier at those future stages??

It’s also completely different grieving the loss of someone I never met, never held, never saw, never heard, and just barely knew as a spirit within my womb compared to someone that I had the chance to know for several years and love for who they were. On one hand, I am grieving the countless lost opportunities that I’ll never experience in this lifetime with my baby daughter and I’m feeling the ache of wanting to know what she looks like, what her voice sounds like, what her personality is, who God created her to be? On the other hand, I am grieving the loss of my sister and I know exactly what I’m missing – I remember the laugh that I won’t hear again, I know the generous heart that I’ll miss, I know the sense of humor that brought so much laughter, I recall the warm, strong hug that I won’t feel again. I’m not sure you could say one is worse or better than the other – they are both equally hard.

Yet, how blessed am I to know that they are both in the presence of God! Though my heart aches and feels the pain of their absence, I can feel the joy of knowing that they have unending joy and that they are gazing into the face of the One I love and long to be with more than any other person. In some ways, this ache is famliar. I’ve felt this pain of separation before. I’ve felt this longing for someone I’ve never seen, never touched, never heard His audible voice, never met in person, yet I know Him and I know His heart and I know what I love about Him and I know what I’m missing. That pain and that mourning for my Bridegroom is stronger than all the others.

Some might question how you could love somone so strongly who you’ve never met, but I think any mother knows that feeling – the moment that deep love is sown in your heart when you find out you’re pregnant, long before you meet your baby. Some might even try to tell you that your baby isn’t real, isn’t a person yet, but your heart and the love that’s there, knows different. And if there are those who question God’s existence and the reality of Jesus because He can’t be seen or proven by our five limited senses, let me tell you that the love and longing in my heart is more real than anything my senses could perceive. Though I’ve not seen Him, I love Him and I wait eagerly for His return – for a grand reunion that will cause all the other reunions I look forward to, to be so dim in comparison.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29

  Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9

Update on Rayah’s Teeth

For those of you who may be concerned or wondering about how Rayah is doing after her fall on Tuesday and the nasty hit to her teeth, I wanted to give you a bit of an update.

First of all, I just want to thank you again for all your prayers! Rayah has seemingly had virtually no pain and has been her usual happy self with very little complaining about her bumped teeth. She’s eating well, though she can only eat very soft food for the next little bit, and her gums appear to be healing well too. She has been whining about her mouth, but I think it’s because she’s actually teething and working on those back molars.

We had a follow-up visit with the pediatric dentist on Thursday and they took an x-ray which showed that there was no major fracture in the bone that holds her teeth in place and that the roots of her teeth are intact. You could see the adult teeth that are there, but there is no way of knowing at this point if they sustained any trauma or damage. So, the bone is back in place where it should be, which is great, but her teeth are still a little loose and not in their correct position,  jutting out a bit from the rest of her teeth.

We’ll be seeing the dentist again in a couple weeks, so we are praying and hoping for the best in the mean time. Some of the concerns about keeping the teeth in are that they could get bumped again, which would obviously not be a pleasant experience, they could possibly get infected, and if they don’t move back into line, they could cause problems with Rayah’s bite. I’ve already noticed that she’s tending to put her top teeth behind the bumped teeth instead of over top of them, so I definitely don’t want her to develop an underbite!

If you would like to pray for Rayah, please pray that her teeth with go back into their proper position, that they will become strengthened and no longer be loose, that there will be no infection, and that she will not develop any bad bite habits. Also pray for us for wisdom if we have to make a decision whether to keep them in or take them out. My struggle with it all is obviously how it will affect her eating if she doesn’t have those bottom three teeth and also just silly ol’ vanity and wanting her to have a full toothy grin.

A Toothy Accident

As if there wasn’t enough going on in our lives, we had another rather eventful day today. I was outside with the kids and Rayah and I were out on the deck and I went down onto the grass to get something. Rayah was right beside me, but it didn’t occur to me in the moment that she would want to follow me and before I knew it, she had stepped right off the edge and fell face-first down the couple steps. I quickly picked her up and she was screaming intensely, but with her clumsy nature, she has had many spills and a few bloody cuts from biting her lip or something, so I didn’t really expect it to be too bad.

As I looked in her mouth, I immediately saw that her whole mouth was a pool of blood, so I quickly whisked her inside to try and clean it out to see what the damage was. At first glance, I was horrified as it appeared that three of her teeth had been completely knocked out. I was worried that they were gone and she had possible swallowed them, but it wasn’t long before I saw that they were still there, but horribly bent down and now facing forwards instead of up!

It was rather gruesome and there was a lot of blood and I didn’t know what to do, so I immediately dialed 9-1-1 and they dispatched an ambulance, as I was at home with both kids and no vehicle. I then called friends who live nearby to come over to watch Justice and then called Joe at work to ask him to come home early. I had left Justice outside in the fenced-in backyard and was sitting in the window seat at the front of our house to watch for the ambulance as I tried to comfort Rayah, when I then noticed my son running around in my front yard with a big shovel!!  Arggg!  He had actually escaped our back yard just the other day, so we had switched the latch on the gate to try and prevent him from being able to get out – which apparently he had no trouble figuring out a way to open it!

So I quickly ushered him inside and sent him to his room and it wasn’t long before the emergency vehicles started rolling in. First there was a paramedic truck, then an ambulance and then a fire truck and then when something went wrong with the first ambulance, a second ambulance came on the scene – it was quite something! By this point, the bleeding had mostly stopped and Rayah had calmed down considerably, but when the house was rushed by some 8-10 unfamiliar men who all gathered around to stare and assess and poke and prode, she got pretty hysterical – lol. My friends arrived soon afterward and watched Justice for me and then I quickly gathered a few things in the diaper bag and Rayah and I loaded into the ambulance and headed to the Children’s Emergency. It wasn’t surprising that after all the commotion, Rayah soon passed out into a deep sleep.

At the Children’s Emergency, the doctors couldn’t do much for her and were unsuccessful in getting a hold of the on-call pediatric dentist, so after a couple attempts, I got through to our family dentist and we got an emergency appointment with them. Joe was at home with Justice, who was napping, so Rayah and I had to wait for a couple hours for Joe to come pick us up, which was a little challenging, because Rayah was surprisingly cheerful and happy and wanted to run around wreak havoc in the waiting room. When Joe finally arrived, we headed to our dentist who examined her briefly, but wasn’t comfortable performing any procedure on her, since he wasn’t as well equipped for dealing with young children. So he then referred us to a children’s dental office which was clear across town and we headed back in the direction we had just come from!

Before arriving at the children’s dental office, we had been warned by our dentist that Rayah would likely lose her three teeth and that they would extract them. To me, this was very sad news, even though I know they’re baby teeth and that she’ll get new ones in 5-6 years, I really was hoping that they would be able to save her teeth. When we saw the pediatric dentist, she told me the same thing, but after they strapped Rayah into a restraining blanket, she stuck her fingers in Rayah’s mouth and basically just pushed the bone that was holding her teeth back into place. Poor Rayah screamed her head off, but once it was over, she was soon back to her happy self. The dentist informed us that she heard a definite “clicking” noise when she pushed the bone back, which is good news, but that we will have to wait and see how the teeth do over the next few days and that there’s still a chance they will need to be extracted.

I am feeling hopeful and am praying that her teeth will be able to stay in, even though they are still rather crooked and not in line with her other teeth at this point. I was just so proud of my little girl today, who was so brave and such a trooper, considering the ordeal she went through! I am also so thankful for all the prayers that went up on her behalf and that her injuries weren’t any worse. To be honest, I’m still feeling a little on edge and a little emotionally sensitive and a little nervous about the days ahead, but I am just learning again my need to lean up on the strength of the Lord and to trust Him with all my fears.

Here is a little collage of the day’s events with pictures from the ambulance ride, our wait at the hospital, and a couple of Rayah’s sweet rearranged smile. If you want to see the really gory pictures, I won’t include them in this post for anyone with a sensitive stomach, but if you’re really curious, you can click here to check them out!

Lastly, here’s a picture of our deck step where Rayah has now left her permanent mark.

Mothering Mondays

If you are a mother, I just want to take a brief moment to share about my dear friend Rosaleen who has a beautiful blog where she details all the wonders of her life as a wife and a mother to 3 adorable children as they travel the world and experience different cultures and gorgeous scenery.  Her writing is always filled with poetry and romance as she invites you into a world of innocence, purity and simple joys.  Along with her beautiful photography, her incredible decorating skills, her amazing food creations, and homeschooling adventures, she is now taking some time to simply bless mothers by offering an opportunity to submit your name into a draw for a weekly gift.  This week she is featuring an elegant and feminine eco-friendly planner, which I am so tempted to put my name in for, but which I would probably sadly not use now that I have my iPhone. But, if you are a mother and want to join in on her Mothering Mondays for the chance to receive something simple to bless you, just for being one of the great women who gives life to a precious child, then go on over and visit her at Beatific – Finding Beauty and Blessing.

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