9 Months!

9 months! Very thankful all of baby's checkups continue to go well. As of today I gained my 25 pounds and I don't intend to gain any more. ;) Baby has been measuring big, another great sign that he is doing well and not having any problems from the antibody-E. After talking over previous deliveries and covering all the options multiple times with multiple doctors, the consensus plan is to induce at 38 weeks, 6 days on January 24th. We're going to be doing things quite differently this time because of how scary David's shoulder dystocia was for everyone (even though all the doctors are in agreement that the chance of recurrence is very low). Birth plan below.

This birth plan is intended to express the preferences and desires we have for the birth of our baby. It is not intended to be a script. We realize that situations may arise such that our plan cannot and should not be followed. However, barring any extenuating circumstances, we hope you will be able to keep us informed and aware of our options. We appreciate your support.

Our top goals are:
1. A healthy mom and baby
2. Skin to skin contact immediately after birth

• Brief history of our children:
o Annie (unmedicated birth, hemorrhage)
o Jacob (adopted out of foster care)
o Sophie (unmedicated birth, no complications)
o Nora (unmedicated birth, no complications)
o David (unmedicated birth, shoulder dystocia, stillborn with anencephaly)
• Because of David’s shoulder dystocia, I am planning an epidural for this birth.
• However, an epidural comes with all the things I have wanted to avoid in the past: being confined to bed, hooked up to various tubes and machines, and not able to be in control of my labor. I appreciate your help in downplaying the necessary interventions.
• Please start my epidural at the lowest dose possible, and increase it as requested.
• I do not want to have my water broken until late in labor.
• Help me avoid an episiotomy or tear! Guidance during the pushing stage is welcome. Pushing is my least-favorite part of labor and you will probably have to convince me to do it!
• Because of our experience with David, this birth carries much joy, grief, and anxiety. Please be sensitive to our emotional needs.
• Please give our son directly to me after birth. I would like at least one hour with our baby, undisturbed, to bond and breastfeed.
• Please collect baby’s cord blood for donation to the cord blood bank.
• We do not want our baby to leave our room at all. If this becomes necessary, my husband will accompany our son at all times.
• Our baby is to be exclusively breastfed--please do not give artificial nipples of any kind.

Christmas 2018

Some Christmas highlights. The children had a marvelous Christmas, we had lots of sweet family time, and the food was especially delicious this year!

Prayer in Revelation

Here are the two mentions of prayer in Revelation: the prayers of the saints are as incense before the Lord. How beautiful, that our prayers are poured out before the Lamb on the throne.

Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Revelation 8:3-4 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.

Reading List 2018

It is an eclectic list. And yes, I included the chapter books I read aloud to the kiddos. :) I have some hefty tomes and some lighter-weight reads on my list for next year . . . we will see what I accomplish!

Reading List 2018
1. Precious and Grace, Alexander McCall Smith
2. The Ghosts of Cougar Island, Peggy Parish
3. The House of Unexpected Sisters, Alexander McCall Smith
4. The Wanderings of Odysseus, Rosemary Sutcliff
5. Ramona the Brave, Beverly Cleary
6. The Children’s Own Longfellow, Henry Longfellow
7. The Homeschool Experiment, Charity Hawkins
8. Prince Caspian, C.S. Lewis
9. Ride a Purple Pelican, Jack Prelutsky
10. Before You Wake, Erick Erickson
11. Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren
12. Dispatches from Pluto, Richard Grant
13. Death Comes as Epiphany, Sharan Newman
14. Loving Luther, Allison Pittman
15. Smart Money Smart Kids, Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze
16. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry
17. The Devil’s Door, Sharan Newman
18. Book of Greek Myths, D’Aulaire
19. The Wandering Arm, Sharan Newman
20. Tell Me About Heaven, Randy Alcorn
21. Aristotle, Brian Williams
22. Leading Little Ones to God, Marian Schoolland
23. Stories from the Amazon, Saviour Pirotta
24. Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
25. For the Glory, Duncan Hamilton
26. Sisters First, Jenna Hager and Barbara Bush
27. The Masterpiece, Francine Rivers
28. Strong as Death, Sharan Newman
29. Katharina and Martin Luther, Michelle DeRusha
30. Unseen, Sara Hagerty
31. First Human Body Encyclopedia, DK
32. Educating the Wholehearted Child, Clay and Sally Clarkson
33. In the Eyes of the Cat, Demi
34. The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
35. Cleopatra, Dianne Stanley
36. The Difficult Saint, Sharan Newman
37. Culture Care, Makoto Fujimura
38. The World of Little House, Carolyn Collins and Christina Eriksson
39. The Complete Book of Bible Stories, Jesse Hurlbut
40. To Wear the White Cloak, Sharan Newman
41. Love in a Time of Hate, Hanna Schott
42. Who Was Julius Caesar, Nico Medina
43. Cursed in the Blood, Sharan Newman
44. The Parables of Jesus, Tomie dePaola
45. Always Wondering, Aileen Fisher
46. Heresy, Sharan Newman
47. Dominic, William Steig
48. The Outcast Dove, Sharan Newman
49. The Witch in the Well, Sharan Newman
50. The Lenten Tree, Dean Lambert
51. The Read-Aloud Family, Sarah Mackenzie
52. Tell Me the Secrets, Max Lucado
53. All She Left Behind, Jane Kirkpatrick
54. The Most They Ever Had, Rick Bragg
55. 50 Women Every Christian Should Know, Michelle deRusha
56. The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah
57. Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey
58. Under Our Skin, Benjamin Watson
59. Ramona and Her Father, Beverly Cleary
60. The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, Thomas Chalmers
61. The Austen Escape, Katherine Reay
62. The Reason for God, Timothy Keller
63. Hello Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Betty MacDonald
64. Home, Marilynne Robinson
65. Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems, Donald Hall
66. Aeneas, Emily Frenkel
67. The Art of the Common Place, Wendell Berry
68. Irish Fairy Tales, Philip Smith
69. Caddie Woodlawn, Carol Ryrie Brink
70. The Big Picture Story Bible, David Helm
71. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, JRR Tolkien
72. The Best Cook in the World, Rick Bragg
73. Earth Psalms, Francine Rivers
74. Abel’s Island, William Steig
75. Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, Nabeel Qureshi
76. Waverly, Sir Walter Scott
77. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
78. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, CS Lewis
79. Destiny and Power, Jon Meacham
80. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s Magic, Betty MacDonald
81. The Book of Strange New Things, Michel Faber
82. Ramona and Her Mother, Beverly Cleary
83. Seabird, Holling C. Holling
84. A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor
85. My Fellow Soldiers, Andrew Carroll
86. The Book of Dragons, E. Nesbit
87. Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Beverly Cleary
88. Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas
89. Knock at a Star, XI Kennedy
90. Death Before Compline, Sharan Newman
91. My Father’s Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett
92. Hero of the Empire, Candice Millard
93. The Book of Cowboys, Holling C. Holling
94. The Day the World Came to Town, Jim Defede
95. Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell
96. Teaching from Rest, Sarah Mackenzie
97. The Reluctant Dragon, Kenneth Grahame
98. When the Dark Comes Dancing, Nancy Larrick
99. Joy, Abigail Santamaria
100. Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell
101. Meals from Mars, Ben Sciacca
102. The Gospel, Ray Ortlund
103. A Lion to Guard Us, Clyde Robert Bulla
104. Parenting, Paul David Tripp
105. First Science Encyclopedia, DK Publishing
106. The Green Curtain and Other Stories, Eudora Welty
107. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm, Betty MacDonald
108. Ramona Forever, Beverly Cleary
109. Twelve Things I Want My Kids to Remember Forever, Jerry Jenkins
110. Ramona’s World, Beverly Cleary
111. Raising a Modern Day Knight, Robert Lewis
112. Parenting Isn’t for Cowards, James Dobson
113. The Simplest Way to Change the World, Dustin Willis and Brandon Clements
114. God and the Transgender Debate, Andrew Walker
115. A Crazy, Holy Grace, Frederick Buechner
116. The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis
117. A Wind in the House of Islam, David Garrison
118. Medieval Tales, Mary Osborne Pope
119. Cultural Literacy, E.D. Hirsch
120. Happy Birthday, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Betty MacDonald
121. The Adventures of Robin Hood, John Burrows
122. The Temple and the Tabernacle, J. Daniel Hays
123. Henry Huggins, Beverly Cleary
124. Refresh, Shona and David Murray
125. Church of the Small Things, Melanie Shankle
126. Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy
127. Short Stories, Flannery O’Connor
128. A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson
129. The Disciplines of the Christian Life, Eric Liddell
130. The Tech-Wise Family, Andy Crouch
131. Little House in the Ozarks, Laura Ingalls Wilder
132. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodges Burnett
133. Norse Gods and Giants, D’Aulaire
134. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson
135. Hailstones and Halibut Bones, Mary O’Neill
136. New Morning Mercies, Paul David Tripp
137. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, Nancy Guthrie
138. The Advent Jesse Tree, Dean Lambert Smith
139. The Medieval World, Kingfisher
140. Cozy, Minimalist Home, Myquillyn Smith
141. Emma, Alexander McCall Smith
142. Nancy Clancy: Star of Stage and Screen, Jane O’Connor
143. The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall
144. The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse, Alexander McCall Smith
145. The Sunday Philosophy Club, Alexander McCall Smith
146. On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, Andrew Peterson
147. Henry and Beezus, Beverly Cleary
148. The Green Ember, S.D. Smith
149. Homebody, Joanna Gaines

A Christmas Blessing

This was the benediction at the Nine Lessons and Carols service this weekend. I thought it was beautiful. A blessed Christmas to you!

Now, may the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the perseverance of the Magi, the obedience of Joseph and Mary, and the peace of the Christ child be yours this Christmas. And may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you now and always. Amen.

Prayer in the Apostles' Epistles

Hebrews 13:18
18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

- a request from another author to pray for our pastors and missionaries

James 5:13-18
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.[a] 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

- prayer is necessary in all situations, from joy to grief to sickness to forgiveness
- the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective

1 Peter 4:7
7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

3 John 2
2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

Jude 20
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

- praying in the Holy Spirit is a vital part of our faith

Santa Claus 2018