10. TEN!

I am sitting here on the 10th anniversary of my first due date. I had been to see my doctor and she said we could induce the next day! Scotty and I went to eat at Demos and tried to get some sleep. By the time I arrived at the hospital the next morning I was in labor. I had a very textbook labor and delivery, which I think is quite fitting for the boy I delivered!

This boy made me a mom and we have forged our way through this parenting life with him. As the firstborn, he gets to experience most all of my mistakes firsthand. I know I am hardest on him and expect more of him than the others. And I know this isn't always fair or right. And yet he presses on with me. He has grown so much in the last year. I am so proud of the boy and yet I feel like I fail him daily.

He has taken the role of big brother to a new level, especially since his sister joined the family. Leah Beth has softened him in a way I didn't know possible. He loves his brothers. I think. Or he will one day. But he has loved his sister from day 1. He is not an affectionate kid, but is becoming one.

Sometimes Eli drives me crazy. Sometimes Eli drives his brothers crazy. Sometimes Eli drives me to my knees. Sometimes he drives me up the wall. Sometimes Eli drives his teachers crazy. He is a firstborn. He is a smart kid. He is a "rules" kid. He can be a perfectionist. He can be afraid to try new things. He likes routine. He is an internal processor. He is much like his dad. And that is a good thing!!

He is learning his own strengths and weaknesses and how to manage them. He makes me so proud. I know he will do great things in life. I am thankful that I get a front row seat to his life. I have seen him wrestle with spiritual things this year and I pray that he holds tight to God.

I am so excited for him to turn TEN. Double digits. Wow. Seems like yesterday and forever ago, all at the same time, that we met him for the first time.

Tomorrow we will celebrate ELI SWIFT!

1st Birthday

Obviously, I am not a regular blogger! However, on occasion there is something I want to "write" down and need more space than Twitter or Facebook allows. So, here goes my post for the year!

Today is a special day. One year ago today we welcomed Leah Elizabeth into our family of boys. I never posted any details of her birth, and I won't get to gory here, but she did come in dramatic fashion. I guess that is fitting for a girl!

So, on the morning of September 12, 2012, I waddled into the hospital and got nice and cozy in a hospital gown and bed. Our preference was for the experience to be as close to natural as possible. My doctor came in about 7:30 or so and broke my water. This was all it took to get labor in full swing. By 10:30 I was having very regular and very strong contractions. We had seen a few nurses come in and out and I saw my doctor again once, I think. She came in to make sure I was OK because the lady across the hall was not OK and she was going to be taking care of her. At that time I didn't think we were close to delivering a baby, so everyone went on their merry way. About 11am, a nurse came to check on me. I had progressed a little to between 6-7cm. I was a frustrated a little, thinking I would have been further along after 3.5 hours of labor. I got up to use the restroom and got back in bed. The nurse left. I think about 2.5 seconds after she walked out the contractions hit BIG TIME. And by BIG TIME, I mean it. Now, I have had 3 babies (2 naturally), and honestly, I never raised my voice once with any of them. This time was different. I was in serious pain. I told Scotty I needed him to get a nurse to come back in. He knew my doctor and original nurse were across the hall working on a lady (we had picked up it was not a good situation), so he stuck his head out the door to look for anyone walking down the hall. IT WAS EMPTY, of course. He is an amazing partner and was reminding me to breathe, and all that other good stuff he is supposed to do. However, there was no deep breathing or relaxing or anything of the sort happening. I finally asked him, ever so politely I am sure, to push the nurse call button!!!

In a matter of moments, a nurse walks in to our room. We had not even seen this nurse before, except at Jonah's birth, 7 years prior!! But we loved her then and knew we were in good hands. I explained, in no uncertain terms, that I was going to push. She realized rather quickly that she was going to be delivering the baby. She very calmly made a call to get some help and a call to the NICU (we had a meconium issue) and she told Scotty he could boil some towels! She was only halfway kidding. He was a trooper for sure and would have delivered that baby if he needed to. There was no time to break down the bed and get things in place to deliver this baby, so about 2 minutes after she walked in the room, she delivered our sweet baby girl!! From that point on it was a little chaotic in the room. My doctor came back it to realize she missed the birth and was so very apologetic. I really didn't care at that point, I was just glad it was over!! And, she literally was saving a woman's life, so I really could not complain. And my nurse was AWESOME!!

LB was checked good by the NICU nurses and passed every test with flying colors. They wrapped her up and brought her to me. Y'all. I haven't been the same since. I got to watch my man melt as he held his baby girl. The baby girl he (and I) really never knew we needed.

This last year she has brought such a new and refreshing spunk to our house. Her brothers are absolutely crazy about her. I have loved every minute of watching them with her. Even the scary ones, where they carry her upside down! I know she adores them already. They love to make her smile. They do not like it when she cries. She is going to be totally rotten.

Happy Birthday Leah Beth, your boys and I love you. We have celebrated today and will celebrate more this weekend! A girl's first birthday only happens once, after all!

It is so encouraging to look back over our lives and see clearly that God is in control. I am thankful He knows best and His plans are not always our plans.

Since I flood social media with pictures on a daily basis, I will post only one here. This is my favorite of LB from our time at the beach this summer.

Thanks for reading and thanks for loving our sweet girl. I know I gush about her and I appreciate those of you who allow me to do so. Maybe I'll post again in another year!

Our Six Pack

Here we are at the end of 2012 and it has been months since I last posted. Well, life with a growing family will do that. Since my last post we have added a baby girl to our family. And wow has she changed our lives! Who knew we needed a little pink in our lives! Well, except God! We are just crazy about our Leah Beth.

Here are a few pictures of our six pack...

And, that is all the time for now.
Merry Christmas!

Surprise!

Do you like surprises? Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. I know, a little wishy washy.

So, we got a huge surprise at the beginning of the year. You know, the life changing kind. Here is how it went down...

It was Friday, the Friday before Eli's 8th birthday. I was running errands with Kenan while the other boys were in school. I ran by the drugstore and picked up a few things. *ahem* I honestly did not think anything of the "items" I purchased, but was just taking precautions. I kept toting around town and for only the 2nd time in my life, I got pulled over by the cops. I was driving the truck while the van was in the shop. Evidently the tags expired a few months before. AND, I had not put our updated insurance card in the truck. So, the nice cop that pulled me over gave me a warning on my tags and a ticket for no proof of insurance, but assured me if I took proof to the courthouse, they would waive the ticket. Fortunately, they did.

So, I went home immediately to get the papers to renew the tags and the updated insurance card. While I was home I thought I would take a quick pregnancy test. Just to make sure I was NOT pregnant. Well, when I went back to check the test, it was positive. Clearly, something was wrong. It was the cheap test, so I bought 2 more of the more reliable brand. Yeah, they all agreed.

I did what any rational person in my situation would do. I called my husband and cried. Poor guy, he is such a trooper. He wasn't even sure why I was crying, but when I finally got the words out, he was so calm and encouraging. Typical.

Clearly, we did not have this plan. Clearly, God did. So, we here we are a few days from finding out if this precious child is a boy or girl. And we are excited. And nervous.

I really wanted to write this post before we find out what we are having to make one thing very clear...

I will NOT be disappointed if we have boy #4. I WILL probably freak out a little if we have girl #1. We will be thankful either way.

So if you have seen me recently and wondered if I was just "letting myself go" you can rest assured my growing midsection is carrying a tiny little life. The miracle of it is still just that, a miracle. I am amazed every single time I hear the baby's heartbeat and feel the baby kick. Even with #4. God is an amazing, creative God.

Stay tuned for BOY or GIRL!!!!

Running

It seems that these days I only blog around big events. Just the phase of life I am currently in where other things have taken priority.

So, this weekend I did a bit of thinking. It was a big weekend for us and quite emotional at times.

I started running over 11 years ago. I have run almost every distance from a 1 mile fun run to 26.2 miles. It all started with a goal of running a full marathon before I turned 30. I did that. And just kept running. One thing I have learned over the years of running is that the more you run, the more mental it becomes. Now that may seem obvious but sometimes I am a little slow on the uptake. I just have noticed the last few races I have run have been the toughest mentally for me and I was trying to figure out why that is. What I came up with is that the new has worn off, for me and for my "fans." Now, I am NOT complaining, but the last few races I have run I have had one "cheerleader" there, my faithful husband. The poor guy has encouraged me from the moment I uttered the crazy idea that I wanted to run 26.2 miles to today. He has even decided to take up running too! This past weekend we ran 13.1 (really more like 13.5 with the race goof-up) miles together. I promise that if he had not been right by my side I would have never made it past mile 5.


Now, there are lots of reasons that Saturday's race was a bad one for me--I didn't feel well the day before so I didn't eat well the night before, and I woke up still not feeling great. So, that started the mental battle before the race even began. We learned around mile 2 that we had run an extra .4 miles, and the mental battle continued. I really started feeling bad around mile 4.5 and stopped to walk. I was on the verge of tears and trying not to vomit on the side of the road. But my faithful encourager walked with me, even though he felt great and could have breezed through the rest of the course. This scene played over and over again for the next 8 miles--got a blister on my foot, chaffing occurred, cramped in my abdomen. I mean, really, I was thinking I definitely look like I have not trained for this race, much less run several of these races!! So, my mental battle and me...and I did not do well.

But I had a partner who stayed by my side and held my hand to cross the finish line and let me come home and crash. Literally, I fell in the bed with my sweaty nasty race clothes still on me! That is how badly I felt. I ran too many miles on fumes and was probably a bit dehydrated. I beat myself up over how badly the race had gone, and not just for me, but my man was running his first half marathon. He felt great, he ran great and could have finished with such a better time than he did. But he chose to stay with me.

HOWEVER, I had a bigger better day to follow. And NOTHING could have kept me down. The same guy who has held my hand through good races and bad, led our boys to CHRIST and then got to baptize them. It was a perfect day and reminded of the truly important things in life. I mean, who really cares how bad my time in the race was?? Two of my boys have made THE BIGGEST DECISION of their lives and they are following in obedience to be baptized. And they were SO VERY EXCITED about the day.

I really didn't expect this day to come quite as early in their lives as it did. And that has been another mental battle for me to deal with. I have come to believe, through so many encouraging friends, that their salvation is a process. Just like my salvation is a process. Obviously, they cannot, and should not, be in the same place of understanding today as they will be in 10 years. But their salvation is secure and now the process of growing has begun.

I cannot begin to express my appreciation to so many who have poured into our boys. They are blessed beyond their imagination with a group of people who love them and who have invested in them, and will continue to do so. As a mom, I could not ask for more.

Saturday was so not perfect, but Sunday was just a perfect day. I was so excited to see the father of my boys baptize them. Knowing my boys, I knew there would probably be a "memorable moment" from the day and Jonah did not disappoint. I watched him swim out of the baptistry and spew water out of his mouth at Eli through the happy tears on my face. That is just his personality. But he is so spiritually sensitive at the same time. Just shows the amazing creative work of God. And to make two brothers so different and yet they both have been drawn to the TRUTH is just amazing.

To those who stood with me Sunday, I say THANK YOU. I know it doesn't truly convey my feelings on the role you have played and will play in the life of me and my family. It is the least I can say.

That about sums up my thoughts from this weekend. Two very different days, but both made me do some thinking. And both days made me appreciate the man God has blessed me with in a whole new way. He is the real deal and I just don't know what I would do without him.

So on to the next adventure...

My Grandma

Today we celebrated the life of my Grandma. She met Jesus face to face on Tuesday, February 15, 2011. This week has been especially busy for me while Scotty has been in West Africa, but I wanted to "jot" a few things down that I remember most about my Grandma. If you had been at the service today you would have heard from everyone who spoke that my Grandma loved Jesus and she loved people. If you knew her, you knew this about her. Below are some of my fondest memories of my Grandma.

This picture was taken Thanksgiving weekend 2008. This is the group of great-grandkids that were there. My grandma couldn't hear very well and I think she saw all the adults making funny faces to get the kids to smile and she just imitated us. Of course, none of us knew at the time that she had made a face since we were all focused on the kids. So when I downloaded the pictures and saw this one it just made my day. And even now, over 2 years later it makes my day.




My Grandma was a very special lady to many people. She was one of those people that was loved by any and everyone that met her. She had a way of making each one of her grandkids feel special. She was a Godly lady. Her life is an incredible example of how to live a life pleasing to God.

I remember as a kid I loved to feel my Grandma's fingers. I guess I was too young to realize it probably wasn't a compliment to her, but her fingers were so wrinkly soft! She was always "put together" and was a very pretty lady. She had the bluest of blue eyes. She had the best laugh and always said, "oh gee" at the end of it, in the sweetest way.

Our extended family would get together at Thanksgiving each year and one thing we did was to play games. She was always up for joining us and it was a hoot. I know all my cousins remember playing "Read My Lips" the year she joined in. I don't even know if that is still a game. But the game was just like the name, you tried to guess what the person was saying by reading their lips. Well, she took a turn. We all sat there quietly and watched her. She looked at her card and finally looked at us and whispered loudly, "The Scarlet Letter." Well, we all busted out laughing. We tried to explain that she couldn't actually say it, just mouth it. She was convinced that she wasn't actually saying it, which made it all the funnier. Of course she just laughed right along with us.

She loved to laugh and she didn't mind laughing at herself.

I remember going to see her and Papa George and sitting at the kitchen table and just talking. She always had tons of pictures out and loved to go through them and talk about them. I loved to hear her talk about the old family pictures. I remember her talking about her sisters Annie and Lottie most. I loved their names. I love her name: Minnie Lucile Smith Suiter Boykin.

I have no idea when my Grandma got false teeth, but I really don't remember her not having them. I absolutely loved it when she took her teeth out and talked. It makes me smile just thinking about it.

As she got older, like in her 80s, we would remind her how old she was. (In a reminding way, not a mean way) She would always have a look of surprise and say, "Wow, I never thought I would live to be 81!" She had 4 kids, 13 grandkids and 29 great-grandkids. She was an incredible example for each one.

These are some of the things and times I will remember about my Grandma. But the lessons she taught me, and so many others, by simply living her life are too many to list. I saw her choose JOY in her life. I saw her choose to FORGIVE in her life. I saw her choose to LOVE. She chose these things in good times and in not-so-good times. She didn't have to preach because she lived the life God called her to live. I know that on Tuesday as she stood before God he gladly said to her, "well done my good and faithful servant."

I will miss my Grandma, but I know I will see her again.

She was a Godly woman. She always spoke the truth in love. She forgave freely. She loved deeply. She believed in Jesus and was ready to meet him.

Post In Pictures

I usually have lots to say. And could probably type for an hour now, but tonight I am going to refrain. Here are a few recent, and random, pictures from our lives for your viewing enjoyment.