Trustworthy

This week I have found myself in many positions where I've had to exert faith in God... Faith that I will be able to complete my assignments for work; faith that most important is my family and that not being available to do as much work as I used to do is good and right; faith that forgiveness is better than bitterness; faith that no matter how people receive it I must speak truth [in love of course] to them; faith that I am loved [because when people don't receive the truth you speak out of love as a loving thing it sometimes is painful]; and faith that He does provide comfort for others who are finding themselves in positions where they need to know He is trustworthy.

For them, faith that He can heal their heart even when a spouse leaves; faith that He will provide companionship when it seems like all their friends have up and married or moved away; faith that serving really does bring joy; faith that obedience is better than giving in to the "easier" ways the world tries to tempt us with; faith that God is good when a healthy and robust young boy ends up a paralytic; and the list goes on.

While some people say faith is blind, I am glad that my faith in my Heavenly Father is not such a huge leap. I have not seen Him physically - this is true, but there are so many evidences of Him - and so many factual ones, not just subjective - that prove His existence and His Word.

I am so thankful that these evidences exist and that I have been able to "experience" Him as faithful time after time after time after time after time because we all need someone faithful. We all need someone dependable. We all need someone who can guarantee it will get better. We all need someone who loves us no matter what. We all need someone to give us wisdom when we're clueless. We all need healing - whether it's a broken heart or a babies tummy. We all need someone who will listen. We all need someone who can empower us to do good. We all need someone to free us. We all need someone to give us joy.

We don't just need someone for all of those things, we need that someone to be in charge.

He is the one. He is the one. Jesus Christ, you are the One.

Psalm 111: 7 - "The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy."

I am so glad that He is governing my days and the days of my friends, and that He governs all of our days with absolute goodness and wisdom. Praying for us all to exert faith in Him today - He's earned it.

Whew hoo!

So, I finally got some of my friend's blog links back up on my web page. I had changed the background template of my blog and it deleted them! How rude!

Apparently it warned me of this, but I didn't notice. Anyways, then I went to add the new heading for "Friends Blogs" instead of boring old links and I couldn't figure it out. I don't have lots of spare time so instead of continuing to try - okay so I only tried for like 10 minutes max, but still, I didn't want to spend my spare time that way - I left it "Links." Exciting.

Now that I have spent about a half hour adding links back on there I am officially brain dead. It took a lot of effort because I tried to go in alphabetical order! :)

Updates: We visited our family in DC two weekends ago and had a blast! We love our family. Jarod bought Anna an Uncle Ernie doll - er, just Ernie, but we call it Uncle Ernie in honor of Jarod - and she loves it. See -



Unfortunately Ernie isn't very smart...


...he keeps getting into the microwave.

For more pics of our fantastic trip you can check out my sister-in-laws blog here.

Anyways, Anna has had a lot of fun playing this week. She seems to love people. At first she studies them, and then she likes them to pay attention to her and make her laugh. This is good because I can tote her to work with me and leave her in the nursery, etc, not many worries.

She loves the Baby Bjorn now and it's so fun to take her shopping, etc, in it, because she seems to bring a lot of people joy and I think it's mutual - they smile, she smiles, then I smile...Ahhhh.

We're also really excited because we've been getting to know two couples in our neighborhood, each with babies, and one couple is actually having another one on September 4th - she's having a C-section so that's how we know :) It's fun talking C-section business to someone, too, and they don't have family around so I'm excited to be able to help her out with her 2 year old - who Anna loves to have pull on her piggies (for those of you like Daryl, "piggies" are code for "toes") and maybe with some meals.

MMM...what else...Anna is rolling over from back to tummy on her own now and EVEN can get her inner arm out from under her. Before she would roll over but the arm would stay stuck. She wasn't much for that. :)


I am back to working and God has been SO gracious. It is better than expected although not without some glitches here and there. Daryl and I have had to be much more scheduled (okay so mainly Daryl - I've always been crazy about schedules/lists/etc) but it has helped us SO much. There is freedom in those things somehow.

We also got to visit with one of my best friends who is in vet school FAR away and that was a blast! We had a very encouraging visit and I love how God uses people to reveal Himself to us/challenge us to grow.

Lastly, I have been so encouraged by God's goodness to continue to reveal Himself to me and teach me new things. I went to the Beth Moore simulcast at church a LONG time ago now, and while I was there, I knew I was learning/being refreshed, but I didn't leave thinking "WOW!" But so many seeds were planted in me that I am now seeing the fruit of! I love how God works - in Spirit and in truth. I love how we can hear things that don't charge us emotionally, but change us eternally and as we realize it, we then are charged! Pretty fun.

Okay, that's it. D&L time now - horah! Have a wonderful night.

Pictoral Update

Here's an update on Anna :)

She likes to sit up (with help of course)...


Play on her tummy...


And boy, does she LOVE her exercauser. She was afraid at first, but she quickly adjusted as you will see...


"This is amazing!"


"I LOVE this thing! Don't take me out - don't you dare take me out!"


Seriously - she loves how everything makes noises and lights up and she even likes spinning herself around in her little seat. She also is great at entertaining herself on the floor while I'm cooking dinner, etc. As you can see, she isn't so much into playing with her toys as she is into eating them. We have much training to do!!! :)


While Anna was a gem last time I did Once A Month Cooking, this time she wanted to pitch in! Please disregard me - I cook from sun up to sun down so I don't shower til it's all over! By the way, for those of you who are wondering, it was even easier this time and I found some more recipes we like. It was such a blessing to be able to have meals ready to just bake instead of having to cook every night. Whoot, whoot!!!


However, like I said before, I am tired, very tired at the end of the day. Anna was tired, too. Check her out...


She is quickly revived with kisses!


She thankfully loves mommy...


...and Daddy! What a joy she is to us!



She is generally a very happy little girl.



And just in case you're curious on whether or not she knows she's our cutie...


Rest assured...she does.

A blog a day!

Just for today though and only because I came across an article I thought was worth passing on. I debated on posting it, but have decided "better safe than sorry" and know that you all are certainly able to make a good decision in regards to the validity of it's content on your own.

The article is titled "The Case for Caution in the Use of Cell Phones" put out by the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institue and is located here.

By clicking here you can find the level of radiation emitted by your phone.

Happy researching!