January | 2010 | Beautiful Things

That is one of my very favorite quote’s from Ava. It all started about a year ago when out of the blue, Ava brought me my Bible and asked me “What’s God up to?”. Of course I promptly opened it up and read to her. We loved that phrase so much that we’ve all adopted it.

So…what’s God up to?

Psalm 121

“I look up to the mountains-does my help come from there?

My help comes from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth!

He will not let you stumble and fall; the one who watches over you will not sleep.

Indeed, He who watches over Israel never tires and never sleeps.

The Lord Himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.

The sun will not hurt you by day, nor the moon at night.

The Lord keeps you from all evil and preserves your life.

The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.”

This is one of my favorite Psalms. I LOVE the promises of God. When I read this Psalm again yesterday, that last verse really latched on to me. I love that God’s care and love doesn’t change, doesn’t laps, doesn’t move. He is the same God to us here as He will be in eternity. Josiah and I have had many conversations about heaven in the past months. Many of them are spurred on by a book we are reading:

I would highly recommend every Christian to read this book. We still have a few chapters to read, but it has already transformed our view of heaven…in a good way. We both had some preconceived ideas about heaven and many of them seem to be false, according to scripture. This book is an easy read too which is a big plus 🙂 It has been a while since I was really excited to actually read an entire book. I usually get bogged down somewhere in the middle and lose interest or just forget to finish it. I think, God willing, we are actually going to finish this one. So, that’s my plug…and that my friends, is what God is up to around here!

We have just been plugging along. God has been answering your prayers and we have had some really wonderful family time. The kids have been able to be with us more and that has been so wonderful. Thank you for lifting us up before the throne!

I took Ava to her eye doctor appointment today (which went well and no changes PTL!). We also made time to have a girl date at Starbucks before we made a run to Target. I just love spending time with my little girl. We have such a good time together! So, I’m taking the time to do a little proud mommy bragging…cause, ya know, it’s my blog so I can do that 🙂

Ava: 3 1/2, very petite, and full of more energy than she knows what to do with. She is so sweet and sensitive most of the time. She always knows when something is not right or if someone is sad or not feeling well. When she was a baby and I would look into her eyes, I always said she had an old soul. It’s like she has always known things and understood things well beyond her age. I see that look sometimes now when she is looking at her Daddy. She’s always asking him if he’s OK, or if he needs anything. She is a little busy-body and always has to know where everyone is and what everyone is doing. Her latest obsession is chewing gum. She enjoys playing in the snow…her favorite part is throwing snowballs. She wants to eat all the time and is such a little moocher! For those of you who don’t know, Ava had an NG tube (feeding tube in her nose) for the first 20 months of her life and then had a g-tube (feeding tube in her belly) until just a few months ago. We only stopped using her feeding tube on a daily basis about a year ago and before that food usually made her gag. So, she has come a LONG way and we are so thankful for that. She is always learning and surprises us with what she knows. She definitely learns at her own pace (surprise, surprise) and needs a lot of repetition before she gets a concept. She adores her brother and we talk a lot about how she needs to be a good example for him. They play together really well most of the time.

She is dealing with all of this in her own way. She’s pretty flexible, but she does struggle with a lot of changes in her routine. We are trying to bring as much consistency to her life as possible. I know she loves being at home with us and sleeping in her own bed. The first night we brought her home after Josiah came home from Hospice, she said “I’m so excited about my Mom!” and then “I’m so excited about my Dad!”. She’s our little sweet-heart! Keep praying for her too. She has some hard and confusing concepts that she is trying to grasp. Please pray for us too as we try to be wise in our parenting of her.

We just love our Girl and are so thankful for her!