I sought the Lord and He heard me

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When I was a child I was given a needlepoint gift by Mrs Wilda Clark that proclaimed Psalm 34:4 which says “I sought the Lord and he heard me.” I still have it to this day.

Tomorrow I have to start back to work part time. I definitely never thought I would want to be a stay at home mom, but I find myself wanting only that! I have been scheming and trying to find ways to stay home, but to no avail. Tomorrow will come and I will have to go to work.

I have been praying that God would direct my life in a way that would get me more of Jesus. And I have been simultaneously holding onto the pride and comfort I get from being a mom to a thriving baby girl. Which oddly enough, has little to do with my parenting skills. My biggest excuse for not wanting to work has been that Willa refuses to drink from a bottle and how can I work if she won’t eat? I have also been praying that a million dollar check would appear in my mailbox so I would not have to even consider a job. While I do fully believe God is capable of the check-in-the-mailbox scenario, I have yet to receive it! 🙂

This morning at church we talked about Genesis 37 and Joseph and his coat of many colors. I’ll just paraphrase the good parts here: Joseph’s brothers were jealous and angry and they sold him into slavery and he was taken to Egypt.

Surely Joseph had some questions for God; surely he cried out to be delivered from those circumstances. Now, a part time job is no real slavery, I realize, but I have definitely prayed that anything else would happen so I could stay home.
But Rodney (our pastor) said something that stopped me in my tracks – the thing that Joseph was asking to be delivered from was the very thing God was using to deliver him.
God was never not at work in Joseph’s life. Every moment of his life led him to Egypt, to his position of power and to ultimately save his family.
It really did hit me like a ton of bricks – this job I have been asking to be delivered from is quite possibly the very thing God is currently using to deliver me from my pride or selfishness or any part of me that still doesn’t look like Jesus. Just like I had been praying. It just didn’t look like I wanted it to. But – spoiler alert! What my selfish heart wants is not very much like Jesus. I am thankful that God would patiently mold and make me all that he created me to be.

So tomorrow, my job starts. And tonight, my sweet Willita who has refused a bottle for the past 4 months finally drank a bottle before bedtime. My million dollar check got here just in time!

A New Life

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Welcome to my revamped blog! Originally, I tried to post about pregnancy and our journey through expecting Willa, but no one told me I would be exhausted from growing a little person and trying to prepare our world for her arrival! 🙂 Thus, I am restarting my commitment to blogging and keeping a record of our journey!

Having a baby changes everything. If you have kids, you know that. Suddenly its impossible to make a PB&J without a little hand grabbing for the knife, bread, peanut butter jar, your hair – literally everything.  The pastor of our church said one Sunday (and I’ll paraphrase here) that you may think you have kids because you wanted them or because you weren’t too careful with birth control BUT God really sends you children so that He can be glorified. I completely believe it.  From our expecting Willa to now getting to hold her every day, there is a longing inside me for her to know God’s love and goodness and for Rob and I to be excellent examples of what a real dynamic relationship with Christ looks like. She will pick up on all our habits – how we treat each other, what food choices we make, if we text and drive, how we keep our house (oh, help me Lord!) and what we spend our money on – just to name a few things.

This truth has scared me straight! We live in a broken and sinful world – there will be enough for her to overcome without me putting her at any disadvantage. That said, I want to make the choices that get me more of Jesus, so that I can be her best support.*

I am reminded of 2 Corinthians 5:4, which says, “For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” I long for the days when there isn’t a bad choice for me to make; for days when I am no longer struggling against my selfish pride to really love and live with those around me.  My prayer is that Jesus will swallow up those parts of me that are sinful and fleeting and that my perspective would be an eternal one. My 75+ (hopefully!) years on this earth are a drop in the bucket of the eternity I know I will spend worshiping God.

So this is just going to be our everyday adventures – craft projects, healthy choices, parenting moments – just life. I hope that you’ll walk with us!

Love you all!

Stephanie

*Clearly, I am not perfect – I do not mean I can make all the right choices, or that if I did things would go perfectly, but I would be remiss not to try. It makes me thankful that I have seen my parents worship God. I have seen them work hard and delay gratification when the things we needed or would need took precedence over what we wanted. They absolutely did (and do) their best to love and cherish my sister and I (and now our husbands and babies) and teaching us how to do life. The Lord has truly been gracious to us!

Baby Snow – First trimester doctor visits

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Because I’m so far behind, I’m posting once about our first 2 visits to the doctor.

We had our first doctor visit on October 11. Our doctor has delivered several of Rob’s brothers, cousins, and our niece, Lylah – he’s very laid back and we like him a lot!

We got to see the baby and everything looked great! Although it looks more like a kidney bean at this stage!

Baby Snow!

Here it is! Its head is at the bottom left of the picture and its little rump is up in the air! It measures just a few days before my due date.

Baby Snow's heartbeat

Here is the baby’s heartbeat (a healthy 167 bpm).

That’s our first encounter with the baby!

Doctor visit 2 went equally well – we had another short sonogram and the baby is doing great and looks like a baby finally!

We go again to the doctor on Monday and there is a good chance we can find out if it’s a boy or girl – we’ll keep you posted!!

Surprise! We’re….starting a blog!

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You’ve heard the news and we’ve spent the last two months sleeping extra and feeling nauseous.

We’re having a baby!

Here you’ll be able to find all of our updates, pictures, and general news. Don’t be surprised if some of our other ventures end up here also – i.e., cattle, crafts, dogs and more! (with roughly 6 months until the baby arrives we’ll have to find something to fill the space!).

Let’s start with a general update on Rob and me:

Rob is thoroughly enjoying his job as a fireman in Dallas. He rides the engine at Station 45 in West Dallas. He saves lives and has become quite the cook! He will start paramedic training in late December and should finish soon after the baby comes.

He also is a regular cowboy now! He takes care of his grandma’s roughly 43 Longhorn cattle. I had to play Fern from Charlotte’s Web to save Moon Pie from being sold, but, for now she’s safe! We actually have lots of cattle for sale in case anyone is interested…

I push papers in the office of a commercial carpet cleaning company for a regular paycheck and am scheming ways to stay home/work from home after the baby comes.  I still have my own business, Stephanie Snow Flowers, but don’t do weddings as regularly anymore. I hope to make it as Stephanie Snow, Entrepremom, upcycling used things and being generally crafty. I also have been learning to sew (!) which I really enjoy. Actually, I’m quite domesticated now.

That’s pretty much us! We live in Midlothian, Texas, about 2o miles south of Dallas on about 6 acres of land.  There are 5 bulls and 1 steer that live at our house: Santa Ana, Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, Jim Bowie, Stephen F. Austin, and Chuck Norris. We still have the best Boxers ever, Smokey and Roscoe – they enjoy being country dogs spending most of their time laying around, but they do a good job of protecting us from armadillos and skunks.

My favorite calf, Moon Pie

In other exciting news – Rob’s brother Jonny and his wife Candace (our next door neighbors) found out about 3 weeks before us that they too are having a baby! Candace is due May 4 or 5 – just a few weeks before us!

AND, if that wasn’t exciting enough – my cousin Doug and his wife Ashlee are expecting TWINS with a due date just days after ours! Babies everywhere!!

Congratulations Jonny and Candace and Doug and Ashley!

The next post will chronicle our first doctor’s visit!