Carried Through Grief/Beyond Words Designs

My sweet friends, Steve and Stephanie have been on a journey that no parent wants to go on. They were both excited to be having their fourth child. A little over half way through the pregnancy, they learned that their precious daughter had a condition that would not allow her to survive out of utero. In fact, the doctors did not expect Stephanie to carry her to term. Miraculously, Stephanie carried 40 weeks. Some would think of this as a curse, but Steve and Stephanie embraced this time as a gift. During the second half of the pregnancy, they bonded with their baby, Amelia, in precious ways. The children sang, prayed for, and talked to her. Stephanie was able to cherish every single move that Amelia made. In addition to this, God's beauty and love was experienced through all the friends that prayed for them and served them in many tangible ways. Still, there are no words for the pain and grief experienced on March 11, 2010, when sweet Amelia Rose was born quiet and still into the waiting arms of Steve who was able to catch her. They had a few days with her before they said their final goodbyes. Stephanie is sharing her story in a blog called Carried Through Grief. In her blog, you can read her whole story and well as see ways to help children who are grieving.

Stephanie was impressed by God to serve other families experiencing a loss similar to theirs. A constant motivation throughout Amelia's pregnancy, was how to preserve her memory. Stephanie never wanted her forgotten or for others to be afraid to say her name. So, Beyond Words Designs was born. It is actually still under construction since this couple's grief is still so fresh. Stephanie is a very talented artist, who is capturing memories of lost ones by hand painting meaningful words on a canvas. These works of art are not only beautiful, they express the family's love for the one they are missing as well as keeping their name present. If you have lost someone or know someone who has, visit her business site and her blog. God is using their pain in many beautiful and wonderful ways.

If you look to the right of my page, there is a button to both blogs.

The House That Cleans Itself

On my parent's last visit, my mom gave me a new book and a notebook to go with it. The book is, The House That Cleans Itself, by Mindy Starns Clark.

The first part of the book was kind of fun. It told me to plan. I love planning! I got to draw up a floor plan of our house and number the rooms in the order I was going to attack them. Then I got to chapter 4. It said that I should have steps 1-3 completed to go any further. Bummer. You mean I am going to have to DO something!?!

Just kidding. I am all geared up and ready for the work. I am still in the new baby phase, and so I don't have much focused time. I have many goals and dreams, but it can get overwhelming trying to get them to pan out when I am stopped so much. Nevertheless, I am going to attempt to go room by room and follow the plan in this book. Wish me luck!

Journaling is supposed to help and be a good thing, so I will add entries in here to let you know my progress as I am able to do things. I expect this to be a very LONG process given the amount of time I have to give to this project. I just know it is a necessity that I do this. Our house is frustrating, cluttered, disorganized, and in a nutshell inefficient. This makes for a lot of needless frustration every day.

Noah 3 months...

The girls put Noah in their baby cradle that my grandpa made for them.

This was Noah's first time in the exersaucer. He didn't know what to think about it.

Noah's face lights up if you talk to him. He LOVES interaction, which is so much fun for us. He might even be starting to fuss, and then he'll stop if you get in his vision and start smiling and talking to him. He will forget his woes for a while and smile and talk with you.