Sunday Picture

Here is a recent picture of our cute Natalie. We love you all!

Neighbors

You know I grew up thinking Halloween is a "bad" day that shouldn't be celebrated. My thoughts on this day have changed significantly the past year. Chris read a book called Fearless Faith last year. It suggested we should embrace this day as a time to get to know our neighbors, not isolate from the world. I thought about this and it makes sense. There is no other time of year that adults and children show up at your door. Last year I was newly pregnant and still quite sick. Looking at chocolate made me nauseas. For those of you who know me well, you know this was cruel for me. Anyways, lots of beautiful and scary children came to our door with big smiles. They laughed at our dogs, who were dressed up like a clown and an angel. Their parents talked with us and we gave them all candy. I tried not to look at the chocolate as I passed it to them. I can think of one particular relationship with a neighbor that started that night for me. So I'm looking forward to this Tuesday. We will open our door wide and welcome them into the warmth. We'll give them candy and smiles. We'll tell our dogs to stop jumping on them, and hopefully have a happy baby dressed as a pink leopard for them to laugh at. We'll get to know more people and be a safe place to stop. We'll love our neighbors, not shut them out. We'll take back October 31st for God's kingdom, one little devil at a time. Happy Day!

"I would trade him places"

She said to me, "I would trade him places." "You mean the man on death row?" I said. "Yes, him, he was whining that they were going to kill him and all I could think is how fortunate he is that he gets to die so nice and all. I'd like to be him, except I don't really want him to be free." I asked if she were suicidal, she denied this saying she wouldn't kill herself, which is why she is envious of him. It was a long day in the mental health field. A morning full of ethics training and an afternoon full of hopelessness. Chronic depression is a cruel, unforgiving, unrelenting disease. We can treat, but rarely cure. I took care of my client, tried my best to ensure her safety, and prayed for her in my heart. I laughed to myself as I rolled around my new "title." Iowa is revamping everything these days. Since I am a licensed master level social worker, Iowa says I am now an "LPHA." I had to ask what that stands for. It means I am a licensed practitioner of the healing arts. I giggle because we call this the healing arts when I can heal no one. I know the One who can, but I'm not really supposed to bring Him up unless they do. I play that one by Spirit. So I can diagnose and write orders for rehabilitative treatment, and I feel terribly inexperienced. I'm coveting everyone's prayers as our agency figures out what all of this means. I'd also love for you to pray for our clients. It is so interesting because all of us will struggle with some type of mental illness at some point in our life. And we know so little about it. I try to dialogue about it as much as possible just to help people get educated. If it were cancer we'd encourage treatment, seek it out, and fight hard, knowing it is possibly terminal is scary. Depression is more scary because we can't wrap our hands around it. It doesn't always show up on an MRI. But, it can be terminal too. To me, suicide just means the mental illness killed them and treatment didn't work. I hope and pray we can help each client. We are learning so much more, but there it a ton to learn. We all know someone affected by mental illness. Reach out to them this weekend. Offer them Hope. They need to know Him and we need to share Him.
On a much lighter note, our family is doing well. Natalie is still growing and has just learned to "scream." Not out of frustration, just because she can. There is a lot of noise at her house these days. Chris and I are going on our first date tomorrow night since she was born. I'm so excited for it and a little nervous to leave her too. I know she'll be fine and we will have fun. I love you all, have a great weekend!
Allison

24 Hours

Funny how most days blur together into months and years that whirl around our minds. You know those days I'm talking about. Ordinary, routine days of normal life. Nothing special. Then, suddenly, one of those ordinary days is interrupted by a different minute. It is made up of sixty unique seconds and the entire day is changed, sometimes, your entire life is. September 11th did not have any significance to me in 2000. When I awoke the same day in 2001, I had no idea I would be able to tell you every move I made that day for the rest of my life. I know you can too. There are other days that are "planned" special. I call them normal, special, days. Christmas, Thanksgiving~holidays throughout the year. Most of us have our traditions on these days, big or small. There are also days we make special. December 13th is what we chose for our wedding day. I'll remember it and celebrate it forever. What is impressive is that all of these days have twenty-four hours. Didn't 9/11 feel like it was at least a fifty-two hour day? My wedding day felt like a quick three hour day. The actual seventeen hours I was in labor with Natalie feels chopped up into a day every two minutes and a life I can't remember~the one before we had her. And yet, regardless of the days circumstances, night is inevitable and the moon will rise. Sometimes, it is welcomed. Other times we are at a loss with what to do because we had spent months preparing for the preceding twelve hours. God, in His graciousness, keeps giving us more hours. More ordinary days then marked ones. It makes me think I should put more energy and thought into my ordinary days. Maybe He has an actual reason that we live in the middle of cornland. Maybe He actually wants me to establish a relationship with the co-worker I see everyday. Maybe He orchestrates our regular days to be extraordinary in His plan~ maybe He is going to come today and interrupt us all.
Until then, make today count. Be aware of people around you and intentionally become a real character in the story of their lives. Start really living the ordinary days. After all, how can it possibly be ordinary, how can I not think of something amazing to work on knowing today could be the day Jesus returns? Talk about an interruption in our day! Our time will cease. The sand will stop~ so will the earth. The month will be over...Not because the calendar was turned, but because the trumpet blast shredded it to pieces. Every eye will look up and see and every second hand will lose it's significance. Old will be turned new. Eternity will start. Forever will exist. Life will be given. Death, the ultimate interruption, will lose it's power. The day will end. Jesus will take His people home.
Maybe He will come today...

Our little baby pumpkin

Today has been a super busy Saturday. Chris ran in a 5K this morning. He did well and I'm very proud of him. He's been training hard, despite it being allergy season. Then we decided to take this picture of Natalie. One of my clients told me about doing this picture, and I thought it was a cute idea. Natalie rather enjoyed being in the pumpkin, which made it funnier for us. Thanks for all of your prayers. Her cold is getting better. She is still not sleeping well at night, and since she had been, that is making it hard for us. Both she and Chris are napping right now. It seems they are always napping when I'm typing this. Probably because it is the only time I have to type.
God is doing amazing things here. I am a part of a women's Bible study, which is great. Several of my co-workers have started attending. God is always so creative. We are studying the book Pam told us about, For Women Only. I'm learning a lot about you men, some I knew but didn't understand and some things I had no idea about. It's just been really good to be a part of a group and have more friends. I'm going to sign off and do some laundry and then maybe take a nap myself. I love Saturday's!

Babies like to breathe...through their nose...

So we have our first cold at our house. Unfortunatly, Natalie caught this cold from her mom. She had a fever and was fussy last night so we went to the doctor. He confirmed our suspicisions about it just being a cold and went on to say that babies like to breathe through their nose so they are quite fussy during their first few colds. She looks sad and confused. She expects us to fix it when she cries and does not understand that the more she cries, the more stuffy her nose becomes. And she certainly is confused by us sticking something up a hole on the other end of her body that has nothing wrong with it. Our first time taking her temperature could make another blog entirely. Anyways, this picture is of Natalie wearing her outfit from Uncle Brock. We'll send more pictures of this cute outfit later. This is just one of my favorites. We hope that everyone has a great weekend! Lots of love, grace, peace, and clear noses...

one maid a milking

This may be more information then you want to know, but as I am typing this, I am using my breast pump. I'm telling myself that I am not a cow, although at this moment it's how I feel. I'm praying I can keep up with Natalie's increasing hunger and demand for more milk. I'm in awe at my body's creation and somewhat disturbed by it all at the same time. I know that breastmilk is "natural and best" but there is nothing natural about placing my boobs in a cylinder and plugging them into an electrical outlet. And, it is one thing to feed her in my car in a parking lot. It is another thing entirely to plug into a cigarrette lighter and pump milk in a car, in a parking lot. I do not like it Sam I am, I do not like it in a car, I do not like it in a house, I do not like it right now, I do not like feeling like a cow.
But, I'll keep pumping. It is good for her and it is free. She does drink it up like there is no more coming. She's worth it though. She slept through the night again last night. That's two nights in a row. I feel like a new person after two nights of uninterrupted sleep. The fog is slightly lifting off my brain and I'm able to have a more regular thought pattern. Thus, my ramblings this morning. Last week, I was too tired to feel like a cow. Today, I can think it through. Yep, definetly a cow.
Moo