God's Grace Continues

Wow! This past week has been FULL of God's GLORY! So much goodness and so much joy.....



Sunday I celebrated being a mother. A mother of four. A new mama to a new baby. The queen with four little princes to love. The kids surprised me with a coffee mug with Isaac's footprint and Joshua, Caleb, and Noah's thumb prints. So sweet! Charity came and "borrowed" the babies for an hour so they could make this special gift for me at a local pottery shop. My boys and Stephanie's girls created a lovely indoor picnic lunch for us after church. Then I inked up all the boys feet to get their footprints in my scrapbook. I washed their feet in a big bowl, which they loved. Since I used ink instead of paint, I couldn't get it all off! (Hope it's faded by now, kids.) Later that day, Joshua gave me his gift, a lullaby he'd written and recorded for Isaac. It is so beautiful. I'll post it when I can get it uploaded to my computer.



I also celebrated being a daughter. While my biological mother has abandoned me, another has stepped in and shown me agape love. I will see my 'new' mom in a few weeks and I can't wait. I miss her so much.

Though my father and mother forsake me,

the Lord will receive me.

Psalm 27:10

Another celebration on Sunday was (another) baby dedication. This time our entire family was present as we participated in a formal parent/child dedication, and offered Isaac back to God. The other babies were sweet but Isaac was THE CUTEST by far and his picture in the church newsletter was THE BEST (thanks, Heather :).

Monday, we celebrated Caleb's birthday. We went out to eat and had a good time. It's harder for me to get excited over Joshua and Caleb's birthdays now because I know that their time under our roof is growing closer to ending and their journey into adulthood is so quickly approaching. When they were little it was okay, I knew in a year they'd still be little. Now there is a little sadness in the mix. But, they will always be my babies and they know that.

Thursday, Heather delivered Ivy and I was blessed to witness and photograph another Ristau baby being born. The big praise here is that the heart and kidney abnormalities that were detected in Ivy's prenatal tests were completely resolved (as in God healed her!) before she left the hospital. The midwife was sure she would be born premature, but Heather carried her for 39 weeks and she was almost eight pounds!

Thursday night, Noah graduated from preschool. There was a sweet graduation program and I cried the whole time. Noah has been at this school for three years. He has learned a lot and made great friends. He sang a cute song about peanut butter and hugged his teacher when he got his diploma.

Today Isaac learned to roll over, from front to back. He also will pull himself back up to standing after he falls forward into my chest. I will have to get this on video and post, it's so cute and he smiles so big because he's proud of his little self. Oh, did I mention, he can SIT UP now too?! He also gives me kisses by sucking on my face.

I'll post pics later in the week from all the celebrations. I may even do a photo story. Here's a family pic from Mother's Day.