Why did God make you?

When we decorated Elsie's nursery, we knew we wanted a few phrases on her walls.  One that was particularly important to us was a modified version of a question from the Westminster shorter Catechism:

"Why did God make you? For His own Glory"

 

Having it on her wall was not only so that Elsie would LEARN, but so that WE could be reminded that all of our lives are to be for the glory of the Father.

 

On May 18th, 2014, we came before our church family to make a public declaration of our commitment to raise Elsie in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Our families and church, in turn, declared their commitment to help us in that effort and to pray for us. 

 

We chose a passage from Colossians as our prayer for Elsie:

Colossians 1:9-14

"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

 

 

below: Now before you start thinking Clayton looks completely disinterested, I must tell you that he had an emergency appendectomy two days before the dedication service!  Poor guy was just trying to stay upright!  I'm not sure what my excuse is...I probably had two hours of sleep the night before!

 

 

below: I think it's so special that Elsie's pastor is also her grandfather!

 

below: We were so grateful that Clayton's parents could be with us that day.  Grandpa Lee is also a pastor and he prayed a prayer of blessing over his first grandbaby.

 





 

below: We had a makeshift photo shoot afterward.  Clayton wasn't allowed to hold Elsie for 4 weeks following his surgery.  Poor daddy....and mommy!!

 

below: My sweet girl!

 



 

below: Poppi and Nana

 

 

 

Poppi & Nana and Grandma & Grandpa.  Elsie is loved very much!

 

 

So glad Grandma and Grandpa could make the trip from Birmingham.

 

 

Christmas ornament fiasco

Elsie was given many sweet gifts from friends and family!  One of those special gifts was a handprint Christmas ornament from the Bauer family.  The Bauers are friends of Brian and Clella from North Carolina.  The Bauers have 3 boys of their own and have made this memorable craft with all of them!  We decided to make the ornament when she was 2 weeks old.

 

What we didn't consider was the fact that babies at this age never open up their hands!  Elsie's hands were in a tight fist at all times.  So this project was going to take several people.  Poppi rolled out the dough.  I held Elsie.  Nana tried to pry open her fingers!

 

 

Once we got her hands opened, we remembered that, unfortunately, the palms of her hands constantly had soggy lint stuck in them!  Gross!  So our first attempt left little black pieces behind!

 

 

Poppi seemed confident in his solution to the problem!  Nana and I weren't so sure!  We ended up putting fresh dough overtop of the lint-filled handprint and rolled it out again!

 

 

Clean fingers and clean dough!  Here we go again!  Oh no!  Crooked fingers!!

 

 

Finally!  Success!!  Daisha Love was across the table taking pictures of the entire fiasco.  Elsie is peeking at her in this picture and thinking, "Daisha, put the camera down and come rescue me from this mess!"

 

 

What a fun memory and a precious keepsake!  We will certainly never forget the laughs we had making Elsie's first Christmas ornament!

Lots of "firsts"!

Having a baby helps you to appreciate the "firsts" in life.  There will be many many firsts in Elsie's life, but I wanted to document a few in photos!  I could have a "firsts" post every month...if only I was that organized!

 

First SMILE!!! 

 

 

This was so fun!!  I went in to get her up from her nap and she totally smiled at me...not just a wince from a gassy tummy....a legitimate smile!  I'm convinced it wasn't ME she was happy to see, but the fact that SOMEONE was going to release her from the straitjacket she was forced to wear to sleep! 

 

First sleepover!

 

 

She doesn't know it yet, but she has the BEST cousins!  It's so fun to have cousins...and she has TWO!  It was a true "kid sleepover"...you know...the kind where they don't actually SLEEP!  Well, the older kids slept, but Elsie had her momma up half the night! 

 

First Mother's Day!

 

 

So this one is more a first for me!  But it sure was exciting and strange to be a mom on Mother's Day!  It was memorable for so many reasons.  One being that we had a rough night and I woke up feeling discouraged as a mother. Fitting! But my sweet little family encouraged me all day, starting with being served coffee in bed by Clayton!  Elsie (and Daddy!) got me a gift certificate for a massage since my back was hurting from nursing and leaning down to pick up the baby!  They also got me a salad spinner...because I needed one and it's such a "mom gift"! 

 

First Father's Day!

 

 

Daddy didn't do a "photo shoot" on Father's Day like mommy did, but I love the sweetness of this picture!  Clayton quickly became one of Elsie's favorite people!  He gets the most smiles and laughs of anyone and I love their special bond.

First photo shoot!

As I've said many times, we are incredibly blessed.  We had friends who walked the pregnancy road with us (Melissa and Greg Moad, Lorraine and Myron Swartzentruber), a friend who cared for my medical needs during pregnancy and ultimately delivered Elsie (Dr. Kerri Brackney), friends who brought us meals for two months after Elsie was born (too many to name!! But Megan Cook organized the meals!), friends who showered us with baby items and clothing (especially Kristin Runyon and Karen Stover who've given me practically ALL of their girls' hand-me-downs!) and one friend who graciously offered to take Elsie's newborn photos!  Karen Stover came to our home four days after Elsie was born to capture these precious moments!

 

 

 

Her skinny little stick legs chunked up rather quickly!

 

This was the stage when we could do NOTHING to wake up this girl!!  We had many laughs over the things we did to try and rouse her!  She could sleep through ANYTHING!  I wish that was still the case ;)



 

Are those eyes that I see?  Could she be awake?

 

 

Trying to stay awake for a few photos....

 

 

Nope.  Can't do it!

 

 

God's grace for every season

I have never been a huge baby person.  I mean, I think babies are cute and I like to kiss their sweet cheeks, but I'm always ready to give them back to their mom after a minute or two!  There were times in my pregnancy that I was worried that I wouldn't bond with my baby, and the reality is, it wasn't an immediate bond as soon as she was born.  But now, I'm sad that she is growing up so fast and I want her to stay little forever.  God gives us His grace for every season, and for that, I am so grateful!  I know that He will continue to bless us in every stage of life.  The blessings may not always come in the form of happiness and ease, but they will be blessings, nonetheless. 

"What do you mean you're not a baby person, MOM?"

 

Side note: this picture was taken in May and she still fits into these jammies in September :)

What's in a name?

Names are kind of a big deal to me.  I'm a teacher and have heard many names over the years.  Some unique.  Some impossible to pronounce.  Some that roll off the tongue.  Some that you have to think about every time you say it.  Certain names that I may have loved before are now forever off the table because of students who I've taught in my 9 years as a music teacher.  I also knew that I didn't want a name that no one knew how to pronounce.  The poor child who is forever correcting people (including the teacher on the first day of school!).  If you get a mean teacher who doesn't like to be corrected, you've started the year off on a pretty bad foot :)

 

Names mean something.  We carry our name with us our whole lives.  We can cause others to cringe or smile when they hear our names based on how we've lived our lives.  Names are important to God too.  Every name that you read in the Bible was given to someone because of its meaning.  And sometimes God changed a person's name because He changed their life's purpose.  Needless to say, I felt a lot of pressure when picking a name for my child!

Not only did I feel the weight of this particular decision, but I tend to be indecisive in GENERAL in life!  Choosing what to order at a restaurant can be a paralyzing decision for me!  My mom used to say, "This isn't going to be your last meal.  Just pick something!"  I seem to recall a similar conversation with Clayton when arranging the nursery.  He graciously said, "I love you, but we don't have time to discuss the psychological issues associated with decorating."  Poor, poor Clayton.

After MUCH discussion and total fear of commitment (on my part), we came to the conclusion that we wanted our little girl to be named "Elsie Lynn".  The name Elsie means, "consecrated to God".  It was (and is) our desire for our baby girl to live her life to the glory of God.  But not only did the name have a wonderful meaning, it was shared by a woman who we deeply respect and love.  Elsie Moses Detweiler married Linwood Detweiler, my Gramps, when she was 79 years old!  My Grammie, Mildred Olsen Detweiler, died of Leukemia when I was 9 years old.  Gramps grieved the loss of his "honey" and was quite lonely for several years.  Much to our surprise, Gramps eloped with Elsie and left a message on my parents' answering machine to let us know what he had done!  None of us had ever even met Elsie!  But God (and Gramps!) knew what He was doing when He brought this precious woman into our family.  Elsie has been an example of graciousness, love, acceptance and service.  Every one of the great-grandchildren in our family were born after Elsie was part of the family.  She has accepted them as her own and prays fervently for them.  She served Gramps selflessly until the day he died and we couldn't be more grateful for her.  We pray that our Elsie will exemplify these same qualities and she will come to understand how special it is to carry on this name. 

Her middle name, Lynn, is after my Gramps, Linwood.  He was a man of prayer, one who committed himself to the reading and memorizing of God's Word and a comedian (at least in his eyes!!).  We loved my Gramps.  There was never a dull moment when he was around and we knew that he prayed for his children and grandchildren every single day.  He also prayed for missionaries all over the world with such commitment that he prayed for one man for years after he had died (unbeknownst to Gramps!)!  Gramps turned almost everything into a song and could often be heard whistling.  He was a cheerful man who's desire to see the gospel spread around the world was evident.

Sweet Elsie Lynn, you have been born into a family with a rich heritage of love, humor and desire to serve the Lord.  Your Mommy and Daddy are incredibly grateful for this history and we pray that you will bring honor to this name for the sake of the kingdom of God and His glory!

Baby Elsie with Grandmother Elsie August 2014

The Journey Begins

As much as I was excited about being a mother, pregnancy was not on my list of desired activities.  To be perfectly honest, I was pretty scared of the whole process.  You would think, by now, I would remember that God's mercies are new every morning and He would give me strength to get through it, no matter how difficult it was!  And He did!  The first 20 weeks were just plain yucky!  I felt gross all day every day and popped my anti-nausea meds daily!  I'm not afraid to take medicine...that's for sure!  Once I got through those first 20 weeks, pregnancy was honestly a joyful event for me!!  I LOVED the sweet care that others gave (who doesn't love to be given special treatment?!).  Complete strangers would walk by me in the grocery store with a big smile and give words of encouragement!  That really doesn't happen any other time of your life...no one is smiling at me now telling me how good I look ;)  Of course there were the strangers who offered unsolicited advice and who tried to touch my belly.  But the normal interactions far outweighed the bizarre encounters! 

 

I was convinced that I would go into labor after my due date.  I just didn't feel any different at 38 weeks then I did at 20...except a lot bigger!  There were never any "scares" or "close calls".  I never even felt Braxton Hicks!  Life just went on normally. 

 

March 20th was the first day of Spring and happened to be a day when both Melissa Moad and I were off of teaching!  Melissa was 36 weeks pregnant at the time so she and I decided to have one more "girl's day" before the babies came.  We went to the Hershey Pantry for breakfast, got pedicures at Hershey Nails and then took advantage of the free Rita's Italian Ice that is given out on the first day of Spring each year!  I got home around 2:00 and decided to put my feet up for a few minutes before I ran some errands.  Being 38 weeks pregnant, it was no surprise that I had to use the bathroom as soon as I sat down.  I waddled my way into the bathroom, sat down and my water broke!  Being that my doctor is a good friend, I sent her a text message telling her what happened and said, "That wasn't my water breaking, right?  It was probably just something else, right?  I'm not in labor, right?"  She, of course, called me immediately and asked exactly what happened.  She then said, "You should probably call Clayton and head to the hospital."  "But, wait, I feel normal.", I said, "This can't be it.  Are you sure?  Now I don't think I'm ready!  I wasn't scared before, but now that it's happening, I'm not sure I want to do it!"  Dr. Brackney (Kerri) assured me that these were all normal feelings and she would make arrangements for her husband to watch their children so that she could be there with me (on her day off!).  I'm so grateful that God gives us friends to care for us...this one in particular in a very hands-on way!  Poor Kerri! 

 

Clayton, in the meantime, was in charge of a meeting of 25 people that afternoon.  We had decided on a signal a few weeks prior so that he would know when it was crucial that he answer the phone!  I tend to call him just to tell him what I had for lunch sometimes...so he needed to know if it was really important (umm...all of my calls are super important...he should totally take my calls all the time everywhere.).  I called once, and then immediately called again.  He excused himself from the meeting (in which he was currently talking!  Awkward!) and heard the news, "So...I think my water just broke."  "Okay...Okay...Okay.  I have to go.  I'll call you right back."  He walked back into the meeting and said, "I'm  going to have a baby now!" and left work.

 

I checked in to the Penn State Hershey Medical Center at 4:00pm on Thursday, March 20th 2014.  From the time my water broke, I labored a total of 16 1/2 hours, and 3 1/2 of those hours were active pushing!  Clayon, my two nurses and Kerri were all with me every step of the way and I couldn't be more grateful for them!  Modern medicine, hospitals and medical professionals are wonderful things!  The Lord was gracious to me.  It was not a fun way to spend 16 1/2 hours of my life...but I know it certainly could have been worse.  After pushing for hours, I knew that I had to get the baby out.  Dr. Brackney said that 3 1/2 hours is the limit and then they would need to use a vacuum...and if that didn't work, a C-Section was the next step.  I also knew that Dr. Brackney had to be in the office at 8:00 and if I didn't get this baby out quickly, she wouldn't be there for the birth!  Those two major motivating factors gave me the energy to give it my all in 3 more pushes! 

At 6:24am on Friday, March 21st 2014, our 6 pound 13 ounce, 19 1/2 inch
Elsie Lynn Lee was born!  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!