10 weeks until we snuggle with Claire!

Just a few fun pics! A belly picture for those that have requested one! Today is bedlam so even Claire got a Pistol Pete tattoo! This was my craft project for today: a bow & headband holder. Sooo fun! 10 more weeks until we get to snuggle with Claire Bear!!











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Getting ready for Claire...11 more weeks!

This week Claire's name and verse came in! I bought the frame for her picture last week and was so excited to get it all up last night! The verse we picked for her....we spent lots of time searching, praying and waiting on the Lord for Claire's life verse but finally when we found it we knew it was the perfect one for her. I found it and texted it to Dustin and he texted me back saying it was definitely her verse and as he read it he felt like crying, it touched him so. Her verse is Galations 4:28 "You are a child of promise." Her verse is two-fold. After Andrew was born the Lord convicted both Dustin and I about using a birth control pill. Dustin had come home from a lecture on side effects and details of the pill during a medical lecture and after understanding that they do not have medical findings with 100% certainty that by merely taking the pill you are not only preventing pregnancy but that at times it may be terminating pregnancy as well. This was very scary for me to think that I could be unknowingly allowing a birth control pill to terminate a life that God had created. We decided to pray for a period and seek what the Lord would want for our family. We decided with complete peace and confidence that we would just trust the Lord and His timing for our family. Scary...trusting the Lord sometimes, but what we have learned and God has allowed us to experience through this has been complete confidence in God's faithfulness. We have learned that by using natural family planning their will inevitably be more pregnancies and that may not mean that we will be able to hold that child this side of eternity. That has been very hard, losing two children in miscarriage however God has been so good to us. He has restored us time and time again. He has given us a greater sense of His love and faithfulness. He has given us a way to minister to those that are going through miscarriage. A burden to pray for them and encourage them during such a very difficult time. Promise. After our second miscarriage during the restoration process God gave us a wonderful peace and contentment. We were completely content with the blessings of three children that God had allowed us to raise here on this earth. Not long after that period the Lord began to give us visions and confirm to us that He would bless us with another little girl and that her name would be Claire. Dustin and I both had dreams. It seemed that everywhere I went the Lord would send me just a little reminder of His love and promise of Claire. I would go to the park with the kids, the library, chick-fil-a, the mall and time after time we would meet kids that came up to us and started talking to us and inevitably their would be a little girl in the midst of those visits with a sweet little smile that we would soon find out whose name was Claire. It was as if God was healing my heart time and time again and reminding me that when His time was perfect he would bless us with Claire. I doubted it. Yes, I know but after losing children it is hard sometimes to really wrap yourself into a new baby again and we were so content with what the Lord had already given us. In June we moved to Cushing, excited about what the Lord had in store, little did we know he had already fulfilled His promise and blessed us with Claire. Pregnancy after miscarriage is scary. I guess because you know what can go wrong and have experienced it time and time again it seems easier to worry that to simply trust God. God was so patient with me continuing to confirm to me that this baby girl named Claire that he had placed in my womb would be an addition to our family. That she would be okay. What I continue to remember even now as we are within 11 weeks of holding her is how worthy He is of our trust. He didn't have to love us and bless us with another baby. He didn't have to constantly confirm the fulfillment of His promise to us by easing my worries time and time again. But He did. He does. Because He loves us to very much and because He is faithful! He alone is worthy of our trust! The second part of her verse is God's promise to Claire. She is a child of promise. He has already prepared a way for her. The promise of salvation if she will only trust in Him. What a wonderful God we serve that He would love us so much to prepare a way for us to be with Him forever. What wonderful plans He has for her life! We pray that she would always remember that she is a child of promise!

Uppercase Living

Oh how I love Uppercase Living! I decided to host a party this past month and had a wonderful time! I always have a hard time with the whole "party" buying frenzy. I prayed alot before deciding to go ahead and have one making sure that my guests knew that they were under no pressure to buy. I love the blessing of God's word on my walls! That night I read this scripture during the party and encouraged them to use this company to design scripture to go on their walls if they felt the Lord leading them to do that.

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on your doorframes of your houses and on your gates so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers." Duet 11:18-21

It was such a fun night as 13 ladies showed up....one even drove all the way from Tulsa! What a blessing to get to share with them all that the Lord has done for us and enjoy a sweet time of fellowship with them. Uppercase Living has a very cool product called MyDesign. You can literally make your very own designs to go on your walls. I needed to get Claire's name and verse ordered (that post will be above) and I had a really hard time deciding on what scriptures
I wanted to create to put where. I want them everywhere!!! These two turned out perfect for the spaces I wanted to put them in. I still have one verse that I would like to have but I am waiting on the Lord to reveal the place where it would go. If you are interested in checking out their website here is the link:

http://debbieyoung.uppercaseliving.net

A Bear for Claire

A Bear for Claire....

Giving the bear a bath.

Each time that we have been expecting a child we have gone to Build-A-Bear to make the new baby a stuffed animal...this time our mission was a Bear for Claire!!

I don't know how many bears Abigail kissed but she definately sweetened many of the stuffed animals up a bit.

Yes, she is trying to put on the clothes for the stuffed animals. Silly Abby Ruth!

Picking out the perfect bear for Claire!...What a fun time we had picking out a bear, stuffing her, giving her a bath and finding her some clothes and bows to wear! We are sure that Claire will love her new bear!

Vacation

They love to ride ANY ride. This was a nicely spent $.75. Just look at the joy!

Abigail found a kitchen playset quickly at the Disney Store.

The three monkeys!

So sweet! Abigail looooves Carson. He is such a good brother and always tries to "help" her and herd her around.

Carson wanted a picture with Abigail. :)

Carson wanted a picture with the reindeer!

Andrew DID NOT want a picture with Carson.

The little Sissy fell asleep while we were waiting for the train ride at Silver Dollar City! Daddy said he didn't mind at all.

We loved that at Silver Dollar City they really made it evident that Christmas was about Christ's Birthday!!

Andrew....what a cutie pie!

I had to add these pics because this is what Abigail is constantly doing....putting things on and pulling things off. She loves to go to the boys room and open thier dressers and put on thier clothes. During vacation we had the boys clothes laid out so she decided to dawn the underwear and as you can see after we got to laughing about it Carson also joined in the sillines.

Vacation. A much needed time of rest and family fun! We went to Branson this year in November to see the Christmas lights at Silver Dollar City! It was very fun! They have over 5 million lights strung up and a 5 story Christmas tree! We did some shopping, lots of eating and enjoyed being together! The last night we were there we went to The Dixie Stampede Christmas Show...it was so fun and they even had a wonderful nativity scene in the show! Thank you Lord for providing a time for us to relax and have fun as a family as you began to prepare our hearts for the Christmas Season!

Lunch with The Tumlisons!!

On our way to vacation in Branson we got to meet up with our friends The Tumlison Family for lunch at Hideaway Pizza! It took the kids a little to warm up to each other but then they were as crazy as ever! So fun to get to see and love on our Honduran friends! We can't wait till they come and spend some time with us to celebrate Andrew's birthday in late February!

Mommy's Helpers

Just some fun pics of the kidos helping cook Cookie Brownies...yummo!

Claire Isabel in 3D!

This picture is a side picture of her body. You can see a little of her head in the upper left, she has one fist over her eyes and then her other arm folded behind her ear on the left. Her leg stretching out from the bottom middle of the picture to the right side. Daddy said she needs to put on some weight, she looks pretty skinny right now!

Here is a picture of her face with both hands on the sides of her face.

Another view of her face with her arms on each side.

Another of her face, a little hard to see because she was playing with her cord!

What a fun day! This past friday on our way to Branson we got to see Claire Isabel playing in 3D. Amazingness! I will try to load the video to YOUTUBE for those that are interested. She was very active stretching, playing with her toes, hands and then the umbilical cord. She loved to put her hands on her face almost like she was playing peek-a-boo. 12 more weeks till we get to snuggle our littlest princess! Thank you Lord for this most precious baby girl!