Aurelia Jane Hill

So, the last post I wrote was on the 24th.. the night before Aurie made her entrance into the world... and now she's here!

I can't believe how fast time has gone by -- Or all the things that we have been through and that have changed. It has been a crazy 5 days, and we have been super tired, but it has all been a big blessing. Already we are starting t see Aurie's personality come out, and it is fun to watch her becoming more alert! It was nice to have Grammie Ricolo here for a few days to help us out: She made us meals, helped with Aurie, and then Grampy came and they helped us to get the nursery more in order.

It was also nice for Grandma and Grandpa Hill to make a surprise visit!

Josh is such a good daddy :) He loves being with Aurie and feeding her, and he got to change her first diaper in the hospital when I couldn't get out of bed very easily :) She seems to really calm down if she is upset when Daddy holds her... its pretty cute!

So there's a small update on life with a new baby.... we are excited to see how God is going to be working through her and through us as she grows up!!

Baby Hill, among other things.

I can't believe that time has gone by so fast... week 37 of our pregnancy is here and Baby Hill should be making his/her arrival very soon! Despite my fears of labor and delivery early in the pregnancy, I am now urging the baby to start this process for him/her to arrive; I think it will be worth it to be able to meet the newest member of our family!

I don't think that I've had this many doctor appointments in my life :P I am up to one a week, plus this week I have two extras, with the WIC program. It has been beneficial, though, because I have been learning a lot from most of the appointments. Lately I have been just going on my own, because they are just regular checkups, and they take about ten minutes, once I am with the doctor, so Josh and I decided that it isn't really necessary for him to miss a walk through or something else for it. It is also nice because these last appointments are in Frankenmuth, which is at least 20 minutes closer than Saginaw. I am really liking that, especially since getting in and our of the van is becoming more and more of a challenge!

I would say that it is pretty amazing the changes I've had within the last couple of weeks regarding labor/delivery, but I have realized that when I stay in God's Word and really live for Him everyday, the anxiety and fear of labor seems to dissipate. It has been so good to have such support not only from our family members, but from friends also - making sure I am not overdoing things, or helping out when they can. Josh has also been wonderful... I am pretty sure he is a better cook than I am, though (he's at least more creative than I am. That's the real reason he makes dinner and lunch -- he gets bored of macaroni & cheese everyday :P)

We have decided to memorize a verse or two every week together, which I think will be good for us. Our game plan is to choose a memory verse from either the lesson in Sunday school or the sermon from Pastor Len. I think it will help us to become closer with each other as well as build our relationship with God and our understanding of the Word. The verses we chose for this week are Ephesians 4:1-2. I don't know them yet, because we just chose them today, so maybe tomorrow I will put them up here...

Oh, and we had a youth game night last night, because Kingston had no school today... about 10 kids showed up, and we had a pretty good time. Josh played Monopoly with the guys (it lasted about three hours, I think) while Kevin and I played a few different games with everyone else. Although we were hoping for a bigger turnout, I will admit that I found it to be really relaxing having a small group of teens there... less clean up and more individual time to get to know them better!

Writing the Bible

While I was driving to a doctor appointment a couple weeks ago, I heard on the radio about this guy who had decided to write the entire bible.... At first I thought that that was an insanely crazy idea... (they said he went through around five hundred pencils, I think!) but then it got me thinking. When I write things down, they tend to stick better in my mind -- Read it, Write it, Remember it. So I decided to give it a try. I started small, though, because I don't have 50o pencils right now (although we do have a huge bag full of them from when Josh and I both worked for the census). I decided to start with 2 Peter, and it has been very thought provoking and helpful, if I am not trying to watch TV while I am doing it.

Yesterday, I wrote about how Christ is our example, and how he did not complain or whine while he endured the suffering that he endured for all of us. He committed not a single sin, but was put through more than I can ever imagine being put through, physically, emotionally and mentally. And still, through it all, he cried out to God, who he knew was there with him. I think about all the times that I feel uncomfortable or when I am sick, and this kind of helped put Jesus in perspective a bit more for me.

How can I whine and complain about [labor&deliverypains, for a start] when Jesus endured so much more than that, and for ME? I am not worthy of such love, yet he shows it to me every single day. What a great God we serve, what a wonderful Father we have!

Review of the Precious Moments Storybook Bible

The Precious Moments Storybook Bible is a bible created for young children. It is broken into four different sections: Favorite Bible Classics, Words of Praise and Wisdom, More Stories of the Faith, and Songs & Prayers. The book is filled with many pictures.

When reading children's bible, or storybook bibles such as this, my main focus is not on the pictures or how easy it is to understand, but the accuracy of the scripture used; it can be difficult to make a children's bible understandable for the child and also scripturally accurate. I believe that while this bible leaves out some detail that small children might not understand, it does a pretty decent job in maintaining scriptural accuracy. I believe that it is the parents' job to fill in the missing pieces of each story so that the children do not think of these as ONLY stories, but as accurate accounts of real past events. I do, however, think that while precious moments characters are cute and cuddly, they give children even more of a false belief that these stories are nothing more than just stories.

I believe that this book is a good starting point in teaching your children about the Bible and the characters of the Bible, and I would recommend it to others only if they are willing to take the stories a step further, and to emphasize that they are in fact real stories that happened a long time ago.

Blind Hope by Kim Meeder and Laurie Sacher

Blind Hope is a book about love, faith, and trust in the things unseen. It tells the story of an unwanted, mangy dog and the woman who rescues her. In the journey to help the dog regain its strength, Laurie begins to learn valuable life lessons from the dog; she realizes that it is not her helping the dog, but the dog helping her.

I believe that this book is a wonderful story, especially in the fact that it is a true story. While the story is a great one, the writing of the book is not as appealing. The authors tend to be so anxious to get their story across that they end up taking away from the simply amazing story of what Laurie learned from her new friend, and how she learned it. The excruciatingly detailed accounts of the landscape or the soup that they were eating took away from the real, deep, inspiring point of the book. This made it difficult to keep my attention and to follow along with the important parts of the story.

I believe that this book has potential to be a great book, but based on the trouble it had keeping my full attention, I don't think I would recommend this book to a friend -- at least not without a warning first.

Everything Christmas by David Bordon and Tom Winters

Everything Christmas is an enlightening, sometimes humorous book full of Christmas cheer. Inside the covers of this book, you will find fun facts about this holiday season, the history of Christmas traditions from all over the world, tasty recipes for the holidays, great gift ideas, and much more.

The book is broken down into 24 days, which can be used as an Advent calendar, but you might find yourself reading two or three days ahead because it is very informative and fun to read.

I enjoyed learning the history behind certain traditions of the Christmas season, as well as learning about how Christmas is celebrated in other countries around the world.I also like how the authors include the Christ Child in the back of the book, as well as Scripture throughout the book to enhance the true meaning of the Christmas season. If you are feeling super adventurous, this book even gives you the opportunity to learn how to say "Merry Christmas" in over 15 languages!

I would recommend this book to all of those who love the Christmas season and want to learn more about why we celebrate the way that we do. It is a fun read, and has many suggestions on starting your own family traditions!

A Year With God by RP Nettelhorst

A Year With God is a devotional book that has daily devotions based on passages from the Old Testament. Arranged by topic, each devotion gives a passage to read as well as some insight about what that passage means and how we can apply it to our lives today. The author's intent was to create a devotional that not only helps you understand the Old Testament in context, but also to help you apply it to your life.

This daily devotional has been quite interesting to me so far, helping me to understand more of the Old Testament and why God did what He did. The author uses many different versions of scripture, keeping the readings interesting as well as challenging. The author's insight is also very helpful. It is not full of his opinions, but is good at breaking down the text in a way that everyone can understand, and then adding one or two sentences on how to apply it to our daily life. His interpretations leave room for independent study on the topic or passage that he wrote about that day.

If you are looking for a daily devotional book to challenge you and to bring insight to God's words of the Old Testament, I would recommend this book to you.