Aurelia's day out

Sunday was a big day for Aurelia as her and I finally ventured out of the house for more than a couple of hours. I was very excited to see people again at church... it had seemed like forever since I had been there! And of course, everyone adored Aurelia.. and she did very well while Pastor Len was speaking.. she slept the whole time :) On the first Sunday of every month, a couple puts together a pancake breakfast before Sunday School and church, and a small number of people come, so it was nice to get there a bit early and already be there when the crowds came in... it was less overwhelming for all three of us :)

Sunday evening we decided to head to our evening service (which Pastor Len made a bit shorter for sake of the 'big game') and then we went over to Cass City to hang out with the Cass City Missionary Church youth group at their Super Bowl party. It was a pretty good time with lots of good food! Aurelia didn't get bothered so much because the teens didn't really want to hold her, so she ate and then went right to sleep, and slept until we got home.

Over all, it was a pretty good Sunday!

The first week...

It has been a little over a week now since we have had Aurelia with us, and it has probably been one of the longest weeks I can remember. It was filled with overwhelming joy, frustration, irritability, sleep deprivation, but most of all, lots of love.

When people say that the first week is the worst and the hardest week of having a baby, I think I could agree, now that I have been through it. Josh and I have had our world turned upside down, but God has been good in working through it with us. We have been surrounded by wonderful people, and our families have been nothing but helpful!

It is amazing to me all the emotions that I felt from hour to hour... Aurie and I were having some troubles nursing, which was the hardest part for me, but we are slowly learning together, and it has been a wonderful experience. I have learned patience in a whole new way, having this tiny baby relying on me to give her food and to take care of her. It is so wonderful, and scary at the same time!

Sleeping hasn't been too bad, I don't think... Josh and I take shifts sleeping on the couch with Aurie in her bouncer... she seems to sleep much better in that than in her bassinet right now. It also gives each of us a more peaceful couple hours of sleep, which is still very much needed at this point :P

Josh has been wonderful to Aurie and I! He is such a wonderful Daddy, and I believe that having Aurie is helping us to become closer to each other. It is also bringing us closer to God, which has been so renewing for myself. I am so thankful for both Aurelia and my wonderful husband -- they have both helped me to grow spiritually and emotionally (and thanks to Aurelia, physically, too :P), and I know that I have been so blessed!

Praise God for our wonderful little family :) I can't wait to see what he has in store for us!

"Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear"

Ephesians 4:29

This is our memory verse for this week... It is a good reminder for me, and one verse that I need to remember, because I know that I am not always the best at following it.

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.