Four years of Joy

Yesterday we celebrated four years of life with Shandie Rhylin. Her name means "God’s Gift of Joy" and she truly does bring us so much joy!

I went into my pregnancy with some fear. I was in the middle of some chronic health issues and dealing with an autoimmune disease, I had hemorrhaged the last three births, and I was 43 years old. I didn't consider my age a factor at all but when dealing with the medical field your age can definitely make things tricky when I preferred to go completely natural and your health provider wants you to do every test imaginable! I was probably his worst nightmare as a patient because I said no to everything! 

I had a wonderful pregnancy with Shandie and ended up going two weeks overdue with her. My labor and birth was uneventful and I didn't hemorrhage with her! I pushed her into this world without the doctor being in the room and our sweet nurse caught her.

This brown eyed, curly haired beauty has been such a blessing to our family. She is all things girlie! Tutu's, baby dolls, ribbons and bows, and she lavishly shares sweet kisses with everyone she loves! The Lord has mighty plans for Shandie's little life! I absolutely love this tiny girl and am so grateful that God chose me to be her mama! 

HaPPy BiRtHdAy SHANDIE!!!

 

Memories

The other night my son pulled up my blog and we sat and had a walk thru memory lane. I started this blog in 2008. In the nine years since I've had three more babies, we've had three children move out, two get married, four grandbabies were added, we endured years of chronic illness and the stress that comes with that, we will soon have our fifth high school graduate, we started a home based business, and we relocated our entire family to a new state. Those are the most memorable and biggest of our memories over the last nine years but there has been so many smaller and equally special memories to fill in the space between.
I am so grateful for memories. The good and the bad. The ones that bring laughter and even more so the ones that still cause the tears to flow. No matter how much suffering you went through, you never want to let go of those memories. The hard times refine you and mold you into who you are even more so than the good times.
As our children grow and one by one leave the nest I find that I am on a mission...a mission to create more memories. To create memories that our children can carry with them as they start their own families, memories that I can think back to when the day comes that the noise and laughter of our busy home quiets down, and memories that can be shared and passed down with the generations to come. I want to create a legacy with our memories.
With 2018 just around the corner I am thinking about the bucket list I want to make for our new year and the memories that are just waiting to be created. I will continue to snap pictures of every smile and laugh and I will look for the moments that need blown on to create the spark that will turn into a fire of memories. We will gather together on Sunday evenings for our family dinners and laugh together, I will document life and I will purpose to create moments that will birth into legacy memories. I will hold the moments, and pursue the little things because these are the things that the greatest memories come from.

“Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.” 
 -- L.M. Montgomery