A Prayer for Ellie

David's prayer for Ellie tonight:

Dear Eldie (aka Ellie), I mean dear Jesus,

Thank you for our baby. Thank you our baby is growing. Help her to keep growing and help her heart (I think he was referring to having Jesus in your heart or possibly when we talk about his heart needing to be clean, etc). Thank you for our lego's, thank you for my toys, thank you for my bible. (This is where I asked if he was done praying for Ellie). Thank you for Eldie. Thank you that I can rub her head, thank you that I can pat her bum. Help Eldie to sleep good. Goodnight Ellie. I love you.

I'm adopted, are you??

Prior to have children, I worked at Bethany Christian Services in their foster care department in Philadelphia. I learned so many life lessons, way too many to count. In the past several years I have been so busy trying to figure out this mothering thing that I have not given a lot of thought to my time in foster care and adoption. Recently, God has been really laying adoption on my heart. I don't exactly know what that means for us-will we adopt in the future, are we meant to support more adoptions, pray more for those who needs homes? I really don't know-that's why I pray.

However, through all of my prayer and reflection over the past few weeks and months, I have become more thankful for my own adoption. Not an earthly adoption, but my adoption as a daughter of the Lord. Oh, how glorious my heavenly father is to me. He is so awesome-in so many ways. It's hard to explain it all here, but if you ever want to know more-look me up and I would be glad to share. The great thing about this adoption is that it is free....you can all have it! All Christ asks of us is to believe in him....to believe he has died for our sins....that we cannot, in our own power, achieve live good lives. We need his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. He took His sins upon Himself. And, if we accept His free gift through faith alone in Christ alone, we are guaranteed eternal life with Him someday. I don't have to lots of good things to win His favor. I believe I WANT to do good and be more Godly, but my actions don't dictate my eternal life with Him. All I have been required to do is to accept Him as THE Savior and my Savior.

Why do I say all of this? I don't know really-it's my blog and I can do it, that's why. No, really, my heart has been so burdened for the people in my life that do not know the Lord as their personal Savior. They put their faith in the church, in themselves, in their good deeds or whatever, but at the end of it all-that all does not matter. Life ends-either through death or through the eventual return of the Lord. When those times come, our eternal life will begin. It is my prayer that all I know will one day live in Heaven with me because I love them and I do not want them to face the other eternal alternative.

I feel like I am rambling and I likely am. I began this blog as a personal (yet public) journal and I guess tonight I decided to share what has burdened my heart with all of you.

Thank you Lord for adopting me as your daughter!

"we're getting old, mommy"

Tonight while he was going to bed, David told me his legs were getting old. Here is the rest of the conversation...

D: "We're getting old, mommy"

M: "Really dude, why are we getting old?"

D: "We drink too much."

Me to myself: Really? Where is he going with this? Am I up for whatever it coming?

Me to him: "What are we drinking that is making us old?"

D: "Mommy, we are drinking too much water and that is making us too old. And too much juice too. It's making our legs old".

Learning to Rhyme

David is beginning to recognize when words rhyme. It is neat to see this skill developing in him. Or should I say it WAS, that is until he rhymed these words tonight while doing his Thomas the train engine puzzle.

me: "R" rrrr Rheneas, Rheneas (i mis-pronounced it Rhenes) begins with "R"

David: Rhenes rhymes with Penis. Penis. Penis rhymes with Rhenes.

Although no one wants to encourage potty talk, I couldn't help but giggle. He asked why I was laughing and before I could answer he said "mommy, I guess you are laughing because you thought I was telling a joke. I am not telling a joke. I am rhyming words. You shouldn't laugh because I am not telling a joke." Sorry, kid. Oh, I think we are beginning the boy world of potty talk. yea!

A Child's Prayer Addition

Tonight David added a new line to his standard prayer and it touched my heart.

Thank you Jesus,

Thank you for mommy, daddy, Ellie, bear guy, David, grandma Rutt, grandma Clapper, grandpa, pop-pop. Keep them safe, bless them. Thank you for dying on the cross for our sins. Amen

My baby is 8 months old

Ellie Elizabeth Clapper

Dear Sweetest Little Miss Ellie,

I cannot believe you are already 8 months old. You are still my little peanut that it is hard to believe that you are so close to your first year milestone. I am so very thankful that God has loaned you to us-I love you so very much. Your smile coupled with those big brown bright eyes light up a room and my heart. The best part of every day is when I walk into your room in the morning or after a nap and you look up at me with the biggest smile. Then you start playing being shy and you put your head down, suck your thumb and then look up at me again with a huge smile. It's such a fun game. Oh, I love your smile. I love your eyes. I love all of you!

You are beginning to explore your world through rolling over. It's a little late in coming, but that is OK with me. I have been able to enjoy holding and snuggling you longer before you push me away in return for your freedom to explore. I enjoy seeing you roll over and attempt to reach your toys. You pure joy while you are playing is so neat to see.

Some of your loves right now-your big brother for sure. You turn towards his voice every time and laugh at absolutely anything he does. I do hope you think he is this cool when he is breaking your toys, torturing your dolls or using your lipstick for hunting paint. And he loves you too...he is getting into you more and more each day. He holds you more now than he did when you were first born. Even tonight, you were crying when I put you in your crib (which is highly unusual-I think you were overtired). David said that you were crying because you didn't want to go to bed. He brought a toy over and told me to put it into your crib because it would make you feel better. You are enjoying moving more and being able to play with more toys. You love your thumb...you always have and nothing has changed. I love watching you suck your thumb....too darn cute. You love people....watching people smiling at people. You love when I sing to you...you usually smile wide and give a little laugh-am I that bad?? Last night when we were at the store and you were in the sling, I held your little head in my hands and sang to you. You smiles the widest smile and just stared at me. AHHH, I loved it.

Some of your dislikes......food. Now that's one I just don't understand. You already just eat to survive. That will be good for you in the future, but it does cause mommy some stress now. It will likely cause me stress in the future too because I eat because I enjoy it and if you are never like that, I will be stressed that I am the only woman in the house who enjoys eating. Sometimes you suck down a bottle, the next day it takes you an hour to drink oz. You will eat your baby food, but if it's not offered you don't complain. And snacks like puffs, forget about it. You still do not like to sleep on your back and if you roll to your back you just lay there and cry. One of these days I would love if you could remember that you can indeed roll back to your stomach. You do not like being tired and not being able to sleep when you want to. You are fine sleeping on a shoulder or in the sling, but you need to sleep when you want to sleep. You are a great sleeper. 7 p.m.-8/9 p.m. And two 3 hour naps. You apparently don't like to grow hair either because you don't have too much of that yet. It is growing however slowly that may be. It is such a shame that your brother had his first haircut before 10 months and you don't even have enough to comb yet.

Although I thought I couldn't make it one more night without sleep when you were a newborn, there are days that I yearn for you to wake up at night just one more time. I just want to hold you in the silence of the night just one more time. To hold you when there is nothing else to distract me....Every night I go upstairs to kiss and pray for you and your brother. There are times when I crawl into bed with David and just lay with him, listen to him breathe, study his growing features and pray for him. I usually end with your room and I pick you up and hold you, sing to you and pray for you too. I do pray that you and your brother will grow up to have one passion...Christ and your relationship with him. Sure, a mother wants their children to succeed in life and have employment, but most of all I want you to be on fire for the Lord. The time will come where your light will want to be extinguished yet I pray that you stand strong and keep your light burning. Oh, my heart aches when I think of you living life without the Lord. It keeps me on my knees....I pray for you and for wisdom for daddy and I as we parent you.

I didn't know if I wanted more than one child. I was scared by the thought of it (since I was an only child), but oh I am so happy we made the decision to have you. You have enriched my life in many ways. I love you and your brother so very much. I love seeing you both grow and learn new things. I really enjoy seeing the two of you together.

Happy 8 months baby girl. Momma loves you!

Chocolate World

Last week the kids and I went to Lancaster to visit friends and family (and to give dad a guilt-free week where he could work as much as he wanted). Grandpa Rutt took off one day to do something special with David and I. Grandpa works a lot and we don't often spend a lot of time with him. We so greatly enjoy the time we have with him. David loves his grandpa so very much and loves being with him. Our day trip this time was a visit to Hershey Chocolate World. David loved the little ride-we rode it several times. Why not? It's free and they give you candy at the end. After several trips, I said we had to stop because the people were going to start thinking that we were going through the ride just for the candy.

After the ride we went to a 3D show. He loved the glasses. The show, not so much. There were definitely some sound effects that could definitely frighten a child. He still talks about the elephant that spit water at him and the spider that came to his face. Our time could not be complete without some chocolate, of course. Grandpa, being the sucker he is for high priced yet fun things for kids, allowed David to become a Hershey Kiss packager. $10 later we walked away with a factory worker hat, "official" badge and 20 kisses. Oh well, he loved it (and grandpa paid).

Our day was not complete without a visit to grandpa's fire house. My dad used to be a firefighter when I was younger and he is a lifetime member of his firehouse. That allows him access to the firehouse. We just sat in firetrucks for what seemed like eternity. Oh, but he loved every minute. Grandpa and I were given orders as to what we were to do when we arrived at the fire, where we were to ride, what maps to look at, etc.

We had a great day together. I always treasured my times with my dad as a kid-I was a true daddy's little girl. Things haven't changed yet-I love our times together. It is so awesome to see how much he loves my children. His time is very scarce and it means the world to me that he gave it up to spend it with us. An even bigger thanks has to go to my mom who watched Ellie given that she has a strong preference to being with me other than any other individual. She was a trooper to love on Ellie all day despite Ellie not reciprocating that love!