mother-in-law

I was up in my soon to be in-laws bed room. I can't remember exactly what we were doing but Diane (my soon to be mother-in-law) told me I could call her "mom" if I wanted. I felt a little funny with that. I told her I thought I'd just call her Diane if that would be okay.

Now after almost four years of being married to Patrick I could call his mom a lot of things. Diane, Mother-in-law, Mom, BaBa (Lydia's term for both grandma and grandpa). I could probably think of a few more but he one that is sticking out the most in my mind right now is friend.

On August 17th Patrick's mom was riding her bike and had an accident. She wasn't wearing a helmet and most likely flipped over the handle bars. She suffered major injuries to her head, broke her clavicle and fractured her pelvis.

It's been ten days since her accident. Ten days since I waited in a "family room" outside of the ER begging the Lord to just let me hear the words "she's alive." Well I praise the Lord she IS alive! She did   have to have surgery on her brain to stop bleeding and remove some clotting. The Lord has been answering many prayers as tons of people have called out to Him to intervene in this situation. He brought her through a successful surgery and has given us many victories each day since the accident.

If you don't know my mother-in-law, you are missing out. She's a fiery woman. A fiery, sweet, compassionate, generous, self-sacrificing, friendly, use it up-wear it out-do without type of woman. Most of all, what describes her best is that she loves Jesus. And because of his love towards her she LAVISHLY pours her love out on others.

Diane constantly shows up at our house with gifts. She'll come with big boxes of diapers for Lydia, randomly show up with a baby mattress, sends a check in the mail to help out with unexpected trying expenses (sends in the mail attached with scripture to encourage me to cling to the Lord in this trial).

She's not your typical stay at home mom. Her calendar is always full. Watching other peoples kids, having people over for dinner, going to visit shut-ins from church (to do their nails), hosting/speaking at baby showers or wedding showers, visiting people in the hospital, coming to visit her beloved grandkids.

It's taken me ten days to write this post because I couldn't (and still can't) think of adequate words to describe my mother in law. My eyes are filled with tears thinking of how much this woman means to me. She really is a dear FRIEND.

I keep wanting to call her and just talk. I want to go over to their house for dinner and have her turn around from the counter and pick up Lydia or Kesid and give them a big BaBa hug. I want to go on a walk with her and pray. I just want to give her a real hug.

I pray that one day I'll get to do all those things again. Right now thats just not the case though. I am unable to do those things. I just have to wait. Waiting along side family who love this woman so much is hard. Thankfully though we are not alone in this wait.

Through out this whole trial I have felt sustained and comforted by God. He has been so faithful to us during this time. Never leaving us nor forsaking us. We are confident that no matter what the out come of all this, we serve a faithful and loving Father. He is a good shepherd and cares prefectly for his sheep. We are experiencing these truths in a whole new way. I'm so thankful that when I am weak and when Diane is weak and when all our family sees our frailty and weakness, God is STRONG!

Here are some verses from the Bible that have been encouraging!

Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not stike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.


Habakkuk 3:17-19
Though the fig tree should no blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places

Hebrews 2:17
For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 4:15-16
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet withoutsin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

1 Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by god's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I pray that the God of ALL comforts, our great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weakness would heal Diane! That He would continue to strengthen us as we look to him for he is where our help comes from. We will continue take joy in our salvation though for a little while we are being grieved by this trial. We pray that this would all result in praise and glory and honor to Jesus Christ.

Would you please pray with us!

adding to the mom resume

I gave Lydia a peanut butter covered rice cake at lunch time. After finishing that bad boy off she was quite the mess. Instead of trying to get her cleaned up with just some paper towels I thought we'd have a mid-day bath time.

As I had her in the bath I kept thinking about how she had never pooped in the tub. AND how thankful I was for that! I was sitting on the potty (not going...just sitting on the lid) and Lydia kept saying "potty." I assumed it was just because I was sitting on the potty that she kept saying this. In the back of my head I had this awful feeling. I kept thinking she was going to poop in the tub and that my wonderful record of tons of bath times with no poop was going to be ruined.

I left the bathroom to go grab a screaming Kesid and when I returned there was some extra stuff in the tub with Lydia. NASTY!!!! I laid the still screaming Kesid down in her bouncy seat and got Lydia out of the poop water. Started draining the water and watched as the poo floated down stream to the drain (sorry this post is nasty but it's also kind of hilarious!!).

I wiped Lydia's bottom and then took her to the kitchen sink to finish the bath. I set her on the floor in the kitchen to adjust the water temperature and she PEED!!! Now I have poop sitting on the drain of my tub and pee on my kitchen floor. Lovely! (Don't you want to come over for a play date now)

I got her cleaned up. Removed the nastiness and scrubbed the poo out of my tub. Oh and I cleaned up the pee on the floor.

Thanks Lydia! You've just added to my mom resume (and made our tub a little cleaner).

jacobs family

Meet the Jacobs family. Sweet and hilarious. Also really photogenic.

Had a blast with you all! Hope you enjoy them!

from this to that

funny how she can go from this

to that

kesid: 2 months

Sweet Kesi Ru is 2 months old. Time is flying!!!

This little girl is such a good girl. We have been blessed with another girl with a sweet disposition.

Kesid is generally very content and happy. She is starting to give us lots and lots of smiles. Oh how I love that precious smile!

She is eating every three hours now and has a big stretch at night. The last few nights I've fed her at 10:30 and then again around 6:00-6:30.

I have not been nearly as structured with her schedule as I was with Lydia. When Lydia was little I tried to always keep her awake after eating so that she had the eat, awake, sleep schedule. With Kesid I kind of let her do whatever she wants :). She still follows that pattern pretty close but I'm just a lot more relaxed. When it comes time for her to take 3 naps a day I'm sure I'll get more structured again.

Kesid is a great eater. At the doctors office the other day she weighed 11 lbs 15 oz (80th %tile) and was 24 in long (95th %tile). I looked back at Lydia's stats for this month and she was still under 10 lbs. Kesid is definitely a bigger babe.

Kesid has cooed some but its not very consistent. She has found her fists though and likes to eat them.

 She got her first round of vaccinations at her 2 month appointment. It was sad but I did better than at Lydia's 2 months appointment. At Lyds I cried. I nursed her right after they finished and she cheered up. She didn't run a fever and her legs haven't seemed too sore. She has been a little fussier these past few days. Hopefully that will pass soon!

 She still has a ton of hair. I love her hair line in the front and think this swirl in the back in so sweet.

These have been a fun two months. I love getting to know this little girl. Praising the Lord for his loving kindness in giving us Kesid!!

lydia: 20 months

Lydia was 20 months on July 21st. We were about to leave for vacation so those days were a little busy. Then we went on vacation and those days were busy as well. Now that we're back and settled I thought I'd finally do her post.

Lydia is growing up so fast. Patrick or I comment at least once a day about how big she is getting. I was watching a video of her as a 2 month old earlier to compare her with Kesid and I could hardly believe that was the same Lydia.

She is a ham. This girl loves to smile and make funny faces. She also is great at mimicking. If we dance- she'll dance and if we make a face- she'll make a face and (probably one of my favorites) if we raise our eyebrows she'll squint her eyes trying to do the same.

Her vocabulary is growing everyday. She is saying more things in somewhat sentence form. I'm excited to see how much she learns in the next 4 months (CRAZY!! In four months our sweet girl will be 2 years old).

She LOVES to watch do re mi from the Sound of Music on youtube. It's usually the first thing she asks for in the mornings. She sings along which is also pretty adorable. Lydia has a raspy, almost hoarse sounding voice and it's just so cute and she sings DO DO DO.

I don't know her height or weight but she's a good sized girl. She is still a good eater but has become more picky. She is cutting her canines still. One has finally broken the skin. I'm ready to be done with these teeth!!

Last night was her first night sleeping in a big girl bed! We are so proud of her. She did pretty well. She woke up 4-5 times and came into our room. The first time she had pooped so that one is excused...the others we'll work on! I just laid her down for her first nap in the toddler bed. I laid her down, read a book, sang her normal night time song (the doxology) and told her not to get up but to go to sleep. She didn't get up! We'll see how long she naps though :)

Doing all this big girl stuff makes me want to potty train her. Maybe in September I'll start trying.

We are still right in the middle of discipline city. I think she has improved a little on obeying when we ask her to come or stop something. There is still tons of room for improvement but I'm thankful for the progress we've made. Praying that the Lord would give her a heart that is able to obey!

Happy 20 months sweet big sister!