Help please?

I have created a new blog (other than the one I created yesterday) for the Pre-K department to use as we communicate with parents. My goal was originally to have the blog posts e-mailed to parents as we created them. The only place I can find to do this will only allow me to enter 10 e-mails. Any idea how we can set it up so that they'll get e-mails?

I have a new blog!

I've started a new blog! My hope is that I can use this blog to post my thoughts about Pre-K as well as my projects and fun discoveries my kiddos make. :) Feel free to check it out! I'm still messing with the format and stuff, so I'd love to hear your input!

Learning As We Play

There are no words...

Tuesday I got a phone call from a friend that turned my world upside down. A very dear, very sweet, very wonderful, very close friend was in the hospital and the doctors feared the worst - brain cancer. This week has been an emotional roller coaster and I still don't have words to describe what we've been walking through this week. Please pray for my sweet friend. She's young and has two small babies at home. My heart aches in a way I can't describe. Please please please pray! You can follow her updates on her Caring Bridge website:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/brandigreer

There are no words. Just pray.

Pictures and Crafts

Today is Easter! Oh what a glorious day! I saw someone say on Facebook that without Easter, Christmas is just another day on the calendar. It struck a chord in my heart. What a happy day! Unfortunately, I've been sick for a solid 9 days and am still stuck in the house. I'm sad I couldn't go to church to celebrate LIFE today! However, I did get a craft done for my classroom and it turned out so fantastic I just had to share!!

An old sock, a few fabric scraps, and VOILA!

A dinosaur claw for the pretend and learn center! Add another sock and a crazy Hubsters and what do you get?

DJ-a-saurus!

As I was e-mailing pictures to myself, I was scrolling through the pictures on my phone and found a few more that I needed to share - as an apology for not blogging as much lately!!

This is just for you Steph! I have fallen in love with yogurt buffets lately. This one is from Purple Berri in Rockwall. We went twice in two days. We'll be returning soon! From now on, special occassions will be marked by trips to one of these most delightful places! Oh how I am in love!

I'm also in love with this man!

He's a little bit silly, a little bit crazy, and a lot a bit wonderful! He has been the world's best care-taker the past week or so! He's run to the store 8 million times for whatever new medication I needed and made more scrambled eggs than you can imagine! Love you babe!

I found another picture I'd never shared with you. A co-teacher was reading a story with her class and they were keeping track of all the characters in the story. As she attempted to draw one particular character, one of her students confidently said, "Hey! That looks just like the President!"

I'll let you add your own comments...

I also found a picture of this little sign that we discoverd in a small shop while we were on our anniversary trip last summer.



Amen.

Spring

In the past few weeks the fields have exploded with new life. I personally think Texas wildflowers are God's apology for the lack of mountains and trees and the unbearable summers! When I drive on the highway my heart fills with joy over the beauty that explodes around me. Just when everything was so gray and dead we thought hope would never come, new life springs forth! It makes me want to sing and dance...as soon as I stop sneezing!

I often imagine what Heaven will be like. I wonder what streets paved with gold really look like - how it'll feel beneath my feet. I think maybe God gave us wildflowers to give us a sneak peak into the Glory of Heaven where we'll get to spend eternity... (Allergy free, of course!)

God spilled the paint...

Moving On

The past month has been full of emotions for us. In it all, God has revealed His heart and has shown us how breath-taking and beautiful He is.

In the weeks after our miscarriage I was convinced my heart would never heal. I walked around in a stunned fog of pain. I was certain I would always have a giant scar deep inside that I would feel every day. And while I can say that my heart will never be the same, I think God has transformed that ugly scar into something much more beautiful - a heart that continues to follow Him.

I've thought about Heaven a lot lately. I read "Heaven is for Real" about a little boy who went to Heaven during emergency surgery and spent some time with Jesus before coming back to Earth to live the rest of his life. He told his parents stories of heaven and little details for several years before they compiled it into one book. The biggest moment for me was when the little boy shared about a sister he'd never met (or known about). His mom miscarried early in the pregnancy and the baby was in heaven waiting for Mom and Dad. I have clung to those words as I imagined the love my baby must be receiving in the Throne Room. I cherish images of my grandmother, great-aunt, and great-grandmother loving on our baby and spoiling it with the love they lavished on me when I was a child. My child never knew sin. He or she never knew the pain of this world. The first thing my baby ever saw was the Savior's face. That's a pretty beautiful thing, if you ask me.

There are moments when I wonder how God must feel, watching His children reject Him every day. Then I imagine how He must have felt when He chose for His Child to die for people who didn't deserve to live. The ache in my heart seems like nothing compared to what God did for me. Nothing.

Not all of my moments have been so happy. There have been times when I wanted to beat my fists against God and scream and yell at Him for taking the baby I wanted so desperately. I've wanted to storm the gates of Heaven and take my baby back. I've wanted to demand that God give me a healthy pregnancy now! I have cried so hard I thought my face was going to break. I have hurt in ways I've never hurt before. I have been fearful and teary and I've complained about my lot in life. I've told Hubsters a thousand times that life was NOT suppossed to go this way!

But in the end, my heart knows that God is still God. This hurt doesn't make sense right now, but I know God's not sitting in Heaven completely shocked at what's going on in my life. I know He's in control and He's working everything out for my good and His Glory. I've clung to the promises in Scripture - especially:
"I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name." (Isaiah 45:3)
God is revealing His treasures of darkness. I am hearing His voice as He calls me by name. My ugly, painful scar is being transformed into a heart that beats for Him alone. In it all, God is still God and I am His child.

Breaking the silence

I've been writting this post in my head for a while. Now that I sit down to write, my heart is racing at the thought of giving my thoughts a voice.

It is no secret that what I want more than just about anything in this life is to be a mom. I came out of the womb ready to cradle a baby and have built my career around having young children in my life. After the Hubsters and I had been married for a little over a year, we stopped taking the birth control pills and started looking towards the next chapter in our life. I was amazed by the things that no one told me! When I was 13 and hated my period each month, I never could have imagined how disappointing it would be to see it come right on schedule. I never could have dreamed how many people I would be drawn to in Wal-Mart simply because they had a baby on their hip or in their belly. No one ever told me how my heart would ache to see a pregnant woman just walking by. Everyone did say that in order to get pregnant, I needed to "not want it". I've heard it countless times from a hundred different friends. However, if we didn't want a pregnancy right now, we would still be on the pill. There is nothing in my heart that knows how to "not want" a baby! I eventually had to stop checking my Facebook feed. With 23 pregnant friends, my heart couldn't take much more pregnancy news!

I finally came to a place where I was at peace waiting for the Lord's timing. I still wanted to have a baby as much (if not more) than ever before. However, I was content to wait until the Lord's perfect timing came to pass. Then, on March 3rd, the pregnancy test finally showed what I feared would never happen. That beautiful blue line confirmed that my upset stomach was not a stomach bug - but a baby! There aren't words to describe that moment. My heart soared and the Hubsters and I started dreaming and planning. We couldn't believe the Lord had chosen us to be parents for this sweet angel growing inside.

One week later, I heard the words every woman fears. The words I will never forget as long as I live. "I'm sorry, but you've had a miscarriage." Seven words brought our dreams and plans and joy to a screaching hault. The baby was gone. There was nothing we did or didn't do. There's no reason. The baby probably never had a chance at surviving so it died.

It's been 5 days and my heart is still in shock. The doctor doesn't feel it's a cause for concern for any future pregnancies and was very optimistic that we got pregnant as quickly as we did. However, my heart feels forever changed. I will forever have a past miscarriage. I will forever have a baby I can't meet until heaven. I know we'll be OK. We'll continue to plan and dream and move towards having the big family we've always wanted.

But for now, this is healing time. Time for me draw close to my husband and my King. Time to rest on the promises the Lord has given that He has plans and His plans are perfect.