The words entered my thoughts just before I woke up this morning. This is the time God speaks the loudest to me; or is it that it is so quiet, it is the best time for me to hear Him? At any rate, the contrast hit home. If I am going to be a mother of covenant with God and then my children (who are now young adults), IT WILL NEVER BE BY CONVENIENCE! !!!!! In fact, only covenant will or can keep me in the game over time.

To clarify, I love my sons, always will…..and sometimes I struggle with their choices and what they consider their needs (especially when it comes to my time and effort and how I must juggle my own agenda to meet their real needs) since they are adults now. Okay, forget about my inadequacies and look back at King David. In fact, go back further and read in Exodus what God told Moses about building and caring for the ark. Exodus 25:10 would be a good place to start. Then go to 1 Chronicles 13 and read about David’s attempt to get the ark back if you do not recall the facts. [Read more...]

My husband and I have been looking forward to buying a house for several years.  We love our 2 bedroom condo and we own it, but we would like something a bit bigger for when we expand our family.  Right now our son’s room is also the office and  linen closet!  Anyway, my husband made some calculated, researched decisions and invested money into a particular stock.  He has been following this stock for a couple years, praying that it will pay off and we will be able to buy our house.  Yesterday, we discovered the stock will not pay off and is, in essence, dead money, at least for another year. [Read more...]

April 2007 I was a mess. Having had accepted Christ as my Savior in the eighth grade I knew of Him, but at this point in my life I was not living with Him. I was desperate for answers and direction and did what any obsessively controlling person would do, I plotted the best ways out or around the mess I was in.

Looking back, I wish I had surrendered control to the Lord. Lucky for me God is a God of mercy and grace and while I insisted to do things my way, God continued to use my every mistake to shape me into the Sophia he created me to be. He’s one very patient God as he’s been shaping me daily since birth and still is.

August 2007 my world fell into shambles. I frantically tried to piece things together and somehow glue back the family I was losing. I thought at the time that I was teaching my then husband a lesson or two about how things should be and got slapped in the face with a divorce petition. [Read more...]

It took us 6 1/2 years to get pregnant with Robbie and Abbey, so you can imagine the surprise and joy we felt when we found out a new baby was on the way.  When Nathan was born on the twins’ birthday, we just laughed at the irony of it all.  His birth was normal without any complications at all.  However, just about 5 days after his birth I had to go in for a minor, outpatient surgery.  That is where the story begins.

Several days after the surgery, I was running a fever of 104 and had uncontrollable chills and shakes.  A few days later I began to experience a dull ache in my left calf which quickly turned into a more excruciating pain than I could ever imagine.  It was so painful that I was begging for my husband to rub my calf but as soon as he touched it, I would scream in pain.  I could no longer walk and it was apparent that something was terribly wrong.

We spent an entire night calling doctors and trying anything and everything to get some relief from the pain but nothing worked.  Early the next morning, my mom, who was here for the birth of Nathan, decided that despite what the doctors were telling us, she was going to call an ambulance.  The last thing I remember was them putting me in the ambulance and begging them to do something about the pain.  The rest of the story, up until I was awakened in the hospital two and a half weeks later, is as it was told to me by doctors and family members. [Read more...]

On September 24, 2009 a beautiful little boy, our fourth child, Andrew, was placed into his daddy’s arms after being under oxygen and doctor’s care for nearly ten minutes.  Fortunately, we were at the hospital.

We had chosen home birth for our two previous children, Alexis and Jackson.  Both were born safely with no complications with help from a wonderful Christian midwife team in California.  When my wife, Kristy, first became pregnant with Andrew, I felt certain we should have another home birth as both previous births went so well.

Kristy prayed and felt certain that we were to have a hospital birth this time.  She began seeing an OB-GYN, but did not feel comfortable with him.  Finally, at twenty weeks, she agreed to look into a home birth.  We started with one midwife, but we weren‘t feeling comfortable with her, so we called around to check out some other midwives in our area of Georgia.

Kristy still had an unsettled feeling about the home birth.  She went into the restroom in the middle of one of the “interviews” with a new midwife and prayed (after realizing she couldn’t figure this out on her own) and heard quite clearly, again, that this baby was to be born at the hospital.  That night she and I talked for quite a while as I was adamant about having another home birth.  We ended the conversation with both of us agreeing to pray over it and trust that God will guide us. [Read more...]

Many of you know the song…. He gives and takes away, my heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name.  I had a really rough afternoon, you guys. I am still choosing to bless His name.

I went to the Neurosurgeon to get my staples out of my head today, and he was super late.  I had to go back at the end of the day and after being in two classes today with kids, I was super tired. All that to say, my feelings were a little more raw. The little metal pieces came out easily, and I was thankful that it did not hurt as much as I remembered.

Well, he asked me a lot of questions, and I told him about my recent bad headaches, and some trouble I have recently noticed with what seemed to be depth perception.  After the lengthy exam, I knew that I had failed part of it….. Dr A was pretty up front with me in such a kind manner.  I had a hard, hard time not falling apart really. [Read more...]