Ask and You Shall Receive

Sounds simple, huh? Why is it that I can't seem to remember that simple little verse?

It hit me like a ton of bricks at around 4:03 AM this morning, when I was trying to get my girl to go back to sleep and lie down in her crib. She still does not officially "sleep through the night" nor does she sleep in her own room. In the middle of January, I thought we had made some miraculous breakthrough when she slept ALL NIGHT LONG in her crib for TWO SOLID WEEKS. But alas, that ended abruptly when she got an ear infection, and now she's back in our bed again.

Thankfully though, on Saturday night she did stay asleep in her crib from 10pm until 6 am. That's EIGHT whole hours people, AMAZING. I felt like a different person on Sunday morning.

Back to the point of this post... I had carried her from our bed to her room and attempted to lay her down, she woke up, I started rocking. You can have some crazy conversations with yourself at 4 am. Please go to sleep, please stay asleep, please just let me sleep...then I realize: Duh, who are you talking to? Why aren't you praying that GOD help her to sleep- cause He's the only one who can.

Then comes the realization: After I laid her down on Saturday night, when I crawled into my bed, I asked God to let her sleep all night long. I didn't crawl in thinking "I hope she sleeps" but, I actively prayed and asked GOD to let her sleep. And guess what, HE did. It's funny how we forget little details like that- I had completely forgotten I had even prayed it.

Ask and you shall receive. So here I am at 4-in-the-morning, rocking my girl, hoping that she will go to sleep and stay asleep, when I realize that God had answered my prayer the night before. I remembered that I had asked him and that he had delivered, so I said "I know You can do this, I cannot, but You can. You are the only one with the power to help her sleep. Please put her into a sound enough sleep so I can get some too. Just an hour-and-a-half, that's all, just please God let her sleep for another hour and a half."

And that's exactly what He did.

As soon as I said the words in my head, I felt her body relax. Her grip on my shirt loosened and all the tension in her arms and legs was gone. I laid her in her crib and she didn't move a muscle.

I got back in the bed; it was around 4:30.

She woke up at 6:03. Can't get much closer to an hour and a half than that.

Ask and you shall receive. It's a lesson I'm learning slowly.

So, if you'd like to help a mama out, pray for my girl around 10pm tonight. Cause, I figure if my prayer was answered, God would surely answer a request made by all of us :-)

And a photo from the beginning of February...She was in between sitting and standing. Kinda looks like a poop face, but I promise it's not. I think she looks like a boy working out doing squats. Please excuse my dear aunt Sally the dead grass. Spring where are you?

Feeling Better

It's been a long week in our house, well, at least for me anyway. I've been fighting a nasty cold for almost two weeks, and I was hoping it would just run its course and get the heck out of my head. Then the headaches started. Awful, aching pain in my temple, down my jaw bone and even in my teeth.

Any sane person with half-a-lick-a-sense (as some around these parts would say) would have at least considered the possibility of a sinus infection and, I don't know, go to the doctor. But not me, I wait until my head feels like it is going to explode from the pressure and subject my poor students to snot-nosed teaching. Now my girl's not the only snot-noser in the house.

So I finally go the the doctor and yes, indeed, I have a stinkin' sinus infection- my first ever. I've heard people complain of the pain of these things before, but I have a newfound sympathy now that I've experienced it. And rest assured, I will be at the doctor at the first sign of another one. I'm on an antibiotic and already feeling better.

On a lighter, and sweeter note, here are a couple of pics from the last couple of weeks.

Napping with Daddy. He took good care of her for a whole afternoon/evening so I could have a little time away getting a pedicure and goin to the movies.

Sweet girl...after her bath...oooh those eyes!

My Prayer ADD

Wow, that picture below sure is dark...didn't look so bad until it posted. Oh well.

The sermon at church yesterday (first time we've been in like six weeks, but anyway) was about the 5 things God expects from us, as described in somewhere in Deuteronomy. Let's face it, I can't remember these things. The gist of the message has something (and nothing) to do with what follows:

We are to love God first and foremost. Sounds simple, but I know I'm very guilty of forgetting that one. Especially when things seem to be going well. I suppose it's human nature to ignore God when everything is happy go-lucky and cry out to Him when things start to fall apart.

One of my goals right now is to be ever mindful that God is with me and to pray constantly. All that without-ceasing goodness.

I want to remember to pray for my daughter to have a good day at school. For me to have a good attitude at work and to remember how my words affect my students. For my husband to draw nearer to God. For my students to be able to settle their nerves before a test. For my mama as she learns how to be single again. For my marriage.

I'm a stream-of-consciousness-pray-er: I just pray throughout the day about whatever pops into my head and I find myself often experiencing prayer ADD as my mind wanders.

So, I might start out something like "God, be with my girl today at daycare and be with her teachers to help them make wise choices while caring for my child... keep her safe and don't let her get sick AGAIN, because that last one nearly did me in. Oh and could you maybe help her sleep tonight for more than 3 hours? In her crib. Without crying. Cause I don't think I can really take much more of her head-butting me at night."

I blather on and on in my head and eventually end up somewhere completely random like "be with the orphans in Africa." Cause, ya know, they don't have parents to send them to daycare and worry about another snot-nosed kid giving them ANOTHER cold. (Note: My daycare is wonderful, and my child is equally snot-nosy. Yes, I am now a mother of a "snot-nosed kid." Deal with it. End note.)

Do you have prayer ADD like me? Or are you organized and methodical? Do you repeat the same thing over and over? Or do you do it at all?

Prayer, how do YOU do it?

My Girl

January 21st- Hammin' it up with a wooden spoon.

First Post...No Real Introduction

**Updated Sunday Morning: They are home from the hospital. The doctors said it was just a really bad migraine complicated by her blood thinning medications. Thank you for your prayers.**

So, I know when you start a blog you are supposed to introduce yourself to anyone who might be reading it, but it's late and I don't have time for all that nonsense. I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but I was motivated tonight by a need for prayer.

If you happen to have stumbled upon this post, and are they praying type, please, please pray for my Aunt Sharon who was taken to the hospital this evening. She has been fighting a blood clotting disorder for about a year, and started vomiting today.

I don't have a lot of information, but it is quite serious, and there's nothing I know to do but to pray. Pray for her healing, pray for the doctors and nurses who are caring for her, pray for my family.