Are you there God, it's me, Heather...

So I totally ripped off Judy Blume for that title. Did you ever read Ms. Blume when you were younger? If you didn't you missed out, especially if you were a girl. I loved her. I re-read so many of her books and when I started teaching I read some of her things to my kids. Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, come on, seriously good stuff. There was a point to the title though....
Addyson has become very interested in God lately. We've been talking about Him since her birth but it's finally becoming a topic she is curious about. She is especially curious about talking to Him. And Him talking to her. We pray with her every night and have since she was born and I think she has started to wonder about this person she can't see.
First we had to clear up a few things. For some reason my daughter was convinced that God was a woman. She kept calling Him she. This caused quite a stir in my household (and rightfully so) with my husband especially. It's a good thing he went to seminary and has that Master's degree in divinity. Too bad he didn't learn how to explain it to a 3 year old- we had to fall back on "because He is a man. We said so. Trust us."
The other thing we had to clear up was He wasn't deaf. I think because she hadn't heard Him talk back she felt she had to shout at Him. At all times. Kind of cute at first but at the park, in the pool, in Target she would just start shouting, "GOD? CAN YOU HEAR ME??"Reminded me of the first time I got my license and went through a drive thru. I can still hear the person saying to me through the loud speaker, "First of all you don't have to shout..."
One of the cutest things that has happened though since this interest in prayer began was a couple of weeks ago at Target. There was a woman stocking shelves or something and she had one of those walkie talkies on her belt and someone started talking on it. Addyson perked right up and said, "God? Is that you God?"
Just one of the many topics I'm sure we are going to encounter as parents that are so hard to explain to a child. It's hard for adults to understand this whole concept on prayer. Through this though, I have discovered two things.
First, it's the most rewarding thing to have your child dialogue with you on your faith. I love that she is starting to understand and ask questions about God and who He is. I hope and pray she will always be this interested in her heavenly Father.
Second, she has challenged me in the area of prayer. Even though she has begun to accept that she might not audibly hear God, I can tell if one day He did speak out loud to her, she wouldn't be surprised. I can tell by the way she talks to Him, she still expects it. I began to think the other day, why don't I talk to Him with the expectation she has? In my much longer life I have seen Him answer more prayers than she has but for some reason she expects it more than I do. It's humbling. It's changed the way I pray lately. To be honest, it's shaken me out of a rut I had gotten in. I pray with more expectancy, enthusiasm and wonder than I have in a long time.
I look forward to the next talk Addyson and I have about God. Who knows what she'll teach me next?

38 weeks and counting....

OK so tomorrow I will be 38 weeks pregnant. At 39 weeks my doctor said he will induce so in a little over a week I will begin a new stage in my life. Mommy of two. Family of four. Mommy to a little boy. Back to nursing, no sleep, spit up, scheduling my life around 2-3 hour increments. There is a reason why John and I waited three years to do this all again. Don't get me wrong. We love our daughter but the first year was tough. Really, the first 8 weeks was tough. It got better...once we got some sleep. I'm a little scared. Everyone assures me it's so much easier but I prefer to be cautious, not overconfident.
Anyway, this post is for me. It's something I want to reread when I am in the middle of the, "holy cow, will this ever get any better?" stage. You see, while I am truly thankful that I have easy pregnancies,  that I am even able to get pregnant when so many of my friends are desperate for a baby, I am a terrible pregnant woman. I don't get that glow. I don't love every part. I do enjoy some things like when you feel your baby move for the first time but at this point when he's banging on my ribs wanting out, it's hard to remember. I've decided that I may need a reminder of some things I was looking forward to when I was in these last days to get me through the first few weeks. So here it is- my top ten list.

10. Be able to wear a belt. Maternity pants just don't want to stay up on me. I am constantly pulling my pants up. It's annoying.
9. Stop snoring. I promise, I only snore when I'm pregnant, especially at this last stage. I hate waking up alone because my husband has fled to the spare room.
8. Be able to get up off the floor without holding onto something to hoist myself up. With a preschooler, this has made playing with her hard.
7. Be able to pick up Addyson without worrying about hurting the baby. Be able to put her in my lap again.
6. Stop having to pee three or four times a night. Of course, I will be getting up three to four times for a different reason...
5. Be able to sleep on my stomach or my back. I am usually a side sleeper but now that I'm forced to sleep that way I find myself wanting to sleep in any other position.
4. Eat a HUGE greek salad from Apollo Flame with tons of feta cheese on it.
3. Be able to see the veins in my feet again- haven't seen them on a regular basis for about a month now...
2. Be able to wear my wedding rings again.

And last...
1. See Micah's sweet face and count his fingers and toes. I hope he looks like his daddy!

35 weeks

36 weeks

Here we go again

Here I am again. It's been about 2 years since I started a very simple blog on our Mac account. The purpose then was to keep family and friends up to date on our families adventures in our new home in North Carolina. Fast forward a little- toddler becomes preschooler, life becomes very busy, and facebook totally transforms everything about keeping in touch. The need for a blog seemed to fade. I enjoy other friends' blogs but just didn't think I had the time to keep one of my own. In two more weeks, I will probably be very busy again with the birth of our son, Micah Porter but for some reason I have been really wanting to attempt the blog again. To keep our family up to date of course but also because I feel like God is doing some incredible things in our lives and even if no one else reads or cares, I want to share it. So here it is. My thoughts. Mostly about family, but some other things may come out- some pretty, some not. But like the title of the blog says, genuine. That's who I want to be.