Gratitude

"[That which] we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value.  Heaven knows how to put a proper price up its goods" -Thomas Paine (An American Crisis)

Patricia Holland promised in "A Quiet Heart"

Believe me when I tell you that God is a God of

goodness, mercy, and justice.  Ultimately, he 

cannot treat his righteous children differently.

Whatever blessings you have gone without will

be made up to you in divine and glorious

fashion.  I give you every assurance, they will be

made up to you to the point where you will not

be confident that God treated you fairly but

embarrassed that he treated you so very generously.

"God knows how to give good gifts to His children.  As a loving Father, He will not give His child a stone if He is asked for bread.  Always, the gifts are given in His own due time; if we are required to wait for some blessings, or even do without some blessings here on earth, we can look forward in faith knowing that our righteous desires will be fulfilled." 

-Maria Covey Cole (Contentment)

Contentment

My grandma gave me this amazing book titled "Contentment, Inspiring Insight for LDS Mothers" by Maria Covey Cole and I love some of the little quotes that are in it so I'm going to post them on my blog... This is one about comparing yourself to people.

Spencer W. Kimball and Harold B. Lee were 

close friends.  They went into the Quorum of 

the Twelve just a few weeks apart.  President

Kimball said he always admired this friend so 

very much; in fact, he almost envied President

Lee for his talents.  He took every occasion to

tell President Lee how he felt.  Often he would

say " Harold, I wish I could play the organ as

you do."  "harold, you speak so well.  I wish I 

could so as well." "Harold, you can see the gist

of a problem in such a short time.  I wish my

mind were so clear."  Then,  related President

Kimball, in one of their weekly meetings in the

temple President Lee made a fine presentation

to the other members of the Twelve.  As they

walked out of the temple together, again

President Kimball turned to his friend and said,

"You did a magnificent job with your report this

morning.  I wish I could do as well as you do."

"Well," said President Kimball with a twinkle 

in his eyes, "I guess Harold had had enough.  He

stopped, put his hands on his hips and looking

 me straight in the eye, said, "Spencer, the Lord

doesn't want you to be a Harold B. Lee.  All he

 wants is for you to be the best Spencer W.

Kimball you can be." 'With a smile on his face, 

President Kimball said, "Ever since then I have

just tried to be the best Spencer W. Kimball I 

can be."

"All the Lord asks of us is to be the best we can be with what we have...As Spencer W. Kimball was taught, a copy is never as valuable as the original.  Each of us is an original made by God, and we diminish ourselves and our Maker when we question our worth." ("For Such a Time as This," The best of Women's Conference, 17-18, Norma Ashton, wife of Marvin J Ashton)

Ava Kate is Here!

As many of you know, Ava Kate has officially been born! Yay, she was only 6 days late :). She was born September 3, 2009 at 1:35 am. She weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches. And she's adorable! So, here's the story. I actually went into labor around 4 pm Wednesday while at work. However, I wasn't completely sure because the contractions weren't too bad and since I hadn't had any braxton hicks, I thought these might be them. But..just to be safe I decided to go over to my parent's house so I wouldn't be home alone for 2.5 hours before James got home from work. Around 5, mom and I decided to start timing my contractions and they were about 3-5 min apart, but I was so paranoid about going to the hospital and being sent home that I was going to make sure I was in labor before driving to the hospital. Around 5:30 they actually started to hurt...pretty bad, so mom said, "We're going to the hospital!" I was admited just after 6 pm, but they were so full that I had to wait in the hall until they had a triage room open. P.S. James didn't arrive to the hospital until conveniently I was getting the epidural, therefore he missed the "hard part". But don't worry he makes up for it a thousand times over later on in the story....So by this time I had mom, dad, and James as my support. We then waited for about 5 ish hours during which they broke my water and there was meconium in it. Also, my Dr. was out of town... I pushed for two hours and then once she started crowning they called in the Dr. and the NICU (because of the meconium) and then it just took one push to get her head, and then the next push and out came her body! easy peasy japanesey! James cut the cord and NICU cleaned out her lungs. As for me I had a 2nd degree tear (no episotomy) and developed a lovely rare complication (as in so rare my Dr. hasn't seen one in over 15 years) that we call helga the hematoma. (there's a lot more to the story, but this is a novel already) Here's where James turns into superman...I have been bed ridden for the past 16 days and for the first week James took care of two babies (Ava Kate and myself). I also have to thank my neighbors, Ashley, my mom, and grandma for all their help. I'm still recovering, but thanks to a priesthood blessing I received in the hospital, and the enabling power of the atonement of Christ I was and have been able to take care of Ava Kate since the day James had to go back to work. And there ya have it, and believe me that's the abridged version. Also, thanks to Annika for taking amazing pictures for us. If you want more e-mail me.

new date

So some other lucky woman delivered her baby, which is actually good for me.  My Dr's nurse called this morning and said they've moved my induction date up a day, so the baby should be here Sat. Sept 5 for sure! Cross your fingers!

Stubborn like her parents, well like her mom at least....

So I went to the Dr. today and I'm dilated to 1 cm and effaced 60%, some of you may know already that this has been my progress for the past 3 weeks.  For some reason my child doesn't realize that her "expiration date" is tomorrow and it would be nice if we were a little further along than that.  However it doesn't help that my muscles seem to be broken and haven't contracted even once.  False labor? Not for us I guess.  Dr. also said that she's starting to get pretty big comparative to me and it may be a tight squeeze. (sorry if this is too much info, I'm trying to be as tactful as possible).  Finally, if nothing happens on its own, as much as I hate to take away my child's agency to come when she thinks she's ready, I'm scheduled to be induced either Sat. night or Sun. morning Sept. 5 or 6 depending on how my appointment goes next Friday.  We're also going to do a non-stress test Friday morning if she's still not here, just to make sure she's doing alright.  In the meantime we'll keep waiting...and waiting...and waiting.... stubborn little girl! But thanks for all your prayers and support they really mean a lot to us! 

Clarification....

I'm not saying I don't like the inquiring phone calls and texts regarding our little one's arrival, actually I've never felt so loved before ever.  It was just an observation that I made, mostly because even our family will call to make sure they didn't miss anything! haha, love ya guys!

Quick Update

So just to give you a quick update we still do not have a baby, just a ginormous belly! Being pregnant really hasn't been too difficult and even now it's not so horrible, I'm just so impatient to see my little girl! My due date is on Friday and we've got nothing.  Also I just wanted to let everyone know that we will let everyone know when she is born.  It's funny how people keep calling and such to ask if we've had her yet...I promise we're not going to keep that a secret! :) So for now we're just waiting.....and waiting.....and impatiently waiting!