I'm a terrible blogger. I spend all of my time playing with and cuddling my sweet (nearly one year old) little boy. Of course, I would much rather be doing that than typing a bunch of stuff. Chasten has become a master imitator of his Mom and Dad. His new favorite imitations are clicking his tongue, doing the twist in his crib, and going "bluhbluhbluhbluh" with his tongue (if you are uncertain about what this is...stick your tongue in and out of your mouth really fast and make the quoted noise...then imagine someone as cute as Chasten doing it). He isn't walking just yet but he pulls up and cruises like a champ. Once he gets over the fear of the possibility of falling and turns loose, he'll be unstoppable.

Seriously, I'm always amazed at all of the things I can see reflected about my walk as a Christian in my son's development. I mean, God IS our father and we're like babies in the respect that we also have to grow and develop in our walk...though I don't really ever want to plateau in my growth with God and just age (like we do once we reach adulthood). There are many times though that God is standing by watching and telling us that it will be okay if we will just let go of the death grip we have on the wall (or whatever it is we're holding to) and take a step in faith. Just as I will always be here (Lord willing) to pick Chasten up when he falls, God stands with arms outstretched to pick us up if we were to stumble in our walking.

I'm also amazed at how often God reminds me of his faithfulness. For as long as I can remember, I've always known I wanted to be a mother. More than anything, I've always desired to have children. When I lost my first two pregnancies, I began to allow the enemy to make me doubt that I would ever be a mother...and began questioning if that were even part of God's plan. Which began making me slightly bitter (as seeds the enemy plants will do) thinking, and even saying at times, "God, why would you allow me to have such a desire for being a mother if you aren't going to allow me to have children?" I'm so glad that God knows better than we know ourselves. I don't know what would have happened with those first two babies had they been carried full term, but I'm certain that God has a plan and that there is a REASON that I didn't carry them full term. Once I finally stopped trying to control my getting pregnant and got to the point I could say "Lord, if I'm never meant to have a child myself I know you will still use me with children in some way and I trust you" and REALLY mean it...Mike and I ended up pregnant with Chasten (and we all know how that ended up). Can I just say that God is so faithful? Mike and I have found out that we are expecting another little one to arrive in February. We haven't shared this publicly on facebook yet because he still needs to tell a few members of his family first (but I figure putting it on my blog is safe, because I'm not sure people read this anyway--and I REALLY wanted to say it). The enemy has already began trying to place doubts in my mind about whether or not this will be a successful pregnancy and I was letting him. I have since decided that God has a plan and I will simply trust in Him to work things out to my good (in whatever way that may be). We didn't plan to have a second child this quickly (they'll be 18 months apart), but we are thrilled all the same. :-D