A very special blessing!

I want to tell you about one of my best friends and the awesome blessing that God has bestowed upon her! My friend Dawn, is pregnant and she is due December 21st. The really awesome part is this though... 1)as far as they can tell, the baby is completely, 100% healthy and 2)she is having a boy...her FIRST little boy!! She has two beautiful daughters already and was so excited to learn that she is expecting a boy. I am so excited for her too!!
The doctors had Dawn and her husband, Tim, a little scared in the beginning. Dawn had a terrifying ultrasound experience very early on in her pregnancy and doctors thought the baby's chances for survival were almost none. They labled the baby as a 'threatened miscarriage'. Regardless of this, Tim and Dawn never lost hope. They clung to each other and to the Lord throughout the entire frightening experience. There were many people praying for them and for their precious baby. After a lot of waiting, Dawn finally had another ultrasound and...praise God...there was a beautiful, healthy heart just a-beatin away on that screen!! What a wonderful sight that must have been for Dawn to see! I can't begin to imagine it. The Lord was faithful as He always is! He heard the many prayers of His people crying out to Him and He answered. Praise you God!!
Tim and Dawn knew there was a chance the Lord might have chosen to answer the prayers of His people by taking this dear little boy home to be with Him. Despite that fact, Tim and Dawn decided they were going to be faithful and praise God regardless of HOW He chose to answer. The Lord has given these two special people such an amazing blessing that only comes through Him. Their faithfulness has been rewarded.
Dawn is more than 26 weeks along now and has experienced many ups and downs throughout her entire pregnancy but the Lord has remained faithful. He continues to answer prayers on behalf of Dawn and her cherished baby boy.
I know this is one special little boy that the Lord is bringing into this world. God's hand of protection has been on him from the very beginning. Let's pray with Dawn and Tim that he grow up to be a man who loves the Lord with his whole heart and lives to serve him daily. I know God has special things in store for this boy!! Now, if only the two of them could agree on a name for this special boy! :)

Here are some pictures of Dawn's beautiful family!

Here's Dawn!!


Dawn's youngest daughter, Ashley and husband, Tim


Dawn's oldest, soccer superstar daughter, Katlyn

Lest We Forget....

"No! I didn't poop!"

Cael said his very first full, complete sentence yesterday. I could smell that he had gone 'number 2' in his diaper so I asked him, "Cael, did you poop?" He looked at me and said, "No! I didn't poop!" It was so cute!! He will usually tell me, "no poop!" or just, "no" (he will NEVER admit when he's done it). This was the first full sentence with a subject, verb and direct object that Cael has ever spoken. When Steve got home I asked Cael again, "did you poop?" but he only said, "no". So, Steve has yet to hear Cael speak his first sentence, but were persistantly asking him. With any luck, sooner or later he'll say it again!
Today I was in the kitchen and Cael came running up to me and started pushing my legs. He kept saying, "go dide!" (translation: 'go outside')as he was pushing on my legs and leading me to the back door. We got outside and he ran over to a chair on our patio. He patted the chair and said, "dit" (sit). I sat down and he brought me a ball and said, "dro it mama!" (throw it mama). The boys' basketball hoop was right in front of me and he wanted me to sit in the chair and shoot baskets so he could watch.
It's amazing how Cael is all of a sudden communicating with us just like a little person. Children sure do grow up fast! :(

More on us

Well, not a whole lot new going on with us. Were keeping really busy with things at church and with our kids. My new Sunday School class (ages 18-25 years) just started up last week. I only had three people but that's okay! Were excitedly praying for growth and in God's time, it will happen.
Awana is starting back up at our church this Wednesday, September 5th. We are still short a few workers so please pray that those the Lord has lined up for these positions will step forward to volunteer.
I mentioned in my last post that I was serving as a cheerleading coach at Temple Christian School. We have had two games already and won both of them!! Yay! Go Lions! I am really enjoying coaching a great deal. We have practices every Wednesday for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I love all of the girls on the squad, they are so sweet and they are doing such a great job!
I am also working as a Youth Coordinator for the Brevard Baptist Association - meaning that I help put together and coordinate county wide associational activities, outreaches and events. This coming weekend, I am attending a leadership seminar in Lake Yale that will help train me for that position.
Steve will be attending Rock the Universe this weekend with a group of teens from church. Rock the Universe is an activity at Universal Studios. There will be several popular christian bands playing concerts all throughout the park and the teens will have access to the park and to the concerts for the entire day. I'm sure it will be a great time, but it will also make for a long night.
The boys are continuing to grow and grow. Cael has quite a vocabulary now. He is even starting to put sentences together! When he is eating a snack and the dog is nearby, he will point at her and say, 'doggie no eat!' If he can't find Greyson or Steve, he will look at me, shrugg his shoulders and say, 'where he go?' Of course it sounds more like, 'waa-ee-go?' But I can understand what he is saying. He is quite the climber also. He actually has busted out one side of his crib in an attempt to climb out of it. Until we can get it fixed (or afford a new crib), we are pushing the side of the crib that he busted out up against the wall. So, he is sleeping in a three sided crib at this time. But, it does seem to be serving the purpose.
Greyson is also growing. Sometimes I don't quite know how he's actually growing because he eats so little. Like Cael, Greyson is pretty active. He loves to climb the trees in our backyard. I am homeschooling Greyson this year for pre-school. Greyson and I sit down during Cael's afternoon nap and do 'homework'. He is learning to write his letters, lower and upper case, learning sign language and learning about Science and History. He really seems to enjoy Science. He particularly likes the science experiments. So far, he has learned all about condensation, water vapor, evaporation and dew.
Well, that pretty much sums up the going's on in our lives these days. I promise to post more in the not too distant future! :)