Trying to love my kid on "purpose"....

When I found out I was pregnant one of my first purchases was NOT a crib, a baby blanket, or even books on how to get through my labor....it was the DVD's of "Loving your Kids on Purpose" by Danny Silk (from Bethel Church).

I had heard soooo many good things about the dvds and they definitely lived up to their reputation!! I wont spoil it for you because I just highly recommend getting them. period. They are all about the Father heart of God towards us and the need to give your children choices, all while setting boundaries and teaching them how to make good choices.  So I have been teaching Ellie the language of choice, even though I am fully aware that she is only 18months old and has virtually no control over her emotions.

So today I tried something....she was in the middle of a fit and I gave her a choice.....I said "Ellie you can choose to calm down and be fun and stay out here with mommy or you can go to your room?" Well the next thing I know she is up and walking to her room...it was the funniest thing!!!! She stayed in there until I came in to get her....I guess she knew that she needed some time to calm down:)

All this to say I have learned a lesson on parenting...that our kids are smart, when given choices they may not always make the right one that is why as parents we create a safe environment for them to fail and take that opportunity to teach them the right way.  But if we as parents are trying to control them instead of teaching them how to control themselves, when the real world becomes their playground they might not know when it is a good idea to stop hanging upside down on the monkey bars......

Second Wind for Blogging

Sorry All it has been a while.... I realized, never being a blogger before that I was thinking way to hard about each post making it seem more like work that a fun experience.

So here I am again after a 2 month break of bdays, holidays, the awakening at IHOP, the One thing Conference, my husband traveling, working part time and the list could go on! I am excited to be back!! Never finished with part 2 of my last blog but just wanted to share quickly the amazing miracle of having Eliana.

It ended up that Ben met the best endometriosis doctor in the United States at a conference here at Ihop. He is a believer and prayed for me for three days and in the midst of that time he received a vision from the Lord about my womb and saw where exactly the disease was and how much time I had before a creative miracle would have to take place for me to ever consider having children.  He told me we need to have surgery ASAP.

He lived and worked in New York city and luckily my best friend was getting married in a couple of months about an hour from where he was so i decided to kill two birds with one stone (wow writing that out is actually really funny compared to saying it :) So we get everything in order, as far as flights, room and board, and insurance or so I thought.

Then about a week before we are supposed to leave I get a phone call from the Dr.'s office manager explaining that our insurance would not cover him as the physician because he was a specialty doctor.  She then went on to explain that we would need to hand her a check for $7,000.00 for the first part of the surgery. I immediately went into fear mode and my amazing husband decided that he wasn't going to follow me there.  So we pushed the furniture out of the way in our living room and decided to praise and adore the Lord.

Long story short within two days we were given double the amount of money we needed! Our hospital bill which was supposed to be at least $12,000.00 came in at $775.00 - AMAZING we just wrote a check and praised the Lord!! AND then found out later that I only had one functioning ovary and the other ovary only had ten percent left of it and by the time the Dr. had finished stitching up the one that had ten percent left in it, it had grown to be fully complete and whole!!

But the best part is that the first time we were able to try I became pregnant with my little Eliana, the joy and love of my life.  The end!! Well more to come the Lord has been speaking some amazing things about bringing up this little beauty of mine and connecting her heart to God her father, Jesus her savior and the Holy Spirit her best friend!!

The picture on the right is us with the Doctor at a JoCo conference!

New Beginnings

Being a first time mom gave me a whole new perspective at life.  I had always known the love of the Father towards me but it wasn't until I stared at my beautiful baby girl that I began to feel this deep thing in my heart begin to well up.

Emotions that I am not sure I had ever felt before ...emotions that even now as I am writing bring tears to my eyes.  Then something began to click and a link between my head and my heart happened, I got a small glimpse of what the Father felt for us.

I knew at that moment that I wanted more for her, I want the kingdom of Heaven to be her reality. Now obviously I am fully aware that we live on earth but I don't want to just bring her up in the mundane of earthly living. What does it look like to have Heaven invade your home? I am not exactly sure yet but I do know the Lord is speaking and opening my eyes to things that I thought only happened in other countries, that he has made it available to us everyday.  I want her to have eyes to see and ears to hear of what the Father is doing. I want her to know the love of Jesus and everything that he has done for her and the life that he walked out here on earth. I want the Holy Spirit to be her best friend. I want her to live a life of Adoring the Lord.  I literally want the atmosphere in my house to be a place where she can fully know that the Spirit of the Lord is upon her and she can walk in the confidence of that and all that comes with it.  That if one of her friends is hurt or having a hard day she wont hesitate to lay her hands on them and release the power of heaven.  This is my heart for her and as I document this journey more will begin to unfold as Lord is leading all of us moms to bring up this anointed and amazing generation.  Thank you Lord for the honor of raising these children.