Our Rylee is 9!

Monday is Rylee's Birthday.

First, Rylee is a comforter. I believe with all my heart that the Lord has uniquely gifted Rylee to bring is comfort to others. She just makes you feel better. Right now Ryder can't sleep unless he sleeps in Rylee's room. He says the he just feels closer to everybody when he is in her room. She is the one who will sit with you when you get hurt on the playground. She is the one that will listen while you retell your story. Doesn't everyone need compassion? In her listening and being with she is comforting.
"He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us." 1 Cor. 1:4

Rylee is fun! We call her the FUN FUN girl! She love to laugh and play. She is like her daddy in that way. Her laugh is infectious..her humor is on spot...what a joy to have her in our life. When she reads to me in the afternoon she make the story so interesting because she is in no hurry to get done so she makes it fun to listen to. Recently when Brian was at a college retreat for ISU he was telling about how she is so girly but also loves buger and fart jokes like a junior high boy. So, when Rylee went out to the retreat the next day this college boy kept farting in front of her to get her to laugh...she didn't according to her "because I don't even know him...I try to save that for people I know. We are so glad she is the life of our party.
"Laugh with your happy friends when they are happy; share tears when they are down" Romans " Romans 12:15


Rylee is make to mother....or maybe sometimes even smother. Rylee is a lover. I have said since she was two that someday she will have a 15 passenger van full of children. We knew she needed to be big sister to get practice for all the people she would need take care of. She loves to hug and hold and carry anyone who will let her...and even sometimes when they don't. I don't really know what God is going to do with her but I know that she sees the heart of God for those who can not or will not speak for themselves. That is really what a mother does...advocate...advocate for Jesus, for their child, for what is right......
"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of the poor and needy." Proverbs 31:8

Rylee is just a good friend. She always has a friend over or whats to be with someone. She has good friends because she is a good friend. At her birthday party this year she has girls coming that range in age from 7-11. That is Rylee....and her friend...not bound to age but all girls who are lovers of God....which makes Rylee love them back. Right now I can't be Rylee's friend because I have to be her mother...but I look forward to a time when she is much older when we can be friends....I look forward to her companionship in that way...I will always be her mother but someday we can add friend to that list!
"A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity" Proverbs 17:17

Regan Update

Hello everyone.....this is just a quick update and a request for prayer. I have no idea why this is underlining but maybe the computer knows this needs emphasis. I don't list prayer concerns a lot but it is heavy on my heart today to have you pray.

Regan is very tired....We miss her a lot. So would you please pray for her to have more awake time. She is more awake than she was but still too much.....

Also she is having a lot of mucus.... and coughing...I guess like allergy type issues. Would you pray for her strength and our alertness.

Thanks for all your prayer....I'll write more this weekend when I have more time. Right now she is watching Price is Right...she smiles at all the sounds. It makes me happy because my Granny used to love Price is Right.....she must have passed that gene on.



This is Lil Regan's afternoon friend...otherwise known as Ryder's nanny....This picture was taken in May. Those are the eyes we want back. Hey looks the underlining went away!

Patience

Our family has a tradition of reading a Proverb every weekday morning. We have done this since Ryder was in Kindergarten in various forms and to various levels of success. This year we all meet at the table at 7am to read it together and so Dad can pray with us before we get going our separate ways for the day. I love Proverbs for many reasons but one of them is that they are so simple because they are written for youth. He says in Proverbs 1:1-4 "The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel; for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding worlds of insight; for acquiring a discipline and a prudent life, for what is right and just and fair, for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young-" So for that I think all children should have the Proverbs read to them. It was one book of the Bible written directly for them. It also gives them a place to understand Biblical worldview because the Proverbs give metaphors, riddles, and parables to teach God's truth. This teaches them to look for God's wisdom in all things. There are things that are true about the world because God says so....like lying is bad, helping the poor puts us on God's side, laziness in not godly, we are responsible for our actions, arguing is uncalled for...it just gives us practical ways to live like God wants us to. I love them because they are easily applied to our everyday life. (I secretly want to write a family devotional guide from them someday....shhhhh don't tell!)
Our Proverb for today was... Proverbs 19:11 A man's wisdom gives him patience, it is to his glory to overlook an offense. It really has spoken to me today because it reminded me we have patience when we are wise. A small child has no patience because they have no wisdom. They don't understand that they have to wait for anything because everything should happen now. Yet we see with God he is so patient. He has a long long term vision. He looks past actions to the heart of the situation. He is understand that we learn a lot along the way. He is after all the holder of wisdom and understanding. It reminds me of the Israelites and how God saved them from the hand Pharaoh. Remember all God did to free them. He called Moses, 10 plagues, splitting the Red Sea and they crossed on dry ground...then he leads them by fire and by a cloud. and yet they were rebellious and impatient. Dt 1:32-33 "In spite of all of this you did not trust in the Lord your God who went ahead of you on your journey in fire by night and in cloud by day to search out places for you to camp and show you the way you should go."
They had short term vision
All they could see is the present situation
They didn't not see the point of the current struggle they were in.
They thought they knew everything.
I can't keep from thinking....A man's wisdom gives him patience."

It also reminds me of ME! I am not always patient. I lose wisdom when I lose my patience.
I forget all HE has done.
I take the trust that belongs to him and place it on other people
I take to much stock in what I can do on my own.
I think that I know too much.....thank God he is patient with me!

I am probably more patient than I used to be but less than I should be. So I guess need to wise up and admit I too am a child and need to apply another Proverb (1:5) "let the wise listen and add to their learning." Just like it is wide for a child to listen to their father/mother because they know something more than you know. They see more than you see as a child....make me like this Lord...make me like this!

Exceptional Child

For several years now we have been asked to bring Regan as a guest speaker to the "Exceptional Child" class at LCC. This is a class for students who God is preparing and calling to be professional teachers, counselors or children's ministers (even though all these careers are ministry!) So this past week we visited theses classes to share Regan's journey as an exceptional child with them. This photo was taken of the Tuesday night class. Just looking at them makes me smile! They are all exceptional women (a couple of them are even in my Spiritual Formation Group!) God will and is doing great things through their gifts!

I don't know where this quote comes from but it is one of my favorites "Preach the gospel always...when necessary use words." For a person with a lot of words you can imagine that this is instructional for me. Regan's story is one of the greatest sermon's every preached yet she has never used words. Every time I get a chance to interpret her story for her I am reminded of all the ways God can use her story to help others, encourage others and strengthen others for their own journey. Regan journey has truly been exceptional. I looked up the word ex·cep·tion·al to see what it can mean.

1: forming an exceptional :rare exceptional number of rainy days>
2: better than average : superior <exceptional skill>
3: deviating from the norm: as a: having above or below average intelligence
4: physically disabled

Yet part of her story is the view from Ryder and Rylee's exceptional shoes. Their journey is different or exceptional (definition 1 & 4) because their sister is exceptional (definition 4). We are all trying to testify to the exceptional (definition 2) power of our mighty God in our lives!

As I ramble on about my own I know you feel the same about yours. Because the truth is what makes our stories as believers exceptional is that GOD is at work here.
HE IS EXCEPTIONAL.
We are blessed by all the ways he creates normal days, average people, normal situations, everyday lives, average towns, average marriages, normal families, ...don't we all just feel average. Yet when HE steps in HE makes the story EXCEPTIONAL! He gives us a story to tell that is far from the norm.

Some Late Night Ramblings

Okay so I can't sleep......I always remember when I can't sleep that Ps 127 says that "He grants sleep to those he loves"....so I guess I am off the list for tonight....actually that is crazy because some of the most god fearing people I know don't sleep (Kim, Shannon, Vera, Julie)....I'm not awake enough to figure out what the word sleep might mean........so instead I want to write about something that has been on my mind today...There are some sounds I really love....

• I love the sound of college kids worshiping.
• I love the sound of Rylee's laugh....it makes me want to laugh. Sh laughs at lots of things.
  
• I love the sound of the dishwasher running. I always start it at night right before I hop in bed so I think I associate it with my bed which is one of my favorite earthly possessions.
• I love the sound of the coffee maker beeping....this beep is one of many beeps in my life but one of the only ones that makes me happy. The other ones that make me grumpy are my alarm, Regan's feeding pump, her oximeter, the smoke detector.....these are beeps that mean unhappy things...but coffee being done now that is good!
• I love my friend Shannon's voice mail...it is her kids singing "This is Shannon's phone..."
• I love the sound of my mom's laugh and my dad when he answers his phone because he says "Yea.." It is so my dad...like I am there in the room..not like I've called on the phone. I like it because I wish I was right there in the room.
  
• I love Regan noises. She makes the sweetest sucking noises and her songs are the best.
  
• I love the rustling sound of people turning in their Bibles.
• I love the sound of conversation around a dinner table.
• I love the roar of kids after school.
  
• I love the sound that a great knife makes when they cuts food (thanks Gary).
• I love the sound of Brian's voice when he is falling asleep and he says "I love you baby."
• I love it when Ryder says "I love you mom."
  
• I love the scream of girlfriend or sister you haven't seen a while...that raw reaction that my favorite women have when they see someone they haven't seen in a while.
• I love the sound of someone saying, "Chantell, what do you think?"
• I love the chatter of women all gathered together in a room.
  
• I love the sound of my fingers tapping on this keyboard...knowing it communicates so many different things...the rhythm....the pauses.....
  

Meanwhile the house is silent...the family is sleeping....The dishwasher is done, Regan's oximeter went off because she needed a new tank of oxygen. I reset her tank so she is good for the night.....all is at peace....well at least he granted sleep to the ones I love.