Saturday, May 24, 2008

Frustrating...Baffling...A Blessing

Sometimes I wish that I could know and comprehend the mind of God. Being able to "just do" has never been my forte; I'm a planner, an analyzer, a scrutinizer, a questioner...these traits of mine make simply TRUSTING a daily challenge. Each morning I take up my cross and follow my LORD, determined to lose my life for Him, which, ultimately, saves my life. Did I mention that this is a daily challenge? How can I possibly think that Lia can do things better than and understand things more fully than the Master of the Universe? How self-absorbed is that!? Why do I always feel the need to take matters into my own hands? I KNOW that God knows best...but my inquiring mind wants to understand his will and comprehend the fullness of His glory. (Just as a side note, I use the masculine pronoun when referring to God so as to minimize confusion. However, God is not male, nor is God female. God is beyond gender...just so we're clear!)

Why all of this talk about trusting God all of a sudden? Well, I've already described the "frustrating" part mentioned in the title. Now for the baffling part....We're feeling called as a family to do something that many onlookers would consider outrageous, loco, and perhaps even irresponsible. My human tendencies (they're darned things, they are!) have compelled me to resist this calling. However, my long discussions with family members, particularly with my hsuband, have led me to believe that we are indeed hearing the calling of God. Even some comments that Kimora has said recently have inspired me beyond what I ever believed a three-year-old could. Her insights spoke to my heart and the timings were uncanny. I fully believe in involving people not directly related to the situation to help us perceive and decipher what we're "hearing"....and it's pretty clear, as I said, that God has a very special plan for our family. While we're confident that God is leading us, the means through which we will fulfill this calling, and obviously the outcome, are competely unknown and still provoke me to be...well, baffled.

"Here I am, LORD. Is it I, LORD? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, LORD, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart."

Finally, while the means and outcome are unclear, I have no doubt that they will bring incomprehensible blessings. Many times throughout my life I've felt that I've been "blessed with a burden."

"I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing." ~Ezekiel 34:26

Sunday, May 18, 2008

A Whirlwind of a Spring

Thank you so much to all of you who wished me a happy Mother's Day on here! You guys were very thoughtful!

This spring has been far from lacking in events and busy-ness. Nia's bridal shower went off without a hitch (nearly :-) ) and Seanice has now moved back home and graduated yesterday afternoon. Of course, we have the wedding to look forward to coming up next month, but that, thank heavens, is not my responsibility to plan! They've been busy for almost a year now with preparations for that upcoming event.

The girls are fantastic. We're looking into a part-time preschool for Kimora to begin attending in the fall, probably just two days a week. Then the next year, when she's four, she could attend the three day-a-week class. This way she has the opportunity to prep for kindergarten; I don't want her to be in for a rude awakening when she has to suddenly be away from me all day long.

Kariah is morphing into quite the little professor, if you will! She wants to "read" all day long. I'm just puzzled by a twenty-one month old who runs her little finger along each individual line of a chapter book. I'm taking advantage of this interest of hers and reading a lot of books to her, as well. One thing that Kariah has picked up that I'm not too happy about is...well...when she's excited or shocked, she'll proclaim, "Oh my GAWD!" ....and with that inflection, too! We highly discourage swearing at our house. I know that before I met Jamal that he had a bit more of a loose tongue that he would have liked. I really don't know, though, where Kariah heard this...except maybe from my younger sisters who slip every now and again, but are really doing much better than when they first came to us. Anyways, I'm nipping it in the bud. I let Kariah know that we don't say the Lord's name in vain because God tells us in the Bible not to...this usually works...but if she says it again that particular day, then she has to sit on the naughty chair (yes, we watch Supernanny!). She's learning, and I've given her some ideas of what else she could say in exciting or shocking instances.

Kajanae is growing like a weed. She will be four months old in a few days. I looked back in Kimora and Kariah's baby books, and Kajanae is bigger than what both of the girls were at this stage. I find this quite interesting; I knew that Kariah was quite a bit smaller, but I always thought that Kimora was my biggest baby. Not anymore, I guess! :) I'm really happy that Kajanae is so healthy and thriving considering I was having weight issues while I was nursing her during the first few months of her life.

I think I mentioned before that I'm feeling much better now that I count my calories and monitor my intake of key nutrients. Not only do I look curvier and more womanly (!), but I FEEL much healthier, which is far more important. I'm almost up to my pre-pregnancy weight, so we're really pleased with the progress. My nursing boobies are as big as ever, though! Hah! I wonder if they'll be a permanent fixture? If so, I'll have to gain much more weight to balance those babies out! Wow...tmi...sorry. :-)

Monday, May 5, 2008

Just Checking In

Hello guys! I'm sorry I've been so delinquent in keeping up with postings. I'm hoping that I'll get back into the swing of blogging around the middle of this month. Our family has been very busy in recent weeks. My current endeavors include planning a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law (Nia, who is marrying my brother Tyrel) and helping my sister Seanice move out of her college apartment and attending all of her graduation festivities. Kimora, Kariah, and Kajanae continue to thrive, becoming more and more beautiful and learning more and more each day.

On another note, I quite enjoy viewing the map that shows the location of all of my blog's visitors. The more visits, the bigger the dots; the more visitors, the more dots. Welcome readers from all over the globe. Feel free to leave a comment to let me know you've stopped by, or simply browse at your own choosing! Welcome!