A Year

Today is the day. Yes, it has been a year ago today that Faith was born into the hands of her Heavenly Father.

As the day was approaching, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do today to remember Faith. I also did not know what emotions would come to surface on this day.

I was sure I would be quite all right and that it wouldn't be difficult. Talk about denial! Last night as Hubby and I were talking about today, the tears started to come.

When I woke up this morning the weather was quite dreary. Perfect, that went right along with my mood! After getting text messages and messages on facebook, the tears started flowing freely. I am so Thankful for all of those who remembered us today and also prayed for us. I am sure that is what got us through.

Faith was a very wanted baby. She is greatly missed. I long for the day that we will be reunited in Heaven. Oh what a day that will be!

We did a balloon release this evening at home. We are in Kentucky and Faith's grave is in VA. We waited for Hubby to be home from work. We had to fit it in before the kids had to leave for church.

So with all 10 kids and Tim's Fiance, Naomi, we went outside and had our balloon release. One balloon got away before we were ready. Luckily I had an extra inside. We let them go and we watched them go up until we could no longer see them. One balloon got caught on the overhang of the house, so the kids were entertained watching as it finally freed itself and finally went up and away also.

My dear sweet niece Corrie (who is more like the baby sister my Mom never gave me!) went to Faith's grave and released a balloon there. She also got a Happy First Birthday Balloon that she left at the grave. She called me while she was there and talked to me while she and her sister released the balloon. Corrie is the best! Thanks Corrie for all you do! Thanks for helping me out! I Love You!

She took some pictures for me, so I will try to share those as well as the ones we took here at home as soon as I get them all together.

I bought this single pink rose in memory of Faith

If you have not seen the slideshows of Faith and of her Memorial Service you might want to go here to view them. There are 2 different slideshows there. One is what was shown at Faith's Memorial Service. These pictures were taken the day Faith was born.Make sure the sound is turned up on your computer so that you can hear the beautiful song that is playing. The other slideshow is pictures that were taken at the Memorial Service.

Thanks to all of you that have prayed for us. God is so good and he has been with us through every step of this journey. It has not always been easy, but God has carried us when we couldn't walk ourselves. We could never had lived through all of this without the Great Physician that is in the process of healing our broken hearts!

 

Wednesdays For Wyatt ~ Week 2

Today is the second Wednesday for Wyatt. It is quite simple to participate. All you have to do is copy and paste this post on your blog,and then go to Danielle's blog to link up with MckLinky. Once you do that, your all set to win a great giveaway.

From Danielle

Over the last week we have gotten 123 new signatures! Over 100 of those we got last Wednesday alone. And we had 34 wonderful bloggers link up... I can't wait to see how much Wednesdays for Wyatt will grow this week!

For those of you who are not familiar with my family and what we are trying to achieve, here’s a brief run down...

Our son Wyatt was diagnosed with a fatal condition at our 18 week ultrasound, but chose to carry him to term. We waited to meet our son with love, all the time praying we would get to see him alive.

On June 1, 2009, Wyatt made his way into the world by c-section. To our amazement he had a faint heartbeat and was breathing! He died two minutes later, but I’ve clung to the two minutes my son and I breathed the same air since his passing.

Upon calling to get a copy of Wyatt’s birth certificate, I found out he was listed as a stillborn. You would assume it was a mistake (like I did), but there was no mistake. According to the definition of live birth in Tennessee my son was not “alive enough” to be deemed a live born baby. His two minutes of life has gone unrecognized by my state, and I intend to change this piece of legislation so I can solidify the validity of my son’s short life.

Wednesdays for Wyatt was created to help spread awareness for a law that needs to be changed, as well as to generate more traffic to my petition. So if you’re reading this, thanks for taking the time to help our family!

This contest will be open today only. I will close MckLinky down sometime before midnight, so make sure you get linked up ASAP to make sure you are entered to win this giveaway! Thanks for helping everyone, and good luck.

 

Quick Update

The first baby has been born from our Pregnancy Prayer List.

Kristina had a baby boy on Friday morning weighing 7lb. 7oz.  I hear that mother and baby are doing well. Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow!

The ironic thing is that this poor Mommy had to be on bed rest for 11 weeks due to preterm labor. She was finally let out of bed a few weeks before her due date. She ended up being overdue about 2 weeks! Not Fun! But God is good and the outcome is so wonderful!

Please remember to keep these other Expectant Mommies in your prayers. I know they appreciate it very much!

 

The Graveside Service For Faith

This post has actually been in the making for a couple of months. I had started it and never finished it for whatever reason.

We traveled to Virginia to have Faith buried. We were given permission to have her buried at the foot of my Father's grave. We had options of having her buried here in Kentucky, but that just didn't sit right with me. It has now been over four years ago that we moved to Kentucky, but it is just not "home" to me. If we moved away from here, I am not sure that we would come back and visit much. My Mom, siblings, and a lot of extended family stll live in Virginia, so it just seemed right to take her there.

On November 22, 2008, our friends and family assembled at the Cemetery to remember Faith. It was an unusual blustery day in Virginia. Just the year before were visiting there in November, and on Thanksgiving it was in the 70's. We were all wearing t-shirts. Now we were all bundled up in Parkas trying our best to stay warm.

We did not really have a pastor that we knew from the area, so a pastor from my sister's church led the Service. He is such a wonderful man with a true heart for God. We met with him a couple of nights before the Service to go over the details, and I really appreciated his joy of the Lord and his care and compassion for us.

 

Thank You Dear Hubby!

You may have noticed that my blog is looking a little different lately. Hubby and I have been working together on changing the design.

I searched the internet High and Low for free digital scrap booking kits to find what I am looking for. We then get together to discuss the general idea. Hubby does all the technical stuff. HTML just gives me a headache. He gets the design going and we tweak things here and there. After much head banging patience on his part, we finally get it all together. We might still be tweaking it a little bit along the way.

He also made a Blog Button for me. Here it is, isn't  it awesome?



If you would like, you can grab my button from the left sidebar.

Thank You Dear Hubby! You are the best! I appreciate all that you do for me! I Love You!

 

The First Wednesdays for Wyatt

Today is the very first post for Wednesdays for Wyatt!

It’s quite simple to participate. All you have to do is go over to Danielle's Blog and copy and paste her post on your blog, and then link up with MckLinky! Once you do that, your are entered in the first ever Wednesday’s for Wyatt giveaway. Let's make this a huge success, shall we?

From Danielle:

For those of you who are not familiar with my family and what we are trying to achieve, here’s a brief run down...

Our son Wyatt was diagnosed with a fatal condition at our 18 week ultrasound, but chose to carry him to term. We waited to meet our son with love, all the time praying we would get to see him alive.

On June 1, 2009, Wyatt made his way into the world by c-section. To our amazement he had a faint heartbeat and was breathing! He died two minutes later, but I’ve clung to the two minutes my son and I breathed the same air since his passing.

Upon calling to get a copy of Wyatt’s birth certificate, I found out he was listed as a stillborn. You would assume it was a mistake (like I did), but there was no mistake. According to the definition of live birth in Tennessee my son was not “alive enough” to be deemed a live born baby. His two minutes of life has gone unrecognized by my state, and I intend to change this piece of legislation so I can solidify the validity of my son’s short life.

Wednesdays for Wyatt was created to help spread awareness for a law that needs to be changed, as well as to generate more traffic to my petition. So if you’re reading this, thanks for taking the time to help our family!

We are currently up to 1,253 signatures. Hurray! We’ve made it over my initial goal of 1,000 signatures, and now I’m dreaming big! You think you can help me get 5,000 signatures by Thanksgiving? I bet you could, and I hope this Wednesdays for Wyatt helps out tremendously. Post this to your blogs, facebook, myspace... wherever you can think of. I can’t wait to see how many more signatures we receive from this. I have a great feeling!

The contest will only be open today. You have until 11:59 pm to post this on your blog and come back here to link up with MckLinky in order to qualify for this Wednesdays for Wyatt giveaway. Good luck everybody and thanks for participating.

 

Harvest of Friends Blog Party

Lynnette from Dancing Barefoot On Weathered Ground is Hosting A Harvest of Friends Blog Party. She is asking us to answer 20 weird questions that will let everyone know a little more about us. Go over to Lynnette's and join in on the fun and link up.


1. What is your favorite thing to snack on while you're blogging?
I do not usually snack while blogging. I do however like to have a cup of coffee or ice tea.

2. What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?
Having Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

3. Beach, Mountains or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice?
Definitely the Beach.I do not get to go to the beach very often, but I LOVE the Beach!

4. What's your least favorite chore/household duty?
Oh, wow! Too many to pick from! I do not feel very domestic. I know that is actually pretty humorous since I have 10 kids and I home school and I am home all day! I would much prefer to work outside in the dirt! If I have to pick just one I guess it would be dusting.

5. Who do people say you remind them of?
I am not sure that anyone has named anyone specifically, but many people have said I am sure I know you from somewhere.

6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying at home with the fam?
I would mostly prefer to stay home with the family. I am not a big party socializing kind of person, but I would enjoy an occasional night out with just girlfriends. If I have a chance to go out though , I prefer to spend that time with Hubby!

7. What's your all time favorite movie?
Probably the Sound of Music.

8. Do you sleep in your make up or remove it like a good girl every night?
I do not wear makeup everyday, but when I do I usually sleep in it. I know, that is not good for my skin, but I am a very tired person!

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a chance to learn? What is it?
No hidden talents that I know of. The one thing I have had a desire to learn is how to sew.

10. What's one strange thing you're really good at?
I can wiggle my nose. It is so funny to watch others try to do it. My oldest sister can do it, but I do not think any of my other siblings can do it.

11. What first attracted you to your spouse?
His sweet, gentle, caring and compassionate personality.

12. What is something you love to smell?
Apples and cinnamon.

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people.
Probably when I am intently working on my computer and I do not hear anyone when they are talking to me.

14. When you have extra money (HA!) what's the first thing you think to do with it?
Take Hubby on a Vacation. We celebrated our 25th Anniversary Several Months ago and we would love to go away to celebrate.

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest?
Probably somewhere in the middle. When hanging out with friends or family and having a good time, I am probably a little louder. Usually my kids or hubby can make me laugh the hardest.

16. Where is your favorite place to shop?
When shopping for clothes I like Kohl's.

17. What's one thing you'd do more often if you had more time?
Read

18. Are you a big spender or frugal?
By nature I like to spend money. Since I am the mom to 10, I have learned and am learning to be more frugal. When we were first married, I would never buy generic brands. Now I buy a lot of generics.

19. Who is your favorite character of all time (from a movie or book)? (Can't be real)
Can't really think of any. I can think of real people though starting with Jesus and then people like Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsy.

20. Would you want to be famous?
No,not really. I am someone who likes to blend into the background. I wouldn't want to have to deal with the loss of privacy.

 

Birthdays

I am a bit behind on posting about Birthdays around here. Three more birthdays have been celebrated in the last couple of months.

First off is my oldest son Jeremy. He turned 23 years old and I cannot believe it!

I had Toxemia when I was pregnant with him and was induced at 37 weeks. I was on medication that made me miserable. His delivery was a bit difficult for me and I decided that one child was all I needed! That lasted a really long time, didn't it?

The younger children think Jeremy is the Best! They look up to Him! ( Literally because he is 6'3"!) He is currently taking a break from school so he can save up some more money.


Next is Anna. My baby girl is now 8. She is quite the spunky one! I am determined that she could run this country better than anyone else! She can do anything she puts her mind to. She is in third grade and does quite well.

Anna got her ears pierced for her Birthday. She has been really wanting to get that done and since it would be one less thing to have to pick up, I gave in consented. So far, so good. She still wears the original post earrings and we clean them twice a day.



The most recent Birthday was Luke. He is now 6. Luke is in Kindergarten this year. He reminds us so much of his older brother Tim. He looks a lot like him and has a very similar personality. He can be quite charming and a real sweet heart and then he can be a real hard head! He definitely keeps us busy and entertained.



Having 10 children can keep you busy in the Birthday department. Next month we have 4 Birthdays. We usually end up getting a cake for each one, but we have considered having one great big celebration. The older kids can handle this well, but the younger ones still want their own! Oh well, it won't be all that long before they are all older and won't even care.

October 28th marks one year since we said goodbye to Faith. I am not sure what we will do to remember her. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. It just seems impossible that it has almost been a year. I have been remembering a lot recently, about the things we were going through this time last year.I never dreamed one year later I would be blogging about losing her.

It seems as though the next couple of months are going to be quite busy. November we have four Birthdays and Thanksgiving. We are also planning a Wedding shower for my son Tim and his fiance Naomi. Then comes the month of December which is always busy with Christmas preparations. On top of that we will be preparing for Tim and Naomi's Wedding which is January 2nd. Besides all of this, we still have day to day activities that keep us quite busy anyway. I am praying for God to help us to prioritize and for us to remember to keep Him the Center of all that we do.

 

Reminder

The Pregnancy Prayer List is Starting to grow! I am delighted to be able to pray for these Expectant Mommies!

If you are expecting or know someone who is and would like to be added to the list, please leave me a comment or send me an email at onhavingfaith@gmail.com. I feel privileged to pray for all of you!

I invite each of you to pray right along with me. I feel that it is important to keep these Mommies and their little ones held up in prayer! The list is at the top of the right sidebar.

Please send updates so I can update everyone here also.

 

Another Award Times Two

I have been awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award by TWO of my blogging friends! Jenilee @ The Goodwin Family and Trennia @ Still Serving Him Through The Storm both gave me this Award! Thank You both so much for thinking of me! I appreciate your bloggy friendship a great deal! Stop by and say Hi to these ladies.



So here are the rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.

5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they've been nominated.

I am suppose to tell you seven things about me that you may not know. Umm, let me see, this is kind of hard to come up with anything interesting.

1. My favorite color is blue. Blue is very pleasing to my eyes. As you can see this blog is blue, but it might be changing soon!

2. I am the youngest of 6 kids. Yes, I am the baby and my parents favorite! (Just Kidding!)

3. I Love music. Music is very soothing to my soul. I almost exclusively listen to Christian Music. There is just something to Lifting of the Name of The Lord!

4. I drive a big white van. It is a 12 passenger and we have had it for over 11 years now.

5. Speaking of that big white van, in the past few months I have put some dents and scrapes on the right side. One time I was pulling into a spot at Walmart and I scraped a large pickup truck. There was a scrape on his back bumper. I wrote him a note and left him my cell number. Later on I received a text from this understanding guy that told me not to worry about it, that is what bumpers are for! That made my day!

6. I hate to admit this, but I probably go to Walmart at least 3 times a week. This is where we buy most of our groceries and we also get our prescriptions there. We do not have many choices here. I wish we had every penny we have ever spent at Walmart, boy would we be rich! I am so excited that a Meijer is coming to our area soon!

7. I like to grocery shop by myself. If I have the time, I like to read labels and take my time. It is actually relaxing to me. If I have to take children, I like to get out of there as soon as possible! I get really frazzled!

I am suppose to pick seven bloggy Friends to pass on this Award. Jennilee and Trennia would be on my list, so I give them Honorable mention and pick seven more. So here are the seven bloggers that I pass this Award on to:

1. Ange@ A Heart At Home.Ange is such a sweet lady! She has become a great friend and quite a Blessing to me! She is the Mom to 9 and expecting twins in December. She is on the pregnancy prayer list, so keep her in your prayers.

2. Pam@ Life AS Pam.Pam is a Mom to 13! She is also a lay midwife. In her spare time she home schools her children! :)

3. Amy@ Raising Arrows. Amy is Mom to 8 children and 3 of them are with Jesus. I was introduced to her blog just before her dear sweet Emily passed away and this was before I lost Faith. I have been helped so much by reading her blog after losing Faith.

4. Angie@ Ponder The Path of Thy FeetAngie has quickly become a friend here in bloggy world. She seems to share a lot of things in common with me.

5. Candace@ Living With Faith.Candace is a Mommy to a very special little girl named Faith.I love that name! I am so touched by how Candace handles the challenges of life. Faith is facing a surgery soon, so please keep them in your prayers.

6. Kelly@ The Beauty of Sufficient Grace.Kelly has been such a Blessing to me. She has a ministry called Sufficient Grace Ministries for Women. This ministry was created specifically to provide comfort to women and families who have lost a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death. Kelly has experienced loss herself. She had to say goodbye to a set of twins (Faith and Grace) and to a son named Thomas. You can find Sufficient Grace Ministries here.

7. Patrice@ Williams Family Blog. I enjoy reading Patrice's Blog. She shares about the ups and downs of life with having a baby with health challenges. Jonah is that sweet baby, and oh, so cute! Please keep this family in your prayers and pray that God will bring healing to Jonah's body.

 

Fall Is Here and a Pregnancy Prayer List

It seems as though Fall has finally arrived here is Kentucky. The past few days the weather has been cooler and I love it!

I love Fall. I love all the sights and smells that come with Fall. The cooler weather is so welcome after a hot Summer. The beautiful colors that come from the leaves changing is such a wondrous sight! The smells of apples and cinnamon or pumpkin pie baking or apple cider simmering are so yummy!

The only problem with Fall is that it is too short! Yes, on the calendar it is the same length as any other season. It just doesn't last that long. Winter seems to creep in just a bit too quick! I love different things about Winter also, but for me it lasts a little too long. And the thing that makes me sad is when all the leaves fall off of the trees. Everything seems bare and bleak. That is why Spring is so welcome, but that is another post. So I will enjoy Fall while I can!




Over the weekend I felt the Lord was laying it on my heart to pray for pregnant women. It seems as though there are so many women experiencing complications with their pregnancies. Pregnant women have always been near and dear to my heart. I feel that it is appropriate to keep these ladies and their babies in prayer.

So here is what I am going to do. If you are pregnant or know somebody that is pregnant and would like to be added to my pregnancy prayer list please let me know. Leave me a comment with your name or friend's name and due date or month. I am going to keep a list on my sidebar to remind each of us to pray. Please join me in praying for these ladies and their babies. Also, please send me an update so I can post that too! I am excited to see what God is going to do!


Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed. When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127:3-5