Good weekend...

So, I guess I lost momentum when it came to posting everyday. I really enjoy it, but it is hard to find the time since I don't get on my computer when H is awake and when she is asleep I'm doing other things.

Anyway, this weekend was overall pretty great. Friday I met a friend and her two children at the Science Museum. I like the science museum here in Louisville, but it honestly doesn't compare to the children's museum in Indy. I do miss that place. Anyway, it was a good time and I was proud of Havana because she really listened and obeyed when I would tell her what areas we could play in. She tends to dart away from me and so we've been working on that, and I think she is getting better about realizing that she needs to stay close to mommy.

I enjoyed my time with my friend - she is pregnant with her third child and she and her husband want six. I love that because Jason and I also want a large family, God willing, with many children (both biological and adopted) and so I love when I can hang out with other moms who feel the same way. Jason and I are very open to life and have a lot of moral issues with contraception. Perhaps I'll explain our beliefs in another post, but I can't imagine looking at Havana and Jonah and then saying I don't want any more... they are so wonderful and add so much to our lives. It really isn't our place to tell God, "not right now, please don't create a life You want to..." anyway, I digress...

Friday afternoon I was able to clean our entire house - top to bottom - which always makes me happy. Sure the actual cleaning process doesn't always make me happy, but the finished result sure does. Then I made dinner and we had friends over with their two children. It was such a fun night. We feel so blessed to have this family as not only an example, but also just as good friends who are close to the same phase we are in life. Dinner was somewhat chaotic, but we loved every minute of it. The evening ended with Jason and I feeling refreshed from great fellowship with another couple who are trying to raise their children to know and love Jesus just like we are.

Friday was also Tucker's bday. Tucker is our much beloved dog who is now 4 years old. We lovingly call him our first born. He's pretty sweet, but somewhat spoiled too! He sleeps in bed with us. :) Anyway, we got him a cake and so we were sure to sing him happy birthday and give him his cake and his new toy. Not as thrilling of a bday as he has had in the past (this is the first year he didn't have a party with other doggies) but we still celebrated it. :)

Saturday was also a good day. We just hung out as a family for the most part and then went to Saturday night church. We love Saturday night church because it works better than Sunday mornings for us. To get us all up and out of the house in the morning takes a lot and so whenever we can - we opt to go in the evening. We have never really ever been able to put Havana in the nursery at church and not get paged out. So, in that regards, going to church has been a challenge for us over the past 20 months. They will let her cry as long as they can, but she always ends up getting close to throwing up so they page us. We keep trying and we make sure to talk to the nursery workers about her "SI" issues so they will be aware. Well, Praise God, we did NOT get paged out yesterday!!! We couldn't believe it. We walked in after church and saw a lady sitting on the floor playing peek-a-boo with a little girl under a blanket - that little girl was Havana.

The first words out of the lady's mouth was, "Havana is a delightful little girl." I almost started crying! I know this... but no one else really gets to see that side of her because of how upset she is. I sometimes feel that they dread us coming to church because of how "needy" Havana is. I know from working in the nursery that if you have one screaming child - there is a domino effect and you try to get rid of that screaming child so the others will calm down. And yet, these workers seemed determined to find what worked with Havana. The lady even said, "we just wanted to give you guys one entire service." And oh, they did! So refreshing... Jason and I both expressed our thanks several different times.

Havana never calmed down in the nursery room - so they had her out by herself, giving her one-on-one attention and love. How wonderful. I could tell they really got to know her because she said, "Havana loves to sing..." -- again, we know this, but most people don't. We were very, very proud of Havana and we are so incredibly grateful to all the wonderful nursery staff for taking Havana and giving her extra special love and attention to help us. Not going to church together has proved to make us both wary and drained. Going to church over the past year has been such a hassle. It is hard to drop her off, knowing she is screaming, and then waiting to get paged to go get her and then just walk around the church with her. I was largely responsible for that before Jonah and so Jason would get to hear the sermons. Since having Jonah, Jason has gone to be with havana and I've sat with Jonah - so neither one of us is really hearing the sermon and we certainly aren't going to church together. But, now we feel hopeful that we are moving out of this phase. We are also planning on putting Jonah in the nursery in August - so then we'll be completely child free for one hour every week and will be able to focus on growing in the Lord together as a couple! Praise God... truly a long awaited answer to prayer. We are aware that it might be a one step forward, two steps back sort of thing, but we are determined to try again every week, praying each time that Havana will grow to love church!

Going to church on Saturdays always leaves Sundays to be nice and relaxing. We hung out as a family this morning and now the children are taking naps! Not much planned for the rest of the day... other than playing. I'm not feeling super hot today - last night I came down with mastitis... again. I got double mastitis when Havana was first born and it was horrible. Thankfully, I know what it is now, so last night I started feeling the symptoms and this morning they were still there so we went on and started on some meds. I've also been having gall stone issues since Jonah was born and so my stomach hurts pretty much all the time. Funny how when you are a mommy and you get sick - well, you have to keep going. Ha.

The Lord humbled me yesterday when it came to my role as a wife. I went to check Havana into the child care and I gave her my info and then she said, "oh yes, I remember you from last week." I thought she was referring to how my daughter screamed and so I said, "Yes, we are pretty hard to forget." Then she said, "well, I remember you got really mad at your husband for "Vana" -- by that she meant that I saw where Jason put Havana's name as "Vana" and then I was utterly embarrassed. I don't want someone to remember me by my wrong attitude towards Jason. Clearly, I wasn't submitting and apparently I didn't have a very respectful attitude towards Jason. I apologized to the lady and then I apologized to jason. He sometimes calls Havana "Vana" and I sometimes call her that or "Vans" but I still don't like other people to call her that and Jason knows that, but if he wants to put her name down as "Vana" then I need to be okay with that. He's the leader and he certainly wasn't doing it to spite me... I certainly need to remember that and to make sure my attitude towards Jason is always respectful and submissive. Lesson learned... I hope! I'm so thankful for Jason and his grace with me!!