Grateful Acres

Remember a couple summers ago when I wrote a post about Ruby's birth story, and the week of  emergency room craziness that ensued immediately before? Insane Birth Story, Second Edition: LilyAnne's fluid levels had been low for a month or so, so we were attending bi-weekly appointments to do stress tests and ultrasounds to keep tabs on everything going on inside. Jonathan begged each appointment for me to request that the doctor "get her out" at that appointment, because he just "neeeeeeeeds, to see how cute she is!".  All the kids were with us at our last appointment when we got the diagnosis of "fluid levels too low, go induce", and Jonathan let out some excited yells, "YEEEEESSSS!!! YEEEES!!" Everyone's excitement level immediately went through the roof, and mine was accompanied by a mild amount of this-is-going-to-hurt-so-bad panic :) We took some fun family shots right before going in to document our excitement (can ...

Last month Josh and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! Some dear friends of ours met up with us for dessert on our night out, and ended the evening by praying over us (it was awesome). They thanked God for the seven years He's given us, and asked Him to bless the next seven. That got me thinking about the number seven... on the "seventh day" God rested. So I began asking God to bless this  year with REST.  In our first year of marriage we moved, got pregnant, and I quit my job. Just barely into our second year we had Jonathan, and Josh dipped his toes into youth ministry. In our third year we had Henry, moved, and bought a business (that year was NUTS!). In our fourth year we began gutting and remodeling a house with Josh's parents. In our fifth year we briefly held Evelyn, moved again, and switched churches. In our sixth year we had Ruby, bought a new machine for our business, dove head first into youth ministry and worship ministry. In our seventh yea...