Please join me in praying! **UPDATED**

**UPDATED** Doctors are now reporting that L is in stable but critical condition. A second CT Scan confirmed that their is no bleeding on the brain, but that there is brain swelling. She is now in a medically induced coma as they hope the swelling will subside. Please continue praying also for the family. L's parents are traveling shortly from Washington to Thailand to be closer to L and to help care for the children.
Thank you for praying with us!

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Dear friends of ours (R and L) are missionaries in Thailand and just made a move from Bangkok to a more remote location in the last week. I just received word that L (wife and mother) and both of their school aged children were in a serious car accident, swerving to miss a suddenly stopping motorcycle and hitting a concrete highway divider. L is in a coma, though tests show no physical reason for it (no neck or back injury or bleeding on the brain--praise the Lord!!) The children have some broken bones and bruising. After being stabilized, L was taken several hours to a facility in Bangkok where she will get great care.

Please pray with me for these physical needs of the C family! R (husband and father) will surely have a road ahead of him as he cares for the physical needs of his children and wife, not to mention any fear and worry he may struggle with.

There are missionaries around the world who set aside the comforts of home to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people who have not heard. Please take even just a moment to lift up this family and their (no doubt worried) stateside family and friends to the feet of the Lord!

Thank you!

Labels: Passing it On

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 3:46 PM 3 Comments

Let's build each other up today!!!

I need encouragement today... and what better way to encourage ourselves and others than to proclaim the Glory of God! Can you join me? Can we make this a post full of his blessings, promises and glory! Please leave a comment with a Scripture that has blessed you of late! Share with us how God is glorious! Please, I need to be built up today.

I'll start!

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7

No matter the situation: the stability of the economy or a husband's job, the salvation of a child, or the poor choices of a loved one, The Lord is at hand! He is right here with me. I have no need to be anxious about any of it... not how I should handle a situation or what I should do about it... none of it. Instead, The Lord is at hand, right here with me, and I am to bring EVERYTHING to him "by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving". Then "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I am so thankful for the peace He offers!

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Now please... won't you join me? And spread the word! Let's encourage one another in the comments today!!

Labels: From God's Word, Mommy's Tool Box, Reflections

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 10:33 AM 3 Comments

Be still my heart!

Oh how long I've waited, but today, my ears have heard the sound of my little girl calling out "mama... mama... mama".

They were playing in their room while I sat down the hall at the computer. I don't let them play back there without me very often, but when I am back and forth up and down the hall a bunch, I'll let them stay a few minutes after nap time to play and wake up. As they did acrobatics on the toddler bed, it was obviously important that I come watch.

In recent weeks Sweet Pea has begun coming to get me, taking my hand and pulling me to where ever she wants me to go. I love it! Occasionally she even comes toward me, haulers out an "aaaaaahhhh", and when I look toward her, she turns and heads back to where she came from. Now, this is most obviously a "Hey, come look Mommy!" But today for the first time, she came half way down the hall yelling, "mama, mama, mama..." until I looked (thanks no doubt to the brotherly example she has around here). Then she did her high-tail-turn-around to head back to their fun and games.

I should give a touch of background. Sweet Pea is nearing 18 months and is really not talking at all. She says a few one syllable variations of words like "da" and "bah" and the such for "Daddy" (which she says often when he gets home from work and what not) and ball ("bah" also means "baby" and "blanket" and a few others.) I don't worry about the lack of talking. Tornado really didn't take off with his talking until 19 months. I know that every little one develops in their own time. We just let them do that.

I'll take this chance to say, too, a piece about teaching children to sign and it's affects on when they talk. Some will say that teaching them to sign means they won't talk until late. When Tornado didn't talk and didn't talk and didn't talk, I heard that a lot. But I didn't believe them. Now with Sweet Pea, she isn't talking isn't talking isn't talking. But you know what? She hardly signs at all. She does a few (um... "please"), but doesn't even know very many... I've just dropped the ball on that one I guess (I have big plans to start getting them from the library again because I believe it really boosted Tornado's vocabulary once he started talking). So... though I didn't think signing affected when babies talk one bit, now I am even more convinced!

Back to the point though... she said "mama". **Smile**

Labels: As it happens..., Little Moments, Raising Children

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 4:25 PM 0 Comments

"I want to share with you Mommy"

So cute... right? Tornado has begun saying this pretty regularly. Sometimes he includes Sweet Pea too. The trick is, he's got the whole concept backward. The occasions when he says "I want to share with you Mommy", he doesn't have anything to share... I do. What he is really saying is "I want you to share with me Mommy." :) It's pretty funny.

The trick of it is that he doesn't quite understand why it doesn't work. He get's the concept of sharing to a point. When he won't share with Sweet Pea I generally ask him if he is being selfish or sharing and he changes his tune to "I'm sharing", and then shares with her. (This comes in conjunction with talking about what it means to be selfish... at least on a two year old level.)

He thinks it goes both ways though... when she has something he wants, he commands her to "share with me [Sweet Pea]", and then complains to me that he wants to "share with her" when I ask why he has just ripped a toy from her hands and caused her to scream. **Sigh**

Oh the joys of training little ones. :) I hope you can smile today in your training!

Labels: As it happens..., Little Moments, Raising Children

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 11:47 AM 1 Comments

Our healthy living journey... part 3

Here are part 1 and part 2!

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Refined sugars were next. As we have traveled this path for healthy living, we’ve met and fellowshipped with a number of people traveling the same road. Many are behind us, some have caught up faster than we could move, and others are still far ahead. They have helped in the understanding and decisions regarding refined sugars. Last fall we made the switch away from refined sugar. You see, we have long known that most artificial sugars weren't the best for us. Aspartame made me sick and gave My Beloved headaches for years. (Who knew there were more serious threats.) We had no idea, though, that plain old white sugar was a problem. Though the best bet is to remove most sugar from your diet, in our home it's just not practical. We've found that unrefined options are best. We've chosen Rapadura for most of our sugar use, and raw honey as often as we can.

Then January came, and with it a new shower head… one that filters chlorine. Now if only I could find a way to filter our bath spiget.

February brought with it a Berkey Water Filter to purify our drinking water, removing the chlorine and fluoride. (We had been previously been using a Brita.)

Spring brought the trial and error of homemade laundry soap (after switching to a natural brand around the time our first was born). I think Recipe 4 is close to the one we're using, though I can't remember exactly.

I know there are probably a handful of other little changes we’ve made which I’m forgetting, but I hope this has given you a little picture of how we got from where we were to where we are. I know there are a number of things looming in our future (hair and body care products, toothpaste, dishwashing soap, etc. for example), but each comes as a baby step with a lot of research, thought, and discussion. I generally think, think, think about the next step for a long while, figure out all the ramifications, research, shop around, and then plan a start time (like “when this bottle of shampoo is empty I’ll try the “no-poo” thing”.) It’s scary, but then, every other step was scary too, and now it’s just part of life!

Labels: Healthy Living

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 9:46 AM 2 Comments

Our healthy living journey... part 2

Find part 1 of this series here.
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Late last summer I read an article online about plastics. Ugh! What now? Turns out, there are terrible chemicals in the things I let my babies chew on (eh, play with). BPA and PVC are found in many plastic toys as well as canned food products, and food packaging, as well as lots more. This one was huge. We spent some time deciding how we felt about this one. Were we going over the edge with this? Was this going a little far? We thought, we prayed, and we talked it over. These chemicals are known for causing a number of health problems, including infertility.

We decided to pull them. I researched toys and toy companies. I contacted manufacturers and asked questions. We learned which companies we could trust (Evenflo was frank about which plastics contained these chemicals and which weren’t, Fischer-Price made it clear that they are not to be trusted by refusing to answer our questions straight.) The next step was to get rid of the offending toys. We stopped buying canned food (BPA is used to make the plastic lining in most canned foods) as much as we could with plans to cut them out altogether as soon as possible.

The next step just sort of happened. We went organic. For many month we’d been telling people that we weren’t “organic”, but that we simply bought a number of organic items because that was the only way to find products without the ingredients we avoided. Then one day we were talking and it just made sense. If we are going to all the trouble and expense to do all this other stuff, why not just go all the way.

So, we started buying organic because it was organic… to avoid the pesticides. We buy organic produce when we can (and when we can afford it). We are deliberate about buying lettuce, tomatoes and apples organically because we can find them easily in our grocery store. When we have the opportunity to buy other things organic, we do. We trust the Lord for the rest of it.

In addition to the buying organic, we’ve grown a garden this year (our first and we love it!) This garden allows us to eat fresh, pesticide free produce and plenty to can for later (without BPA).

Labels: Healthy Living, In the Kitchen, Raising Children

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 9:38 AM 0 Comments

I'm back

It was a long week. Kids farmed out Monday and Tuesday evening. Wonderful in-laws here to care for us and the kids Wednesday through Saturday. My Beloved and I were petty sick, no appetite, high fever for me (as well as other things), tiredness and dizziness for him. We are well now, though we still aren't sure what was wrong with My Beloved and I'm still not at full energy. I will try to be in and out of here this week, though I am far behind on business. We are blessed that my mother-in-law kept the house up beautifully, so I don't have to catch up on that too much. I am far behind on business though... so much to do.

Glad to be back though!

Labels: As it happens...

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 10:24 AM 1 Comments

Sick Leave

Very sick here... My Beloved and I. Troops have been called in in the form of my wonderful in-laws.

Prayers are appreciated!

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 11:29 AM 1 Comments