Bonus post: s'ghetti time!

We decided it was time for Corbin to enter into the rite of passage every baby should get to experience:  first time eating spaghetti!
 

Hmm...this tastes different.

Yep, this is definitely food.

Slurp!

Double fistin'

Spaghetti facial, anyone?

Fresh out of his oregano and garlic infused bath!

On a side note, we did notice he developed some sort of minor patchy/flushed rash on his cheeks and chest after eating the spaghetti (which couldn't have been much, since 9/10ths of it wound up in his seat).  It went away the next morning, but it's something we will have to keep an eye on.  Could've been the tomato, the seasoning, or just his excitement from it all.  He didn't seem to notice, though!

Feline Found!

 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don't forget to thank Him for His answers. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ. Philippians 4:6-7


I'm writing this with a cheerful heart!  Saturday (1/12/13) Josh and I made more flyers and decided to go door-to-door and ask surrounding neighborhoods if they had seen a big orange cat.  We actually only spoke with 3 people, because everyone else was so rude not to answer their doors!  No, really.  It's bad when you see them come to their window, shush their dog, or walk away.  Rudeness.  Anyway, one person said they had seen an orange cat, another said he fed the neighborhood strays and would keep an eye out, and the third said he had only seen his neighbor's cat.  Since so few people would actually talk to us, we proceeded to stick flyers on everyone's mailboxes.

After about 45 flyers, we ran out.  We were going to go home, but I told Josh I wanted to make a few more...just for one more neighborhood.  So we did, and I guess we were about on our second or third street when I [finally] got a call from a lady saying she just missed us, but she got our flyer and thought she had our cat under her house.

Wha-what?

Apparently, the night before she was watching a movie alone and heard some "creature" saying "hewwooo" under her floor.  Scared, she called her husband, who told her to go open the door to their crawl space and let it out.  She was too afraid to, and decided to wait till morning when he got home.

So there we were, standing around these people's muddy yard (it had poured down rain all week), while Josh crawled around under their house.  Which was damp and had quite the collection of spiders.

Two glowing eyes and a panicked meow later, we found out their creature was actually Ginger!

Six days she had been trapped under their house.  Sunday afternoon, they opened the door for the cable guy and that's when she performed her disappearing act.  Six. Days.

How on earth did she survive six days without food and water?  Well, I'm not sure how she obtained food, unless he found a mouse.  She is quite thin now.

But water?  I'm pretty sure 2 or 3 days is the max to go without water. But remember the down pours?  Yep.  Those rainstorms I dreaded actually kept her alive.  Puddles from the flooding gave her enough water to stay hydrated all week.  Isn't God the awesomest? :)

I'm proud to report she is now safe and sound at home.  I'm so thankful God answered mine and the prayers of many family and friends for Ginger's return.  You never realize how much these little guys are a part of your family until they're gone!

So, even with all the disasters, tragedies, and epidemics going on in the world, God still cares about the little things.  He knows it's the little daily (or weekly) things that build our faith.  Isn't that awesome?



P.S.
The guy who fed all the cats called us that night to report some "jerk" driving around the neighborhood and stealing our flyers.  I had to laugh because that jerk was my husband who felt compelled to take the flyers back lest people think we're still looking.  HA HA!

Round 1 of flyers

Corbin helping out with round 2

SHE'S HOME!!!  (and hungry!)

Happy to be home!

When a kitty goes missing...

My cat Ginger has been missing since Sunday night. We've looked all over our neighborhood and others, put out flyers, and prayed. I'm trying really hard not to lose faith and get angry that God hasn't answered my simple prayer to bring a fluffy orange cat back to her home. Somehow I manage to keep believing that He loves me and even cares about my cat. But it's not easy for me. 

I crumble too easily; panic when God doesn't answer my prayers right away. I tell Him He doesn't really love me and obviously doesn't care about the little stuff. Ask Him why He can't do this simple thing for me. I miss my cat. I want her back home safe and sound. I don't want to count my other blessings because I don't want to be happy and forget that I'm sad that she hasn't come home yet. This is real. 

The way I see it, I have two options. 

One, I can give up, get angry at God, my "secret weapon" for all things difficult. I can cry and mope and tell myself God is a cruel, heartless master who doesn't care about the little things. 

Or two, I can resist Satan's tactic to temp me into cursing God, destroying my faith, and doubting the power of prayer. He knows what little things pull on my heart strings the most. And boy, is he yanking away.

I'm fighting for option 2.

I keep reading encouraging scriptures, humbly praying, and doing whatever I can physically to search for her.

I guess you could say I'm being tested. The last time I really felt tested was when the anatomy ultrasound found a cyst on Corbin's brain. I'm sure there are a handful of other traumatic events I no longer recall since they all have turned out perfectly in my favor. No, I'm not saying everything I've prayed for has come to past. I've had my share of heartaches, failures, and disappointments. But I'm still here, and I'm still alive, and I still have faith.

And I'm still praying for my Ginger to come home.

“We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.” ~ Oswald Chambers

It'll be April before I stop writing 2012...

It occurred to me this day of January 2nd that I failed to make a resolution for 2013. Last year, I chose a scripture to base my life on for the year 2012. The primary focus was to do everything for the glory of God. Well, as you can imagine (and as most resolutions do), I failed to do everything to the Lord's glory. But, by striving to do everything pleasing to God, I learned how to be still and listen. Trust. Neither of those things are easy for an impulsive control freak. I learned that everything is in God's timing, and if I would just shut my pie hole for a minute and stop trying to copilot this ship, God would tell me what it is I need to do. And, believe it or not, it always winds up glorifying Him in the end.

Sneaky.

So, this year, I thought about having two resolutions. One which would bring me closer to Christ, and the other which is something more concrete.

And because I think backwards, I'll start with the last one first.

I feel like God is telling me to branch out. I believe we were put on the earth to be social creatures and that we evolve and change with time, experience, and life. This year, I've been blessed to have found friendship with an online group of moms who were all due around the same time as me. This worked out great because I could talk whenever it was convenient from me and from the comfort of my home. Which was just dandy, because with a newborn, I wasn't going anywhere I couldn't wear pajama bottoms for a looong time.

Okay, so that actually does include the local Walmart and grocery store, but that's not really the type of social interaction I was hoping for.

I want to come out of my comfort zone, stepping out from behind a computer screen, text message, or phone, and have real live face-to-face interactions. Ya know, since I now own three whole pairs of jeans...versus a week's supply of flannel pajamas pants.

My other resolution, the spiritual one, is a lot more... Personal. In a nutshell, I could just say I want to be a better Christian. But if being a teacher taught me nothing else, it's when you're listing an objective or standard for yourself or your lesson, you've got to be specific.

So, specifically, one of the things I need to work on is letting go. I've always considered myself to be a very forgiving person, but letting go has always been hard for me in a different sense. I need to let go of what was. I need to let go of bitterness, hurt, and resentment (yep, I'm not perfect). I need to let go of my desire to appease others and live up to their idea of what my potential is. I even need to let go of sentimentality. Just because something served me well in the past, doesn't mean it's the best for me now. And finally, I need to let go of worry, fear, and doubt. I don't know why I continue to carry these things around with me. Seriously. Everything, in hind sight, has always worked out for my good. So why can't I seem to let go of the control and...

Let God.

There it is. The hardest thing for a person like me to do. The most mentally disturbing task for a "just let me do it myself because if it tears up I'll only have myself to blame" kinda gal. I'm learning to let God tell me what to do, how to handle it, when, how, not now, wait and see. It's not easy. I don't really like it. But it is making me a stronger Christian. And that, I like.

So, 2013. A year to stop trying to figure it out on my own and let God direct my life. I feel many doors closing behind me. But even if God has me sitting in an empty room with no windows for a while, that'll be alright, too. Because, I know joy, like the sun, comes with every morning. And I don't need a window to see the light of the Son shining.

You like what I did there? Yeah, you know you did.

Happy 2013 everyone!