Random thoughts......

So, I watched American Idol tonight. It was announced that Ellen DeGeneres (sp???) is going to be the replacement for Paula Abdul. I think I'd heard that before, but was maybe hoping that it wasn't true. Oh well. I've often wondered if it is OK with God to watch a show called American IDOL. Hmmmmm....

All I know is that I seriously LOVE to hear folks that can really sing. I was trying to figure out with Doug tonight whether or not there was ever a chance that I could have auditioned for American Idol, given the age factor, and I'm pretty sure I never could have. The show started when I was overseas and when I came home I was 28 and at that time, I'm pretty sure the age limit was either 26 or 27, if not younger. It wasn't until a few years ago that they upped it to 28. (Is "upped" a word??) Anyway.......Not that I honestly think I would have had a chance, but it would have at least been fun to try and say that I did!

As for other stuff, we're all well. Nothing too exciting to report. I'm desperately in love with our little girl and am sincerely amazed daily at her little mind. It just makes me happy to listen to her and watch her talk about whatever. And I just love how she loves life and people. Don't get me wrong, she's got an attitude about her at times that I do NOT love, but all in all, she's a lovely, happy, contented little girl. We were at McDonalds today for lunch after Bible Study and as she was finishing up her meal, she saw a girl and immediately yelled, "Do you want to play with me?" Unafraid. Just wants a friend to play with.

And tonight as we were reading in the Bible the story of Samuel and it went from when Samuel was a boy to a man in a page turn, she was the one who noticed that the man on the next page was definitely Samuel. Why? Because he had on the same outfit the boy was wearing on the page before! Very observant!! Probably not a big deal to most of you, but it was cool to this momma.

I should also say that Doug and I had the opportunity this past weekend to take a little trip over to Dallas for an evening! Thanks to some GREAT friends who offered for Annie to have a little sleepover, we stayed at a hotel near the Galleria, went to a FABULOUS dinner, and just had a wonderful, relaxing, much needed break! It was quite marvelous. And Annie had a super time with her friend, the doggies stayed at an excellent kennel in Roanoke and therefore, it was a great getaway for everyone. Thanks to our dear friend, A, for the means to make this all happen. You truly blessed us.

And this Friday, I go for my 20 week ultrasound and we are definitely finding out whether or not we will be welcoming a son or daughter into our family in just a few, short months!! I'm soooo excited!! As far as I know, all continues to be fine in the pregnancy realm. I keep feeling this little kiddo move around a good bit, so I continue to pray that all will be well on Friday. I sincerely have not taken this pregnancy for granted. I don't think I'll ever cease to be amazed at the movement I feel in my belly. That God allowed for me to be pregnant again and that Lord-willing, we will have another precious little baby in our home in June. I'm overwhelmed by His goodness. Goodness that I definitely don't feel I deserve. But beyond thankful all at the same time. I ask that you please continue to pray for this baby, for us as we wait and that God would ultimately be glorified by the life of this little one.

As I was reading to A tonight, she noticed my belly and that it was indeed growing. It's the first time she's really commented on it. It will be fun to hear her comments and see what she thinks as it gets bigger and bigger!!

I guess that's all for now. Just had some stuff on my mind that is probably meaningless to you, but that I'll probably look back on a year from now and smile!

2009: A Year in Review

I'm hoping that many of you are reading this blog for the first time due to our little sheet of contact info included with our Christmas cards this year! I didn't have time to write a letter like we have in years past, so I was really hoping to do so here and that many of you would actually log on to read it! So here goes!! :-)

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Dearest family and friends,

I honestly don't know where to start except to say that I'm truly amazed yet again that another year has flown by. How is it that a decade has past since I first met my husband?

Well, this year held many, many ups and downs for the Grisaffe household. Some of the ups included watching our sweet daughter become a lovely little girl. She is almost four years old and truly one of the most precious gifts we could have ever received. No doubt she tests us almost daily, but all in all, she is such a sweet girl who loves people, her white blanket, Zoe (our Boston Terrier), My Little Pony, drawing/coloring, playing dress-up and singing (usually songs she has made up herself!). A also received her very FIRST haircut of her life in November!! I'll try to do a separate blog post of this as it was an exciting event!! We are continually amazed at her cognitive abilities and are hugely thankful that she continues to remain healthy despite all the sickness that seems to loom largely.

Some of the other ups was being able to travel to fun and exciting places as a family! In May we went with Grandma and Grandpa (Doug's parents) to San Diego and visited the Wild Animal Park, the San Diego Zoo and Sea World! We had a lot of fun and are blessed that we can take trips like that with them!

In June we went to Maui!! This is our third time to go to Hawaii since we've been married and it has yet to fail us as an incredible place to visit! We stayed in LaHaina this time and it was such a great little town! This was A's first visit and I think she loved it tremendously. However, I think she would have loved being anywhere as long as we were all together. That is definitely one of her favorite things - when we are all together! It truly was a great trip that we were able to make largely due to saved up frequent flier miles and great prices on hotels due to the flailing economy!

As for Doug, he continues to plunge ahead towards becoming tenure. He sincerely loves being a professor and the students, especially the graduate students, love him. In fact, in the spring semester, he was chosen by the university to receive an excellence in teaching award for the college of business. It was quite an honor, if I do say so myself! And we've been so thankful for his career change, now almost five years ago, given how so many folks have lost jobs lately, or aren't sure if they will have a job in the days ahead.

Besides teaching, Doug hasn't had much time for other extracurricular activities except hanging out with the family. He says he doesn't mind this and truly enjoys being with us, but I'd love for him to be able to pick up his guitar again and write more songs or anything else that makes him happy besides work and us.

As for me, I continue to enjoy being a stay at home mom. The Lord blessed me with a really, really part time job over the last year and a half as a beginner piano teacher. I teach one afternoon a week and have had six students this past fall. I just found out recently that I'll be losing a couple of my students. I'll miss them. I've been teaching them for over a year now and they are precious students. Besides teaching, I'm very involved at church. I participate in a weekly women's Bible study. This fall I began a Precepts study in the book of Isaiah. It's very challenging and a LOT of reading, but I've been encouraged from our weekly meetings and learning from this great prophetic book of the OT.

I'm also heavily involved in our music ministry. I am a soprano in our church choir and also sing first soprano in an ensemble which sings throughout the year called Uplifted. I get to sing a solo or two throughout the year as well. I continue to lead the three and four year old children in Preschool Praise every other Sunday and love my time with them worshiping our Savior. I have been so thankful for the opportunity to use my gifts at our church.

And I must give a shout out to all my blessed friends here in TX. If you had asked me four and a half years ago where I'd want to move to, the last place would have been TX. But just the other day, Doug asked me where I'd want to live if I could live anywhere and I said, "right here". I almost couldn't believe it came out of my mouth, but the Lord has blessed us so immensely here in this town. The friends we have made are so genuine and kind and have truly made us feel right at home in this great state.

Now for the downs of 2009. As I've had a few days to reminisce about this past year, I can say without hesitation that the first half of it held some of the lowest points of my life. It hurts even now to think about some of it. One year ago right now, I was pregnant, yet again. I went to the doctor right before my 8 week mark. My dates were off about a week and I waited another week to find out what was going on. When we went back, we found out another one of our babies had died. One word. Devastation. That was our sixth baby we had lost to miscarriage. And for me, it was almost the last straw, but thankfully - GLORY TO GOD - it wasn't and I'm now 18 and a half weeks pregnant. To read how we got to where we are today, click here.

In the midst of dealing with our unexplained miscarriages there was the dealing with our marriage. I haven't talked much about it here on this blog, mainly out of respect for my dear husband. But I can tell you that there were some really dark days of our marriage, largely due to the immense grieving that both of us were going through and also much in part due to our own sinful selves. Thankfully, through much prayer of many friends and the counsel of some dear, dear people from our church, we are on the right track and love each other more now than ever. I'm sincerely blessed to have Doug for a husband. There are not many people who would put up with me and love me the way he does. We celebrated our seventh anniversary this year!

And since I'm already talking about him, let me say that hands down, I truly believe our daughter has the best dad on the planet. He loves her so much and it shows in so many ways. I absolutely adore how he spends time with her in her world. He gets down and plays with her, dolls, barbies, whatever. He's constantly teaching her things of God and how things work in the world. And he's just plain silly with her which is so much fun to watch. I can't tell you how thankful I am to God to have a great husband who is an excellent father as well.

So, that about sums it up. There were tons of other things that happened this year that hopefully I blogged a little about, otherwise, I suppose they'll just be distant memories. A few things that come to mind that I didn't blog about were Thanksgiving with our cousins in Tulsa. Loved, loved, loved our time with them. Unfortunately, though, that was the beginning of pneumonia for dearest Doug....a definite not-so-fun part for him or us. But thankfully, he has recovered and no one else got it!

As for 2010, we're about to close day 3 and things are looking pretty good so far.

To all of you who prayed us through 2009: thank you. THANK YOU. I'm not sure we would have made it without your faithful prayers before the throne!

God is good, folks. I'm not sure I could have said that the first half of last year and really meant it, but He is and He loves us so much. So much that He sent His one and only Son to die for all of us. May my joy and passion of 2010 come from this knowledge alone and my love for the King of kings deepen every day.

Richest blessings to you all.

stories about A

I know that I promised a 2009 review update, but I just have to talk about A a bit. I've already forgotten so many things she has done over the last 3 plus years and it saddens me that I haven't journaled more about her life.

First of all, she got a new paint set for Christmas and she went through it in approximately three or four days! She LOVES to paint. Before now, we've just given her the little water colors set, but this time she got the actual paint and it was a HUGE hit. I can't tell you the amount of paper we've been through in the last week or so, but it's been worth it. She'll ask to paint and then sit there for long periods of time making beautiful paintings.

One of the other toys she got for Christmas was from her Daddy. It was a Tinker Toy set. I had them when I was a child, if that gives you an indicator of how old the toy is. Anyway, she has LOVED playing this with her Daddy and by herself. The other day I was sitting around pondering all that had to be done while Daddy was taking a nap, and she sat and played with those Tinker Toys for nearly a half hour making all kinds of creations all by herself! Good job, Daddy!!

The other toy (also given by her Daddy), was a cute veterinarian kit. She has been saying for sometime now that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. It has been a HUGE hit, however, our poor dogs have probably suffered quite a bit as they have been her patients almost daily!!!

And my oh my.....let me tell you that this girl is having a talent show when she's five. WHAT? I know. I'm not exactly sure what will happen at this show (maybe a future American Idol contestant???), but I hear about this talent show weekly, if not daily. And it's definitely when she's five. So look out....in another year or so.....there's a talent show a comin'!

Something cute she says that we've only now just started to correct is "no, mommy, I'm a people!" This is in response to us calling her a silly goose or asking her if she's a monkey. It's so stinkin' cute I just can't correct her!

She also loves to sing. I think this is definitely one of my favorite things about our sweet A. She'll just make up songs (usually to tunes she already knows) and will sing just about anything. Just today on the way to church she was singing about how "fruit makes you go poop".....now before I get emails about how children shouldn't say poop....let me just say that when your child is constipated, you'll encourage him or her anyway you know how and this has worked for us! :-) So, hence the song on the way to church!!

Those are just a few things that come to mind as I think of our daughter. It has been a challenging year from my perspective with her as she is really "coming into her own" if you will. She's strong-willed and obstinate (no idea WHERE she got those traits from), but yet she is a true sweetheart and absolutely LOVES people, especially her close friends. If she could have a playdate every day I'd win the mother of the year award. It would never get old to her.

So, this post was more for my sake than yours, but I hope you enjoyed reading it! Love to you all and Happiest of New Years! :-)

The Greatest Gift

John 1:1-2

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning."

John 1:14

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Philippians 2:5-11
"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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I've received many wonderful gifts throughout my lifetime. None greater, none more everlasting, none more powerful or life-changing than the gift of my Savior, my Lord, Jesus Christ coming to this earth as a babe, living a perfect life and then dying to save me from my wretchedness. The Son of God did this for me. He did it for you. He did it for the world.

But death couldn't hold Him in that grave. And it can't hold you if you put your faith and trust in Him alone. You can have everlasting life through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Goodness alone can't save you. Kind acts can't save you. "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

There is nothing greater I could post on this blog.

Merry Christmas, dear ones.

Happy Birthday, Jesus. Thank you for coming to earth. Thank you for saving me.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Coming soon...............

I'm working on our "update" letter! I'll post soon! Love to all!!!

Seven

That is the number of years that my dear husband and I have been married! Incredibly hard to believe it's been seven years. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I had such a peace. I was able to go to the church early that morning and walk around the sanctuary and pray over the different pews and the people who would be sitting in them and over the altar and for our marriage and our lives together. It was a gorgeous day. Breezy, high of 70, leaves mostly off the trees, but some still falling. It was beautiful. I'm so glad we got married in the fall! To say I was giddy that day would be quite the understatement. I was so happy. I had waited 29 years to find this man and God had proven ever faithful in providing Doug as my lifelong mate. The decorations were simple, but elegant. My flowers were gorgeous, as were my bridesmaids'. The groom was handsome as ever. I loved my dress and felt lovely in it. It was just truly a happy, happy day. To have so many friends and loved ones surrounding us, to celebrate with us. What joy.

So, to you, dearest honey, let me take a moment to say "thank you" for asking me to be your wife and for saying "I will" on that marvelous day seven years ago. I'm so glad I married you. Thank you for loving me in spite of me. For challenging me in so many ways. For making me laugh (at you, at life and at myself!). For making me a better woman. Thank you for the last seven years. May God bless us with many, many more together......'hand in hand'. I love you......always.