Christmas Fun in Akron!

Ok! Bear with me here! I have a lot of photos and could've added more but stopped with these! :) Here is a look into our Christmas festivities! Enjoy!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

The day after Christmas

With Charlotte and her fiance, Mark!

The ring!

Reynolds/Hardin/Abrusci Christmas

Joyeux Noel!

Merry Christmas from the Hardins!

Do You Believe?

It's Christmastime. Time for hot cocoa, cookies, pies, cakes, snow, sleigh-riding (does anyone actually still do that?), sledding, ice skating, the list goes on! It's also time for Santa Claus. You know, the man with the belly that jiggles like jelly? The man with the rosey cheeks? The man who sneaks into your home at night on Christmas Eve and leaves wonders under the Christmas tree (you know, it seems a little creepy to me, no?)? Yeah, that guy!

Now that we have a child it is very interesting to think about Santa Claus. Being a family who is Christian we would prefer our children remember that Christmas is about the Christ child being born. This child who would grow up to be a man, a man who would later die for our sins. I have wrestled with the idea about how much we do Santa in our house. David and I have talked about it from time to time. It was never a big deal in either of our homes, in fact my mom couldn't even get me to believe in him! (Seriously, no snow in Africa, no chimney for him to come down, just doesn't make sense I tell you!) We have decided not to play Santa up very much. Obviously, your child can't go out of the house without seeing something Santa-esque, so we'll explain as the times come. However, in the Hardin house, Santa will be playing 2nd, 3rd, maybe even 4th fiddle to some other Christmas characters.

Anyway! Enough serious stuff! Did you believe in Santa growing up? Were you devastated when you learned he wasn't real? (Ooops! I guess if you didn't know already, you do now! :) ) What about the Easter Bunny? I refused to believe in the possibility of Santa; the Easter Bunny was a little more believable to me, but the Tooth Fairy? She TOTALLY exists! :)

I hear you!

Did you know that God does hear us? He knows when we sit and when we rise, he knows our comings and goings, he knows what we'll say before we say it (Ps. 139). Did you know that? If you do know it, do you remember it? Do you hold it close to your heart? I think most of the time we do remember and know that God hears us. I think most of the time we do remember and know he loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us. I think we do remember and know, most of the time, he loves us more than a sparrow, who he knows when it falls. Wow. What love the Father has for us! After the rant in my last post I thought I better follow it up with something more encouraging, more reassuring.

Along with Ps. 4, I have also been reading Jeremiah 29:11-14. It says, " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart. I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,' declares the LORD, 'and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.' " There is so much in these verses I could do multiple blog posts about them. This whole chapter is a letter to the Israelites who were in captivity in Babylon. They were there for 75 (I think) years! Can you imagine? But, God is telling them that he hears them. How amazing is it to think God KNOWS the plans he has for me/us? And not only does he KNOW them they are plans that won't harm me but will prosper me and give me hope. Wow!!!!!! How deep the Father's love for us, how deep beyond all measure. That's not all though! He says that we will call on him, pray to him and he will listen!!!! Man. It's overwhelming to even think about the fullness of what that means.

I hope that as I continue in this season of dark, cold winter (figuratively, although literally it's winter right now) I will remember that God HEARS me, LOVES me, has a PLAN for me and wants me to be SUCCESSFUL in that plan.

Listen to Me!

I don't know about you, but when I'm exceedingly down I go to the Psalms. King David seemed to be a pretty depressed person. Strange, seeing as how he was so wealthy, handsome, successful, powerful, etc. And yet, when you read his psalms you see a great depression in him. We all have our favorites. Mine is Psalm 139, it's always been a huge encouragement to me. However, I love it when I run across a psalm I haven't read in a long time and read the words. It's interesting how the Lord will speak to us. I was reading a little Precious Moments book to Cora yesterday. It is small, cardboard and the title is "Praying." It has little snippets of verses on each page with cute photos. One of the verses was this, "be merciful to me and hear my prayer." I looked up the whole verse to read this, "Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and her my prayer." Psalm 4:1. Usually when I read David's psalms I feel like he's just talking, or crying, However, when I read this verse I had the distinct impression that David was demanding the most High God to hear him. As if he was saying, "Hey God! Listen to me when I'm talking to you!" Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever feel like God is a acting like a little child and not actually listening to you when you're speaking? I sure do! I have felt this way for a long time, almost a year now. It's no surprise to you, my readers, that this year has been hard. It has been. It's been just plain hard. Though I have continued praying throughout this year I have felt that God has not been listening. I mean, if he were listening David would have a job by now, right? If he were listening I wouldn't have gotten in an accident, 2 cars wouldn't have been totalled, we wouldn't have to be on WIC, we would be happier, we...the list goes on. The list of complaints grows daily it seems some days. Since reading this verse yesterday I have been praying it. "answer me when I call to you!" God, don't let my prayers fall on deaf ears!!! Be merciful! Answer my prayers!!! Give my husband a job. Why is it is bad for him to have a job right now? I mean, seriously!!!!! What's the big deal? I don't know. My mind is flooded with Scripture about God being faithful, sovereign, doing things on his timing, etc. Sigh. Yes, I must be reminded that God loves me. He is faithful and he's just and right. I won't for a minute pretend I understand why we're still waiting. We just are. I'm tired of trying to figure out some hidden meaning or lesson we're/I'm supposed to be learning. I'm just tired.

I just want God to hear my cry. I just want him to show me mercy and hear my prayer.

Post #3

Are you still with me? I haven't posted for days and today you get 3 posts! Though this one will show up first, it's really the 3rd I've written today! :) After WV we headed to Akron for the weekend. While there we celebrated my niece's 5th birthday! How can it be that she's FIVE????? I was in the delivery room when she was born--a very special time for me as I had never seen a birth before! I was in love as soon as I saw her. She was a big baby, my sister doing a stellar job pushing her out. She was a good baby, rarely cried and had so many smiles! It has been SO MUCH FUN to watch her grow and blossom into the little girl she is now. At times it's hard to remember she's only five, as she's so smart! It's hard to stay ahead of her! :) She's so full of life, energy, joy, laughter and smiles. She has a tender heart and loves fiercely--much like her mommy! She loves her cousin, Cora, and I can't wait until they can play together. I love you, Sophia, and am so proud to have you for my niece!!!!!

Cousin love

All the cousins with the birthday girl!

Very excited about her gift


The awesome cake my sister did--Cinderella's Castle!

Getting some Grammy Love

She's 8 Months Old!

Cora is 8 months old! This occured while we were away, and I'm just now getting a post done about it! What a crazy month! She has been learning so much it's hard to keep up! She is on the brink of crawling and has also been trying to pull herself up on things!!!!! Might she be walking by Christmas????? She is eating several fruits and veggies, as well as rice cereal and oatmeal was started today! She is learning what "no" means, has graduated to a new/bigger car seat and has learned that EVERYTHING tastes good! :) WE are learning to keep the floors clean and Molly is learning to keep her toys put away! :) She is saying "da-da" and "ma-ma" a lot, though we're not too sure she is associating them with David and I yet. She continues to bring us much joy and we love watching her learn and grow!

Cora's First Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving week in Huntington, WV visiting with David's side of the family. We had a good time, ate way too much food, and had fun celebrating Cora's first big holiday!

Kisses from Mammaw

Cora with Great-Mammaw

Reading with Granddad


Cora's new favorite toy--Tupperware!

Bring on the turkey!

Playing on the floor with Great-Ma-ma

Hello Aunt J!

Why don't I get any turkey? Where's the turkey?

Molly happy with her belly full of turkey

Cora with Great Uncle D and his wife M

Attitude of Gratitude

This is what my husband preached on today. He was a guest preacher at a church near us, filling in for the pastor who was on vacation. David preached about being thankful in ALL circumstances as we're told to in 1 Thessalonians. This is certainly speaks very clearly to David and I. We have failed many times being thankful in our current situation. I mean, does God really expect us to be thankful when things are this hard? Does he really expect us to be thankful when your husband doesn't have a job, you have to apply for WIC so you can afford to feed your baby, you have to do without to make ends meet, barely? Yes, yes he does. He expects us to be thankful in all circumstances, no matter what. What a hard thing to do, huh? With Thanksgiving quickly coming, like in 4 days, I thought maybe it would be fun to write a list of the many blessings God has given me/us this year--this year of extreme difficulty. I was going to title this something different as it was a year ago today that we left the church David was serving and began this long season we find ourselves in. However, after hearing David's sermon this morning I decided to title this differently. And, I'd rather focus on the things we have to be thankful for. So, here's a bit of my list. I'd love to hear about the things you're thankful for from this year!

1. Health--we have been healthy. Cora hasn't been sick at all; David's only had a minor virus; I have not gotten sick; we have been healthy this year.

2. Though we experienced 2 car accidents (one in Dec that involved me and 1 a few months ago involving our parked vehicles) in less then a year from each other we have been able to replace those vehicles with ones that better-serve our family. And, we own them free and clear! Praise the Lord for that!

3. Cora is a wonderful addition to our family and we have so much fun with her! She is learning more and more every day, loves to laugh, loves to smile and is just a joy!

4. In Dec. we were given the meat from a deer that a man we knew literally asked the Lord to bring into his path so he could shoot it for us. We were provided just about a year's worth of meat from that deer. We used the last of it about a month ago. Early last week this same man called to say his granddaughter had shot 2 deer and they wanted to give us the biggest one! All we had to do was pay $50 for processing. That's right, another year's worth of meat for $50! The Lord provides.

5. I am so thankful for my parents and parents-in-law. They have encouraged us, helped us financially and provided clothes, diapers and formula for Cora. They have gone above and beyond what they need to do for us. We are so fortunate to have parents who love us so much.

6. We're thankful for my job. Through this job we've been able to live and we also have health insurance. This has obviously been a good thing!

7. We have a dog, Molly, who brings us so much joy as well. She's had to adjust to Cora and has done a great job doing so! She brings us much laughter and well, we just love her!

8. We have a roof over our head. When we left Bankers we weren't too sure where we were going to go. God was already working behind us and provided us with a home this year. We are living in the empty parsonage of a church just outside of Hillsdale. Our rent has been very low and though we said we wanted to pay the utilities with the rent, we have yet to see a utility bill.

9. We're thankful for my sister and brother-in-law. They, too, have offered much love and encouragement during this time. They have provided us with clothes to borrow for Cora and lots of parenting advice. We are so thankful for such a wonderful sister and brother-in-law.

10. We are thankful for our friends, and prayer partners. You who have stood beside us and have uplifted us with prayers. Thank you.

I hope you will take the time to write down some of the things you are thankful for this year. You'll be surprised that once you get started you just might run out of room! And, you also might realize the year wasn't as bad as you might've thought.

Praise the Lord for his numerous blessings this year!

Mercies...

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning.

New every morning.

Great is Thy faithfulness, oh Lord!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Today is my "baby" sister's 29th birthday! As you can see by the photo, though we are grown adults, we are obviously still kids at heart! :) I love my sister for many reasons. I'm going to attempt to be creative in this blog and see if I can't come up with a way to express some of those reasons. We shall see...

Ravishing--I have always thought my sister was one of the most beautiful girls/young ladies/

women I've ever known. She is ravishing on the outside and even more so on the

inside.

Unswerving love--If my sister loves you, she loves you! There's not a whole lot you can do to

make her NOT love you. I have not always been the greatest sister in the

world and yet, she has always loved me. She loves unconditionally and

fiercely.

Trustworthy--I don't know if you can find a more trustworthy woman in this world. And

because she is so trustworthy she expects the same out of those she knows. She

will trust you unless/until you give her reason not to. She does what she says

she'll do and does it with flare!

Hospitable--Ruthie is great at making those who come into her home feel at home. You become

a part of the family, and you are treated with love and respect. You will also, more

than likely be given a very yummy meal! :)

I don't know--Ok, here's where my creativity is waning...I wish this was the letter "c" as then I

would use the word "creative" which describes my sister to a T. She is so darn

creative that I shutter to think what she'll be thinking when she reads this! :)

She has a knack for coming up with great ideas for running a house, playing with

kids, making a meal more healthy and still tasting good. You don't have to be

around her long to know she is so darn creative!

Excitable--It doesn't take much for my sister to get excited! Whether it's the thought of some

good, gourmet chocolate, or the telling of a good book, or a new accomplishment

of her child, my sister knows how to be excited about the right things! She is

full of joy and lets her joy overflow to those around her. It's hard to not be excited

when you're around Ruthie.

And so, there you have it. Just a glimpse into the things that make my sister who she is. I love her so much. She's more than a sister, she's my friend, my best female friend. Apart from my husband, she knows me the best. I love you, dear Ruthie and am so excited to be able to celebrate you today!!!

HAPPY 29TH BIRTHDAY!!!!

A Week of Family Fun

My sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew came to visit us for several days. We had a great time, though I was disappointed to have to be at work for most of their visit. However, they were all kind enough to take photos for me while I was away so I could be a part of the day! Enjoy! :)