A Year in Review

Happy New Year, everyone!

Here is a brief summary of all the wonderful things God has done in our lives in 2009....
We began the year with a wonderful surprise! We found out in late January that we were going to have another baby! Fabulous way to start the year out, I think! With that in mind, we continued on with the day to day with Andrew plugging away at work and school and myself staying home with Daniel, watching him grow like a weed!

In March, Daniel fell and broke his leg! That was quite a trial as Andrew was swamped with work and school (as usual) and I was incredibly sick with morning sickness!! But, God gave us grace, and we made it through, and Daniel was back to running around in no time!!

Morning sickness finally subsided and we were off to visit family in the summer. We went to MN to see Andrew's family in May, and my family in Vegas in June! They were sweet visits with loved ones and unfortunately never lasted quite long enough!!

We then took a mini family vacation and headed of to Chicago for a weekend! We had a great time, as we got to see the Minnesota Twins (that's baseball for you folks who may not know your sports) play the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field! What a treat, especially for Andrew! Below is a picture of Daniel all suited up in his Twins gear, getting ready for the game! We won, by the way! :)


In September we had an unfortunate car crash, smashing our car up pretty well! We of course had some fun with the insurance company, but in the end it all worked out, we got our car fixed, and most importantly, nobobody was injured! All three of us (four included Micah in utero!) were in the car, and Daniel still to this day says "dada, crash!" pretty much every time we get into the car! He also loves to crash his little toy cars and his bike, whenever he can...I suppose we will never live that one down! :)

Then we just continued along with life! I think it was in June we found out we were having another boy, and decided to name him Micah Andrew! The highlight of the summer, for sure! Then we celebrated Daniel's 2nd birthday with good friends Ben and Jessica as they were passing through Louisville on their way back to WI. Daniel got a new bike for his bday, which he plays with daily! He likes to crash it, however, so we always have to keep a close eye on him! He is all boy!! :) Then,four days after Daniel's birthday, of course, Micah came! I was induced Thursday night (late) and had Micah at 2:36 am on Friday! I was so blessed with a great labor, only 6 hours long and only had to do one big push! I am so thankful for that, as I opted out of the pain meds! Yikes! It was definitely rough, but God helped me through and we were blessed with a quick recovery and even got out of that hospital a day early! Woohoo! :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving with some dear friends at our new church, and we had a great time of fellowship! Andrew and I are so thankful for this church we just started attending back in May! We are teaching 3rd-6th grade Sunday school and I am involved in our women's bible study at the moment, where we are reading through Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother. I highly recommend it to all you mothers out there! The women at my church have been an incredible blessing to me as they hold me accountable in many aspects of my life, from being a wife, mother, and even living a healthy lifestyle through smart eating and exercise! God is good to me!

We then spend Christmas with Andrew's mom, Ann, and we are so glad she was able to come stay with us! She stayed for 3 days and absolutely LOVED spending time with her grandsons and spoiling us as well! She rocked Micah to sleep often and spoiled Daniel with treats and lots of fun attention! It was great to have her with us, as she is such a blessing to us!

And now I write this, on New Years Eve, while my hubby is faithfully working hard at work! I have a horrendous cold that has really knocked me down; one that Daniel was so kind to share with Micah and myself! What a way to end the year, I guess! :) I like to think of it just as a reminder of my complete and utter need for Christ for everything, even my health! God is good regardless of our trials and looking back on this year, I am just amazed by how He has blessed us! Blessed us with hard times and fun times, but in either case, He has been sufficient, and has upheld us all with His righteous right hand! I tend to think of this verse as I look back on our past year...
Isaiah 41:10
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed. For I am your God, I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Praise be to God, in 2009 and in the year ahead! Blessings to you all! With much love from the Johnson family!!
Andrew, Rachelle, Daniel and Micah <3

Quick update

Things are going well for us here at the Johnson household. There's not a whole lot new to update, so this will probably be a quick post! Daniel is down for his nap, and I have some house cleaning and baking to do to prepare for some company tonight, so I need to take care of most of that while the little man is down!



Andrew and I were blessed to get out of the house without either of the boys for the first time last night since before Micah was born. A sweet friend offered to take care of them, and she even cooked and fed Daniel dinner, bathed both the boys and put Daniel to bed for us! Such a wonderful break! We didn't do anything extravagant... we just got some subs for dinner and then headed over to Starbucks where we simply enjoyed some delicious holiday coffee and talked! We just caught up with eachother and enjoy eachother's company without the interruption of a fussy baby or incredibly busy toddler! It was perfect. :)

Micah had his 2 month checkup last week, and all is looking great! He is a chunky 13 lbs 4 oz (or he was last week, he's probably more than that now!) and a stocky 23 inches long! He's in the 75% tile for his weight, 25th for his height, and 50th for his head! As the doctor so kindly put it, he's our little spark plug! :) Quite the opposite from his "big" brother Daniel whom I am sure he will catch up to and pass in no time! We are having a big of a difficult time trying to get Micah to switch his days and nights over to a normal schedule! He just does not seem to like to sleep at night, and he is very stubborn! I think we are making SLOOOOW progress, but hopefully it won't take much longer to get him switched over. It's almost been 10 weeks, and I'm at the point where I'm just ready to get more than 3 hours of sleep at a time! God is giving me grace though, and has really helped me day to day as I have to function on little sleep, taking care of two beautiful little boys!



Andrew is just about to start his last semester of school in about a month, and we cannot be more thrilled to be starting this last leg! Andrew is beginning to send out applications and resumes, starting the job search so hopefully by next summer he can be set in a job and possibly we can be ready to move, wherever God opens a door! Andrew is mostly looking in Minnesota, as he truly desires to move back up north, but anything could really open up anywhere,and we are willing to go wherever God leads! So these next 5 to 6 months or so will be very interesting and possibly bringing about a lot of change for our family! We are trusting in God's timing and plan for our lives!

Well, here's a few more pictures to enjoy as well of our growing boys! I'm off to get busy with the work God has so graciously blessed me with! Peace to you all and blessings in Christ!!

Pictures

Here are a few recent pictures of our two handsome and growing boys!

Micah is beginning to smile, about 7 weeks old!


Sweet brotherly love, hanging out together!


our first family picture!


Micah, weighing in at 8 lbs 7.5 ounces! He's our big boy!


Daniel riding his new bike on his birthday! This was just 4 days before Micah was born! :)

Family Blog

So I decided with the birth of our second child, it would be a logical idea to sort of transform this blog into a family blog where I can easily update all our family with what's new in our life, as well as post adorable pictures of our two little boys! I unfortunately am having trouble sending pictures via email because my computer attaches them to the email incredibly huge, and so when people receive the email they are either so big they have to scroll down forever in order to see the whole pic, or they cannot open the attachment at all! So, logically, it would make sense to post picture on here, where they are automatically sized to fit, and give frequent (hopefully) updates on our family life!

I think we will definitely stick with the "Joy in Christ" theme, because as a Christian husband and wife seeking to raise our chilren to become disciples of Christ, and as we seek to serve in some way in the ministry, we ultimately find our joy in every situation of life in Christ our Lord! So this blog will also be filled with encouragment from Scripture and details of how God is working and moving in our lives both spiritually and physically.

So enjoy the updates, enjoy the pictures, and hopefully you will be encouraged by God's work in our lives! So thankful for all our family and friends and the love and support you give!!

Joy in Christ....even in the midst of Potty training!

Well we have plugged away at several more months here at the Johnson household! We found out that we are having another boy! We are so thrilled about that and decided that we are going to name him Micah Andrew. I am actually in my 31st week now and so we don't have too much longer to go! I am so thankful that by my 14th or 15th week my nausea subsided and these last few months I have actually had energy to keep up with our big guy, Daniel! Only recently have I been feeling the fatigue really start to come back. What with my big old belly and all I suppose it's about time! But other than that, I'm doing really well! I still have yet to get swollen feet or legs, and my fingers really only swelled up one time, but have since been back to normal and I'm still able to wear my wedding ring! This is a great accomplishment for me, since with my first pregnancy I would have long since been swollen all over, including in my face! So I thank God for that, as well as the fact that I have not gained near as much weight this time around, and should only hit about the 30-35 lbs mark for the whole pregnancy! That is about half the weight I gained with Daniel! Praise God!

In other news, I have begun potty training Daniel. He's 22 months old, and I really feel like it's time! I would like for him to be trained by the time Micah comes in about 2 more months, and I think 2 years old is plenty old enough to trained to use the toilet! We've been at it for 5 whole days now, and I must admit it is so much harder than I expected it to be! For the first 4 days we pretty much had zero success, and I was pretty close to throwing in the towel. I was growing more amazed by how short my fuse was with my son who suddenly decided that if he has to be toilet trained then he is NOT going to have a good attitude and will disobey mommy in all other aspects as well! I have had to discipline Daniel more times in these last few days than I have had to do in a long time! So I have been very, VERY frustrated and been feeling pretty hopeless.

Then I remembered my great God and how even mundane things like potty training are important to him. I know that I cannot do this on my own, and so I have been asking God for His help! I have been seeking much forgiveness as I have more than a few times lost my cool with my son, and I have also been seeking wisdom as to the best way to go about this proccess that will be most beneficial for my son. So today, day 5, God blessed our efforts and helped Daniel to go pee pee in the toilet 4 times! Daniel really seemed to start to understand more the sensation of needing to pee, and started understanding the feeling of the muscles he needs to use in order to go pee pee. So anyway, as exciting as that all is (it is for me, anyway!) we finally had a successful day! Of course we still had more accidents than successes, but I cannot complain.

God has been so faithful, and I am so much more aware of my need to turn to Him to help me, even in potty training! I am not going to make the mistake again of trying to do difficult things on my own. I simply need Christ for everything, including potty training my son!
A friend reminded me of this verse...
"I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:1,2

And I have been reading Lamentations the last few days, just as a side note, and have been greatly encouraged as well by these verses:

"Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him." Lamentations 3:19-24

Here the author of Lamentations has been mourning for 3 chapters the destruction of Jerusalem and God's wrath upon the sins of Israel, and yet in the midst of this, he can call to mind the steadfast love of the Lord and His faithfulness and still have hope! Surely in the midst of my tiny, minute trial of potty training, I can remember the steadfast love and faithfulness of my great God and have hope!

Lord, you are so good to me despite what I deserve! Thank you for the joy of motherhood and thank you for the mundane trials of every day life, like potty training! For in them, you continue to show yourself faithful and good and continue to show me my great need for you!! More than anything I need to be reminded of this: I need Christ! In everything, In all things!

Good news!

Well, life has continued on in the Johnson household, and since I last wrote, much has happened!
First things first....

I'm Pregnant! :) Turns out shortly after my last post, we found out that we are expecting baby number 2! I am actually about 17 weeks along now, and just have a few more weeks to go until we find out if we are to have another boy or a girl! We are most certainly blessed and cannot wait to meet this new child God has given to us! What a wonderful responsibility we have been entrusted with to nurture and raise children up, teaching them God's Word and showing them the love and attributes of God in day to day life! It is a serious and grand task, but it is a privilege to be steward of God's precious children!

What started out joyous quickly became challenging as I almost immediately got sick just as with Daniel. I was throwing up 4-5 times daily, and just felt awful and exhausted constantly. I had little relief as Andrew had to continue plugging away with the semester and keep working both jobs! And about a month or so into this difficulty, we were face with more challenges...

Daniel somehow managed to fracture his left femur with a simple, seemingy normal, everyday fall that he took, right in our living room! We could not figure out what was wrong, as the last thing on my mind was that he would have broken his leg from such a simple fall! We took him in that night, only to find that nothing seemed wrong with him clinically, and were sent home without any answer. Daniel was in so much pain that night (poor guy!) that he did not get a single wink of sleep. Therefore, neither did his pregnant and very sick mommy.....! It took us almost 2 weeks before we finally got some answers and figured out he fractured his femur! In the meantime, Daniel had to pretty much be constantly held or just camp out on the couch with mommy...which worked pretty well considering how terrible I was feeling! But we had a very scary first time trip to the hospital where Daniel underwent a bone scan, for which he had to be put under anestesia! Very scary! Thank God he did just fine, and the bone scan proved to provide answers we needed! In the end, Daniel healed up just fine, but it was indeed a very frustrating month or so of trying to get answers and waiting for our little boy to start walking again! In the midst of all this, my poor husband had to continue to keep up with homework and work full time....he was exausted as well and ended up getting bronchitis....that was fun too!

Phew! But, God proved himself to be so faithful and give us the strength we needed to pull through! I learned so much about dealing with insurance and doctors....Ireally feel like maybe I am an adult! :) I also learned a lot about myself and how I react in the midst such trials. I had never before in my life gone through a trial like I have these past few months; at least nothing that tested me and pushed me as hard as this. And I found something out about myself during this test through the fire that I am not proud of. During all this, my time in the Word fizzled out to nothing. I did pray quite a bit, but I really did not cling to God as I should have....I tried to blame some of my sinfulness on my extreme nausea and fatigue, but really, that was not a valid excuse. I simply tried to get through each day on my own. Why?!! How often have I heard that we cannot do anything in our own strength? How often have I encouraged others who were going through a rough time to wholly depend on God? And yet, in the first big test of my life, I failed! I failed to continue to cherish my time with God and my relationship with Christ! I let the struggles of the day take front seat while Christ was left somewhere in the backseat! Why? How could I fail so miserably? All I know to answer that question is because I am a wretched sinner. I think I'm strong enough, but I'm not. But what blows me away more than my wretchedness is that despite my sin, Christ still brought me through. He still gave me strength and He still loves me! His blood still atones for me! I cannot understand it, but I will cling to that great and wonderful truth. And I know that this is a huge lesson learned. A hard lesson, but I pray that through the next storm, I will cling to Christ, and cherish his Word now with more vigor and enthusiasm then ever before.

May we all have ever growing, ever abounding joy in Christ!