Happy Birthday Elizabeth

So I was surprisingly very excited this morning when at 6:15am my husband said with joy in his voice, "Today is Elizabeth's birthday!". I thought that I would feel sad that it has already been a year. Instead I have been remembering that morning just like it was yesterday:

At 3:30am we both "woke up" (I don't think we actually slept the night before), took showers, prepared ourselves to meet our daughter. At 4am we took our last picture as a family of 2. At 4:30am we arrived at the hospital. I remember shaking laying in the hospital room and praying to God that He would take care of us. I was so worried about having major surgery but I was shaking more with excitement and anticipation. At 6am my parents arrived which helped me to calm down some. At 6:30am we walked into the OR where I got my epidural and spinal block. At 6:44am I heard the most beautiful sound in the world - Elizabeth.

I was out of surgery around 7:50am and then I got to enjoy my sweet daughter for the remainder of the day. I was then blessed with so many visitors, phone calls, texts, and facebook messages. It was a reminder how many wonderful people God had put in my life "for such a time as this".

This year has been amazing. I thank God daily for allowing me to be the earthly mother to this beautiful child. I have to also reminde myself that Elizabeth was His child first and He has just given me the privilege to raise her here on earth.

So in honor of her birthday, she is wearing a cute little shirt that says "I'm the birthday girl" and it has a cupcake on in (in preparation for her even cuter outfit that my best friend Leigh Ann made). I let her eat pop tarts this morning for breakfast and off to daycare she went!! Hopefully I will be able to pick her up a little early so we can have some special time together!

Last picture as a family of 2!!

"Mommy's little sidekick" is what the shirt says.

I'm finally here!!!

Proud Daddy and Granddaddy

First family picture

LOVE her

She still doesn't have that much hair!!

Happy Birthday my sweet daughter! I love you very much!!!

Unselfish Noah

Whenever I begin reading about a particular story or passage in the Bible, I like to know who is in the story and a little bit about them. My Bible is the Life Application Study Bible and they have profiles on different characters. Here is the one about Noah:

    "The story of Noah's life involves not one, but two great and tragic floods. The world in Noah's day was flooded with evil. The number of those who remembered the God of creation, perfection, and love had dwindled to one. Of God's people, only Noah was left. God's response to the severe situation was a 120-year-long last chance, during which he had Noah build a graphic illustration of the message of his life. Nothing like a huge boat on dry land to make a point! For Noah, obedience meant a long-term commitment to a project.
    Many of us have trouble sticking to any project, whether or not it is directed by God. It is interesting that the length of God's obedience was greater than the lifespan of people today. The only comparable long-term project is our very lives. But perhaps this is one great challenge Noah's life gives us - to live, in acceptance of God's grace, an entire lifetime of obedience and gratitude."


This seems to be the story of my life - having trouble sticking to a project!! I have found myself lately telling God that I am too busy for certain things. You know, God, I do have a 1 year old that requires a lot of attention!! I am planning her birthday party for Saturday and I keep letting go or not taking up obligations. When did I get so selfish about my own little family?? What if Noah told God "no" because he had too much to do with his family?

Don't get me wrong...I still have A LOT to do for her party and those of you that know me know that my OCD is really out of control right now...not to mention the 5,000 cupcakes that I will be baking and decorating (not really 5,000 but I feel like it is close to that). I have not baked much so this has been a big undertaking which has turned out to be a lot of fun for me. It is interesting how something that I thought would be a terrible and time-consuming project has turned into something that I love doing (Elizabeth loves getting messy with me!).

So as I get ready to go back to working after my lunch break, I am trying to not stress over my to-do list and reminding myself how Noah must have felt with his to-do list to get the ark ready. Keeping my ears and heart open to hear what God needs me to do and hoping that my selfishness will not win over His calling!!


P.S. I promise that not all my posts will deal with Noah!!! :)

Reason for Doing This

Ok...so I am very new at this whole thing but I have felt the need and desire to begin writting one. I have followed some other blogs that have really made a difference in my life and I hope that my words, experiences, and decisions will do the same for others. Sometimes it is just nice to know that others are going through the same things!!

I thought for a while about what to name this blog. Maybe others did not put a lot of thought in it, but I wanted to make sure it summed up what I was feeling. I named this blog "Rainbow After the Storm" for a number of reasons. Lately, I have found myself studying the story of Noah (I will get into that later) and how comforting it was that God's sign after the flood was a Rainbow. Also, a number of songs have spoken to me in pretty powerful ways and one of which is the song "Bring on the Rain" by Mercy Me. Life is full of storms but what we all to often miss is the Rainbow After the Storm.

Please bare with me as I try and make this page fun to look at and interesting to read at the same time!! It takes me a while to figure out new things!