Children are a blessing from the Lord...

I was sent an email this past week from Kyle's cousin by marriage Amy, who lives in Alabama. She sent me a cool idea that she did when she was pregnant with her boys, which was to look up in scripture all of the verses that mention the word "child" or "children." Then I could pray these specific scriptures for my own child throughout my pregnancy. Very cool! I had some time to explore this in my quiet time this morning. Here are a few scriptures that stuck out to me that I wanted to share:

• "Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure & right." Prov.20:11
• "Train a child in the way he should go, & when he is old he will not turn from it." Prov.22:6
• "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; & you will be comforted over Jerusalem." Is.66:13
• He called a little child & had him stand among them. And he said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change & become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matt.18:3
• "Only be careful, & watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children & to their children after them." Deut.4:9
• "Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home & when you walk along the road, when you lie down & when you get up." Deut.11:19
• "Children's children are a crown to the aged, & parents are the pride of their children." Prov.17:6
• At that time Jesus said "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven & earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise & learned, & revealed them to the little children." Matt.11:25
• Jesus said "Let the little children come to me, & do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matt.19:14
• "And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them, & blessed them. " Mark 10:16
• "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Eph.6:1
• "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training & instruction of the Lord." Eph.6:4
• "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." Col.3:20
• "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1 John 3:1

Even for our future grandparents-to-be out there, I never knew that there was a scripture that spoke about children's children (in Prov.17, see above). I love how alive the word of God is, where the Spirit is able to reveal over time different scriptures, teaching us more about Him. Please continue to keep us & this little one lifted up in prayer. Many blessings to you!

The podiatrist appointment...

Thankfully, I haven't had any complications with my pregnancy so far. However, an ongoing problem of warts on my feet is another story. Sorry if this kind of grosses you out, but I couldn't help but laugh when walking out of the podiatrist's office this afternoon.

As a kid, young adult, & adult I had problems with warts. Since my dad was my doctor growing up, it wasn't a big deal to have him freeze them off & that was the end of it. Now that I am grown & live far away from doctor dad, I've had to be treated like a normal person for doctor's appointments (yes, even making an appointment...I used to just go in the back door of his office at the end of the day).

All summer I had a bad plantar wart on the bottom of my right heel. I hobbled along, fighting to get it taken off until "sandle" season was over. Plus, none of my outfits looked that great with normal shoes. So I just suffered the pain & hobbled. This fall, I couldn't stand it anymore. So I finally gave up and made an appointment with a family doctor down here to get it taken care of. Well, the family doctor said the wart had gotten so bad that I needed a podiatrist. Yikes! I had never been to a podiatrist before. In my mind, podiatrists were for people like my patients with diabetes who weren't taking proper care of their feet. Not for people like me! Anyway, so I made an appointment. The podiatrist cut out & burned the wart on the bottom of my foot, and it felt so much better.

After Christmas, I started noticing pain in that part of my foot again. I looked at the bottom of it one day & noticed that some smaller warts were starting to grow around the area where the podiatrist had removed the larger wart. Man! I was bummed...it was coming back!

So now fast forward to today. I decided to get this stupid wart taken care of once & for all. I wasn't going to suffer like I did for months & months hobbling along, especially now that I'm 18 weeks pregnant. So today this same podiatrist that I used before looked at the area & said that he had gotten the "mother ship" but that there were "satellite warts" surrounding the old area. He said they were too little to cut out, but that he would freeze them out. Oh man did it hurt! I'm hoping that this time, he got them for good.

What I found so humorous at the end of my podiatrist appointment is this: the amount of WALKING you need to do to get to & from this office! If someone has a hurting foot, you would think that there would be close parking spaces & that the office would be close inside the building. I started laughing after I walked out of the office suite on the 4th floor when I was hobbling down the long hallway to the elevator. How funny would it be for the employees to install video cameras to watch how people walk out of their office after having their feet worked on? I guess I'll never know, but maybe they already do this & are watching me at this moment. Please pray that my "satellite warts" disappear forever.

Time to think about baby boy Rhodes, not warts!

Carey's Baby Shower

It's been a busy past couple of weeks. Haven't had much time to blog, especially when Kyle & I have had evening commitments several nights per week. And transplant has been busy...whew! They did 6 kidney transplant in 1 DAY last week, which is the most I've seen in 1 day since starting this job last year. The surgeons were so overwhelmed that they ended up calling in help from Dallas.

Church has also been busy with baby showers, which is always fun. Today we had a shower for Carey who is in our small group. She is expecting her 2nd, a girl to be named Addison. Last week we had a shower for Meghan, but I wasn't the photographer, so don't have any pics. Our Sunday school class is really changing with all of these new babies and families that are emerging. It's been really fun! Some of us have even joked that we could end up being in-laws someday...you never know!

The ZOE Group

I've always enjoyed singing, especially songs that praise our God. This past year I've enjoyed singing on the worship team at North Davis. Through this worship team experience, I was introduced to songs by "The ZOE Group", an Acapella singing/worship group out of Nashville, TN. I find myself singing the songs when I'm happy, sad, or just need to be lifted up. Many are newer arrangements of some older hymns, others are completely new.

If y'all have never heard of this singing group, you are missing out. They are the new, updated "Acapella" group among the C of C (Church of Christ). Feel free to check them out, along with listening to parts of their songs at their website: http://www.zoegroup.org

God bless!

Baby Boy Rhodes 15 week thumb sucker

Paula did another ultrasound yesterday because she figured out how to take longer videos with her machine. Check out what our cute little boy was doing when this video was taken. Enjoy!