Mazda (A.K.A. Elvis)

Whelp, another one for the Mazda!  Yep, another token of characteristic and more personality for that poor, little, old car! Who knew what we would discover Mother's Day night.  That car took another hit for the home team.  It surely did!

I giggled a bit during my pastor's sermon a couple of weeks ago.  He used his vehicles as an example for something in his sermon and what struck me was when he said basically that a car doesn't have much of a personality until it earns a nickname--one of his vehicles being called "Blue Thunder" by the way.  He was correct and I giggled when he mentioned it.  Now my nice mini van doesn't have a nickname; however, the blue, little, four door Mazda sure does!  We have started calling that little car Elvis because it shakes, rattles and rolls thanks to its age and mileage!

Now don't take me wrong.  That car keeps on truckin' and Scot and I have a rule of thumb, which we live by which is if it ain't broke don't fix it, OR in many of our cases, don't buy something newer yet.  You should see our new entertainment center we finally got, for example!  We saved our money and paid for the wall unit in cash; however, what now sits upon it is an old tube TV who's power button fell into the TV and now it has nice masking tape in its stead, because it was the quickest thing I could find to use to prevent little fingers from going into the hole where the button used to be!  Yep, if you take a closer look at the picture below, that new entertainment center is kind of screaming out for a big 55 inch flat screen TV instead! (And yes, there is a line of toy trains at the base of the entertainment center when I took the picture!)

So we plan on running Elvis into the ground but it really does kind of suck when you look at all the dents and scraped paint that were not caused by us!  Yep, Elvis has fallen victim to several opening door slams from other vehicles (how rude!), a bi bi gun attack (not sure if I spelt that correctly!), a Burger King sign that came loose in a wind storm, a bad paint job on the trunk, a broken window from a towing company, a teenager who couldn't drive at a gas station and then what happened on Mother's Day!

After returning from a nice Mother's Day outing at about 9:30 PM at night, we pulled into our reserved parking space in front of our house to discover that somebody had hit our nicely parked Mazda and evidently used our reserved spot to do so as they exited our reserved parking space as you can gather from the evidence observed!  And what infuriated me the most was they didn't even leave a note!  I looked up and down the street wondering who it was and if they were still here and wondering if my busy body neighbor "L" saw who it may have been?

I headed off to bed feeling very agitated at whomever it was  who drove their white/grey vehicle into our parked Mazda (a.k.a Elvis) leaving deep scratch marks on the bumper while all the while using a reserved parking space that they were not permitted to use.  I started to almost curse the person but then I laid my head upon my pillow and began to pray for the driver instead.  However, I did start the prayer off more condemning like.  I used such phrases as, "Lord, teach the driver the errors of his/hers ways." "May they come to the realizations of their wrongdoings."  "Heep burning coals upon their head so that they may repent of their sin." As I was praying those prayers, however, the Spirit softened me and lead my prayer in a different direction.  I prayed for the driver and I prayed that God would bless that person regardless.  My anger morphed into a more Christ-like love.  Though I still find myself slightly agitated at the person who caused Elvis' newest wounds, praying for blessings upon them and God's hands to direct him or her is still sweeter than I had originally felt before I changed my prayer.


Who knew how much I would learn about being more Christ-like than I have learned with that old Mazda.  I have learned two huge things about mercy and grace through that Mazda in as just as many years.  So now I have another reminder on that car to remind me of grace and love. 


I challenge you that if you have a person or situation in your life that makes you either want to act sinfully, with resentment and anger and speaking words and committing actions that you should best not do, I ask that you evaluate the situation more deeply and choose to be more Christ-like in your response.  Don't stoop to the world's level and norms, but challenge yourself, with God's help of course, to set forth an example of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and forbearance instead.

Announcement! (What a Roller Coaster Ride!)

The week I wrote my last post, we found out that we were expecting our next child!  We are expecting our fourth little addition to our family around Thanksgiving!  Our due date is November 19th of this year. It was such a blessing and answer to our prayers and wait.

As excited as we were, the last several weeks have been an emotional and a spiritual roller coaster.  First, when we went in for our 8-week appointment and the first picture of our baby went up on the screen, I quickly realized that we were not looking at an 8-week-old baby.  I knew we were at about 7 weeks along, which given my irregular cycle that wasn't too much of a surprise and my doctor confirmed that for us.  And well then I remembered when we went in for Ian's first ultra sound we discovered that we were not 8-weeks along but closer to 10-weeks along.  All that to say that part wasn't too surprising for us; however, it was actually what we found out next that caught me off guard.

We were told that there was a pocket of fluid at the base of the placenta, which for some women that generally means that a miscarriage is likely.  My lips quivered and tears came to my eyes as I heard the news.  And even though she proceeded to tell me that because I was not spotting or bleeding, which was good, she couldn't give me any statistics, I found it both hopeful and a little disconcerning at the same time.  I was placed on "pelvic bed rest"--basically no excising nor other activities...if you know what I mean--for the next 4 weeks.  I had another ultra sound scheduled four weeks out and we went home.

I got home and refused to open any of the goodies from that goody bag--the one that many OBGYN's hand out when you are expecting.  You know what I am talking about?  This time I placed my new canvas bag on top of my dryer and walked away.  I even got mad at Scot later that day when he started to pull things out of it.  It was just easier for me to prepare for the worst at that point.

During our early pregnancy, we also had some extended family members experience some physical injuries and other health concerns, which brought me to another emotional level as well.  I was a bit overwhelmed with life at that point to say the least.  Then I came down with my very first case of strep throat too, which compounded the morning sickness for me as well.  On top of feeling like I was swallowing jagged rocks and broken glass, at points I was vomiting every 20 minutes or so.  As I was coming down with more and more symptoms and pain, I was home alone with the kids while Scot was at work.  By lunch time that day while I was trying to pick up play-dough and fix the kids' lunch while vomiting every 20 minutes or so, I started to mutter out loud "I am not going to make it."  The kids stared at me when I kept laying on the living room floor saying, "Lord, I don't think I can do this."  Seeing this and hearing this, all three kiddos started to help me more.  Even Ian helped pick up the play-dough all be it, it was throwing all of the entire balls of play-dough with out their right full containers into the plastic bin; but you have to give him kudos for trying! Finally, only the second time in our marriage, I asked Scot to come home early from work because I felt that awful. 

Each day in the last four weeks, I have had to take each day at a time; or rather, I have had to take each step at a time.  Each day I thanked the Lord for all of my kids and thanked the Lord for each extra day that I had with my little angel baby inside of me, uncertain as to what the outcome would be.  I had to lay my baby at the foot of the Cross and place his or hers tiny self and the placenta in His hands because it was beyond me.  I have had to trust that God would equip me for whatever lay ahead.  It has been a leap of faith for sure to say the least.  Felt like I have been in over my head at times, but that is where I have wanted to be--trusting in God.

I had another ultra sound performed today and WOW! that baby was kicking and moving like crazy!  I saw his or hers heart beating!  As soon as I saw that my baby had grown and was moving with life, tears filled my eyes and a lump developed in my throat.  I thanked God. 

There is still a very small pocket of fluid but my doctor said that she didn't know if it was worth noting at this point or not.  So we shall see.  My baby is in God's hands.  We are blessed.  I dearly love this baby already.  What a leap of faith this has already been and will be!