You are for me.....

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I have always loved Psalm 139. It truly encompasses all aspects of our relationship with God, how he sees us from day one in our mother's womb and continues to have his eye on us as we grow and whatever we go through in life.

Psalm 139, I guess you could say, I have always thought to be my life verse. If I were to write something down expressing how I feel towards God, mine would be very similar. Even as a teenager I remember this verse was highlighted in my bible, the whole thing. I couldn't pick my favorite part about it because the whole chapter was my favorite.

We all go through the hard times in life. Times where we really question whether God is for us or not. Times where life has knocked the wind right out of us. These times can either move us away from God, or set us running towards him.

The song "You Are for Me" speaks so deeply to my heart right now. I'm not going through some major time of questioning God, or even going through any major time in my life right now, but I know life is hard. Without God I'm not sure how anyone makes it through even the easy days of life. The easy days are the days when no one in your family is sick, when the job is going great, when all your friends and family are happy with you, when life can't seem to get much better.

Then, we have all experienced the times where trials stop you dead in your tracks. Those times where you feel like you have been hit without warning, knocked down and unable to get up.

Those Job times in life.

No, they're not fun. They hurt. You wish that you could fast forward through it to see how it'll end up later on. These are the times when you question whether God is really for you, really there in the midst of it all. He is..... He's there in the background, holding our hands and taking us through the trial and not removing us from it. We wish he would just totally remove us from them, but where would the depth in our relationship with him come from? Going through that trial no matter how long it is makes us rely soely on him and not our own abilities to get past it.

I love the part in the song that says "I know that you have come now even if to write upon my heart, to remind me of who you are". We all need those times to stop and remember that he is for us and not against us. To truly understand that nothing we have, are currently, or will face has come to us without going through God first. Those times of revelation where we at one moment come to the realization he gets it, completely and fully.

If I can give any encouragement to you if you are going through any sort of trial, big or small, cling to God. Instead of pushing him away and trying to figure it out all on your own or letting it make you bitter, give him all the broken peices and watch him make something beautiful of it. We so oftentimes choose to try to carry around our broken peices. The load is just too large so we keep picking up peices that we have dropped, trying to carry them through life.

I dare you.

Give them all to him. I can't guarantee it will be easy, but I can guarantee that his hands are big enough to carry it all. He is for us. He is able to take the ugliest parts of our lives and turn them into something more beautiful than we could have ever imagined.

Merry Christmas

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas as we celebrate our Savior's birth!
Love,
The Tibbs Family

Thought on a Wednesday

How sad it must be for those who hold on to grudges. They live their whole lives thinking someone owes them something, they always have a chip on their shoulder.Someone who is so full of bitterness and unforgiveness that they cannot see that the person or person they think are the problem are really not at all- they are. Make sure you are living your life not holding on to any grudges, ask for forgiveness when you are wrong and forgive others. Life is too short. We need to live our lives in view of eternity. If this was to be your last day on earth, what would you do differently?

20 months old!

It's hard to believe that 20 months ago Garrett came into this world. I told his Daddy yesterday there were two things that I noticed right away when he was placed into my arms: he had teeny tiny bright red lips, and had my nose! We have seen him grow from a 5 lb 2 0z premie into a 27lb 20 month old! I am constantly amazed when I look at him and think how fast those 20 months went. Their first year really does fly by, and I'm sure it seems like it goes much quicker as they get older. I joke with Dave sometimes and say, "Before you know it he'll be going off to college!". He has changed so much, here are some of the things he does:

1) He LOVES to climb on the furniture, he uses his chair to boost himself up onto the couch.

2) He is starting to FINALLY (sigh) like fruits! Vegetables have never been a problem, but he has not liked fruits. If you can figure that one out, let me know. ;)

3) He recently has had all the rest of his baby teeth pop through at once. Before that, he only had eight....let's just say he's been the tiniest bit crabby...okay, VERY crabby. He has taken it like a champ though, that's a lot of teeth at once. ;(

4) He loves to go to Shelby Farms ( a park near our house) and pet the horses. He is NOT AT ALL afraid of them. They absolutely love him too...they stick their heads through the gate to take a look at this tiny person trying to pet them..and sometimes trying to get in their corral
Maybe we'll get him a horse someday when we have some land..

5) He also loves puppies and kittens. He loves saying their sounds and loves petting them. His fav. movie right now is Milo and Otis. He goes wild when we put it on for him.

6) He is in size 4 diaper and 18 month clothes. He is still in the 50th for weight and 30th for height. Because of this, I was able to buy ahead for all of his winter clothes. I love that he's a shortstack.

7)He is so loving, always giving us hugs and kisses. I'm betting that he will shower this baby with hugs and kisses..which I will watch slowly to make sure the hugs and kisses aren't overwhelming for the new baby!

8) He loves puzzles. We got him some 2+ ones and he loves putting the pieces where they belong. He also loves reading with Mommy and Daddy and also coloring pages of his coloring book (and eating the crayons...ha) He has recently discovered playdoh.

9) Lastly, he is a total ham! He loves for people to take notice of him in the store. He loves being the center of attention...

We can't believe he is 20 months already! His second birthday is right around the corner! We love you so much big boy!

How we get ready for bed...;)

So incredibly blessed...

My sweet boy managed to get a cold sometime last weekend and it's more congestion today..poor baby. It is amazing that even though my sweet boy feels so incredibly crummy he still manages to smile and laugh and run around like a wild banshee.

Mine happens to be allergies, but I have it so bad today it's worse to me than if I had a cold. I get these days every once in awhile where I sneeze about a million times...uggh...

I have also felt a little discouraged about having to stay at home this first trimester because of the difficult pregnancies I had in the past. I love to get out and do things, and feel bad that Garrett hasn't been able to get out as much as I want him to. It's been hard not being able to go anywhere except when Dave can go with me and lift Garrett in and our of the car,etc. I had a Subchorionic Hematoma with Garrett because of doing too much, and I am playing it really safe with this first trimester because of it. It won't be forever though, and it's well worth having to stay at home, right?

You know what I thought about though? I have no reason to be discouraged....

I am so blessed.....

Other than a little cold our little guy is healthy.

I am pregnant with a healthy little baby.

In May we moved into a brand new three bedroom two bath in a safe subdivision!

I have a wonderful husband who is studying to be a teacher and working full time to provide for us.

Because my husband is a Navy veteran (hence being in college at 28) the VA (veterans association) is paying for all of his schooling, plus they are giving us BAH (housing allowance each month) What a blessing!

Dave's job provides full medical, dental and vision coverage.

We have a God who loves us and cares about the little things as well as the big. He doesn't condemn us for our mistakes and shortcomings. Definitely something to be thankful for!

We have a great church that we love even though at this time we aren't able to be as involved as we want to be.

I live in a country where I can worship God without fear that I will be imprisoned or killed..(come on now! Definitely something so be thankful for!) ;)

The list goes on and on....

It's so incredibly easy to start thinking about the things you are frustrated about and forget all the incredible blessings in your life. I am so very guilty of doing this myself, but it really does something to your soul to remind yourself of all the blessings God has given you.

When you start feeling down about how your life isn't going exactly how you wanted it to (which we all do..so I'm not harping) Make a list about all the things you have to be thankful for...I can almost guarantee it'll change around your mood..it did for me. ;)

Here's a video of our sweet boy. Sorry for the poor quality and sideways shot (I forgot to flip it around!) It's too cute not to post, though.. Garrett had his groove on! ;) Excuse the mess too..we're all in the computer room and Garrett loves taking all the books off the shelves!

I know, I know!

I have been bad at blogging, but I have a confession to make. Not that I am blogging for comments, but when you blog and hardly see them, you wonder what's the point, right? Yes, that's partly why.

We have been super busy this summer also, so that's another reason. Dave started summer school and Garrett and I have been busy weekly grocery shopping, going to the park, going to Target (ha) and still maintaining his home routine. He is the sweetest 19 month old boy. So many times out of the blue he'll come up to me and say "Mama!" and give me a kiss. Every month that passes by we see more and more of his little personality!

Also, in July I found out I am pregnant again! I am almost 9 weeks. For those of you who know me, this is a big deal because you know all the trouble I had during Garrett's pregnancy and heartache I had losing my first pregnancy in '07. I found out at around 3 weeks..so early I know, and I never thought you could find out that early, but apparently you can. I was sitting at the table with Garrett while he was having a snack and I had a fleeting thought to take a pregnancy test because I had thought I was last month and wasn't. I thought, "Okay, here we go, I'm not pregnant!" and then I saw a faint line come up. If I were you (any of you reading) I would not go to the Doctor this early, it's just a big stress. Their EDD (expected due date) was almost a week off for me and I knew it, because I am never a 28 day cycle. So, first Hcg number: 400, which they told me for 5 weeks was low. I was beside myself with worry, thinking it was a tubal pregnancy or chemical pregnancy and they didn't help.."Well, that number's pretty low.." Uh yeah, thanks... So, fast forward to the second hcG test 4 days later, the number turned out to be 3,170. Ok, we're going in the right direction! I went in for an ultrasound and I measured 5 weeks and 2 days (no baby at this stage, but everything looked good) Then at 6 weeks I had 3 days of spotting (so stressful) I went to my Doctor the day I started spotting and he said everything looked fine, and it was implantation spotting. I kept praying and asking God to take it away, and he did! Fast forward to Thursday (19th) I went in for another ultrasound and saw a baby with a heartbeat of 175. So happy and relieved! Please keep praying for God's peace. I have a hard time trusting God when it comes to pregnancies because of what I've experienced.

A friend of mine gave me Hebrews 11 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" So true. As with anything, you have to trust. Otherwise, you're trying to do it all on your own (which I am guilty of trying to take the wheel, or at least try to put one hand on it!) This can apply to all of our lives in every situation we find ourselves in. Trust God even when you have no control over the outcome. Throw up your hands and run into the arms of one who holds it all! Not only will you have more peace, but the striving goes away when we realize we don't need to stress or try to figure it out, because God is the one who is leading!

O, Lord, may I believe in the darkness
When all hope has vanished
When waves beat with fury
And no star lights my sky.
May I believe without
Feeling or knowing or proving
Till one shining moment when
You shatter the darkness
And all I believed for
Is suddenly mine.- Ruth Harms Calkin