Month: March 2024

Now I had 2 under two years and though many may feel overwhelmed by all that entails, I was so happy. Remember now, I had always dreamed of being a mom with many children so to me this was just the beginning!

Our oldest seemed to have to talk and move and make noise at all times when awake. He wasn’t able to stay still. Our new born girl would not sleep unless she was moving. That made nights very difficult. Thank the Lord for good friends! A couple weeks after our daughter was born, a friend gave birth to a little girls as well. They had a cradle that they didn’t need so we were blessed to borrow it and it made all the difference in the world! She now would sleep wonderfully through the night and after feedings or if she stirred, a little rock in the cradle would put her back to sleep in no time at all.

It is so amazing to me how each person is so very different right from birth. As I look back on their infancy and childhoods I can see so much of who they are now even back then, but I won’t get a head of myself 🙂

The kids and I would drive my husband back and forth to work every day and when it was pay day we would wait until he got his cheque, then deposit and get groceries. Those days were long day in the city but we found many things to do as we waited. We would go to different parks and playgrounds, exploring places we hadn’t been before and even do laundry when needed. There were a lot of audiobooks and music we listened to as they grew up and I see now just how much of a relaxed time we had just being together. Even when things were difficult and the screaming seemed like it would never end, I would tell myself “this too shall pass and one day I’ll miss it”. Now I see how true the saying really was!

Ecclesiastes 1:3-4 “What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.

When our oldest was about 10 months, my husband lost his license for 5 years due to mistakes he made both before we were together and a little while after our wedding. This resulted in him losing his good paying job and having to find something else, as well as me and our son getting up early every day to drive him to work and then going back to get him after he was done. Thank the Lord we lived so much closer than we were before!

Unfortunately he wasn’t home as often as I liked because he now had to work two jobs so we could pay the bills. Many nights he stayed in town to work the night job, get a few hours sleep then go to his day job. We made it work together, but it wasn’t pleasant for me, but I know he has always wanted to provide for us.

While this was happening I was pregnant again with our second. We didn’t find out what we were having the first time and I didn’t want to know the second time either. However as time drew closer we found out my husband would have to serve some jail time for the indiscretions he had done and that jail time would be right at my due date. So he found out what we were having and kept it a secret from me all that time.

More than a month before our second was born, my husband went to the correctional facility. He was there for about a month and through prayers and letters we were able to get him to what was basically like city arrest. He was allowed to stay in the city and go to work and be there for the birth, but he couldn’t come home. I was just happy he was able to be there AND be working again. It was a definite answer to prayers.

Our son and I stayed in the city with him off and on and when the time came to deliver, he was there. We welcomed our second into the world and she was wonderful! I was so pleased to have both a boy and a girl now!

My husband had to stay in the city for the rest of that month but could come home when our daughter was about 3 weeks old. It was back to driving him back and forth to work but with two little ones this time. I didn’t mind, I was very happy to have him back home where he belonged again.

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

In the middle of winter, with no running water, my husband and I welcomed our new baby boy! He was marvelous and I was so thrilled to be a mom! I loved being pregnant, but I was even more excited to have this wonderful child to raise and teach all about the God whom I love and loves me so much.

Things started out very well, he seemed like a typical baby to me, but then I had never lived with a baby before. We were starting off without running water but he had regular baths and we hauled laundry to either my parents or the laundomat regularly. He was almost 3 months when we had our water put in. Praise the Lord for running water!

However by three months old things got difficult with him. There was one day in particular that I just couldn’t settle him for anything! I tried nursing, burping, rocking, swaddling, not swaddling, singing, holding, not holding, being close by, leaving him safely in his crib and he cried through it all. Not only did he cry but he pinched me hard enough to leave bruises all over my chest. So after more than three hours of that I left him in his crib to cry; thinking & hoping he would fall asleep on his own. It didn’t work. After another 2-3 hours of his constant crying I took him out, swaddled him well then put him in a hold which I now call a “sensory hold”.

The sensory hold consisted of him being swaddled snuggly, then laid on my crossed legs with one arm around him and the other arm pressing down on top of him with gentle but firm pressure. I can only say it was what God had inspired me to do because I trust that my “good ideas” are from Him. My baby boy cried for a little longer then fell asleep and slept for a long time.

After that incident I knew how to get my baby to sleep now and was so thankful! It would take about 30 minutes in the sensory hold but then he would sleep for at least an hour or two and nap 3 times a day until he turned one. The amount of relief I felt knowing that both he and I could rest was indescribable. The sensory hold was needed only until he was somewhere between 6 and 8 months old. Then he was okay to just be held regularly. I don’t think I would have made it those months of constant screaming and no sleep if it hadn’t been for the sensory hold!

2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”

When I got married I also changed my job to be able to work with children again. I really love working with young kids so I apply and was accepted to work at a daycare. I worked with 16 three and four year olds and it was marvelous! We rented a house about 45 minutes from where I worked. It was so wonderful to be teaching, playing and planning again for children again that I didn’t mind the commute at all.

It wasn’t our home for very long due to the mould in the basement and other issues that had come up. So we moved into an apartment on my parents farm. It was nice living close to my parents but it wasn’t our own place. My husband’s parents had a run down place nearer to where I worked. It was so run down it was very affordable so we moved an old mobile home onto it and lived there. It took time to get all the amenities put in but we were eager to be in our own place. Our neighbors were kind enough to let us run an extension cord over from there place for a microwave and I did a lot of cooking in that for a time. We had no water, sewer, power or natural gas (heat) for many months.

During that time I was still working and had become pregnant. We hauled water jugs, used something like a compost toilet and had only a microwave for a few months, then we had a holding tank put in for our septic and that felt marvelous! It meant we could actually use the toilet and just pour water down to flush. In November we had natural gas and power put in, but still no running water. It didn’t matter though because we could still haul water but at least could cook, clean and stay warm now!

Matthew 6:31-34 ““Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Once I made it home I was quite self conscious about working with children again so I decided to take a break from that work environment. I started working at a gas station/car wash. It was a completely different job than I had ever done before but I enjoyed it. I lived with my grandparents and it was so wonderful to be close to them and still have my independence.

I was quite lonely for companionship though. All my friends from high school and college had moved away and I was left in the area with not a lot to do or people my age to hang out with. I started hanging out with a guy that I knew from high school. He had asked me out off and on for 7 years and each time I responded with a resonate “no”. Now, however, there was no one else to talk to and he was willing to spend time with me. He was dating someone else at the time so I knew it couldn’t be serious.

Over a few months it became serious and when we talked I believed he had broken up with the other girl he had been with. Only later I found out he had been dating both of us. I told him to make a choice and he said his choice was me.

We dated for about a year then got married. It was not the marriage I had envisioned, but as hind-sight is 20-20, it’s one that should have been expected. Even during our honeymoon he wasn’t the man I thought he was while we were dating. Things changed very quickly in the relationship but I choose him to be my husband and I was going to do my best with God’s help to make the marriage work!

Matthew 19:4-6 “And He (Jesus) answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”