Lyla Hope's Birthday

Lamentations 3:22-23

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

The day was filled with a mix of emotions. But there was also the great peace of our God that filled the room and surrounded us completely.

So many of our family, friends and church family came to visit with us, pray with us and meet our sweet girl. Many were there the entire day. How greatly we were loved during this journey. How deeply the Father's love is for us, you, His children.

My labor was easy just as it was with my other children. The only difference was the hospital. I was anxious about the change because as I have said before it simply is something I am not comfortable with. But God's Word says not to be anxious {Philippians 4:6} and I need to listen. The change in hospitals was awesome! Such a great experience. It was a much smaller place, far less crowded, so we were given incredible care and support throughout the day. There was plenty of room in the waiting area for all our supporters.

It was an upbeat labor. We talked. We laughed. The second "drug" doctor that came even looked, sounded and was super funny just our cousin Jordan. And I told him so. He thought that was funny.

I am thankful for the nurses that took such great care of me during the day (Jana, Donna, and Kristin). They truly cared for me and supported our decision and loved our sweet daughter too.

My doctor was incredibly sweet throughout this journey as well. She took me in when no one else wanted me or to "deal with this." She showed us great care and love and I am ever grateful. God chose her to walk with us. I know this now. Change is difficult, but I know without a doubt it was the way God was calling me to go. I am thankful I listened and was obedient in that decision. No regrets.

Lyla showed us her personality as I labored. She hated being bothered with the heart monitor. Every time my nurse, Jana, would try to find her and push the monitor down with any pressure, Lyla would kick and move like a mad woman. Every time. So funny. Finally, Jana would just lay it on my belly and wait. Lyla would calm down and let her put it on. Jana said, "I'm learning. She's stubborn and funny." I said, "Just like her big sister. Doesn't do anything until she's ready."

Psalm 139:16

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

Lyla Hope danced all day as I labored. Very active little girl. I was able to listen to her precious heartbeat throughout the day. She finally made her entranced into the world at 4:30pm, weighing 6lbs, 4oz and 19 inches long.

She went to be with Jesus just three minutes later. 

Would I have loved more time with her? Yes.

Do I selfishly want her back? Yes.

But she never cried. She never felt pain. For that I am grateful.

Honestly, when she was laid in my arms, there was a moment of disappointment. I just wanted her to be healed on this earth so badly. I believed. But deep down, months before, I felt The Lord telling me that wasn't His plan for her. I don't think I ever told anyone that. I just wanted to keep praying for her complete earthly healing and believe. Maybe He would change His mind.

She is healed. She is whole again.

Psalm 118:24

This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.

So quickly the moment of disappointment was over. I HAD to switch gears. This is the time we were given with our sweet girl and I was going to enjoy it. I could cry later.

It may sound strange, but these were wonderful moments. I loved holding my daughter, giving her a bath, and seeing others love on her too. I will never regret having that opportunity. EVER.

My sister was there to capture the day for us and took so many amazing pictures for us of our sweet angel girl and our new family of five.

The entire staff was gracious to us. There was even a nurse who created this for us:

How special and sweet for her to do this for us! A treasure we will keep and cherish.

Our God is stronger. He gives us strength.
Our God is healer. He will/is healing our hearts. He has healed our daughter, as promised.

Please continue to pray for us. We are doing well and resting is His promises, but there are still very difficult moments at times. This is not over for us. Healing will take time. Pray that Brent and I will stay connected and not grow distant as we heal, but be drawn closer than ever. Pray that as our children grow that they will really comprehend the Father's deep love for them and their sister, that they never forget her. That they will chose to follow after Him all the days of their lives.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Refinished Kitchen Table

When we moved into our house, 18 months ago, we gained another dining space and needed a new table. We originally thought it was a formal dining table we needed but the one we had was too big in the kitchen and the perfect size in the formal dining room.

 

A couple months after moving in, Brent was in College Station on his way home from hunting. I asked him to stop by Furniture Row because our sister-in-law had seen a stack of clearance table tops for $20, but the catch was they were missing the legs. This was also the same trip he found the $5 king headboard.

 

We were sure we could find legs that would work at Lowe's, but that didn't happen. So then I went looking online, but they were all more then I wanted to pay. So one Wednesday night, we stopped into Room Store after church. They were going out of business and suppose to have cheap prices. That was not the case except for one small section that we missed on our way in. As we were walking out the door, we saw a table that was broken on top.

Well we already had a top. We just needed some legs. It was $19!

 

 This is what we created out of two tables. I planned to refinish this table but the legs were far more modern then I had in my head I wanted. My chairs were more French country, I thought. I definitely would have moved forward with this table,

 

 

but then I found this...

 

 

The kids & I were on our way to the pool one day at the end of last summer. We were walking down the street and my neighbor, three houses down, had their garage open with this gem inside. It had paint cans and junk piled high on top of it. What caught my eye were the legs! They look just like what I pictured in my head and match my chairs great.

 

My neighbors were clearly not using it, but did I dare ring their door bell. No. I couldn't.

 

I thought about it the whole time at the pool. I decided if the garage was still open when we walked back by I would ask if they would sell it to me.

 

It wasn't.

 

A few weeks went by and then the day came when we passed by again and the son was out washing the cars. This is totally not me to walk up to someone I don't know and ask them for something. But I did it.

 

I asked the boy if he thought his parents would be interested in selling me the table in their garage. He said he would ask. I went home and waited. About 10 minutes later, he was at my door and they said yes! I went to see it. Paint and drawings all over it. He asked what I wanted to do with it, because it was in such bad condition.

 

I asked him if I needed to talk with his parents and he said they wanted him to handle it. I asked how much and he didn't know, so I offered $20. His face lit up. And he helped me walk it down the street.

 

It gets better. About 30 more minutes went by and a knock at my door. It was the boy. His parents told him to return the $20! It was too much! They told him to only accept a couple bucks for an ICEE.

 

Are you kidding!

 

 

As you can see, I had my work cut out for me, but I love stuff like this.

 

 

All sanded down and no more splatter paint all over the top.

I always seem to have an original plan and then it changes. My initial plan was to spray paint the base/legs of the table an ivory to match the back and legs of my chairs and then stain the top to match the seat of my chairs.

 

Well, I sanded and sanded and could never remove all the coating off the top. The stain just bubbled up when I tried it.

 

On to Plan B. To paint it. Several ideas came and went here before settling on the final plan. I sprayed it solid ivory. Not good. Sanded it off. The solid coat of paint did not look great because of how well the table was worn. There were nicks and imperfections that showed up in not a cute/distressed way.

 So I tried a darker color, a sample that I had laying around called Garden of Paradise {Valspar}. The imperfections still showed up.

 

Then I decided to do a chevron pattern. But how? I kept trying to wrap my brain around that and it just wasn't working. 

 

 Garden of Paradise {light, left} and Secluded Garden {dark, right}

 

 

I started taping off the table.

 

Originally, I was going to only paint certain spaces {see top right} but it was not going to work unless I had a third color. So instead, I painted over the entire top with the Secluded Garden.

 

Removed the tape and yay, for pattern and texture! It was not perfect and the tape bled a bit. So I had to try to figure out what I should do next. Try to make it perfect or make it not perfect on purpose.

 

I decided to do a glazing technique on top of the design. It needed something else. It was messy and the two colors were from the same family yet very distinct. They needed to be washed out a bit more.

 

So I got these supplies:

 

 

 

I mixed the two colors from the design to make a nice blend and then added the glaze. I rolled the glaze on and then used the yellow brush to add more texture. Layers and layers.

 

It looked great and fixed some of the imperfections when it was wet but then the next day, I decided to do it again.

 

I almost messed it completely up. I always do that to myself.

 

I rolled on some more of the mixture of paint and glaze and it was TOO thick, not enough glaze. The design had literally DISAPPEARED! No!

 

I quickly got painters paper towels and wet them and started to wipe off as much as I could. Thankfully that worked!

 

 

This is what I ended up with.

 

 

Brushed the base and legs with polyurethane. Big mistake. Too much detail, lots of runs. I spray painted them. I should have sprayed them too with polyurethane from the beginning. I sanded and then sprayed.

 

Then I brushed the top, two coats, of polyurethane and sprayed it a third coat.

 

Finished product and couldn't be happier with the result.

 

 

This past February, I sold the first table we created in a garage sale for $25. So I didn't totally break even but since I only paid a couple bucks for the new one, I say it's still a super deal!