In the meantime

I cannot begin to tell you how much it thrills my heart to see Talitha smile at me, to snuggle with her, to watch her sleeping face, to hear her giggle, and to see her wiggle all over on the floor.  We are so blessed to have Talitha with us.  God is so incredibly good to us.  Being a mom has been one of the most wonderful and most difficult experiences of my life. Perhaps having Talitha has also helped ease some of the pain of our miscarriage, as in some ways, we have "moved past" the will we ever hold a baby of our own in our arms?  question.  At least we know that {maybe} we were just another couple that fits into the "first babies are often miscarried" statistic.  I don't know...   Whatever the case, I came across the following post on Lessons from Suffering in Life  in my draft archive the other day and finally feel like I can post it.  I post these not because I feel like I've mastered these lessons but because I need to be ...

The past few Christmases I've posted some recipes that are traditional here at the Stanley/Lehrman household:  Cheese Ball,   Summer Sausage & Peppernuts,  and  Almond Toast . I think it was last year that Isaac and I enjoyed delivering Summer Sausage and Almond Toast to friends.  This year, however,  I didn't get around to making the almond toast.  Instead, I decided to make Mom's Caramel Corn recipe to go along with the Summer Sausage and Zippy Mustard.   I think it turned out quite well! Christmas Caramel Corn:  Pop roughly 7 quarts of popcorn.   If you're doing it on the stove, you'll need about 1 3/4 cup dry popcorn (1/2 cup dry popcorn makes roughly 2 quarts popped popcorn.) (Don't know how many bags of microwave popcorn that would be...)  Mix together and boil for 5 minutes (while stirring):  2 cups brown sugar 1 cup butter 1/2 cup white or dark corn syrup  1/2 tsp salt  Remo...

2017 is coming to an end and 2018 is just around the corner!  Where did 2017 go?!?!?  2017 has been a great year--it's hard to surpass the highlight of having a Little Girl to bring sunshine and joy into our lives! Anyway, it seems like towards the end of every year (or the beginning of the New Year) we begin thinking about starting new Bible study or reading habits.  While I'm still working on the chronological reading plan that I  mentioned last year , I have also been working on a Galatians through 2 Thessalonians Journible . I just love the idea behind Journibles:  Write out the passage and make comments as you work through the verses.  It's that simple.   In fact, the best part about Journibles  is that the idea behind it is repeatable--anyone can do it!  It is so simple!  While you can purchase from Amazon the actual Journible  that has a nice hard cover, along with prompts for comments and notations for whe...

The first week after Talitha was born, my parents were here, so they basically took care of all our meals during that time.  Then my parents left.  For almost the next two weeks, ladies from church brought us meals.  It was such a blessing to know that a hot meal was coming each day and I didn’t have to even think about what to make for supper!  (Sometimes that thinking part is the hardest part! haha!) Anyway… during that time, instead of a hot meal for supper, one friend brought us some frozen breakfast burritos.  Ok guys, let me tell you something: for those of us who always have to have a hot breakfast, those burritos were the best. idea. ever.  Period.  I say that because, for about the first month after Talitha was born, there were so many mornings I was so tired I could hardly make myself get out of bed, much less get out of bed in time to make Isaac breakfast before he had to leave for work....

I sat there in the recliner, holding my Little Girl.  She had been crying, hysterically so, with giant crocodile tears welling up in her eyes.  I picked her up. She stopped crying. She was crying for Mommy. Wait a minute…     She was crying for Me .      I’m her Mommy. And then, while Talitha snuggled up with me, I was the one crying. They were mostly tears of joy, tears of overwhelming thankfulness to God for giving us our Talitha. But there were also tears because I missed ever getting to hold our Twins, tears because of all of the “what could have beens.” But in the end, there were tears because I know God is good and He does bring “joy in the morning,” despite the sorrow in the night. Last week at the local MOPS-equivalent get-together, a couple ladies shared on Infant Loss Awareness Day. Yes, it has been like almost three years since we miscarried, but as one of the...

Some pictures...until I get around to writing something actually worth reading! :)   And yes, these are slightly out of order.

Welcome Talitha Hope Stanley!   Born July 18, 2017  8 lbs 5 oz  19 inches