Still here...

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I've been able to post something on my blog. I miss it, but I have been so incredibly busy that to have been blogging all this time would have taken away from much more important and necessary tasks.

We are moved into our new home and still trying to settle in, even though it's been nearly five months now. It's so great to have our own place though! With so much space! I'm still working to decorate and learning to use all this space for something other than clutter!

My boys are doing well. Motherhood has definitely thrown me for some loops the last six months, but the Lord is helping to make it through each day by His grace and with lots and lots of help from my dear husband.

Ryan, who is five now, is starting to do some homeschooling. He loves learning new things, especially about math and reading. He's doing really well with spelling words and sounding out enough to read a bit. It's fun to watch him catch on to all these new things and move into this new world of SCHOOL!

Brandon is two and busy being all boy! He loves tools and anything to do with helping his Grandpa. Curious George is his favorite cartoon and shooting "bad guys" or wrestling with Daddy and Ryan are his favorite pastimes. We're working on potty training--NOT my strong suit--hopefully, we'll be past this milestone very SOON! He is still small enough that he enjoys cuddling with me. I'll be sad to see him outgrow that!

Matthew is six months old, nearly seven actually. He's very mobile! Keeping up with my floors is becoming a priority I need to be better at accomplishing since he is cleaning my floors with his tummy every day! He hasn't quite mastered actual crawling, but he does a mean army crawl! Oh, and he cut his first tooth this past week. It past with seemingly no ordeal. I didn't even realize it was coming in until I felt it when I was feeding him. He has started on lots of solids and seems to be handling it really well as long as there isn't any milk products in his diet or mine. He's still not the best sleeper, but I usually get at least six hours of rest, so I'm pretty thankful for that after months of only two or three hours for one part of the night!!

Our family is settling in after over a year of major upsets and changes. I've been through some serious emotional, mental and spiritual struggles, but I feel like there's light at the end of this tunnel. The Lord has remained faithful though I have failed in so many ways, so many times. It's been hard to be without a church family, but just this past week, I joined Calvary Baptist Church, a new work just beginning in the small town where we live now. I'm thankful that the Lord is moving us forward, and in time, I am confident that God will work in and through us to become a light in this community and a witness of His great love to those around us.

I suppose that is all for now. I don't know if anyone even stops by here anymore, but it's good for me to share some of what is going on in my life. It keeps me from becoming too focused solely on my four walls. :)

Our family-2009

Matthew Casey

My newest son

Matthew Casey Walker
Born July 23, 2009
11:25 AM
6 lbs, 14 oz
19 1/2 in long

Mommy and baby are doing well and resting comfortably.
More details (and pics) to come later!!

Almost time--

We have only a few more days before we meet our littlest boy. I have my 38 week check-ups tomorrow, then I'm scheduled to be induced Thursday morning. Lord willing, I'll be holding my baby before 2 that afternoon, or sooner!!

Please pray for me. I'm very excited that the time has come, but I'm also nervous. You'd think that after giving birth three times, that the fourth time around wouldn't cause me to be nervous, but that's just me I guess!! I'm just looking forward to getting it over with! :)

For Stephen

The Lord is great and greatly to be praised!

In 1980, the Lord in His sovereignty, merged the lives of two families, the Horners and the Walkers. When Pat and Dianne Horner met Casey and Cindi Walker, Dianne was pregnant with their third child, a baby girl, and Cindy was pregnant with their first child, a son. In January 1981 Steven Walker was born. Two months later, in March, Rebekah Horner was born. Little did they know that 19 years later, God would unite them, not just as friends, but as family!

For years, Steven was just a part of my life. I would see him and the rest of his family when they would come to visit from Houston, and eventually they moved to San Antonio. He was just always there. Sure, I had my girly crushes on him through the years, but in all honestly, we did become simply friends.

It was not until we were both 18 that Steven finally "noticed" me as more than his sister's friend, or so he says! :) By May of 1999, when we graduated from high school, we were inseparable. We spent the next months just enjoying being around each other and hanging out with family and friends. Everyone expected a proposal at Christmas time, but Steven had other plans! He never has been one to just do what others expect of him!

At the end of January, Steven and I, along with all my brothers and his brother and sister, went to an outdoor concert. A DJ from the local radio station got up on stage and in front of a couple thousand people, announced that Steven Walker wanted to know if Rebekah Horner would marry him!!! Yep, it was definitely memorable and of course I said yes!!

So, that brings us to the big day-- June 17, 2000

Nine years ago, today, we stood before all our family and lots of friends(about 250 people altogether!) and committed our lives and our love to each other. The Lord has brought us through so much since that day! There have been times that we were angry, times that we were devastated, times that we were boundlessly happy, and lots of just normal, everyday times. Whatever the test, God has preserved our marriage and our increased our love for each other.

Today we celebrate nine years of marriage and over ten years of being together. It's amazing to see what we've come through, and know that whatever the future might hold for us, there's a God in heaven Whose hand is guiding and directing our steps.

I love you, Steven and am looking forward to our future and just being with you each day, living and loving together.

GREAT NEWS!!!!!

Happy birthday, Ryan!!

Oh, how he's grown!!!! I cannot believe that five years ago, I was in labor at this very moment and waiting to meet my first baby boy!!! Time has flown by since that day, and I'm now the mommy to a wonderful, active, imaginative five year old!

Ryan has been such a blessing to our family from the minute we found out that I was expecting him. The Lord gave him to us and healed our hearts throughout my pregnancy with him and through his birth and life over the last five years. How thankful I am for my firstborn son!! I love you, Ryan!

(I wish I had some baby pictures of Ryan on my computer, but I don't!! I'll have to find all my CD's and download them some other time! The last picture is shortly before his second birthday...)

Can it be? An actual post!!

It's way past time for a new update, but I am having serious problems trying to figure out what to share. There is SO much going on in our lives, in so many different areas!

The pregnancy is still going well. This little guy is moving enough to keep me awake a lot of nights. After last night, I'm thinking he may be born hyperactive!! It literally felt like he was bouncing off the sides of his little world just for the fun of it--kinda like a kid in a bathtub, when they discover they can slide on their belly in the tub! But it's such a comfort that he is active now!! My next check-up is on Tuesday, so maybe I'll have more to share then.

In other news, we (my parents and Steven and I) finally settled on some land and the closing was last week. After months(years, really!!) of looking, the Lord has provided for our family in such an awesome way!! For Steven and I, this is the place that we're hoping will be our home for the rest of our lives and an inheritance that we can leave for our children. I'm so looking forward to being able to get my own home again, especially knowing that, the Lord willing, this will be the LAST TIME I have to move! That's a crazy thought considering we've lived seven different places in the last nine years. I know that's not a lot compared to military families, but I'm certainly tired of the whole packing/unpacking cycles when I'm pregnant and have little ones in tow!

Well, there's so much more than this going on, but I don't have time to share right now. Just keep praying for us! The Lord has many changes in store for us over the next 6-9 months and I often feel that I'm barely keeping my head above water, so to speak. I need LOTS of grace!

Until next time...

:)

Happy Memorial Day!

DEFINITION OF A VETERAN

A Veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life."
Author Unknown


Thank you to all who have given so much to insure that our freedoms are secure.

David, thank you for all you gave up over the last six years to serve your country and keep us safe.

Stephen and John, thank you for every day that you go to do your job in the midst of extreme and dangerous environments. You sacrifice every day for me and my boys. I love you and pray for your safety always!

"Always"--Building 429

For the so many I know right now who are hurting in one way or another--

28 weeks

We had an interesting day yesterday. The day started well, with all the normal activities. I dropped Ryan off to play at my aunt's house, and my mom, Brandon and I got on the road to Abilene(about an hour drive away.) We were about five miles out when the van started feeling really funny to me. I was able to get the cruise turned off and start slowing down to pull over before sure enough, I heard a loud POP as I came to a stop. The front right tire was FLAT. Not good...
I had my first appointment within 30 minutes, my husband was an hour and a half away, my uncle, the only other person I could call, was at least that far away as well!! I wasn't about to attempt to change it on my own, even if I had a clue where/how to start!!! In the middle of trying to figure out what in the world we were going to do, a truck pulled up behind us. A man whose name I don't even know, stopped and changed it for us!!! It was so sweet! He said that he just hoped that someone would stop if his wife needed help. The Lord was so good to us, in protecting us and provided for us what we needed as soon as we needed it. I ended up making it my appointment only a couple minutes late. Steven took off work, drove that hour and a half to meet me to be there to get the tire fixed. I have an awesome husband!! It turned out that we didn't even have to get a new tire, just repair the two puncture holes in the old one. Yay!! Less money out of pocket and out of our emergency fund.

So, with that eventful start, I was able to go to my 28 week checkups and see how our baby is growing and developing!

Our littlest guy is weighing 2 lbs, 9 oz now! He's definitely getting stronger because he's kicking a LOT harder now! The neonatologist looked at his heart yesterday and said that there are no problems with his heart valves--they are both wide open and functioning properly!! We're so thankful for that news after all the Brandon had to go through with his heart procedure.

It was so sweet to see the baby on the sono. There was an awesome shot of his face. We could see him moving his mouth and making faces! Loved it!!!

I'm feeling pretty good considering it's the third trimester, and I'm getting bigger by the minute! :) Ryan and Brandon are keeping me much more active with this pregnancy which is probably helping me to have that little bit of extra energy that I usually don't have with my pregnancies.

We only have 10 weeks to go!!! My doctor said that we can schedule the delivery for as soon as July 21st. I can't believe it's that close already! I don't have a thing ready for him, except a closet full of diapers and nursing pads that I've been stashing away over the last few months. I have dressers to clean out and a garage sale to plan before I can start organizing baby clothes and blankets, etc. If I can get over this cold I have right now, I'm hoping to tackle a lot of the clearing out this week. We'll see!!!

I switch to having checkups every two weeks now, so I'll try to post after each one if I can. Maybe even more often than that if I'm not crazy busy!! :)

Trying again to post these!!

Brandon, trying out his brother's boots!

Such a cutie!

Ryan, sporting his new boots, his hat and his gun!

My sweet boys!

Stealing kisses!

Taking snuggle time whenever I can get it

My grandma with my boys

My brother John and his family

Five generations of Walkers

Picture woes!

Well, I'll have to try again to post pictures when I have a few minutes. For some reason they've disappeared from Blogger. I'll work on it and post them again soon!!!

:)

Short and sweet

I'm sitting here, enjoying the sound of two little boys playing cars on the kitchen floor. It's amazing how soothing that can be!!!

What a wonderful weekend I've had with my family, just being together! Brandon and I both came down with yucky colds, but in spite of not feeling well, I loved the hugs and cards and sweet "Happy Mother's Day, Mommy"s that I received. Steven bought me a new blender, some much needed maternity clothes that FIT and two new pair of seriously CUTE sandals! I'm enjoying all of it!

Tomorrow I will be 28 weeks pregnant and will have another checkup and sonogram to make sure our littlest guy is still doing well. I can't believe that in 10 short weeks, we'll be welcoming him home and settling into a family of five. I have to admit I'm getting nervous about the prospect of labor, but I know it will be over and done with and I'll be able to just snuggle with my new baby in no time. I am looking forward to that part of it!! :)

Well, my boys are getting restless, so I better cut this short. Until next time, people!

PS-- Oh, for some reason, all my newly posted pictures are not showing up on my computer. Will someone let me know if you can see them??? I'm hoping it's just that the settings on my new computer need to be adjusted. Thanks!! :)

Strength For a Weary Mom

Girl Talk recently went through a series for moms of young children and moms of teenagers. I, of course, devoured the posts for moms with little ones. I wanted to point you in that direction if you are in this phase of life. I found their words to be both humbling and convicting, with lots of encouragement thrown into the mix!

Here's an excerpt from the last post by Kristin:

I want to close the week by reminding you of one of my favorite promises from God’s Word. Galatians 6:9 says: "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

...May I encourage you to hold onto this verse as you seek to faithfully sow into the lives of your little ones? The harvest won't come today. And it won't come tomorrow. Maybe not even next year or the year after that.

But we must be faithful to sow today. Faithful to train. Faithful to teach. Faithful to discipline. Faithful to love. Or, as it says in this passage, faithful to "do good." And we must trust God that He will fulfill His promises, that we will reap a harvest in due season if we do not give up.

My expectations are not for today, or even tomorrow--but my hope is in God who has promised that, someday, my labors will bear fruit for Him. Even though my body is weary, my soul gains new strength from this promise.

I pray it strengthens you as well.

I'm a "Kept" Woman!!

There have been times when I thought I would lose my mind, but God kept me sane. Isaiah 26:3 -

There were times when I thought I could go on no longer But the LORD kept me moving. (Gen 28:15)

At times, I’ve wanted to lash out at those whom I felt had done me wrong, but the Lord kept my mouth shut. (Ps 13)

Sometimes I think the money just isn’t enough, but God has helped me to keep the lights on, the water on, the car paid, the house paid, etc, (Matt 6:25-34

When I thought I would fall, He kept me up.

When I thought I was weak, He kept me strong! (1 Pet 5:7, Matt 11: 28-30)

Are you or do you know a ‘kept’ woman?

If so, pass it on to her to let them know they are ‘Kept.’

I am kept by the Love and Grace of God! I am indeed kept woman and praise God for it!

Please share this with someone in need of encouragement today.