Jean Stockdale...

Some Bloggy Mommies

Moms, I never considered that I would become consumed with blogs, but the unexpected had happened. As I searched other blogs to see what other bloggers were doing, I was pleasantly surprised to find there is a huge Christian momma community on-line. These sweet moms stay in touch with each other, literally all over the world, via blogs. Who knew? In this day when the internet is notorious for spewing all kinds of evil and bad stuff, it is refreshing to find so many moms who love God and enjoy encouraging one another. Since so many Christian women are disconnected and have little time to make (or find for that matter) good solid Christian friends, it is a great blessing to find so many like-minded mommas on the world-wide web. I am as surprised as anyone! I have stumbled on 2 adorable such moms whom I read daily and enjoy immensely. The first mommas is known in the bloggy world as boomama. Now girls, you need to click here and read her site. Not only does she love the Lord, she is just plain fun to read. Her little boy's antics will tickle you silly. My other bloggy mommy friend is bigmama. She is equally delightful. She loves the Lord and is raising a darling little girl. I love to read these sites because they keep reminding me of why I do what I do - that is teaching and training mommas in the fine art of Christian homemaking. So let me introduce you to some sweet Christian bloggy mommies. Enjoy. Blessings.

Wisdom

For one of Patti's shower I made her this little book full of musings on motherhood. As you all know, I love me some mommas and encouraging one, especially my very own daughter-in-law, is one of my all time favorite occupations. I printed out nuggets of wisdom, words of encouragement, and my favorite Bible verses on mothering and printed them on cardstock. Four of these tidbits fit on a 8x11 1/2 page of cardstock. I cut them apart, punched a hole in the corner and threaded them on a metal ring which I promptly covered with snippets of ribbon. I used scrapbook paper to cover matte board for the front and back. I thought it turned out to be a cute little treasure for her full of wit and wisdom on mothering. However if you really want to have wisdom for living, then this is the book you want. Moms, if you want to know how to live, how to love and how to raise your children, read this Book. It is great to get insight from other moms, but this is the source of all Truth and all Wisdom. Do not neglect God's Word. It is your life. It is your breath. To ignore it is not only foolish, it is dangerous. Love in love with Jesus Christ and His Word. Blessings.

Baby D is asleep on the foot of the bear that I gave him. It is a Measure Bear (a.k.a. a bear from Toys R Us with Martha Stewart ribbon on his neck). Every month we will photograph Declan with his bear to show how much he has grown. In the last picture he will be holding the bear. I did not go by to see him yesterday so I am in serious baby withdrawal. He is simply fine. Thanks for checking in with us. Blessings.

It is Late

It's late and I am tried. I have spent most of the day writing on the James Bible study for the Moms Ministry. I had a total of 40 lessons to write. As of today, I have 31 of them done. Yeah me! I have been hammering them out between rocking our new grandbaby and checking on Craig's mom. She is having to spend alot of time in her hospital bed to get comfortable. I visited with her on Wednesday and she was resting easy. Last night Jas and Patti invited us to bring our buddies, Roy and Renae Terrell over to visit with Declan. While we were there, passing him around like he is a doll, I asked if they might like to go out for a little drive or a trip to Sonic. Patti's eyes lite up and she grabbed the keys. Yes, she would like a quick little trip out into the big city of Oakland to see what the world looked like now that Declan had arrived. Since we were his first "official" babysitters, I feel quite honored. He napped while they were gone and let each of us-and yes I shared better this time-cuddle him up and get all his sugar. Now I am headed to bed. I will write tomorrow on the Bible study and try to catch up on the publishing deadlines that I am sadly missing. Blessings to you all. Thank you for the prayer cover. God is miraculously giving me mental clarity against all odds and allowing my thoughts and words to formulate and spill out of my fingers onto the key board. Grace to you all.

God is Good!

Since I came to know the Lord at the age of 24, I have known both experientially and Scripturally that God is good. We are currently relishing His hand of blessing. Craig's mom is doing a bit better although she is dealing with a lot of pain and spend a large part of the day in her hospital bed or in her lift chair. We rejoice that she is stable at this point. She is still at home with a caregiver. The writing is going good on the Bible study for James. I have completed 30 of the 40 lessons that I need to complete it. I am publishing the book on II Timothy. The publisher is doing great with that although I have blown through a couple of serious deadlines. Bummer. The details for the upcoming India trip are falling place although I still need to write 2 lessons for it. I got to spent a few hours with some young moms who are lovers of the Word of God. Just sitting among them, listening to them share about the good things of the Lord blessed me and encouraged my own heart to keep on running well. I sooooo want to finish this race strong! Anyways, please do not let down on praying for me. I still have many milestones to reach before I am off to India-the hardest will be leaving the little prince for 10 days-but God is good. His mercy endures to all generations. For that, I am grateful. Blessings.

We Need to Stop Meeting Like This!

Declan seems to be patting himself on the back, doesn't he? He loves to lay with his arm over his shoulder. Isn't he just yummy? Craig and I went to hold him last night and try to breathe in all that newness. We are all so taken with him. I wonder if he has any ideal of all the drama he has created in our lives. He is more precious than words can describe so I will fall back on my favorite phrase, "Bless his heart." We are smitten. Thank you Jesus for the unspeakable gift of this little prince.

Perfection

This shot was taken on Sunday when Declan was 4 days old. Patti was changing him and he rolled over and balled up like this. He promptly closed his eyes and went sound asleep. This, my friends, is the face of perfection. Bless the Lord, from Whom all blessings flow.

Lifting Holy Hands!

Could you just eat him up! Declan nearly always has his hand up and this is one of his favorite positions. I am quite certain he spent at least part of this time in the womb in this position. Declan does like to be swaddled tightly-like a baby burrito-but he does not want his hands confined. They need to be up near his face or over his back. And look at his daddy! My baby has a baby. I need to pause and just think on that for a while! I am having trouble breathing. Declan, you take my breathe away!

Go Dawgs! Did I mention that Jason is a graduate of Mississippi State and a hard core fan? He is intent on teaching Baby Dec the finer points of ringing the cowbells and cheering the Dawgs to victory. His proud daddy is holding him and telling him what a great school State is and how is just going to love it there and where to go to eat at the best places and how to chant the fight song, minus the bad word, and how great his little life is going to be as a Stockdale man.

Aunt Kathryn

Aunt Kathryn, which will probably be shortened to Kat, meet Baby Declan. Dawson sat with us most of the afternoon. Kathryn is a nurse at LeBonheur and arrived just as he was born! She was the most comfortable with him of any of us since she is used to being around little bitty ones. Here she is holding him when he is just about 1.5 hours old. Declan, meet your Aunt Kathryn. She and Uncle Dawson are going to be good folks to know! Many sweet memories will be made between you and these two. You, little dear one, have fallen into a pot of honey when you arrived into this family.

Uncle Dawson

Declan, meet your Uncle Dawson. He was been patiently waiting for you to arrive. He has been busy talking his own mother off the ledge while we had to sit in the waiting room of the maternity floor.

I have always known that Dawson has his dad's laid back phlegmatic temperament, but in the midst of the tension of the actual birth, when we were all shuffled off to the waiting room, Dawson was the calm one. Craig was much calmer than I was, but Mr. Dawson gets the award for the steady head. Dawson, I love you for many reasons, but during this stressful time in my day, your calm countenance and quick smile reassured me many times. You still are my champion! Dawson, meet Declan. Declan, you will be blessed to have Daws as your uncle. In time, you will come to appreciate his great strength of character and his godly wisdom.

Seriously!

Seriously! Have you ever seen such a face. For those of you who have seen the 4D ultrasound pictures of Baby Love, he looked just like this. His hands were in this position. Emily Rainey told me that I would be amazed at how much he would look just like the ultrasound pix and she could not have been more right! His Poppa Craig is holding him in this shot. Last night I got to hold him for 3 solid hours! I am trying to breathe in all this newness and press these memories deeply into my memory banks. Seriously. I am over the moon. Blessings.

Really. This is the Last One. Really. At Least for Today.

This is the last one that I am going to post for right now. Really. The last one. Really. I need to hear from one of you sweet bloggers-is this coming out on the blog right? I fear I am doing something wrong and my pictures are going to come out distorted and to distort this precious face would be a travesty. A travesty I say, a real travesty. Anyways, I wanted you all to see that he has reddish hair-just like Jason did when he was born. In fact, he looks to me that his daddy made over! I think I can see Patti across his eyes though. Something about the way his eyes are shaped makes me think of her. And since she did all the work, I don't want to imply that she does not get credit in this new endeavor at the Stockdale household. Welcome to the world, baby D. God love you!

My Turn!

And then it was my turn. Moms, I may need to take lessons on sharing because it is harder than I thought!! As I touched his face, I held my breath. This gift of God to Jason and Patti is so sacred to me that I almost felt like I was intruding on His creation when I touched his velvety skin. His newborn face is so silky that it almost did not register to my touch. He has strawberry blond hair, just like his daddy did and the biggest blue eyes I have ever seen. Oh yeah, it is my turn to watch from the grandstands as my children raise their child up for the Lord. Wow!

Get Out of Town!

Oh my! Can you even stand it. This is a shot of Jason when he got to introduce us all to Declan. Dec is about 1.5 hours old at the most. We were invited to sit in the labor and delivery room up until the actual birth. Thank you, Jas and Patti, for allowing us to peek into this holy moment with you! Declan was born at 3:35. About 1 hour or so after that, we were ushered into her room. Just as we were congratulaing them, the nursery nurse brought us one of God's finest masterpieces and handed him to Jason. This is one of those moments I will forever hold in my heart! My son, framed in the doorway, holding his son. The look on his face was not to be believed. He brought him over to us and pulled the blanket away from his face. This is that moment. I think my world stood still for a moment.

Oh my heart. I am trying to learn how to post photographs and there is no guarantee that this will work. I am not particularly computer savy but I am hoping to be able to let you share in a bit of our joy as we are trying to get our arms around the fact that we have a new Stockdale to add to our family tree. And you know how I love me some boys! Having raised two of them, I think Jason and Patti are so privileged to be able to share in this experience. Watching a little boy grow into a man of God is simply the best! Watching your son with his son...well, it just does not get any better than this. Thank you, Jesus.

Can I Get An Amen!

There is simply nothing more irresistible than a newborn! Can I get an amen?!?!? Oh my, the smells, the sound, the sights of such pink pudgy skin so new to the world-it takes my breathe away. We went to see the little prince last night. To our delight our younger son, Dawson, and his wife, Kathryn, were there. I know it is very trendy to use initials or code names when writing about family members in blogs, but really, I did not go to all the trouble to the birth these boys and raise them to make their momma proud, only to keep their names a secret from the world-wide web! They had come by to share in the joy that is Declan. Now seeing my two boys caught up in the arrival of this newest Stockdale male...well, it is too precious to capture in words. Daws will make a wonderful uncle and Kathryn will gladly assist in the "auntie" category! Kathryn is the most comfortable of all of us holding him since she is an RN at LeBonheur!! It is always good to have a nurse on stand-by in my opinion. Anyways, having both our boys and both our girls in one room with the star of the show, Declan, as the center of attention was a wonderful sweet memory for me.

Declan is eating well and sleeping well for a newborn, which means he does not sleep at night. But then, can you blame him? He misses his J-J! I think we will bond well if I can keep my setting his neurons on edge with the flash from my camera. So for you who are wondering, I took 224 photos in 8 hours the day he arrived and it is quickly going up! Wolf Camera, here I come.

Thank you for ALL of the prayers and kind words you have extended during this sweet season of our lives! To God be the glory. Great things He has done. Can I get an amen!?!?!? Blessings.

Can You Even Stand It!

Sisters, you know I love me some mommas. I mean to tell you that I love moms and everything related to mothering. But, oh my goodness, this grandbaby has opened up something in me that I cannot explain or adequately describe. I am over the moon. I am captured by his eyes, blinded by his innocence, breathless over his newborn smell, trapped  by his pudgy cheeks and just plain whooped by his rosebud mouth. I am sickening-even to myself! I cannot help it. I am totally enraptured by the pure joy of this little prince. He is so delicious that I feel myself go weak in the knees when I look at him! The only friends I fear I am going to have left are going to be grandmothers because no one else will be able to stand to hear me gush!

P.S. If you see me tomorrow at Bellevue, snag me and I will show you my first scrapbook-yes, you heard me-a scrapbook of the face of perfection!

Welcome Home!

Baby Declan and his mom and dad arrived home safely about 5 pm today. All is well! Patti is feeling much better being at home. Jason is relieved to have his whole new little family at home and Baby Love was tightly "burrito-ed" in his blanket with both fists tucked up under his chin-just the way he was in the ultrasound pictures. He is so beautiful. He takes my breath away! Thank you again for all the kind words of encouragement and blessings you have sent our way. It means so much that so many are sharing our joy! Thank you for praying us through this season. My next ministry venture is going to be called "Turning godly moms into GRAND MOMS." I now have much to say on the subject! In all honesty, I feel as if God has let Craig and I stand on tiptoe and peek into a holy moment-birth and bonding between Jason, Patti and now baby Declan. We are in the grandstands urging them to run well this race that is set before them, raising up another Stockdale man for the kingdom of God. Oh my heart! Blessings.

Any guesses on how many pictures I have taken yet?!?! I will post the answer tomorrow!

Thanks a Million!

Thanks to Kevin and Stephanie Redmond, there are 3 pictures of baby D on my blog, since I have obviously not mastered this art. I have posted them, by the way, but they did not appear on my blog-which begs to ask, "Where in the cyber-world are they?" Somewhere out there are 3 pictures of Baby Love and his mommy and daddy. But thanks to the Redmonds you can see them. Simply click on the comments on the blog below and you will see "Click here for Declan pictures" and for that, Redmond's, I am grateful!