Here we go again!

With several new friends in our lives I wanted to give a quick glance into the past of where we have been and give everyone an update on where we are about to go.

A little over four years ago God decided to reveal to us just a glimpse of his sovereignty by saving Ethan's brain from bleeding (and probably his life) through what was the scariest moment in our lives and one of the worst case scenarios during labor; the prolapsed cord.  You can read all about our experience here and here.

During Ethan's six day stay in the NICU we discovered that Philip and I have a blood platelet mismatch.  This is very similar to an Rh factor mismatch in that I make antibodies against our babies' platelets while I am pregnant.  It is dissimilar to Rh factor mismatches in that there is no magic shot to stop the immune response against the baby.  Instead of a shot, I must undergo weekly infusions beginning at 19 -20 weeks of IVIg and continuing for the duration of the pregnancy.  I wrote a long post about the treatments and the biology behind them when I was pregnant with Asher.

Because nurses typically have a hard time drawing blood from me or starting IVs, after the first couple of treatments of IVIg we chose another, slightly more permanent, option: a PICC line.  This catheter stays in my body and gives my home health nurse great access to infuse the IVIg into me every week.  No needles!!

I can't believe we are already here, but on Monday we will be 19 weeks pregnant!  This go round the insurance has been incredibly swift and easy to deal with (not that there haven't been a few snags) and on Monday my nurse called to say that the IVIg treatments are approved!  Tomorrow afternoon I will get my PICC line installed and we begin treatments on Monday.  We are so excited to have the same nurse that we had when I was pregnant with Asher, Angie!!

My prayer requests at this point are for treatments to go well (people can have wicked side effects from IVIg) and for my general peace during this time of transition.  Ultimately I know that no matter what happens God knows what is best for me and will grow me during this time!  My hope and prayer is that I glorify Him in all situations and that I share our testimony with people I meet during this time.  We have been so blessed I also pray that I can rest in these blessings instead of fretting about what tomorrow will bring.

Thank you all for all of your support!

Fall in the Mountains

Danielle was here with us last week and we took a day trip out to the Smokies to see the fall colors.  Here are some of the pictures we took:

New Videos

I thought we had our youtube channel linked here but we don't!  Here are our latest videos:

First day of Pre-K

At seven am sharp my four year old boy bounded into my room wanting to know if his shorts were on backwards.  As I helped him get dressed he told me all about the dream he had, "I dreamed that I woke up and put my clothes on.  Then I waved good-bye to all my friends (my friends were in my room).  Then I left for school.  That was it."  He was so excited he dressed, ate breakfast, and was ready to leave 30 minutes before we could and 45 minutes before we had to.

This one is a little fuzzy, but captures the mood of the morning!

First day of school!!

"This is how you make 11."

Asher needed to check out the toys too!

Ethan playing at one of his classroom tables.

Asher thinks, "Hey man, I'm ready for this place too!"

For more pictures of this morning you can head on over to SmugMug.

A look back through the years.

With Ethan starting school this week I thought it would be fun to take a look back:

On July 2, 2007 Ethan (at 41 weeks) decided to make a dramatic entrance into the world.  He spent the next week in the NICU before coming home as a healthy baby boy!

He took his first trip to the Smokies later that same year (3 months).

Ethan loves his Auntie!(6 months)

In April, we went on a hike with the Boudreauxs.  

Apparently Asher did not invent the "scrunchy nose face". (9 months)

Sitting with Pop while he plays on the Wii.  (16 mon)

Eating gumbo like a true Cajun should! (18 mon)

 Celebrating Mother's Day (20 mon)

Celebrating Jonathan's birthday (2 years)

Bed head! (2.5)

So tall! (2.75)

While Mommy took care of baby Asher, Ethan took care of baby Martin. (almost 3)

Ethan loved playing at Little Gym this past year (3.3)

And no matter how much he likes to read or love on his brother...

....he is ALL boy! (3.5)

He is also our budding photographer!

I'm sure on Monday I'll have some great "First day of school" pictures!

School!!

Lots of you have asked about where Ethan is going to school next year.  I posted a little bit last year about our dilemma of having a summer birthday boy.  We have been encouraged by friends and educational professionals to "red shirt" him.  We however feel like he will be ready to start Kindergarten next year.  To make sure that he is we wanted to enroll him in a pre-K program that was academic.  That way he will have a foundation for going to Kindergarten next year and we will also have the opinion of a professional teacher who sees his behavior in the classroom.

River's Edge is the school that we have chosen to send him to next year.  It is a Christian Co-op that actually offers classes all the way through high school.  We don't know how long Ethan will attend RECA, we plan on just taking it year by year.  In this co-op model the teacher prepares five days worth of lesson plans and teaches three of them (Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays).  On the other two days of the week the "teaching parent" (me) is expected to complete the rest of the plans with their children.  Because I do not feel I have experience in choosing a home school curriculum or any experience in early childhood education I love this model!! 

Today we went to Ethan's classroom and met his teacher.  One of the things that "sold" us on RECA was the night Philip and I went to a parent interest meeting.  We met Ethan's teacher after the meeting and she mentioned that she will be teaching the children French!!  We couldn't have been more excited!

As I look forward to beginning Ethan's educational journey I am a little bit surprised that his early childhood years are truly over.  I told Philip last night, "When I look at him I see more and more of the boy he will become and less and less of the baby that he was."  I'm not the kind of mom that gets upset about her child growing up, after all that is what they are suppose to do!  But I have been surprised at how this new season of life has made me look back at how fast time has gone by.

The Search for a Church

**Disclaimer: This is not an essay on why we left our former church, but more of my thoughts on what we are looking for going forward. **

As some of you know a few months back we left our church to meet with a few other families in our homes.  I loved the closeness, transparency and flexibility of meeting with these families and I hated to see it end.  But, end it did.  Or at least it is put on hold for personal reasons that I would rather not share on this blog :)  I could write whole blog posts on why I loved worshiping weekly this way, but that is not what this post is about.

Now we begin.  Begin a church hunt that Philip and I have done twice before as a couple.  But this time is different.  This time we have certain expectations on what a church that we bond ourselves should look like.  What leadership in the body that we submit to should look like.
The following ideas are not necessarily Philip's but they are mine and I've been wanting to share them for some time.

Ultimately I would love to find a church that:

• knows what the church is for - The church (in my humble opinion) is not for the unbeliever.  The church is for the Body.  It should be a place where the Body comes to worship, fellowship and grow as fellow believers.  I know this is a radical thought, but I don't think you should invite your non-believing friend to church so they can "hear the gospel".  The things being taught from your pulpit should be foolishness to the non-believer, but more on that later.
• follows Scripture - This seems simple enough, don't all churches believe they are following scripture?  The problem comes here when we as fallible humans go to the Bible with our ideas of what church should be.  Some denominations even hold up other writings or traditions at the same level as the Word of God.  On our search we are looking for a church who starts and ends with scripture.  Traditions thrown out, the thoughts and ways of man thrown out, etc.
• is family centered - I believe that the family is an institution that is being ripped apart at every opportunity. Because of this we want to do as many things as a family that we can.  Worship as a family, learn as a family, serve as a family.  There is a spectrum out there of how churches treat a family. On one end you enter and leave the church together and on the other end you drop off your children at the door and pick them up 3 hours later.  I am strongly leading toward staying with our family as much as possible.
• is small - I didn't realize how much I enjoyed worshiping with a small body of believers until our house church met.  When I was growing up we went to a church where everyone knew everyone.  You didn't sign your kid into nursery because everyone knew who you were, how old your kids were, where you lived, etc.  If you were a visitor everyone knew it, and that's just because of the sheer size of our congregation.  Once a church gets so big you don't know who's coming and who's going.
• has solid preaching - One of the things I think larger churches fall into is preaching the gospel every Sunday, essentially offering milk to the potential non-believer in the audience instead of meat for the believers that need to grow.  We have visited four different churches already and have heard several solid scripture based sermons that have challenged us as believers.  Last Sunday I commented to the preacher that the sermon was, "rough", he replied back, "Yeah, it was a real scorcher!"  Preaching from scripture is something that we are definitely looking for.
• is debt free - "Neither a borrower nor lender be" is actually Shakespeare's quote, but I think it does ring true.  The Bible tells us that, " the borrower is the slave of the lender."  For years I've been a Dave Ramsey fan and becoming debt free has taught us that when we are a borrower we are slave to the bills we owe.  We are not free to do as God calls us to when He calls us to do it. If this applies to a person, why not to the church as a whole?  If a church doesn't have money to do something or build something maybe it isn't time to do or build!
• has Biblical leadership - The Bible is very specific about how the leadership in the church should be laid out and we are looking for an elder led body of believers.
• is a place to serve and glorify God - Ultimately we are all here to glorify Him and that is my prayer.  Not that we find a church that meets all of my qualifications, but that we find a church where we can serve and glorify our Father.

If you are still reading I would like to say, "Thank You!"  I have had a lot of these things on my heart for a while and it feels good to get them out on "paper".


 **Restatement of disclaimer: This was not a list of things our former church did not have, it was merely a list of thoughts that I have been having for two months.  I am a sinful, fallible human being and so many of the things written above may be wrong and I pray that God reveal those things to me. **

Getting Caught Up!

We just got back from an 11 day trip down to Louisiana.  We had a great time celebrating Ethan's birthday, visiting with family and eating all of that good food I miss here in TN!!

Here are some pictures of the fun we had on the Fourth!  I got to practice my firework picture taking skills.

While we were there one of Philip and I's favorite bands (My Epic) was playing in Texas.  Philip got to see this band in Chattanooga as his "Birthday Event" but I didn't get to go.  Philip's parents were sweet enough to watch the boys for us while we had our get-a-way!  The concert was great!  Here is one of my favorite songs put to pictures from a few movies about Christ.  The lyrics that this band writes are so profound.....

On our way home from the concert we thought back over our years as parents and we figured out that we have taken an overnight trip away from our kids every year that we have been married.  We are so thankful to the family and friends that have allowed us to get some much needed time away as a couple. We would like to thank my Dad and Mom, Justin and Carmen Baba and Danny and Cindy Boudreaux (who have done this twice for us)!  It is so important to us that Philip and I have time away together.  After all, one day the kids will leave us and all we will have is the two of us again!

On the water with Pop

Last weekend Pop took us all out on his boat for the first time! You can see all of our pictures on our new photo site!

Here is just a preview of the pictures you will see there:

We had a good time out on the water.  Ethan still talks about how fast Pop's boat went.

You'll have to look through all the pictures to discover what CRAZY thing we saw out in the water!!

Smug Mug

I'm trying a new site to host our pictures....  please go and look at the new site and tell me what you think!

http://rueboudreaux.smugmug.com

Auntie's Visit

Danielle came to stay with us for about a week and a half and we loved having her here!!

While she was here we went shopping, berry picking, camping and even made strawberry preserves!

She left early this morning and now I'm lonely, but I'm not the only one. Here's what Ethan had to say when we got back from the store today:
"I'm going to make a track all the way to Newrk..... Mommy, what city does Auntie live in?" Me: "New York City" E: "Yeah, I'm gonna make a track all the way to New York City!!"

Asher is crawling!

He just started last Thursday and already he can cross a whole room!

God is bigger.....

So after probably two years of feeling called away and after at least a year of prayer and seeking the Lord, Philip and I announced on Sunday that we are no longer going to be attending our church of seven years.  This was not an easy decision and for such a long time Philip and I felt like God was telling us, "Yes, I'm going to ask you to leave, but not yet."  Then last week we felt like He answered us in a different way, "It is time."

While we will miss attending our church on Sunday morning and seeing all of our brothers and sisters there we know that God is bigger than the four walls of any church.  He is so big in fact that I know that the relationships that we have started at our church will not only continue after we leave, but they will continue for eternity!  We want to make it clear that we are not leaving because of anything anyone has said, done or not done.  We are only leaving because we feel that God is calling us to do so and we want to obey that call.

Most of you have one question left, "Where are you going?"  Something that has been pressed upon us over the last couple of years is the desire to live more like the believers in the early church; worshiping in homes (along side our children), giving to the poor, meeting needs of fellow believers, etc.  In the past couple of years God has also fostered relationships with believers who feel the same way.  It is with these families that we are going to start a new house church.

What does a house church look like?  To be honest I have no idea!  But, I'll be happy to keep everyone up to date through this blog.

We would love your prayers during this time of transition.  We know that God is bigger than we can ever imagine and we look forward to what he has planned for us.

Pushing the Reset Button

Growing up in South Louisiana I was one of the only kids in my classes that was not Catholic.  And coming from a mostly Catholic region this time of year is always fun.  After all, tomorrow is Mardi Gras!!  But as soon as the revelry is over the next topic for discussion was always, "What are you giving up for Lent?"  Since I was Lutheran we did not have the tradition of abstaining from something for the 40 days between Mardi Gras and Easter, but as an adult Christian I now see the potential benefit. 

See, sometimes we get into a habit and we don't even realize it until it has almost consumed our way of thinking.  Two Christmases ago I took a sabbatical from Facebook after I started thinking in the form of status updates.  It's not that Facebook is bad, but it had taken over my way of thinking about life!!  Giving up the social network for a month helped me push the "reset" button on my habit.  It helped me moderate how many hours a week I spend being a voyeur into others' lives and most of all it helped me prioritize my time in front of the computer.

Now for this Lent season I am ready to give up something that God has been prompting me about for some time.  You see, I'm addicted....addicted to fast food!! Actually, I love fast food or take out of any kind.  If I could, I would eat out at every meal!  I know that this grosses most of you out and you think, "But Bridgette, don't you love to cook?"  I do love to cook!  What I don't love though is cleaning up the kitchen after I cook, or planning ahead to bring a lunch or snack with Ethan and I as we are out running errands.  It is easier for me to skip the prep work and then just grab us a meal while we are out.  This in itself is not a bad thing, but when my thoughts immediately go to "getting something out" instead of cooking something for my family and over three fourths of my monthly "allowance" goes to eating out, it's time to push the reset button!

Have you ever given up something for Lent (or for any other reason)?  I'd like to hear about it!

Are you willing to pray for our city?

http://prayforawakening.com/PrayForAwakening.com/Intro.html

Success!

Little little wearing Pops' hat

Test

Ethan loving some Pad Thai!

iPad test....

Blogger now seems to work from my iPad!! I have to admit I haven't tried it in over six months. Oooo, this could mean many more blog posts in the future. That would be so cool!

Car ride Conversations

Ethan and I have been really having some deep, sometimes theological, discussions lately during our car rides around town.  Here was the latest:

After 5 minutes of talking about what Asher did while he was in my "big" tummy:

E - Was Asher always in your tummy?
Me - Nope
E - So, he wasn't in there and then he just was there?
Me - Yep
E - How did he get in your tummy?
Me - God put him there.
E - So, he wasn't in your tummy and then God put him there?
Me - Yep, that's right!

I know there's more logistics, but this is my story for now, and I'm stickin' to it!!

Asher's rolling!

That title could read Asher is rolling or the rolling belonging to Asher.  I can't decide!

Over the last 9 days Asher has learned to roll from his stomach to his back and then from his back to his tummy.  He also loves to sit up to play with his toys.  Although he is getting better at sitting up he still can't be left alone or else he'll often do a face plant into the carpet.

I'm working on a post that will review our 2010 year and (in my head at least) I'm working on a post about how feeding Asher is progressing.

Meanwhile, Ethan is being a great big brother!  He helps me every chance he gets and this weekend at a friend's birthday party I was reminded again at what a sweet boy he is.  In the middle of dinner Ethan got up from the kids table and headed in my direction.  "I just wanted to give you a kiss." he said as he gently kissed my arm and then headed back to the kids table.  What a sweet boy!

More pictures are also going to soon be posted on our shutterfly site.  We got three inches of snow yesterday and the three older Boudreauxs had a blast playing in it.  I even made a snow angel!