Fall Festivities

Wow, I haven't blogged since JULY?!?! Goodness, where has the time gone! Well, since I last blogged, I became a full-time stay at home Mommy, we found out that...

That's right! Noah's going to be a big brother! You can see how Noah feels about that... . Baby two is due April 6 (My birthday, and 5 days before Noah's second birthday.) and we are so excited. This pregnancy is quite different than last time, so it's been more of a struggle. As I write this, I'm almost 15 weeks, and I hope that it just keeps getting better.

Noah is now going to one morning a week at a Mother's Day Out program that he seems to really like. Here are some pictures from his first day.

Justin met one of his teachers today. She said that Noah is very sweet but also very possessive of his food. When someone tries to touch it, he says, "Noah's" in a firm voice. That cracks me up!

Noah also got to experience his first petting zoo and funnel cake at the West Texas Fair and Rodeo. He REALLY wanted to go on the rides, but he's still a little too young for that. Next year he'll have a blast with his Daddy on all those rides!

Here he's saying, "More, Daddy!" I think he liked it!
We went to a balloon festival in Abilene. Here are some cute pictures of that!

The man in the balloon looking on ADORED Noah (Who wouldn't?!?) and was so sweet! Noah had so much fun!

Then, we went to a pumpkin patch! Here are some of those before and after we changed him into his Halloween costume!

Well, stay tuned for pictures of our recent trip to Missouri! Love to you all!

Fourth of July Fun!

We had such a great 4th of July this year! Justin, Noah and I went to see my parents and go to Canton. It was so fun to wake him up to go to the fireworks! Here are a few pictures of that event.

Glad to see that he gets his "slow to wake up"-ness from his mommy!

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Also, while we were traveling, we stayed at my dad's retreat center. Here are some of the pictures of Noah that we got while we were there. Hope you enjoy it!

It's been too long!

Wow, where did May go? Things around the Smith household have been fast and furious as Justin and I chase after our little boy. He's growing so much, and we just love him!

Justin's practice has sort of slowed down for the summer. He had a call night two nights ago and got NO calls after 10 pm, which is nothing short of amazing. The office is switching over to electronic medical records, with Justin acting as the point man for their team. It's been exciting for Justin to take on some more responsibilities and use his gifts of efficiency and organization while designing templates for the entire office to use. Such a great guy!

I'm winding down the school year. It's been a really busy end of year, but we got our TAKS scores back and I'm proud to say that our teachers' and students' hard work paid off! All of the high school campuses in Abilene ISD are projected to be recognized; no small feet!

We just joined the country club, so Noah and I will most likely spend the summer poolside, teaching Noah how to swim! He does love the water, so it shouldn't be a difficult task!

I hope you all are doing well! I'll post pictures soon; I'm still learning how to edit them in my new software!

Rachel

Noah knows what "funny" means!

Hope you enjoy this! It's taken on my cell phone so it's not the best quality video that we have, but it's something for you to enjoy and laugh with us. He's continued to be happy and giggly since we took this video, and it cracks us up!

Rachel

My son, future Duke star...

The video speaks for itself!

Thanks, Granny and Grandpa, for my hoop!

Sorry to Coach Perkins and the Cutrers, if you watch this! My dad is a die-hard Blue Devil, so what's a boy to do?

I've got a toddler!

Here you go, folks! Video of my little Noah, WALKING! Can you believe it?!! He's so big! The video is about a minute long, and the last five seconds feature FIVE STEPS!

Last week was Spring break for us in Abilene, and it went by way too fast! We went to the zoo with our friends Ryan (and his mom, Andi) and played and just had a great week! Hope you all are enjoying the warmer weather and your families as much as we are!

11 Months Old!

Hello everyone! Everything is going really well at our house, and Rachel is starting her first Spring Break as a Mommy! Yay for time with Noah!

Noah turned 11 months on Thursday! Here's a picture of our baby 11 months after he was born! Pretty cute, huh?

Noah Videos!

This video is to show you how advanced my little boy is! Apparently, according to his Daddy, this is very advanced for a 9 month old!

This video shows Noah making copies! He crawled over to the printer/copier and pressed 100, then pressed copy! So, we had 100 copies of blank paper! Such a driven little boy already!

Hope you enjoyed them! Happy Valentine's Day!

And back to Noah...

Here's some of the more recent pictures of our little guy! Hope you like them!

Check back for video soon!

A more serious post...

College was one of the most tumultuous times of my life. It's not like I didn't walk away with some great memories, but I look back at college and think of the battle that I had with God. For those of you who are used to Noah posts, allow me one indulgence: a deep post. This might be the most important post I've ever written.
You see, in college, I remember struggling with the idea of a safe and loving God. I had difficulties in my mind reconciling the God of my "youth" and childhood with the God that I grew to know in college. This "college" God allowed wars, painful break-ups that unearthed some of my painful insecurities, planes flying into buildings and the like. How is that the picture of a loving Father? How is pain related to love? How is God's goodness evident in times like this? Mostly, how can anyone consider this God a safe God? These were major crises, not just the growing pains of day-to-day living. I was having what Mr. Blackaby would call a 'crisis of belief'.
Today I was reading in Exodus about when God splits the Red Sea (via Moses) for the Israelites to walk across to escape from the Egyptians. I've always thought of this as a great story; God saves the day and the Israelites, God's chosen people, rejoice. He's rescued them, just as He said He would. I mean, He parted a body of water so completely that these people walked through walls of water on dry land! But today, I saw the other side to the story; I kept reading. You see, after the Israelites cross over the Red Sea, God calls Moses to raise his staff and allow the waters of the RED SEA to completely evelop the Egyptians, who had chased after the Israelites on that dry land between the glassy walls of water. This isn't a pond or a lake; it's a deep sea that thousands of people have just passed through safely, yet the Egyptians all lost their lives to the very same waters God held at bay for the Israelites. Yes, they were evil. Yes, they did horrible things. Yes, they killed and abused and had hard hearts. But, those soldiers who were killed were fathers, sons and husbands. They were men who had children at home wondering where their daddies were. They had wives who depended on them to live. And God, the loving Father, told Moses to kill them. This is the God I worship.
To some of you, it might sound that I'm having doubts about the God I know and love. To you I would say, don't worry. I still love God, still go to church on Sunday and am thankful to be considered one of His children. Yes, even the God that told Moses to do something that would kill thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of men. This was my struggle in college, and it all came back to me yesterday when a pastor at my church said that God is safe. I don't know about you, but the God that I serve isn't safe. He could allow something the next instant that could end the earth. This God isn't safe, not in the way we think of the word safe. But he's trustworthy. He's righteous, He's holy and He's divine. John Piper said in his book The Pleasures of God that, "God will not turn away from doing you good. He will keep on doing good. He doesn't do good to his children sometimes and bad to them other times....When things are going bad that does not mean that God has stopped doing good. It means he is shifting the things around to get them in place for more good, if you go on loving Him." I think he's on to something. I've spent my entire Christian life focused on the good that God did for the Israelites that I didn't even think about the Egyptians. For those of you who would argue with me that God doesn't cause bad things, I would tell you to think of yourself as an Egyptian wife or mother in that day; really try to picture it. God's done an amazing thing...that caused the death of your son or your husband or your father. It's horrible, yet it was their reality.
When I was growing up and my mom and I had deep discussions about Christians vs non-Christians, she used to tell me about a fiction novel that she read that put the pain of the Noah's Arc story (one that's dear to my heart) into real focus. In this novel, the water of the flood is starting to rise and all of the friends that she knows are going to die are banging on the doors of the arc, crying out for her to open the door and rescue them. But they died. Can you imagine being the woman who had to listen to your friends crying out for help, knowing they're going to die, and that you're safe? I can't. But, I know this: the very same God that listened to the wailing of the Egyptians and to the cries of the people who drowned in the flood is the same God who listened to the pleas of his own Son on a cross so that I could live. Why me? I have no idea; I am the chief of sinners. There's very few sins I can think of that I'm not guilty of. So, why me? If He didn't love me...why would He do that?
Here's the part I can't reconcile: the very same God that the Israelites were praising was weeping with the Egyptian women and was cradling Mrs. Noah in the palm of His very large, capable hands. How does that work? I have no idea.
If this God exists (and I believe He does) I want to be the one who's safe. I want to be in the Israelite camp, praising His name and praying for the Egyptian families who lost loved ones. I want to be the one, though, that stands at the edge of the Red Sea and mourns for the lost. I believe that the person who mourns the lost has a deeper understanding of the life he's been given, and I want to know the depth of that understanding. God is the one who allows me to live; He lets me breathe in and out every breath. He is the author and creator of life and only he knows my days. Lord, teach me to treasure each one, and thanks to people who are willing live life in such a way that they hold loosely to this one and greatly anticipate the next one. Lord, let me live in such a way that honors you, fears you and glorifies you. Amen.