I have had many topics in mind for a blog and many blogs partially written, yet they never made it to the status of being published. I guess it wasn't their time yet, but while we wait for something profound to make it from my mind to the typed words of this blog, I figured I could do an update on life. Kids keep growing, life keeps changing, and time doesn't slow down.
We are entering into our third official year homeschooling and our first year homeschooling two kids at once...pray for me people! To say I'm nervous about this would be an understatement, but as nervous as I am the excitement far outweighs it! Kaylee is in 2nd grade and Naomi is in Kindergarten, so we have a very fun year ahead of us. The world is Noah's classroom as he keeps me on my toes exploring anything and everything he can.
Josh stays busy with church, Chick-fil-A and being the best husband and father! I stay busy with work, the house, and homeschooling the kids but I thought "what the heck" and joined my sister in a business adventure. We are about a month into our LuLaRoe journey and so far its been a blast and a TON of work!
I want to be the mom who documents things and takes plenty of pictures, but more than anything I want to be present in the moment of memory making. I pray the memories I make with my family will be what they hold onto when we don't have a blog to read about it or the pictures to show. So who knows how many more months it will be before I write again or update everyone, but until then I am going to keep on loving my babies and living life with my precious family...and hopefully I'll get around to printing some of the thousands of pictures I do take.
The Kids
Friday, September 15, 2017
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Perspective
When I am tired from late night and early morning feedings, it's about perspective.
When the baby is fussy from teething, it's about perspective.
When the girls are fighting over sheets, it's about perspective.
When I have been crawled on all day and another little Smith wants held, it's about perspective.
As the time passes and life happens things sometimes become blurry, but this day always brings my perspective back in to focus.
Hold them tighter, hug them longer, watch them closer, take it all in.
Today as I hold my three earthly babies, my heart still longs for what I can't have this side of Heaven. One day my Mama heart will be complete. For now the hole in my heart is a reminder for the other parts of my heart to be filled with all of the now moments...until then.
2 years down but eternity is coming Dakota Zion~ Always in my heart
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Noah Luke Smith
On March 26, 2015 at 2:52pm after about 11.5 hours of labor we welcomed our baby boy into this world! He was two days past his due date and totally worth the wait! My labor was relatively easy and the hospital was the best we have delivered at! Noah weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 20 inches long...our biggest baby! He is absolutely perfect and stole our hearts at the first ultrasound, but getting to hold him...wow, there aren't really words!
Each of our children's names were chosen very carefully and each have special meaning! Kaylee meaning "Who is like God" comes from Josh's Grams middle name "Kay", Josh's middle name "Lee, and then she has my middle name of Suzanne. Naomi's name means beautiful, gentle, and pleasant (which she is all three), and her middle name Skye was just one her Daddy liked. We also named our baby that we lost Dakota Zion which means forever smiling. He or she is in Heaven forever smiling with Jesus!
Noah's name is no exception! With the blessing of dear friends we named our son after my childhood pastor who passed away in 2009. Pastor Noah was instrumental in shaping the person I am today. I sat under his leadership for a good portion of my life and he was the pastor that reached out to my father and discipled him after he came to know Christ as Lord and Savior. I pray that our Noah will follow the path God has for him and be a world changer the way Pastor Noah was. Noah also means "rest or peace" and he has brought much rest and peace to me after our loss. His middle name was chosen by Josh and means "light giving" and that is our prayer for him, that he will shine the light of Christ in this world!
He will be three weeks old tomorrow and these three weeks have flown by! I am so thankful to the Lord for blessing our family once more!
Monday, April 13, 2015
Yes, I know where babies come from!
Don't be alarmed by the title of this post, I think a PG rating can still be given. But I want to answer the question I have been asked far too many times. The awkward questions of "do you know where babies come from yet?" or "have you figured out how this keeps happening?"...yes I do and quite frankly that's why I am blessed to be a mother of three beautiful children!
This isn't written to any one person, but to anyone who has ever asked a question like the above, or the other end of the spectrum of "so when will you have kids?" or "do yall even want kids?" or the newest question for me is "are yall done now?"....
I have a few questions for you:
1. What gives you the guts to ask such (in my opinion) RUDE questions?
2. Why can't you just celebrate the fact that our family is blessed with new life?
3. Have you thought that maybe the person who hasn't had a child yet desperately wants children but it hasn't happened for them? or..
4. Have you thought they do want children but are waiting for a certain time in their lives?
5. Why can't you respect the fact that some people have children young while others are older, others choose to have a large family and others only want one child, some have children close together and others have large time spans between children?
6. Do you know there are people in this world that choose not to have children or some that want to adopt?
7. Why is it any of your business?
I find it so interesting if a couple announces a coming child soon after marriage some will say "wow that was fast" but if a couple waits more than a few years after marriage to start a family others will say "will babies ever come". Or if a family has children within a year or two of each other people say "that's close together" but if a family waits more than 2 or 3 years others will say "how long do you plan on waiting to have another".
My opinion is to do what you feel is right and best for your family and life. My husband and I were married in March and felt we wanted to start a family immediately and we did. Two years later we wanted another child and so we had our second child. Now almost three years later we are blessed with our third baby. Our choices were to start a family soon, while we are young, and relatively close together. We have our reasons for those choices and they are our reasons and choices. For now we are happy with our family of five, but who knows what the future holds.
My point is, I want my choices dealing with my family to be respected, so I try and respect the choices others make. All I ask is for you to stop and think before you ask such questions.
This isn't written to any one person, but to anyone who has ever asked a question like the above, or the other end of the spectrum of "so when will you have kids?" or "do yall even want kids?" or the newest question for me is "are yall done now?"....
I have a few questions for you:
1. What gives you the guts to ask such (in my opinion) RUDE questions?
2. Why can't you just celebrate the fact that our family is blessed with new life?
3. Have you thought that maybe the person who hasn't had a child yet desperately wants children but it hasn't happened for them? or..
4. Have you thought they do want children but are waiting for a certain time in their lives?
5. Why can't you respect the fact that some people have children young while others are older, others choose to have a large family and others only want one child, some have children close together and others have large time spans between children?
6. Do you know there are people in this world that choose not to have children or some that want to adopt?
7. Why is it any of your business?
I find it so interesting if a couple announces a coming child soon after marriage some will say "wow that was fast" but if a couple waits more than a few years after marriage to start a family others will say "will babies ever come". Or if a family has children within a year or two of each other people say "that's close together" but if a family waits more than 2 or 3 years others will say "how long do you plan on waiting to have another".
My opinion is to do what you feel is right and best for your family and life. My husband and I were married in March and felt we wanted to start a family immediately and we did. Two years later we wanted another child and so we had our second child. Now almost three years later we are blessed with our third baby. Our choices were to start a family soon, while we are young, and relatively close together. We have our reasons for those choices and they are our reasons and choices. For now we are happy with our family of five, but who knows what the future holds.
My point is, I want my choices dealing with my family to be respected, so I try and respect the choices others make. All I ask is for you to stop and think before you ask such questions.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
A year later!
As I sit here reflecting on the past year I feel many emotions. Sadness, joy, grief, fear, peace, and hope are the main ones that come to mind. It was November 4th last year that Josh and I anxiously went to my first doctors appointment for our third pregnancy. I have chosen the word anxiously instead of excited because the night before this scheduled appointment "normal" was changing and we knew there would either be confirmation of our greatest fear or relief...confirmation came that our third precious baby Dakota Zion had already passed and my body was continuing with nature's process. There have been many tears shed over the past year and the void in my heart is still as big as it was a year ago. You can check out my blog "Dakota Day" to read more of that time in my life.
In that blog I mentioned having other female issues after the miscarriage and between those and our loss, I wasn't sure if I wanted to try for another child. As time passed I would go back and forth between yes and no...so we were just stuck at a maybe one day. There was so much fear that we would lose another child, or that there would be complications. Then there was hope that we would expand our family and have our love grow again! There was guilt when I would have thoughts of "moving on" or asking myself would I be trying to replace what we have lost.
One thing I didn't mention in my blog "Dakota Day" was on that very day Josh and I were at a conference and someone very close to us both but not knowing all of my emotions and feelings leaned over and whispered something in my ear. He said something along the lines of God wants you to know you can trust Him with your heart. I was a little taken back by this statement and thought just maybe this was about us trying again and that I could trust God to heal my heart and to have hope in Him that things would be okay. Yet on this day my emotions were so raw that I decided to just take the words and allow them to penetrate my heart in whatever way God meant them for me. That wasn't a one moment thing, but something I thought and prayed about and still do often.
More time passed and we made the decision we did want another child but we weren't sure about the timing given that we were about to make a move across the country and start the church planting process. God's timing is perfect though and He works things out. In the weeks before we moved we found out we were expecting again! My wonderful doctor in Pa was able to squeeze us in to make sure things were okay right before we moved and we were overwhelmed with joy! Today I am 20 weeks pregnancy with our SON, Noah Luke! I feel such a mix of emotions today as I grieve and celebrate all at once. Life is happening and healing is still taking place every day!
~I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.~
Romas 15:13
In that blog I mentioned having other female issues after the miscarriage and between those and our loss, I wasn't sure if I wanted to try for another child. As time passed I would go back and forth between yes and no...so we were just stuck at a maybe one day. There was so much fear that we would lose another child, or that there would be complications. Then there was hope that we would expand our family and have our love grow again! There was guilt when I would have thoughts of "moving on" or asking myself would I be trying to replace what we have lost.
One thing I didn't mention in my blog "Dakota Day" was on that very day Josh and I were at a conference and someone very close to us both but not knowing all of my emotions and feelings leaned over and whispered something in my ear. He said something along the lines of God wants you to know you can trust Him with your heart. I was a little taken back by this statement and thought just maybe this was about us trying again and that I could trust God to heal my heart and to have hope in Him that things would be okay. Yet on this day my emotions were so raw that I decided to just take the words and allow them to penetrate my heart in whatever way God meant them for me. That wasn't a one moment thing, but something I thought and prayed about and still do often.
More time passed and we made the decision we did want another child but we weren't sure about the timing given that we were about to make a move across the country and start the church planting process. God's timing is perfect though and He works things out. In the weeks before we moved we found out we were expecting again! My wonderful doctor in Pa was able to squeeze us in to make sure things were okay right before we moved and we were overwhelmed with joy! Today I am 20 weeks pregnancy with our SON, Noah Luke! I feel such a mix of emotions today as I grieve and celebrate all at once. Life is happening and healing is still taking place every day!
~I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.~
Romas 15:13
Monday, June 23, 2014
It's a Mama Life
Being a mother is one of the hardest and most rewarding things ever. One moment my girls are hugging and the next pulling hair. Some days are full of giggling, others whining, but most days are a little (or a lot) of both. I pray that I'm the mother Kaylee and Naomi need and I back that praying up with trying my best. Some days I lose it and others I'm so proud I held it together. Either way at the end of the day no matter what that day held their hugs, kisses, smiles, and conversations bring me joy unexplainable! 
There are moments they bring tears of joy to my eyes like above and then in times like below my tears are for other reasons.
I love watching my girls play and love on each other and I pray they are best friends as I am best friends with my sister Jessica!
Most days instead if having awesome crafts and yummy snacks I feel my day is full of washing clothes and picking up toys. I have to stop myself and remember they won't care if the toys are picked up every night but if I read them their favorite book. They don't care if I have to run the washing machine twice because I forgot to put the clothes in, but they want time flying kites outside. Motherhood is such a wonderful balancing act and I hopefully I get better day by day.
I love watching my girls play and love on each other and I pray they are best friends as I am best friends with my sister Jessica! Most days instead if having awesome crafts and yummy snacks I feel my day is full of washing clothes and picking up toys. I have to stop myself and remember they won't care if the toys are picked up every night but if I read them their favorite book. They don't care if I have to run the washing machine twice because I forgot to put the clothes in, but they want time flying kites outside. Motherhood is such a wonderful balancing act and I hopefully I get better day by day.Tuesday, June 3, 2014
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