The More the Merrier

We just found out that we might have 5 more people coming this weekend :) That makes about 26 people staying in our house. Our home is going to be full to the brim, yet oh how much fun and wonderful fellowship we will have. The new family that might be coming has three little children and she is pregnant with her fourth.

I think I have a better understanding of what the Jewish people went through when they went through their homes cleaning everything to make sure that there was no "yeast" in their homes. We continue to make more bread, today I'll be making 2 batches of granola as well as continuing to clean, clean, clean. :)

Granola in the oven... does it ever make the house smell wonderful

Some flowers that survived the snow

It's melting!!! Yea, hopefully that means that spring is coming soon.

Baking bread, and more bread, and even more bread

So we have about 17 - 20 people coming to stay at our house this weekend. Quite exciting, yes, and with the excitement comes quite a bit of preparation. Today was bread making day. How much bread can 24 people eat over a weekend? Who knows, we will soon find out. Yet we want to have plenty so that we won't run out. Our goal is to make 40 loaves, today we made 20 regular loaves and one braided loaf (no picture because it was in the oven.) I've washed bread pans, raising bowls and the bosh at least 4 times today. The house smelled wonderful today!

Here is a loaf that we forgot to get out of the bread machine and so it cooked in there...

Here's a little sample of our final products...
french toast will be soo good with this bread (vegan of course ;) )

Tomorrow we will be making 20 more loaves,
3 more loaves of braided bread and bunches and bunches of waffles.

.

A few random pictures...

My sweet little sister "talking on her phone" and wearing the hat that Aunt Chris made for her.

How many little ones have a raccoon for a friend??

25 Random Things...

There was this thing going around Facebook called "25 random things about me"... I really don't have much time to sit and write out some of those things but reading some of my friends responses made me think of what I would write if I did have the time. So over the past few weeks I've put down some things have popped into my mind, here are a few:

1-I was the youngest child for 19 years

2- I was princess when I was in first grade

3- I skipped my senior year in high-school and went on "Witness for Life" when I was 16

4- I used to dream of being a photographer, Adventist travel nanny and wedding planner, now I am blessed to be a Midwife

5- I jumped off a bridge when I was in Norway (I went as the photographer and ended up jumping, broke my back, and had to preach my first real sermon the next day)

6-I lived the same day twice: the first time was in the Marshall Islands, the second was in Hawaii

7- I've delivered a baby in the coat I'm wearing right now

8- All of us children have our birthdays in the "20's"

9-I've been to 9 RI FCM's in 3 years

10- I've lived in the same house since I was 4

11-This summer will be the 5th wedding that I have been a bridesmaid in

12-We became Adventist when I was 12 after my Lutheran school teachers told us that SDA's were a cult (after studying the Bible we saw very clearly that this was not the case)

13-I found a coin from New Zealand in my front yard when I was 10 and ever since then I've dreamed of going there.

14-I love the water: swimming, kayaking, jumping on water trampolines, my dad used to say that if there was water near by that he knew where to find me. I even went swimming at our cottage when there was ice on the lake.

15-In the past 3 months I have been home for maybe 15 days.

16-We just finished 5 weeks of Health Seminars that we did for 3 churches in the past 6 weeks. It was quite a blessing yet kept us running non-stop.

17- I love multi-tasking

18-My favorite chapter in the Bible is Ezekiel 37 and my favorite book of the Bible is James

19-I hope to do missionary work in the Philippines some day.

20-I LOVE children! My mom did day-care until I was 12, I started babysitting when I was 10 for 3 girls: 10 hours a day 5 days a week, and then I was a nanny for 4 years, now I take care of my adorable little sister :)

21-I love singing and playing music with my little sister, she sings hymns and scripture songs most of the time

22-I'm talking on the phone with Amy right now

23-I work with Generation of Youth for Christ and love it, I'm the assistant for the VP of Logistics

24-We are having 20 people come stay with us this weekend and are having a Passover Seder

25-More than anything in the world I pray that my whole family will be able to spend eternity in heaven together.

Wow, after a month I actually got 25 things down ... Enjoy :)

A post by Amy...I just had to post it on here :)

A post!

I'm sitting here with Laura, tea kettle boiling on the cook stove across the room, clock ticking nearby, writing in the soft glowing light of our lone kerosene lamp. Laura's pouring over labor records, coying the needed ones for her CPM program In the bedroom Ada's resting, nestled in bed with her 2 1/2 hour old baby son, Mosie.
I was SO excited when Freida called me tonight around 5 pm...
"Do you want to go to a birth?"
"Sure!" ( This was a treat, I don't often get called since she has other helpers!)
"Well I have two mom's going and they both called back just now to say it's serious. I'm headed to the one and maybe you can go to Lodi with Laura?"

"Can you hurry? Are you ready?"

"Yes! I'm ready. Id just came home

She mentions meeting Laura and begins to give me direstions, meanwhile I was hurrily trying to tie my shoes and hang onto the phone.

"Oh never mind, I'll call Laura and give her directions so you can get ready."

"I have my coat and shoes. Will be out the door in a minute!

I'd just gotten home from a long day of prenatals, cleaned my car, and planned on making something yummy for dinner, then having a fun evening relaxing with the kids and Laura since Dad and Mom were gone to New York for the weekend, but this change of plans would be great!
I flew to Millersburg to meet Laura who had anothet tale of events in getting ready to go like pinning up her hair in the people's driveway and scribbling directions as she was driving!

We FLEW down 83 toward Lodi at a rather rapid speed, (Laura passing two cars at once!) and as we sailed along we laughed at how our first meeting was her coming to help me with a delivery and now the tables turned.

Almost to SR 250 Laura suddenly realized her sabbath clothes weren't exactly fit for a delivery outfit so as we pull up to the light she dives into the back seat as I slide over into the the drivers seat and the light turns green. So 60 mph and Laura changes into delivery clothes... squealing tires at the next light... running in the door... waiting... and this will continue later!

We ended up with another delivery within 24hrs... Ruby Beachy

Ruby again, a few days later. Isn't she simply adorable!?

The baby that just did not want to come.

To be a bridesmaid for a friend is an honor and yet to be asked to deliver a friends baby is a gift that most people never get the privilege to experience. Last June at camp meeting we drove up to my dear friends camp-site to say goodbye and as she stood by the van she asked me something that shocked me.

"You're pregnant and you want me to deliver your baby?"

Never did I realize what that one question would lead to, that one little question changed a few courses in my life and led to places I never would have dreamed of.


Nine months later here we were, praying that she would go into labor when I was close enough and would have enough time to make it. Three hours is a bit far for a third baby but trusting the Lord would provide we waited... and waited... and waited...This little one really made her mommy work. After 4 weeks of labor and 2-3 false alarms we were wondering when this little girl would ever come.

Laying in bed, about to fall asleep I started thinking about my schedule. We were in the middle of our health series and there were only certain days that we were there and it would really be best if the baby was born while I was where we were having the series being that it was an hour and a half closer to her than home was.

Tonight, I decided, would be the best night for her to be born. My mom would need me the next night for the health seminar and then we would be driving home that night for the next couple days. There wouldn't be another night that we would be this close for the next week. Yup, tonight would be the best. So I decided to pray that if it was the Lord's will that she would go into labor that night. That might sound rather strange yet I've had several babies be born exactly when I needed them to be.

2:27am bzzzz....bzzzzz....bzzzzzz I rubbed my eyes and grabbed my phone. It was her sister

"They're 1-2 minutes apart"

I started throwing my clothes on, not even sure if I would make it but my prayers started and didn't end until I ran through their door an hour and a half later that if it was the Lord's will that I would make it for the delivery.

I ran to their door and "peacefully" walked into the door, happy to see that the baby had not been born.

It was another three long long hours until precious little Lydia was brought into this world. It was such an incredible blessing to bring a little one into the world knowing that her parents were going to bring her up for the Lord. We prayed all through her contractions those three hours and cried out to the Lord when the contractions seemed to hard to struggle through. There were so many object lessons that we all received through this experience. Do we long for the Lord to come as much as a laboring mother longs for her baby to be born?

I look forward to all the many wonderful memories that I will have with my dearest little "niece." It will be amazing to be able to watch her grow and to help her learn of her precious Saviour that helped me to help her mommy bring her into the world.

Lydia ~ 8 lb 4oz 19 3/4 inches long

Her daddy had tears streaming down his face as he saw his daughter coming into the world. What an honor and responsibility to be the Priest of a family and a protector of his daughter.

Me holding her after I got cleaned up... I got just a bit messy!
Yet it was my own fault, I stood in a bad place when I broke her water.

Midnight Adventures

I felt like I was one of the people that was stuck outside of the ark when it began to rain.

Well, maybe not that bad but that's what I felt like last night when I was trying to break into our house. I can just imagine that after that first rain drop fell they were going all around the ark seeing if there was any possible way for them to get in. Desperate to get in they were banging and prying at any possible entrance. Their lives were at stake and now after all their mocking and laughter they knew it.

No, my life was not at stake, but it was really late and very cold outside. We were driving home from our last Health Seminar presentation for this week when, about 10 miles from home, I asked my mom if she had the keys that had the house key on it...

silence...

"No, I thought that you said you had it..."

And that began the longest 15 minutes from home...

It was about midnight, we weren't about to turn around and go the 2 hours back to the church where we were sure we had left the keys.

I'm really good at locking up the house at night and the previous night I had locked the one window that was unlocked on the main floor.

We drove into the driveway and with determination I got out of the car walking around to try and find a way in. I'm happy to say that someone would have to try really really hard and be quite obvious to actually break into our home :) But this was the one time that I was not too happy with my skills of making sure nobody could get in. All the doors and windows were locked on the main floor.

I had an idea...

.....


My poor cat was longingly looking out the window wondering why we weren't just coming in.

I got ready to climb up... hmm... thinking in my mind "I really really hope I don't fall off these things, that would hurt quite badly..."



Huh?? Where did those lights come from???

"Mom, what are you doing? How did you get in?" I asked with complete surprise.

"I found the keys, they were on the floor of my seat." She happily responded, still looking at me a bit strange wondering what I was doing.

Praise the Lord, we don't know how the keys got there but am I ever glad that they were. We were so close to home yet without our key it was practically impossible to find entrance.

Home seemed even nicer last night, the fact that we had struggled and earnestly sought for any way to find entrance made it even better.

This is kind of like how heaven will be. All our struggles and trials that we have faced here will make heaven all the more wonderful. The Lord is standing at the door, yet He has to wait for us to let Him in. Are we seeking the Lord and His truth as much as we seek for earthly things? Do we strive for the goal, or is it just something that we try half-hearted for. Sometimes it seems like we know the truth yet it has not really hit our hearts and changed our lives. We are told that if we seek Him we will find Him, if we search for Him with all our hearts.