Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

Tonight I was tucking Austin into bed and he asked me if we could pray together first thing, before we did anything else (in our bedtime routine). I told him, 'Of course we can son. Do you want to go first?' He replied, 'No, mom, you go first and I will go last.' So, I prayed my prayer and then it was Austin's turn.

Now, Austin is a child of few words. He is direct and to the point, much unlike his sister and his mother. We both can be a tad bit talkative, but not Austin. His prayers are usually direct, to the point, and with no 'fluff'- a young man after Brad Farmer's own heart!! :) Well, tonight, as I waited for 'his turn', I expected the same 'to the point prayer'. And, this is what I got...

'Dear Lord, thank you for this day and for our family. Thank you for keeping us safe. Give us good rest tonight and a good day tomorrow.' (This is where his prayer usually ends, but he continued...)

'And, Lord, please help everyone in the world know about you. Help other people tell other people and those people to tell other people. Help everyone know about you Lord and know your name so they can see you in Heaven Lord and love you like I do! Please Lord! Please Lord!! Amen.' (With much enthusiasm)

What more can you add to this fervent request of a young child's heart but AMEN??

"But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, 'Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.' -- Mark 10:14 New American Standard version

Oh, and P.S., on a lighter note...

Austin is SURE that there are (and I quote) "thousands of Wii's in Heaven since God is so awesome and Heaven is such a perfect place"! Again, out of the mouth of babes....

Have a blessed evening!

This is belated, I know, but life has been crazy busy over the last month & a half. So, I am finally posting a 'happy birthday post' for our daughter and sister, Anna Grace. We are amazed that she is here! She was 7 years old last month, May 22nd to be exact. She was due to be here on July 9th, but she (& God I am sure) decided they couldn't wait any longer for us to meet her, so May 22nd was the day God brought her to us, just in time for Grandma Sissy's birthday on May 25th. It is quite ironic, or just God's amazing grace, that she came 'early' after a long, long wait for her arrival....

8 years ago, we were on the verge of giving up our hope of starting a family,
Today our little girl is now 7 years old...

8 years ago, we cried out for a successful pregnancy, let alone a healthy child,
Today, that 'successful pregnancy' is a healthy, vibrant, loving 7 year old girl...

8 years ago, we were on the verge of letting our faith go and giving up on God,
Today, our God is showing us how MUCH He can do with a little faith & 7 years...

8 years ago, we couldn't see past the pain & the loss and we couldn't see His plan,
Today, we see that our God knew the plans all along and our daughter is 7 years old...

8 years ago, we asked God to give us what we thought we deserved, the blessing of children,
Today, we see that He gave us what we surely DIDN'T deserve and so much more...

8 years ago, we only dreamed of being a mommy & daddy & the vision was growing more faint every day,
Today, We are so thankful that we are able to be called 'mommy' & 'daddy' every day, for 7 years now & counting...

8 years ago, we almost gave up on God, and on our faith, and on each other,
Today, we see that God NEVER gave up on us, our lives, our hearts, and our family!

Today, Anna Grace is 7 years old and she is proof that God loves us WAY more than we DESERVE, or could even dare to ask for or imagine. He truly showed us AMAZING GRACE!! If you are at a point where you feel you are about to 'give up' on God or your faith, just HOLD ON for a little while longer, you will be amazed with what He can do with a little faith & 7 years!!

'Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound...' It is a song that is special to many of us, but it carries an extra special meaning in our family. We were given amazing grace in even having 2 healthy children and this song has become a song that Anna Grace asks for almost every night at bedtime without fail. She asks for this song to be sung to her as she drifts off to sleep. So, we continue to sing of His Amazing Grace almost daily!

Happy 7th Birthday Anna Grace! We are so blessed by your smile, laughter, joy, enthusiasm, and love for Jesus and others! You have been more than we could have ever hoped for or imagined and we love you dearly! Happy Birthday Gracie!! May He continue to bless you all the days of your life!

Take a moment to watch the slide show below of the 1st couple of years of her life. And remember to thank God for your precious family today! We are truly blessed, ALL of us, to have family around us-- whether you are our family by blood or by choosing, you are all our family and we love you so very much and thank you for living this journey we call 'life' with us.

OK. So, I am trying to get out of this weary state, and I am getting awfully sad coming back to our family blog to read that I am empty & weary.... and hearing the song that Meleia says is depressing! (She may have something there, but I still really like the song.) So, I am going to tell you about something that happened on Wednesday night that really started me thinking...

It was 8:30 PM and a torrential downpour started to fall outside. I was home alone working on composing myself after a long, frustrating day and I was packing for my children to go out of town for over a week-- yes you heard that right, we get over a week to ourselves!! How wonderful is that!?? We need it!!! Thank you Lord for grandparents who will keep your children!!!

Anyway, my family was heading home from a swim party, of all places, and the bottom fell out! Well, when they got home safely, the power started flickering several times and we were preparing for the lights to go out, so Joe and I were lighting candles, and getting flashlights and such, all the while reassuring our children, who hate storms of any kind, that all would be well. Then, my son asks me, 'Mom, can we play the Wii when the lights go out?' I replied, 'No, son, if the lights are out, then the power is out and the Wii is connected to power.'

The poor child looked at me with a dumbfounded stare and asked, 'Mom, what will we do with no power and no lights? What doesn't need power? Hmmmmmm.... my Nintendo DS doesn't need power. I can play that!' I quickly told him that we can talk and laugh, play board games, play card games, tell stories, sing songs, or go to bed (now THERE'S a thought) since it was approaching 9:30 PM. There are A LOT of things you can do when the lights go out to bond as a family, that don't require power! I couldn't believe he was so awestruck at the lack of anything to do without power and lights.

You see, I was left pondering this.... why is it that our society, our children, the Enemy himself, thinks we should ALWAYS be...

• GOING somewhere
• DOING something
• PLAYING something
• WATCHING something
• SURFING something on-line
• TALKING to someone on the phone

We are so busy GOING, DOING, PLAYING, WATCHING, SURFING, or TALKING that we don't take time to just BE-- with our spouses, our children, our parents, our friends, our Heavenly Father!! If there is anything I have learned over the past few weeks of weariness, it is this- that I don't spend enough time just BEING. THAT'S HOW YOU GET TO EMPTY, my friends!!! I need to just BE with my Father. I need to just BE with my children and husband. I need to just BE with my friends. I need to just BE who He created me to BE. Whew, that will SLAP you in the face, huh? We have gotten so caught up in GOING and DOING so that we can keep up with everyone else, that we forgot how to just rest and BE! And I am guilty here just as much or more so than anyone else!!! Trust me on this one!!

In Spain, TODAY in the year 2008, they rarely use lights in a family home. They only use them in emergencies. I learned this fact this week! Interesting!! So, they must have figured out that there are things you can do as a family with no lights after dark.

So, I ask you this, what can you do this week to just BE? What would your family do with no power for 1 day and 1 night? What would you do to pass the time and bond? I am hoping to hear from you my friends....

I love you all dearly and I so treasure your prayers for me this week!! You are blessings in our lives and we couldn't live without you!!

Love,

Cyndi

'Don't blink! Just like that, you're 6 years old and you take a nap, and you wake up and you're 25 and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife... 100 years goes faster than you think! So, Don't Blink....'

Those are not my words. They are a songwriter's words, but those words have pierced my heart over the past month. I discovered this song, by Kenny Chesney, and it pretty much summarizes how FAST the past 6 to 7 years of our lives have gone by... in a blink, in a moment, much, much too fast!! And I don't see it slowing down any time soon!!

It seems that May 22, 2001 was just YESTERDAY and we were holding our daughter for the first time in our arms. Then, less than 12 months later, 50 weeks to be exact, to the day, we were incredibly blessed to be holding our son, on May 8, 2002. AMAZING!!

Then, we blinked and those 2 babies turned 6 and 7 this month!! It seems that the older they get, the FASTER the years go by. I have really started thinking what we are doing with our days with them and with the precious moments that we have together....

Are we teaching them...

• To love God with their whole hearts?
• To love others freely and purely?
• To laugh and play and to not take life too seriously?
• To appreciate each moment, each day, each memory?
• Are we showing them how you can love one another in a marriage completely, faults and all?
• Are we teaching them not to blink, so you don't miss a moment with the ones you love?

Well, lately, I have grown to appreciate my family so much more than ever before. My 2 children's birthdays were this month, along with Mother's Day, and my mom's birthday is this Sunday! Happy Birthday Mom! I love you so much and I am so grateful for you and your love in my life! You have helped to make me the woman I am today! Thank you for all you gave for our family!!

On that note, I have noticed that we blinked and our babies are children now and it won't be long before they will be graduating from high school, going off to college, and starting families of their own! Wow! (I know, I know, that is years away, but you get the point... You ALL KNOW I am a planner!!!- Where ARE those Harvard letters I already started for Anna Grace???) Where DOES the time go?

I hope you enjoy watching the last year of Austin's life with us. I enjoyed watching it as I put it together, but more importantly, I enjoyed living it with him!! Remember, when it comes to your family, don't blink, because if you do, you will miss something and every moment with your loved ones is a precious gift!

Austin, I hope you have a wonderful year ahead of you my son! We love you so very much!

God spoke to me in a powerful way this past Sunday morning! I know He spoke to many of us this past Sunday, and you may think you know how He spoke to me, but only 2 others know how He spoke to me and one of them is Joe, my sweet husband, and the other is "Nana" Elaine. Many of you know her and you know that she is not really “my” Nana. I have always called her Elaine, but her family and precious grandchildren call her Nana Elaine. But, I think, after this past Sunday, I am going to call her Nana Elaine and adopt her as our second Nana as well!!

You see, this past Sunday morning, during an amazing worship service, I had to go out to wash the ink off of my hands from a pen that leaked while I was taking notes. I was highly upset that I had to leave the service for a moment to go do this irritating task. But, God used those moments in a powerful way! I ran into Nana Elaine in the restroom, of all places. Joe and I met Nana Elaine back in 1996 when we joined EMC. She was so kind and wonderful to us and she reminded me Sunday morning that we even chaperoned a youth trip together way back before Joe and I had even thought about starting a family. We talked about those days and how we have gotten to know each other so well since then. But Nana Elaine said something to me, that stopped me in my tracks. Let me explain…

She was one of the many friends and family in our lives who prayed so very diligently for us to start a family and to have a healthy, successful pregnancy. She, and many of you reading this post right now (and you KNOW who you are without my having to name names), prayed and prayed and prayed for healthy children for me and Joe. You prayed for a family for us. You were our prayer warriors and our friends & family, who some visited our home to pray with us, some cried with me in person or on the phone, some laughed with me when I didn’t want to think about starting a family, and some just sat silently with me and held me while I cried (thanks Mom for doing that SO many times) because we were so weary from the journey and our journey seemed at times, to me anyway, to be coming to the end, with no children in sight- only ashes, no beauty!

Well, Nana Elaine says to me on Sunday, ‘Cyndi, I truly noticed Anna Grace and Austin this morning and they are beautiful!! They are truly beautiful, handsome children! God really blessed you and Joe with beautiful children!’ Well, I was so grateful and thankful for her comment, but the next one is what got me…. Nana Elaine says, ‘You know all of those times I prayed, we prayed, for you and Joe to have children, we just prayed for healthy babies, but we NEVER prayed for beauty and look what He gave us! Look what He gave you in those 2 children! He gave you health AND beauty!’ Well, (Shana is not surprised at this one) the tears started to rise to the surface at that point! I was overwhelmed because she was right and God is OH so GOOD! We didn’t pray for anything but healthy children and in His time! But, He, in His amazing grace, blessed us with beauty that we don’t deserve in our children, both inside and out. He took the ashes of our pain, our struggles in our marriage, our anger at why it was so difficult, and our sadness over losing so many times, and He restored it with beauty!! He restored our marriage and gave us a family that we do not deserve!! He even blessed us TWICE within 12 months!! Beauty for Ashes is RIGHT!!

Nana Elaine, thank you so much for opening our eyes to show us that He goes over, above, and beyond what we can think, ask for, or even imagine when it comes to answering our prayers!! Our minds are so finite & imperfect and His is so INFINITE & PERFECT!! This post is most certainly NOT about having beautiful children, though I think all of us DO have that! This is about how God restores what we have lost, mends what we have broken, and gives us so much beauty for our ugly ashes!! I hope He shows you this week what He has restored to beauty in your life that would most certainly have been ashes if left up to you!!!

So, this week, the week just before Mother’s Day, I want to say THANK YOU and WE LOVE YOU to Nana Elaine, Grandma Sissy (my mom), our Nana (Joe’s mom), Chelle Regal (who was my prayer warrior during my pregnancies and encouraged me with cards and phone calls and MUCH prayer), and all of my dear girlfriends (you know who you are) who prayed so faithfully for our ashes to become His beauty!! Your prayers, and ours, have been answered and I am so grateful that He has shown me that this week!! He gives us more than we can ever fathom, think, or imagine and we don’t deserve it, but I am so glad that He is a God of grace!! He truly gives Beauty for Ashes, Strength for Fear, and Gladness for Mourning!!

This blog is titled "Rogers Family", so I figured I had better post something before Cyndi took away my log-in priviliges.

Most who know me, know that I have a special place in my heart for children. I suppose that has a great deal to do with the personal struggles Cyndi and I went through to start our own family, and the blessings that God poured out on us with the gift of two precious children in Anna Grace and Austin. I'd like to tell you that we were faithful and were seeking His face through all of our struggles and pain back then, but that would not be truthful. But our God is the God of love and He blessed us in spite of our unfaithfulness. I shall never take these blessings for granted and will never cease to pray over our children.

We all question God in times of pain and struggle and want to know the same thing ... "Why?". We generally never get a direct or immediate answer, but through His grace we often times understand later in life how a particular struggle was meant to shape us into what He intended for us to be, or to prepare us for something bigger that we would face later. I can't honestly say that I understand the "Why" behind all of our personal struggles, but I return to my opening comment ... I have a special place in my heart for children. Somehow through the path that brought me to this point in my life, my heart yearns for the children that I have the privilege of interacting with each week. Through our church family and close friendships, there are so many wonderful, precious children that I get to spend time with. It warms my heart to watch them play, laugh, and interact with one another and to grow, love and live. I won't make the mistake of calling names because most certainly I will miss someone, but what a joy and a blessing it is to know these children ... YOUR CHILDREN ... and to watch them grow and see their personalities take shape. And in the light of numerous baptisms over the past year, it is such an affirmation that God is in the lives our children and that He has chosen to do so through us as parents.

Which brings me to the original intent of this post (finally, right?). At the Rogers' house, all things are a shared responsibility between Mom and Dad. We both work, we both clean, we both pay bills, and we both parent. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that "Mom" is the glue that holds us all together. She is so in touch with all of our needs and does a terrific job of making sure that we all have what we need, and just when we need it -- especially for the kids. For every dance recital, PTO event, birthday party, bump, bruise, fashion emergency, T-ball game, show & tell, bath, .... all the way to the bedtime prayer ... Mom makes sure all bases are covered. And though it is sometimes frustrating and she gets worn out, she does it with love and she does it without fail.

So I take this opportunity to say "thank you" to our "Mommy" for all she means to us, and to all of the "Mommies" for the awesome job that you are doing with "our" children. In the face of your most frustrating and challenging times of the week, be encouraged with the difference that you are making in the lives of "our" children and know that you are answering the call of your Heavenly Father. He is proud of you, and so am I. Thank you for allowing me to be part of it. You are an incredible group of ladies!

- Joe