It's called From Grief to Glory by James W. Bruce IIIA wonderful little book to comfort and encourage parents who have lost one or more young children. Bruce looks for comfort from saints of old who have had similar experiences. He gathers letters, poems, and other snippets from Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, John Calvin and many many others who walked the way of sorrow and were comforted by God's mercies.Click here for website.
So one of the latest fun things Joel and I have been doing is drying food! We are just beginners but have high hopes and great dreams of drying camping food, tomato sauce, and veggies. Even venison jerky if Joel gets a deer this year. So far we've done apple slices, bananas, and applesauce leather. Now, leather is pretty new to me. My mother- in-law introduced me to it. It's simply a homemade fruit roll up. Way cheaper than the 'organic' fruit roll ups and so much healthier than a regular fruit roll up. So next time you buy a dehydrator, make sure you get the fruit roll trays. Slather on some homemade applesauce (don't forget to lightly grease it!) and dry for about 12-18 hours and presto! you have a round of leather. Snip with scissors into good size pieces and you have a cheap homemade snack. Genius. Except Rachel can't eat them yet. She rehydrates them for about 30 minutes and then gives up. Can't wait for those molars!
The inevitable has happened which all families experience every autumn. What could it possibly be? Oh, of course, the kids are sick. Oh, it's not too bad, just a cough and runny nose. Rachel didn't sleep well last night because she was coughing. Even though she's under two we gave her the 'Children's Tylenol cold and cough'. Why? Because "they" (whoever 'they' are) took 'Infant's Tylenol cold and cough' off the shelves. I guess parents were abusing it's capabilities to act as a sedative. Hmm...
The kids aren't doing too badly if you are concerned. The kids and I stayed home from church. Mommy made bread and muffins while Rachel napped and Joshua watched 'Go, Diego, Go'.
Some news:
-Rachel got two more teeth. That was a surprise, she hasn't been too irritable lately. Two more molars. So that makes eleven!
-Our friends Joshua and Stephanie moved this weekend.
-Deer Hunting is coming up soon, Joel is going out today to scope out some options on where to hunt.
-The last three Sundays we've been meeting with a few other parents to watch a series called "Shepherding a Child's Heart". It has been very helpful. The main idea is to focus on your child's heart rather than on the behavior. That way the Gospel will flow naturally and as your child sees how his heart needs Jesus, most likely will accept Jesus and then the behavior will follow. For everything, actions, words, thoughts, comes out of our hearts. And only Jesus can change a heart.
On November 18th Joel and I will be meeting with Emily's Pediatric Cardiologist. On that day we will go over her autopsy report and learn the medical reason of why Emily passed away. This, obviously will be a hard day so we humbly ask for your prayers of peace.
It's called From Grief to Glory by James W. Bruce III
