My Life As a Praying Mom

Before I introduce you to this month's guest blogger, let me write this disclaimer. I am forgetful these days. I forget everything, all the time. Ok, not everything but usually the most important things. I apologize if this ever affects you directly. I'm trying, but this thing called pregnancy brain is making me a very un-thoughtful person. I have to admit, I don't like it either. I try really hard to always consider the feelings of others and be a thoughtful person but I'm failing these days. I try to laugh about it but it annoys me and I hope I don't annoy you with my scatterbrainedness, too.

All that to say, I forgot to post Friday's My Life As a Mom post. It was totally my fault. Becky was awesome and got her post to me last Sunday - way ahead of time. I forgot to post it Friday and just realized it this afternoon. Oops!

I am happy to re-introduce my friend, Becky Boggio, to you as this month's guest blogger. She has written other posts for this blog in the past. She is a super mother and a really neat person. I am very glad I've gotten to know her better.

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I have worked full-time for the majority of my children’s lives. The major chunk of their days have been with other people who mold them and teach them. I agonize about how can I protect them from these people who may not be teaching them God’s way, disappointments, “friends”? Most days I want to lock them up so nothing will hurt them.


When my son, Rocco, was a toddler and we would be shopping, he would sit in the cart and say Hi to everyone that we passed. It was incredible to me that some people would actually not respond to his cute little Hellos. I wanted to grab them by the collar and say “My son just said Hello to you, please have the common courtesy to reply!” Back then I wanted everyone to talk to him.


In Fall, he is heading to middle school. My supervisor told me that at her kids’ middle school/high school orientations they are told how drug deals happen right at the lunch tables. The option to home school seems so great right now and I haven’t even been to an orientation yet! How do I protect him from these situations?


When they were in daycare, we ensured that the center was meeting the state regulations, and that the teachers are nice. That went okay until Amy, my daughter, was about two. We ended up pulling her from her daycare because she was bitten over a dozen times by a child/other children in her class. We could never find out who it was, what discipline occurred due to privacy laws but we had to take action, the victim, to ensure it didn’t happen again. It didn’t seem right. We could remove her from this harmful situation but now I can’t protect her as she makes friends at school. I hurt for her as she has one girl in her grade who she adores and calls her best friend but from Amy’s reports this “friend” has done nothing to reciprocate Amy’s friendship with her. Every action I am told of is something a friend would not do. How do I protect her from these situations?


How do I protect them? I pray. I pray a lot. And then I wish I could pray some more. I have to leave up to God. That what we are teaching them at home, and what they learn in church is that God will always be there for them and is always there to guide them. Praise God He is always there. Praise God He protects us in all situations. And moms, we can pray for each other, right? Pray for wisdom and protection of all our children. God made us sisters through Him. And as the saying goes, it takes a village. I am here for you too. Ask my assistance if you need to or send specific prayer requests and consider it done! This is why Jamie created this blog. We don’t have to go it alone.

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Thank you, Becky! Our kids need our prayers so desperately in this crazy world we live in. And I apologize for forgetting about your post on Friday. It'll never happen again ... Ok, it might, but I'll try real hard not to. ;)


If you are ever interested in writing your story for a My Life As a Mom post, please let me know.

Well, Hello!!

It's been a while and I apologize. Last week, I was busy getting ready for our REFRESH event and since then I've been recovering from the REFRESH event. I'm kidding. I am exhausted but it is a good exhaustion and I thought I'd give myself a couple more days of bloggy vacation. I hope you don't mind.

So, let's recap ...

REFRESH was awesome!! It was an amazing day and I could see God's hand over the whole event. It would have never worked out so well if it had been just my event. It was God's day and He did not disappoint us. The group of women that came on Saturday was perfect. Everyone got along and opened up to each other and created an environment of safety and security. The older moms all took a part in mentoring the younger moms and it was beautiful to watch.

For those of you who weren't able to come, let me give you an idea of our day ...

The ladies were welcomed at the door and received their gift bags. Inside the bags were: a journal, pen, chocolate!, recipe cards with the recipe for Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup (yum), a schedule of the day, slips for the giveaways, and a card for questions for our Q & A panel.





Once inside the cafe, we ate the yummiest muffins and fruit, entered the giveaways, wrote down our questions, and drank coffee and hot chocolate. After that, we made our way into the sanctuary for worship. Lisa and the whole worship team did an excellent job of leading worship. It was a refreshing way to start our day.



After worship, it was my turn ... I knew from the beginning this was something I was supposed to do but dreaded it something fierce. God was gracious. He gave me exactly what to say. My only job was to drag my body on stage and stay upright while talking. I think I succeeded in that. I know I wasn't eloquent but God used that time to touch women. I had SO many women come up to me afterward and just hug me and tell me that they could relate and they thanked me for having the guts to do what I did. So was it all worth it? Definitely! Would I want to do it again any time soon? Probably not but if God decided He wanted me to, I would obey.



Next came our skit called "Doubly Blessed." Each of the women did such an awesome job!! It's like the parts were written just for them and the message was so powerful. The skit was about the Holy Spirit guiding 4 women to do things they normally wouldn't do but ended up being a blessing and being blessed at the same time by doing them.



After the skit, our speaker, Kristina Hill, led a great talk/discussion on behavior management. She had such wise advice and included all of the women in a group discussion. We all left with some great handouts, as well.



We all broke up into our different craft workshops after this. Each of our workshop leaders did a super job with their groups! The crafts that were created were really awesome and everyone had fun making them.



Next up was lunch!! It was delicious! The soup, salad, rolls, and homemade dessert were all a delight. I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch and I know the others did as well. We announced half of our wonderful giveaways at the end of lunch and the winners were thrilled!



After lunch, was our Q & A panel with 4 older, wiser moms. It was such an excellent time! The questions were great and the answers were very helpful. These women did such an amazing job and were such a blessing! Then we split up into small groups. Each of the panel moms took a group of women into another room. We discussed more, introduced ourselves, prayed, and made connections.



We ended the day with an individual quiet time for the ladies to just be still before the Lord. We sort of ran out of time, so it was a shortened version of what we were hoping for. I pray that God's will was done through it, though.

At the very end of the day, Charlotte told us of all the exciting things coming up and finished announcing the awesome giveaways.

It was such a fun day! There were so many people involved in this day and I can't thank them enough for their help! Before the day was even over, everyone was talking about next year's event. Even Pastor Todd made mention to next year from the pulpit. So, if you missed out this year, there will always be next year!! :)



And if you haven't heard yet ... a big announcement was made later in the day! God has decided to bless our family with baby #5! This month has been wild to say the least! I'm looking forward to what God has in store for the rest of the year!

Thank you for praying!! Everyone felt your prayers and it was a blessed day!


*Photos courtesy of Michelle Pope
**I took these pictures from my sister's blog. She made these awesome photo montages because she's cool like that. Thanks, Kelly! ;) If you want to check out her recap of REFRESH and see where I stole the pictures from, visit her blog here.

Pray for REFRESH

This Saturday is the REFRESH event! We are so excited and have been working very hard to make this a special day.

Please take some time to pray for REFRESH! Whether you are able to come or not, we would appreciate your prayers for moms to be refreshed, lives to be touched, and connections to be made.

God has had His hand on this event from the beginning and I know He is going to be there until completion. Your prayers will help ward off the attacks of the enemy and the ways he uses to stop God's work.

Thank you for praying! To God be the Glory!

Prayer

This week is spring break. The weather has been rainy and yucky the past 2 days. I have a couple of sick kids - one of which has kept me up the last 3 nights. I figured this would be an appropriate time to introduce prayer posts. About once a week, I will make a post labeled Prayer. Please feel free to leave any prayer requests in the comment section. I know personally there are days that I know I will not be able to cope without someone praying me through. These are trying times ;), ladies! Please know that I am here and willing to pray you through. I'm home a lot and I check my iPod often (too often according to my husband). So if you are having a day that needs prayer, leave a comment and I will lift you up in prayer right away. We can all be praying for each other, too.
Happy Spring Break!