Thank you God for twins!

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Romans 15:13

I love being a mommy. It's the best job God could have ever given me. But I didn't feel complete with just  two. I'm so thankful my boys are happy and healthy but I longed for one more. Now this is all coming from a girl that didn't want any kids and even had here newlywed husband that we didn't "need" any! But God... God changed my heart and has given me the best gift I've ever received besides my husband. 

Because I longed for another baby, to once again hear the pitter patter of little feet learning to walk, I brought it up often. So often that it even caused arguments within our marriage because we weren't on the same page, Ryan was done, completely content with two. Every where we went I'd see larger families, pregnant mommies and it hurt. My heart ached for another precious child from God. My cycles were so out of whack that I was late and thought I was pregnant in the fall of last year, but sadly I wasn't. It hurt, I was crushed. I begged God to please close the hole and hurt in my heart because I just couldn't take it any more. I couldn't handle Ryan saying no, seeing and hearing of others pregnant and my crazy hormones and cycles. I was so hurt and broken. So I prayed for God to close the hole and hurt in my heart or to open Ryan's heart. 

I love being a mommy. It's the best job God could have ever given me. But I didn't feel complete with just two. I'm so thankful my boys are happy and healthy but I longed for one more. (Now this is all coming from a girl that didn't want any kids and even had her newlywed husband that we didn't "need" any!)

But God... God changed my heart and has given me the best gifts I've ever received besides my husband. 

Because I longed for another baby, to once again hear the pitter patter of little feet learning to walk, I brought it up often. So often that it even caused arguments within our marriage because we weren't on the same page.  Ryan was done, completely content with two. Every where we went I'd see larger families, pregnant mommies and it hurt. My heart ached for another precious child from God. My cycles were so out of whack that I was late and thought I was pregnant in the fall of last year, but sadly I wasn't. It hurt, I was crushed. I begged God to please close the hole and hurt in my heart because I just couldn't take it any more. I couldn't handle Ryan saying no, seeing and hearing of others pregnant and my crazy hormones and cycles. I was so hurt and broken. So I prayed. I prayed for God to either close the hole and hurt in my heart or to open Ryan's heart. 

Not long after the disappointment of not being pregnant (when I was so sure I was) I went on a women's retreat with our church. On the last day we had some free time to walk the grounds of the beautiful resort. While walking, praying and crying I truly felt God tell me that we'd have another child. I had such joy and peace, my prayers would soon be answered! But through ups and downs in the months to come, I continued to pray for God to either close the hole in my heart or to open Ryan's heart. 

In January I couldn't take the headaches, crazy hormones and unpredictable cycles any more so I made an appointment with my OB. He told me that my pituitary glad and ovaries were working way too hard, pre-menopausal hard. I was devastated. He said lets try some birth control to give them both a break and see what happens. I came home and told Ryan and he said "you aren't going to believe this but I think I may want to have another baby." So he said lets try the birth control for 3-4 months and we'll reevaluate. I was in awe, I was seeing God work! 

I didn't end up taking the birth control for the entire 3-4 months, after praying and the way I felt on it I only took it for about a month an a half. During all of this, I was attending team meetings for the retreat The Great Banquet. God's timing is so impeccable!  I was able to be still in Him and trust His promise while growing spiritually during the training for the retreat. And during these months Ryan occasionally said things about having another baby. It was so amazing to watch God soften his heart right before my eyes. 

It soon became the first weekend in march and time for the retreat! It was amazing. I grew so much during those 72 hours. I got to watch my sister rededicate her life to Christ (praise God!!!) and I met some very good friends whom I now get to have a bible study with every other Tuesday! I'll forever cherish CRGB 54, thank you Jesus 

Ryan continued to say little things about getting pregnant and in April he finally said "let's start trying for another baby!" Praise God!!!  

We got pregnant a few months later and are excited to say we're expecting!!! I feel so blessed. I'm so thankful for what God has done in, through and for our family during this time. Ryan started a new job which is a huge financial blessing for our growing family. God's timing is impeccable, Ryan started this new job 2 days before we found out that God blessed us with two babies! I never dreamed I'd get to be a mommy of four precious children! 

We are so blessed to have been given such a precious gift, four of them. It's all God. It's all for His glory.  There are no twins on my side of the family, its not hereditary, this is all God blessing us abundantly, going beyond our prayers and dreams. Thank you Jesus for giving us more than we could have ever hoped for or imagined.

Our first celebration cake! 

Santa

I want to preface this post by saying what you read is from my heart. We never want to lie to our children. We never want them to question God or if He is real. This post is not meant to judge anyone, or hurt anyone, it's simply what God woke me up at 5am to say......

" See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ." Colossians 2:8

Santa...Wow! I had no idea he could be so controversial, that one fluffy magical character could cause so much strife, hurt, and tears.

I believed in santa.

Ryan believed in santa.

But when we had children we wanted to raise them as God loving, God fearing, God centered little humans. That's why we're here.... isn't it?

"For God so loved the world that He gave is only Son so that whoever believed in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

When Ryan and I came upon the first Christmas with #1 we talked about not "doing" santa. Like I said, I was taught to believe in santa. My grandpa dressed up every year as santa and we all sat on his lap and got a present as he hugged us and loved on us. My dad would secretly stand outside and ring bells as he told us that Santa's sleigh was coming. My cousins and I loved it. Pop had a great santa suit! But then one Christmas I started putting it all together and asking questions. Why did my dad have bells in his hand as he quietly went out the door? Why did Pop have my dad's gloves on? Why did this Santa suddenly resemble my grandpa so much? That was it, my grandpa was dressing  up as Santa! But why? Why would my mom and dad lie to me? Why would my grandparents lie? Why would my grandpa go to such lengths to dress up every year and pretend to be someone he's not? I was so hurt. Crushed. I couldn't believe that my whole family would lie to me. I was angry. And in that moment I wanted nothing to do with santa or my family.

Now fast forward to the present. We have two amazing little boys. Two boys that we never ever want to lie to. Two boys that we are raising to be Godly men. Two boys that we pray over constantly. Two boys we want to know the truth, The Gospel, the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas.

" But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.37 For no word from God will ever fail.” Luke 1:30-37

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almightywill accomplish this."

Isaiah 9:6-7

God came as man to save the world. He put on flesh and endured excruciating pain, suffering, hurt, deceit, anger all so you could spend eternity with him. He loves you and I so much that he was tempted in the desert for 40 days by the devil, ridiculed, beat nearly to death, and placed on a cross to suffer and die....... all so you could live. That's love. That's unconditional, unfathomable, unattainable love. He did it on His on accord. Nothing you can do or say can make Him love you more or less. He did all that and much more so that you could live for eternity. So that you would have the chance to walk in the garden with Him as Adam and Eve once did. 

So, why would I ever want to take away the true meaning of Christmas from our children? We aren't depriving them of anything. We still give gifts. We still decorate a tree. We still sing Christmas songs. But we do it all in the almighty name of Christ. We celebrate the birth of our King, our Savior. The One who died for our sins. The One who died so we could live. We tell the boys the truth, that God gave daddy a good job so that we can buy presents for them.

" Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created." 

James 1:16-18

I want to be a kind of firstfruit, meaning like the beginning before sin. I want to stay true to God. I want to honor Him and His Son with all that I/we do. I want to acknowledge what scriputure tells us, that "every good and perfect gift is from above."

So what do we tell our boys? We tell them that God loves them so much that He wants us to celebrate Jesus' birthday. And that Jesus loves them so much that He wants them to have presents on His birthday. That's a lot of love because I don't know a small child who would rather give someone gifts when it's their birthday than to receive them!

If you've read our blog before then you know that we are a Christ centered family. We love God and we want our children and others to love God and to know that He loves them and us even more than we can imagine.

And you also know that this verse is in the layout of this blog

" I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3John 1:4

That's us. We're God's children. That's what we want for our children, to know the Truth, the whole truth, and to walk in it. 

So what do we do when we see santa everywhere? We remind the boys that Christmas is Jesus' birthday, and that He loves us so much that He came to earth as man to save us from our sins. And that some people dress up as santa, just like any other mascot. We tell them of who Saint Nicholas really was. That he was a God loving young boy who lost his parents and didn't know what to do with himself or all their money. That he gave presents to those who had nothing. It's a great story and there's even a book you can buy from the christian bookstore about him!

So, we don't "do" santa. We don't "do" elf on the shelf. There have been many debates,questions, arguments, strange looks, ridicule, lost friendships, mocking and tears shed over this subject. But we stand firm in what The Lord has brought light to. And we will continue to tech our children the true meaning of Christmas. Santa is pictured as magical, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient - always present, all powerful, all knowing. Santa is portrayed as a god. But there's only One God. One God who is all of those things and more, our Heavenly Father. God has commanded us to "put no other gods before Me" in the Ten Commandments, and we are going to follow His commands.

" Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority." Colossians 2:6-9

 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."" John 14:6

This has been on my heart, more so than ever this holiday season. I seek to tell the truth. We never want to lie to our children. We never want them to question God and His love or Magnificence.
If you have questions, go to the living Word, the Bible. God has it all written out for us. Seek His truth.

Here's a great post by a Pastor about santa as Christians:
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/rethinking-santa

Here's another blog that I've read about Christ and santa and has some more information too: 

http://gospelcenteredmom.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-to-do-about-santa.html

Bryson's Dedication October 20, 2013

Hello! I haven't posted in a long time but I wanted to post about the amazing blessing of dedicating Bryson to The Lord this past weekend on October 20th! We've been attending Harvest Bible Chapel and absolutely love it! The childrens ministry director Pattie and our senior Pastor Brian did an amazing job! It was perfect that we did it on Sunday 10/20, especially since the verse we leaned so heavily on was and is Hebrews 10:23 "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful." He is faithful. He gave us a perfect healthy baby boy! Our miracle baby.

Not only was our miracle baby dedicated, so was another miracle baby, Josie Lisette. I work with Josie's mommy, and we've become very good friends over the years. It was a blessing to share such a special moment with Josie's parents Sarah and Jimmy. Its amazing how God is in every single detail! Sarah and I both prayed for each others miracle while being knitted in our wombs. She was my amazing nurse who helped bring Bryson into the world and I got to return the favor by taking pictures and capturing Josie coming into the world! So to be able to dedicate our little miracles to The Lord together is such a blessing!

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there. 1Samuel 1:27-28

And a special thank you to our good friends the Ho family for supporting, loving and praying for our family and capturing this special moment for us, thank you so much

Introducing.... Bryson Louis!

We welcomed Bryson Louis into the world on March 2, 2013 at 11:39pm! He's a perfect bouncing baby boy! More details and pictures to come!

I Will Trust In You

In my last post I told you about the clot and bleeding that I was having. I had an ultrasound after that on October 9th and Praise God, the clot was gone! And I'm excited to say that I haven't had any bleeding for over 3 weeks! At my last ultrasound on the 9th we did possibly discover another complication. On the ultrasound it showed that my placenta was low lying, near my cervix, and in two sections. One of the sections was larger and on the right of the cervix, but there was a smaller portion on the left. The pieces must be connected by vessels, which were running across the cervix. This is called a vasa previa. It's very high risk and results in bed rest at home followed by hospitalization around 28 weeks. You have to deliver via c-section and it's usually around 35 weeks because they don't want to risk your water breaking, which would rupture of the vessels of the placenta. The placenta is the powerhouse for the baby, it's nutrients, oxygen - everything. My doctor said we'd know more at my next appointment.

So for the past 3 weeks I've been restless on bed rest. Well today was my next appointment and my 19 week ultrasound. From the beginning many people have been praying along side Ryan and I, but last night I had incredible doubt. I had this fear that I wouldn't be coming home from the hospital, or if I did it would be on strict bed rest. In the medical field it would be a miracle for the placenta to move across the cervix and become one with the other portion. I was thinking "God, can you really do this?" I know that we serve an awesome God but satan was whispering in my ear saying "are you sure you believe your God can perform miracles?" So I went into the appointment not knowing what to expect.

Well satan is wrong, my God can perform miracles, and He did! Not only was there no vasa previa, my placenta also migrated up my uterine wall away from my cervix! There are absolutely no complications, nothing wrong. The baby is measuring a few days ahead and looks absolutely perfect! Everything looks completely perfect! My doctor even said that everything looks like a normal, healthy pregnancy, finally!

Ryan and I have trusted in the Lord from the very beginning of all this, no matter what. I fully surrendered everything to Him, no matter what. I knew that He would use me and our journey in the lives of others, but I had no idea how. I prayed the worst wouldn't happen, but also prepared myself in case it did. Today God said "yes I'm going to use you in the lives of others, but in an amazing way and I'm going to bless you abundantly, in a way you didn't expect!" Our Pastor has been preaching on praying boldly and how God doesn't think the way we do. Today sure was a testimony to that!

I've been leaning on the following scripture:
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful

God is the ultimate physician, the ultimate healer. Our God is faithful, He is real, He does perform miracles and we will continue to put our hope and trust in Him.

1 Chronicles 16:8 - Give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name, make known among the nations what He has done.

The McHone family is growing by 2 little feet!

We're excited to say that we are adding to our family, we will be a family of four!!! I'm currently 15 1/2 weeks making the baby due on March 22nd!  We are all very excited for the new addition!  Brayden often asks various questions like "mommy, what's the baby doing in there?" and "mommy, is the baby naked in your tummy?"  All very valid questions a 3 1/2 year old would ask!  He also says it's a girl but calls it a he, so he's just as sure as we are about the sex!  But as soon as we find out, we'll let you know!  This pregnancy has been a little bit different from Brayden's.  There have been a lot of days on the couch so far and a lot of rest.  As some of you know, there have been some complications along the way.  I've been spotting and bleeding off and on since about 9 weeks.  It's been called many different things - retro placental bleed, abruption, subchorionic hemorrhage.  Basically, I've been bleeding every few days which has created a clot between the layers of the placenta and my uterine wall.  I believe this clot/bleed has been there for awhile because we saw a pocket of fluid on my very first ultrasound around 6 1/2 weeks.  It's causing a portion of the placenta to be detached from my uterine wall, which means that portion of the placenta is unable to give the baby any nutrients.  Thankfully it appears that its just the tip of the placenta that isn't attached and prayerfully the clot won't get any larger - which is one of the reasons I've been on modified bed rest for the past 3 weeks.  I've started quite the photo album for baby #2 because every time I go to the doctor (1-2 times a week) I get an ultrasound!  And Praise The Lord, the baby looks good, he/she is very active and measures appropriately with my due date!  Ryan and I are resting in The Lord and His Will for us and the baby.  We believe in prayer and the power of prayer.  When I first found out I had this condition, I went to one of my doctors partners on a Monday September 17th and he told me that it was a medium sized clot that could cause the placenta to pull away from the uterine wall at any time, which would mean that the baby would no longer be here, but in heaven.  It was a pretty scary prognosis, but Ryan and I trust in God and prayed and asked our family and friends to pray.  And when God's people pray, things happen.  That was on Monday, on Wednesday September 19th I went in for another ultrasound with my actual physician and the clot had shrunk to a very small size, so small he had difficulty locating it!!!  Praise God!!!  Unfortunately, the clot is still there and still bleeding occasionally, but not as bad.  I know that we serve an amazing God.  A God who heals.  A God who is faithful.  We trust in Him, this is His child.  He gave us this precious little baby for a reason.  Is it to show how great the power of prayer is?  Is it to prove His faithfulness?  We don't know, we just trust that everything is in His unwavering, almighty hands.  "He guides me along the right paths for His name's sake."  I'm currently on a medication called progesterone that hopefully will boost my placenta to stop the bleed and absorb the clot on it's own.  I go for another ultrasound on Tuesday October 9th.  Until then, we'll be praying, will you please pray with us.


Psalm 23

Braydens Bathtime ABC's