Accountable Kids (AK) is a comprehensive program that establishes a framework for household responsibilities. AK helps parents systematize daily chores while helping children understand the relationship between accomplishment and reward.

We have five children, from four months old to eight years old. The oldest three have already begun to take responsibility for personal hygiene as well as helping with household chores. However, before we began using AK, our children needed to be reminded constantly about their basic responsibilities.

We heard about AK through a friend who had recently begun using the program with great success. We watched an introductory video and were impressed with the simple but profound principals of AK.

Since we began using AK, roughly 6 weeks ago, our children have actually been excited about helping around the house. No longer haphazard, the children understand exactly what is expected of them and they understand which privileges they are working for.

The following is a brief overview of how the AK program works and how we’ve implemented it in our home:

The program is broken down into four steps. Prior to implementing the steps, we prepared our AK peg boards and hung them in our dinning room.

the children painting their names for the AK boards

finished boards in our dinning room

Step one is deciding on core chores and extra chores and dividing the cards accordingly. My husband and I decided which chores would be every-day chores and which would be extra, or chores that we would be willing to pay the children to do. Once that was decided, we had an evening meeting with the children and explained the AK board as well as the way chores were divided into three categories: Morning, Day, and Evening.

It is pretty simple. Even our four year old who cannot read is able to look at the cards and tell what chore needs to be completed.

Step two of AK is introducing the “date card.” Each day, if the children complete all their chores in a timely fashion and do not lose tickets for bad behavior (i.e. hitting, lying, stealing, talking back, etc.), then they earn a star towards a date with either mom or dad.

Our oldest son just earned his first date with dad; they went on a bike ride all over our neighborhood and my son had a blast! Having a large family can make it difficult to spend quality time with each individual child. This program helps us to make time while fostering positive behaviors in our children.

Step three is introducing extra chores. We did not introduce extra chores during the first week, but when we did, they were a smash hit! My children are now competing to do the extra chores. We decided that folding and putting away laundry (beside their own) would be a paid chore; and now, I no longer have piles of laundry lying around the house. That has been a huge help! We pay 25 cents per load, so it’s not breaking our piggy bank. Other extra chores, such as yard work and cleaning our vehicles, are each worth a different number of bonus bucks.

Step four, the final step, is the weekly Family Forum. We printed out all of the forms from the AK website and organized them in a three ring binder to make our Family Forum as simple as possible. Using the forms as a guide, we discuss our previous week, address any on-going problems that we may be having, set new goals for the upcoming week, and count out the bonus bucks. We have decided to keep a ledger of the bonus bucks and only pay out the actual money on a monthly basis, primarily to help the children save their money and not be tempted to spend it all on little trinkets.

Flexible, thorough, and effective; I highly recommend the Accountable Kids program and would rate it 5 out of 5.

posted by Eliane
Tags: homeschooling chores Accountable Kids
Filed under: Family Life

July is upon us. July marks the 3 year anniversary since saying good-bye to a precious gift from God, Noah John O’Leary. I remember the day I found out our baby had died in my womb… it was at my 12 week OB appointment and I was by myself. I was so overwhelmed with grief that the rest of that day is just a blur. I don’t think I ever cried like that before. For the next three weeks I had so much on my mind… I was carrying a dead baby inside of me! I had the option to have a D&C, but I didn’t want to do that because I would not get to see our baby that way. The procedure basically vacuums the baby out and rips it to pieces, much like an abortion does to LIVE babies. I wanted to see my baby, to hold him, and to burry him. So we decided to wait to miscarry at home. After about 3 weeks and no natural miscarriage, I was finally given a drug to help me have the baby. On July 1st I took the drug during the afternoon and in the evening I birthed Noah. He was so very tiny… but very much like a baby in form and appearance. I spent that night in the hospital because of bleeding issues, but was ok in the end. And we had the chance to burry Noah, like we wanted to.

For the first year after losing him, I don’t think one day went by when I didn’t think about him… the “what ifs” were always popping in my mind. I imagined how life would have been with Noah a thousand times! I wondered if the pain would ever loose its sting. It did, eventually. I think by year 2 I managed to not think about him every single day… and when I did, it wasn’t so devastating as the previous year. And now here we are at the 3 year mark. I still think of him often, and at times with great sadness, but I can also rejoice in the fact that he’s had 3 years to be in the presence of the Lord! THREE YEARS! I know that he’s never known pain, nor sorrow, nor suffering, nor rejection, nor jealousy, nor anxiety… he’s only known perfect love, security, acceptance, and eternal bliss, and for that I am grateful. I still day dream about how life would have been if we had Noah here, and I don’t think that will ever fade…

I had many “well-wishers” after loosing Noah. It never ceased to amaze me just how awkward some of those moments were… I could tell that people wanted to comfort me in some sort of way, but often times I was more hurt by the comments than anything! I was told things like “at least it was early in your pregnancy…” and “you’re young, you can always try to have another one…” and “you still have 3 beautiful children…” I must admit, those comments stung! The first comment made me feel like I should be glad I didn’t loose him any later! And the second comment was like comparing Noah to a puppy or kitten, that I could just “replace” him with another child later. The third comment placed unnecessary guilt on me; I felt guilty for mourning the death of THIS child while I still had 3 living children to enjoy. I know those comments were not meant to hurt me, but they did. They didn’t validate my feelings that I had just lost a most precious baby boy! I think in moments of overwhelming grief I just needed to hear that it’s ok to cry, to grieve, to mourn the death of my baby. I needed to hear that though I couldn’t see through the fog of grief, God was there to comfort me. God was there then and He’s there now.

posted by Eliane
Filed under: Uncategorized

Does life ever slap you in the face?! It does me! At least once in a while, anyway. The other day I was having a rare moment of reflection (the little ones must have been napping), and I started to think about where I am in life. I’m 32 years old, married for nearly 10 years, have 5 children, have a college degree and a great job… I get to stay home with my children 6 days a week, I get to homeschool them, I have family all around me. Wow. I would say I feel pretty lucky, but that would be a huge understatement and not at all reflective of how I feel. The truth of the matter is I am blessed. I am so blessed! For reasons beyond my comprehension, God has blessed me immensely. Don’t get me wrong, not every day is “peaches and cream” around here, but when I am able to look outside my current stresses and get a glimpse of the big picture, I have a great life! My husband is a great big part of that. He knows me so well… he anticipates and fulfills my every need. He is my covering, the head of our home, my best friend and companion. He is the best daddy my children could ever have! I will spend the rest of my life thinking of ways to show him just how much I love him…

I know hardship may be just around the corner so my prayer is that the Lord will make me ready for whatever comes my way.  Let my heart be filled with praises to Him… always.

posted by Eliane
Filed under: Uncategorized

This blog has been greatly neglected. There are several reasons for this, the primary one being that our lives are a little hectic! Our sweet Lilly arrived in March and for the last three months I’ve basically been running around like a chicken with its head cut off! heh. Motherhood is challenging. I currently have a toddling 20 month old that requires a lot of attention and discipline… We wrapped up school with the the older two, which has helped a little.

It’s funny how with time and additional children some things that were once deemed important fall by the way side… over here it seems like having a super clean house has taken the back-burner! I do wish I could do better in this area, but it seems unachievable. I hope to be able to get into a cleaning routine again soon, but in the mean time, I have to deal with my anxieties about having a messy house! The twins have been taking on a lot more responsibilities as far as the tidying up is concerned, which has helped greatly! I do laundry multiple times a week in order to avoid having to do 12 loads in one day– this too has helped. The things that aren’t getting done nearly as frequently as I’d like include bathroom cleaning, sweeping and mopping, and of course, the most dreadful dusting!

On a totally different note, Lilly has been a blessing. A HUGE blessing. She is simply the sweetest baby ever! And has been from the day she was born. She has a sweet disposition, loves to smile and coo, and rarely fusses. God knew just what I needed after having two very cranky babies back to back! Heh. I’m not complaining about them though, they are also very sweet children and I love them to pieces! We weren’t planning to have another child when we found out we were pregnant with Lilly, so we were very surprised and I must say that I  was extremely anxious for most of my pregnancy. My youngest was going to be only 18 months older than Lilly… and she has always been very high-maintanence! But God took care of everything. We still have issues with Hannah’s behavior, of course, but having such a content little newborn has made it much easier to deal with the discipline issues of the older siblings. Having Lilly is like having everything that is great about a newborn without having the not-so-great parts. She nurses wonderfully, and has done so since day one, she’s been sleeping through the night since she was 3-4 weeks old, she smiles constantly, she’s tiny and easy to cuddle, and the list goes on! Any anxieties that I may have had before her birth have completely vanished. She’s a joy to have in our home and has not added any more stress than what we were previously experiencing. Glory be to God who knows exactly what we need and when we need it!

Sweetest Lilly of all!

My wild child!

Our Family on Easter Sunday 2011

posted by Eliane
Filed under: Family Life

Lillian Jane O’Leary was born March 17th, 2011 at 3:35pm. She weighed 6 pounds 15.1 ounces and measured 20 inches long. Her head circumference was 13 ¾ inches.

James and I arrived at the hospital for a scheduled induction at 7:30 in the morning. Our friend, Chris, had come over to our house to watch Hannah and Elizabeth, who were still sleeping when we left the house. Ethan and Logan had spent the night at my brother’s house.

After spending a few minutes getting checked in, we were taken to our room and soon the nurse came in and started with the admission process. The nurse started an IV to my right hand and obtained some blood. She bruised up my hand like nobody’s business! Another nurse came in and started asking me history questions, etc. She was very nice and totally on board with whatever birthing plan we wanted to follow. She placed me on a monitoring device set to monitor my contractions and the baby’s heart tones. Jeri Wileby, our midwife, came in around 9:15 and broke my water; I was 3cm dilated. I got up and started walking around the maternity ward. I walked for 45 minutes then had to return and get hooked up to the monitors again for 15 minutes. We did this 2 times and I was having absolutely no contractions at this point. I was getting nervous. My mother had joined us by this time and we were keeping James’ mother informed on what was happening by phone. James and mom went down to the cafeteria for lunch and I rested in bed. As I lay there I started feeling some contractions—finally! Jeri came in to check on me—I was 4cm dilated.

When James and mom returned we went walking once again. By this time I was starting to feel some painful contractions as I walked… and they were getting more and more painful. It soon became obvious that I was having back labor again. As I walked the halls I was getting so uncomfortable that with each contraction I had to stop and whimper until it passed. They were happening about every 3 to 4 minutes. I was having a mental struggle—I didn’t want to hurt, for some reason, but I was apprehensive about getting an epidural too. Perhaps Hannah’s birth was still too fresh in my mind, or I was getting soft in my old age, but I started leaning towards requesting an epidural.

I went back to the room, as my contractions were getting a bit hard to bear… I didn’t want to make a spectacle of myself out in the hallway! James’ mom had joined us by now. Once in the room and the contractions were really hitting hard I decided I wanted an epidural. I felt somewhat defeated, but I had resigned the idea of having so much pain with this delivery. The nurse quickly came in and started infusing the liter of normal saline that I needed to have before I could get the epidural. The bruised up IV that was placed in the morning was not working right. The nurse started another one on my left hand and I was finally on the road to getting the coveted epidural. The anesthesiologist was in the room and asking me questions as the fluids infused. I was getting very uncomfortable, wishing I had asked for the epidural a bit sooner. I truly didn’t think my labor would progress as quickly as it did! The nurse checked me and I was 5-6cm dilated.

The anesthesiologist finally put in my epidural and gave me the first dose of the medicine before hooking it up to the pump—it must have been around 2:45 by now. For some reason it seemed like it was taking forever for it to start working. By this time I was hollering every time I had a contraction. I felt the epidural finally start to work, but only on my right side! Could this be?! I felt like an idiot. Here I had this huge internal battle about getting the blooming epidural in the first place, chose to get it, and now it’s not even giving me the effect I had desired! AAAAHHH. And I knew the baby was about to come because of the pain I was feeling on my left side was so severe. I screamed and screamed. The nurse called the doctor. I think the anesthesiologist was in there too… he gave me another dose of fast acting medication, only to make my right side even more numb; it had no effect on my left side. There was talk about pulling out the epidural catheter and reinserting it, but there was simply no time, Lillian was coming!

I was fully dilated by now and ready to push. The epidural did help ease the pain when the baby was coming out, for that, I am thankful! I pushed only a few times and Lillian came right out, without any problems. Her apgar scores were 8, then 9. Sweet relief! The placenta also delivered easily, but I was having some bleeding issues… not sure what all the doctor did, but she had to work on me for longer to get the bleeding to subside. I also ended up receiving an intramuscular injection of pitocin to my right thigh to help stop the bleeding; my right side was so dead that I didn’t feel a thing for hours!

The after-birth pains were very strong with this delivery! I was asking for whatever pain medicine they could get me. The hurting went well through the night and the next day… Our children were able to come visit soon after I was moved to the post-partum room. It’s always fun to watch their faces as they meet their little sibling for the first time. It’s all so sweet.

I spent two nights in the hospital and was discharged Saturday, March. 19th.

posted by Eliane
Filed under: Uncategorized

Perhaps the hardest part of the year, after having lost Noah a couple of years ago, is Sanctity of Life week. Yes, the anniversary date of my miscarriage (in July) is tough, and his projected due date (in December) is very hard… but whenever Sanctity of Life week rolls around each year in January I am crushed! For those that don’t know, I had a miscarriage at 16 weeks gestation before Hannah was conceived. We found that little “Noah John,” as we named him, had actually died a few weeks before, around his 11th or 12th week of life. Most abortions are performed before 12 weeks gestation, and that is what comes to mind when I think of having lost him! I miscarried him at home. I had a chance to hold his tiny, perhaps 2 inch long body (head to bottom), in my hands. I got to see all his tiny fingers and toes. He was seemingly perfect– just very small. To think that thousands of these little babies are being ripped apart in the womb every single day devastates me… Noah at 11 weeks gestation looked fully human.  SIZE does not determine person-hood. Geographic LOCATION does not determine person-hood. AGE does not determine person-hood. Noah is a perfect reminder of all those things, and for that, I am grateful!

posted by Eliane
Filed under: Uncategorized

Lately I have been doing a lot of reading/researching… I’m trying to live a healthier life and make healthier food choices for my family, while still not spending outrageous amounts of money! It’s a tough job. I’ve been so accustomed to buying everything ready packed (bread, meats, cereal, veggies, everything!), that it truly has been a slow transition to get away from some of those things. I’m not there yet, but I’m doing better.

So here is some of what I’ve been doing.

1) Making homemade bread. I absolutely love homemade bread. There is really no comparison to store-bought ones. I love the fact that I can make it fresh every couple of days and there are no preservatives! Next step is to buy my own wheat berries, sprout them, and then mill my own flour. I will have to purchase a dehydrator and mill for that though, so I’m putting it off for a bit longer. Here is an easy bread-machine recipe I got from a friend:

Whole Wheat Bread
1 1/2 cups water (warm-80degrees or so)
2 Tbl oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp salt
2 Tbl dry milk
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (I’ve used a lot less, perhaps one tsp, and it still turned out great)
*Place all ingredients in the bread maker pan in order that they are listed.

2) Making homemade soap. In my research I have found that the majority of the anti-bacterial soaps out there contain an ingredient called Triclosan, which is a known carcinogen. I read about making handsoap using Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soaps. I found some at our local Kroger store (32 oz. bottle for $11.95). It comes in different scents, I chose the baby wash one to wash the kids with, the lavender or peppermint ones are great for the soap dispensers at the sink. The peppermint soap can also be used to brush your teeth (only a couple of drops), but I haven’t tried that yet.

Homemade Soap

Fill handsoap dispenser (one of those “foaming” dispensers) almost to the top with tap water. Mix about 1 tsp of Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap. You can also add a few drops of Jojoba Oil to the mix to make it a bit more moisturizing.

As I have found, you can use Dr. Bronner’s soaps for many other things… body wash, shampoo, toothpaste, cleaning product, etc. It’s very concentrated so it has to be diluted first. If you take into account how much you have to dilute it, the $11.95 bottle goes a LONG way!

3) Making homemade yogurt. We consume a lot of yogurt here at the house, I mean a lot! Everyday all of us eat or drink some kind of yogurt. So making our own yogurt is definitely saving us some money. There are many different recipes out there, here is the one I’ve been using… I’ve adapted it a little bit to suit my needs.

Homemade yogurt

64 ounces (1/2 Gallon) of whole milk (I used raw cow milk purchased in McDonough)
1 starter container of yogurt, 4 oz w/live cultures (I used Stonyfield Organic)
Optional thickeners: 1/4 cup tapioca starch (can be bought at Kroger), or 1/4 dry powdered milk (I have not used this because we drink the yogurt in a cup)

Warm the milk in a thick pan to 110 degrees. Be careful not to scorch it. Be sure to use a thermometer because the yogurt will only turn out if it is done in the right temperature.

Remove about 2 cups of the warmed milk and whisk in the starter yogurt (and thickner, if  you’re using it) until well mixed. Return mixture to the larger sauce pan and mix together well.

I then put the warm yogurt mixture into 2 quart size “Ball” glass jars and sealed it tight with the lids.

In a cooler, add warm 110 degree water and place yogurt jars in it. Close the cooler and place somewhere warm where it can be left undisturbed. You don’t want to move the cooler about or shake it because it will affect your end-product.

Leave for 8-10 hours– best to do this overnight so you have yogurt in the morning! Place the fresh yogurt in the fridge. Add fruit and/or your choice of sweetner (honey is good) to the yogurt when ready to serve. It should keep for 7-10 days. Save 1/2 cup of the plain, unsweetened yogurt for your next batch.

4) Making homemade cleaning products. We all know how harsh our cleaning products are, especially bathroom cleaners! I’ve decided to quit using all of them for a simple and cheap alternative– vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. It’s that simple. And it works!

To clean: I bought 2 empty spray bottles at Lowes, filled one with white vinegar and the other with hydrogen peroxide. Don’t mix the two products together because it doesn’t work as well that way. Spray one on the surface you are trying to clean (counter tops, shower, toilet, sink, floor) and then spray the other. The order doesn’t matter. Wait a few minutes and then use a scrub brush or wash cloth, depending on what you’re cleaning. You’ll have no suds. This was the hardest part for me!! I’m so used to thinking that if I see suds then things are really getting cleaned. heh heh. Anyway, be sure to rinse well to get the vinegar smell off… but it’s ok if you don’t get it all rinsed, the vinegar smell goes away once it dries off.

I’ve been using the vinegar and peroxide to clean for a few weeks now. It’s great! I have no pink mildew anywhere in my bathrooms… the peroxide acts a lot like bleach. And vinegar is antibacterial as well, so no need to worry about germies. Oh, you can use this mixture to wash fruit and produce… just rinse well before consuming!

I’ve also made my own pasta, but I don’t have time to write about that right now… the baby is up from her nap!

posted by Eliane
Filed under: Uncategorized

One of my sisters-in-law had this great idea to have a “reveal party” when finding out the sex of our baby. I first needed her to explain to me what a reveal party was! The idea is to have an ultrasound and get the sonographer to write down the sex of the baby on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope, without disclosing the information to the pregnant person. The envelope is then taken to the bakery and the baker makes a cake to “match” the sex of the baby (pink=girl, blue=boy). The cake is covered with frosting to conceal the color of the cake until the big reveal! Since my other sister-in-law is pregnant and practically due when I’m due (8 days difference), it was decided we would have our reveal party together.

We quickly figured out that our local bakeries do not cater to the type of cakes we desired to have… I was given the name of a lady to bake the cakes and spoke to her in detail to make sure she could do; she assured me she could. On the day of the reveal party I met the cake lady to pick up the two cakes from her. I could not believe my eyes!!! The frosting was a cream color that was almost see through… AND, it was melting off the cake! I was heartbroken and a little desperate at that point because we had 2 hours until the party was supposed to start! I quickly headed to my sister-in-law’s house and avoided looking at the cakes, since I could see already that one was pink! Luckily I did not see whose cake was pink.

Upon arrival, my sis-in-law (not the pregnant one!) quickly whisked away the cakes… I filled her in on the condition of the cakes as I was driving there. She went to Kroger and bought more icing to re-frost the cakes. It took her an hour to do it, but they looked beautiful! She really saved the day

Notice the cake

We had dinner with our families and then prepared for the cake cutting. It was so exciting. I was rooting for a girl (thus my pink shirt), James was neutral (green shirt) and my sis-in-law and her husband were rooting for a boy. We cut the cake and peeked and shouted with excitement as the rest of the onlookers wondered what we saw! heh. We finally cut the slices and revealed to the rest that James and I are having a girl and my sis-in-law a boy. It was a very fun time.

A special ‘thank you’ goes out to my sister-in-law for planning the party and saving the cakes! To my other sis-in-law, thank you for opening up your lovely home for the party. And to my third sis-in-law/sonographer, THANK YOU for doing our ultrasounds for us!! Without you, we would have had to wait until 20 weeks!

Family, waiting for dinner

Awating the big moment!

getting harder to wait!

Finally!!!

surprise!

We got just what we wanted

Pretty cake

posted by Eliane
Filed under: Family Life

It’s hard to believe I am 14 weeks pregnant! Times seems to draaaaag by when I’m nauseated/vomiting day in and day out, but then I wake up one morning, as I did this morning, and I’m like– oh, 14 weeks! wow. Though I still wake up vomiting a lot of mornings, my days have been a bit more bearable. Praise the Lord for that! I’m hoping that within the next couple of weeks the nausea will be completely gone and that I’ll be able to “enjoy” my second trimester .

This past Monday I woke up with terrible nausea and acute epigastric pain. The pain and nausea lasted ALL day!! On Tuesday, my sweet sister-in-law offered to do an ultrasound of my gall bladder, as I thought I might have gall stones or something of the sort. I was feeling much better the morning of the ultrasound and there were no stones/sludging in my gall bladder. Praise God! And as an added bonus, we took a peep at the baby… 13 weeks at that time. It was soooo amazing. I have seen many ultrasounds of babies by now, but they never cease to amaze me! The baby was still less than 10cm long (head to rump) but we saw a perfect little head, beating heart, spine, arms and legs, and even little digits! How amazing is that?! To think that this little human is growing inside of me is baffling. I’m awe struck at the site of such a miracle… Every time I see an ultrasound of a baby, I am painfully reminded of the terror of abortion… I can’t understand why people have convinced themselves that the tiniest of humans is not, in fact, a human… or that even if it is, it is not entitled to life unless the mother decides that it is.

In a couple more weeks we are hoping that my sister-in-law will be able to do another ultrasound and perhaps reveal to us the sex of our baby! We didn’t find out the sex of the baby when I was pregnant with my 3 year old… it was a lot of fun, but in the moment of the big reveal, it was not nearly as exciting as I had hoped (perhaps because I didn’t have an epidural!!). For that reason, I have now chosen to find out the sex of subsequent babies . I often hear people say “it doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl, as long as it’s healthy.” You won’t find me saying that. To me, it doesn’t matter if it is a boy, a girl, healthy or unhealthy– I’ll love, nurture, and cherish whatever gift the Lord has for me. I do pray that the baby is developing well and that he/she is healthy, but that is not of the utmost importance to me. The Lord does not give “bad” gifts to his children. He gives us His best… even when we can’t quite see it that way.

14 wk belly

little bit rubbing the baby!

posted by Eliane
Tags: abortion, family, pregnancy
Filed under: Family Life

The beginning of any pregnancy is always a challenge for me. This one has been particularly challenging because we didn’t even plan for it to happen. We are happy and excited nonetheless and realize, perhaps more than ever, that God is in control of our lives… and of how many children we have!

I’d like to share this daily struggle that I have, not because I need sympathy, but because I covet your prayers. In case you don’t know, I am referring to the constant nausea that I experience early in pregnancy. I usually throw up in the mornings (not every morning, but lately it has been most mornings) and then I feel terribly nauseated for the rest of the day. It is a horrible, horrible feeling and nothing seems to help, at least not completely. I have a hard time doing school with the twins, caring for the two little ones, and keeping up with anything around the house (cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc) because of this perpetual nausea. I loathe this nausea. But I know that the only reason I’m experiencing it is because I have this most wonderful, God-given gift growing inside of me! It is so hard to keep my focus on that as my body suffers! My daily prayer is that the Lord will give me the measure of grace that I need to finish the day well. By that I mean that I want to have the right heart attitude concerning this suffering. Oh Lord, help me! I know it is only nausea, for now, but I know I must be ready to suffer for Christ no matter what the affliction– spiritual or physical. I often question my devotion to Christ because I seem so weak and feeble when it comes to suffering. If I can’t even handle nausea, how could I possibly handle imprisonment and beatings or maybe even worse things?!

I know I must grow in Christ if I want to remain faithful to Him. I want to bear my suffering well. I want to look back and say “God helped me endure through that suffering and I KNOW He will help me through anything else that comes my way!” Please pray for me as you see fit.

posted by Eliane
Tags: pregnancy
Filed under: Family Life