Brokenness

Lord High and Holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from the deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.

-from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of
Puritan Prayers and Devotions

CrAzY

You know you are having a CrAzY mom day when:

1) You try to put your child's coat on . . . yourself

2) You offer your child's sippy cup to . . . your husband






3) You change your child's diaper, and put the fresh one on . . . the dog (this one hasn't happened, yet)

How much is that Doggy in the Window?

Mondays with Michael 1.3

Well, one day last week, I went out to the barn to check on the puppies and this is what I discovered:

Nine adorable puppies...and one ugly barn cat named Sampson. Sampson might be the ugliest cat in the barn, but he's also the oldest and I'm convinced, the smartest. He knew where to go to stay warm!

Speaking of the puppies, we brought them into the house to get their baby pictures taken.

Baby Boy #1



Baby Boy #2



Baby Boy #3

Baby Girl #1



Baby Girl #2

Baby Girl #3

Baby Girl #4

Baby Girl #5

Baby Girl #6

I think I've convinced Jane to let us keep one, now we just need to decide which one to keep. That means that in a few weeks, we will have 8 puppies available. These aren't just any puppies though. They are a rare breed of "designer dog." They are 1/4 English Shephard, 1/4 Border Collie, 1/2 Amish neighbor lab-mix. You can't find this specialty hybrid at your local pet store. Only a few qualified breeders in the Unites States can breed puppies with that kind of pedigree. We expect them to go quickly, so reserve your puppy today! One of these puppies can be yours for just 12 easy payments of $49.95!

Make it a great Monday!

A visit to Francesville

We spent the day in Francesville with our friends Phil and Amber Leman. It was a blessed time, and they were wonderful hosts! We look forward to going back again someday and I am sure the Francesville congregation would welcome any willing visitors:)

"And behold, God himself is with us for our captain. . . . and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers." II Chronicles 13:12 & 18

Fun at the Fiechter's

We had a fun game night at the Fiechter's playing Ticket to Ride and Dutch Blitz. It was all very close. . . BUT Jessica was the winner of Ticket to Ride and Michael was the winner of Dutch Blitz. Nick gets an honorable mention for coming in second both times. And I, well, let's just say I was playing for the fun of it!

My freezer is now full!

"If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen!"

Phew!

Today, we had a 'meal day'. A meal day is where you get together with some girls and you each bring all the ingredients to make as many meals as there are ladies. It is a blessed time being able to fellowship with girls, have fun, and be encouraged, and yet get something accomplished too! It was especially enjoyable because I had a break from my 'little dipper' (thanks, Mom!). So today I went home with 6 different meals that I could put in my freezer and pull out on a rainy day.

It was held at Jessica's this time and when I got there she was wearing her apron (THE apron she got from the Bible study party, the one she 'stole' from Adrianne, remember girls?, [it looked really good on her by the way] ) and of course I had brought my apron, so I said all those girls who don't bring an apron must pay a penalty, so we took a picture of all of us in our 'aprons'!

What a wonderful time! Let me know when you all want to do it again!!

Who did it?!

That was the question that was flooding my mind when I found this. . .


. . . on the floor!



Deacon was sitting patiently in his high chair for lunch (eggplant, beets, and cheese) and the girls, looking very guilty, were at his feet. Now I know what you are thinking-if I gave you beets and eggplant for lunch, you would throw it on the floor too, but no, Deacon actually likes it and so do we.



Well, obviously Nina liked it too because it was devoured in a matter of seconds. I was actually doing good on having lunch ready when Michael came home, but now I had beet juice to clean up, (quickly because beets really stain) and I had to get another round of beets, eggplant, and cheese ready for Deacon to eat. Lesson learned!

So, who was the culprit? I'll let you decide. . . .

Lessons I've Learned From Deacon

Mondays with Michael 1.2

I have learned a lot in the past 9 1/2 months. But Deacon has helped me recognize 2 great spiritual lessons that I would like to pass on to you.

1). As an adoptive father, I think it gives me a small glimpse inside God the Father's heart. We are not God's biological children. You can look at it 2 ways:

1. Jesus is "His only begotten son." All humans are "adopted."

2. The Jews are God's children. The Gentiles are "adopted."

Either way you look at it, we Christians living here in the United States are not His biological children. But He has adopted us. I can say with (almost) 100% certainty that no biological father ever loved their biological child more than I love Deacon. Yet I know that God loves us more than I love Deacon, which is almost unimaginable. So, again, lesson 1: Even though we are not His biological children, God has adopted us and He loves us so, so much.

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ...." Romans 8:15-17

2). Whenever a baby gets fussy, many parents give their child a pacifier (aka golly, fooler, etc) to keep the child occupied and calm. This works extremely well quite often. However, if the baby is hungry, the pacifier is useless. The baby requires and demands the real thing: milk. He/she will continue to scream and scream and cry and cry until he/she is fed. "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the the word, that ye may grow thereby." I Peter 2:2 We are to desire and crave the Word just as a baby craves the bottle. Yet I find that so often I am pacified with other things. I watch a movie at night and stay up too late and hop into bed without reading the Bible. I wake up in the morning and waste too much time on the internet checking out what happened in the sports world the day before. Satan uses these things to pacify me, and far too often it works. If I truly desire the milk of the word as a newborn baby, nothing is going to quench that.

These are 2 of the things that my son has helped me realize in the past 9 1/2 months. I'm sure he will teach me many more things in the years ahead.

Well, I'm heading out to the barn now to feed the goats and play with the puppies. But before I do that, I'm going to read the Bible. I'm hungry!

Make it a great Monday!

"The Girls"

I decided it was time to do a post on 'the girls'.

These girls that I refer to are our dogs. Before Deacon, they were our children. Our friends would talk about their human children, and we would talk about our dogs. Once when we were having a conversation about disciplining, I piped up and said, "Well, I just read the other day that you are supposed to hurt their feelings and that will get the point across." They all just looked at me awkwardly, and the more I thought about it, I said, "You know what, I think that was about disciplining your dogs." Glad we got that cleared up!

Birdie Bernice is the oldest and tends to be a little bit more grumpy and melancholy.

Nina Bonita is the second born and at times is full of energy, running and jumping all over the place and other times we can barely get her to move.

I love these girls. They are my 'natural anti-depressant'. They help make our life more exciting (like we need that!)so I am sure we will have more stories to tell about the girls as time goes on. "Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."

The Girls!

Counting Calories

Deacon had his 9 month doctor appointment with Dr. Wolfe, (whom I love!) today. Leslie told us a lot about herself, but what she did not tell us was that she is related to Shaquille O'Neil! Deacon, all 29 1/2 inches of him, is holding out strong in the 90th percentile for his height.

His weight? Well, that's another story. He has been "long and lean", (that's what Dr. Wolfe always says) ever since he was born, but now that he is crawling around everywhere, his caloric intake and activity are not at an equalibrium. Deacon is only 17.5 pounds, which puts him in the 10th percentile for his weight.

THE MISSION: Dr. Wolfe says he needs to be getting more calories in his diet, so. . .

. . . I went to Wal-Mart this afternoon!

Deacon loves Dr. Wolfe too!

Actually, what is really sad is that I was able to find that much junk food just around our house!

Bible Study

Last night was our first girls Bible study of the new year. We had not all been together since our Christmas party in December. I missed them all so much! Not that we don't have the opportunity to talk otherwise, it's just when we are together, I always feel like I have had a major ab workout afterwards because I have laughed so much. I am always encouraged by these girls and we all have so much fun together. We just started Shepherding A Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Since it was my birthday on Friday, Shauna made me a birthday cake for our snack. I am the only one who ever gets a birthday cake and Todd's Jessica said it is because I am 'special'. Not sure how to take that! It was last year at Todd's Jessica's that we celebrated my birthday and my prayer request was simply, 'For a lady named Leslie.' That was all I said and no one questioned anything. In the mean time, Adrianne called me to tell me she was expecting, and I was truly excited for her! The next Bible study was going to be at my house and I would have news of my own! I decided to wait until prayer request time, but I did leave clues out to make them wonder. I had a high chair out with a bib on it and some Parenting magazines out. Of course no one ever said anything. It came time for prayer requests and it was Amber's turn and she asked that we pray for her and Brandon because. . .you got it. . . they were going to have a baby!!!! This could not be more exciting! It was finally my turn and I started by saying: "Well, I asked you gals to pray for a lady named Leslie last time. . . (Todd's Jessica gasped and started crying) . . . I wanted to tell you that Leslie is the birthmother of OUR BABY !!" It was like nothing you have ever seen before. We were all crying, screaming, laughing, hugging. I get chills again just thinking about it. We took a picture that night of all of us that were 'expecting' : Jessica (due any day), Joni and Shauna(April), Amy (June), Adrianne and Amber (August)-and me, well I snuck in right after Jessica because my baby was schedualed for a c-section on April 3! Todd's Jessica took the picture that night but it was only 3 months before that she had had Lexi. And then there's Janelle-she asked us to send her the memo the next time we all decide to have babies at the same time. Her and Jeremy have a furry baby named Roxy and she said that's all she wants right now! I already miss you girls and can't wait until we can all be together again! I love you girls!

Sunday School

Good morning! This is Michael. Since Jane started blogging, I thought it'd be fun if I would start a blog too. But Jane thinks that blogging is just for girls. I tried to convince her that Bruce Aschliman has a blog and you don't get any more masculine than Bruce, but to no avail. So, we compromised. I will write a special feature of Soli Deo Gloria called "Mondays with Michael". Some weeks it may be spiritual, some weeks it may be humorous. Sometimes I may talk about sports, sometimes I may talk about goats. Basically, I will write about whatever I want, because it's my post. Yeah, right. Actually, I will write about whatever Jane wants me to write about. :)

Sunday School

As you may know, I was put in as a Sunday School teacher for the 3rd grade boys. I'm teaching with Brady Kaehr. Last Sunday was my first day in the class. Our classroom is at the end of the hallway upstairs. We start out in the Sunday School room in the basement and sing 3 songs, have some opening comments and a prayer, and then head up to our classroom. As Brady and I were walking up, he told me that the kids always make it up there before us. When we got to our room, Brady opened the door and I followed him inside. As he walked in, he announced "Ok, kids, we have a new teacher." Because I had just walked in, I didn't have my bearings yet, so I'm not sure who said this, but one of the kids piped up and said, "Oh, no. I was afraid it was him!" This could be an interesting 3 years!

Make it a great Monday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 24th Birthday, Jane! I love you!

Michael

Brotherly Love

We spent the evening at Mom and Dad Reinhard's for my birthday party. As some of you may know, birthdays (and Christmas) are really big in the John Reinhard family and Yergler family. You get the gifts, the singing, and the cake. Well, I guess I didn't get a cake, but you get the picture. We also played a game called ImaginIFF. I will now reveal the birthday gift that I spoke of in a previous post. . . . . .

A SERGER!

Only certain people would get excited over this, and I am one of them. I love it!!

I also love my little, er, younger, brother. I have so many wonderful things I could say about him, but I will allow his own words to tell all (this was written in my birthday card)-

" I always wanted to have a sister. Now people may say that you are my 'sister-in-law', but that 'in-law' part means nothing. I am honored and blessed to be able to call you my sister."

What a heart he has! Some girl will be BLESSED someday to be Joel Reinhard's wife, and apparently my sister-in-law:) I love you, Joel!

NINE

NINE.




The day in January that my birthday is on.














NINE.




The number of eggs Mother Goose is sitting on.







NINE.











The number of puppies Bailey had yesterday!












NEIN!


What I told Micheal when he asked how many we could keep.

Organization

Well, I have finally done it. My crafting room is organized again, phew. Michael said that I could not put my new birthday gift (which I will disclose at a later date) in there until I cleaned it up. Actually, I said that. Sometimes you must get harsh with yourself. (Did that really sound like Michael? I don't think so.) So I started out on my trek this afternoon with much energy, and got,

well, almost done. The only problem is, now I can't get out!

Aggravation

We had a wonderful weekend and to begin our week we spent the evening at Grandma and Grandpa Yergler's. This is something we frequently do, and the weeks when we can't, my heart longs to spend time with them. In the early days of our marriage we would play Skip-Bo. Well, it got to the point where Grandpa finally said, "I'm never playing this game again!" So we switched to a game we like to call, Hand and Foot. We warm up with Aggravation and then begin the intense game of Hand and Foot. We play boys against girls of course, and Grandma and I have been on quite a winning streak. (So much so, I thought, 'If Grandpa and Michael don't win soon, they'll never play with us again!'.) But this was the start of a new year, and the boys beat us! (Grandma and I won Aggravation, but Michael said that is like winning a pre-season game, in other words, no big deal.) Congrats Grandpa and Michael, I am truly happy for you!

Happy New Year!

Well, I have finally joined the blog world! What a better time than at the beginning of a new year. We said farewell to 2008 and kicked off 2009 at Clint and Amy's. Michael and I ALMOST won the newlywed game. Congrats Nathan and Rach! Of the families there, we all added a child to our families. We'll see what 2009 holds.

We spent the eveing at Greg and Kate's and a good time was had by all. It wouldn't be a Yergler Great Event without a game. Greg and Kate put us all onto teams and we played 'The Amazing Race'. My team consisted of Grandma, Grandpa, Joel, Chad R., and I. Of course, it just wouldn't be a Yergler style game without a bet, so the losing team had to karaoke. Thankfully, we came in second!