Happy Anniversary, Baby!

It is amazing how the years have flown by and even more amazing to see where we have been and how far we have come in THIRTEEN years! We have had our ups and downs, there have been tears and laughter, we have been frustrated and in awe of each other, there have been sacrifices and compromises, we have been angry and we have been ecstatic. But as all of these emotions have come and gone, the one thing that has been steady is that we have always and will always be IN LOVE!
Thank you for these thirteen years and counting! I love you!

Always!
Q

With God All Things are Possible

This story has been weighing on my heart and I feel that I need to share it....

I was recently watching a show called "Locked Up Abroad" on the National Geographic channel. It was about Martin and Gracia Burnham, Philippine missionaries and parents to three children. The story is incredible and inspiring and heartbreaking. I found myself holding my breath and trying not to cry as the wife, Gracia, told her story of being taken hostage with her husband, while on vacation. They were held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim terrorist group, for over a year. Unimaginable. As I watched the story on t.v., I was inspired~

Gracia described her incredible experience....the terror, the strength of her relationship with God and her husband to pull her through, the hunger, the desperation, the waiting, the death. I couldn't even begin to imagine what she went through. But my heart was touched as she spoke of her feelings while she was captive. She compared herself to her captors, because she had the sin of jealousy and hatred towards them. "How am I better then they when I have this hatred in my heart." And I kept thinking, "How could you not?!?!?" She looked beyond herself and saw a people who needed the Lord and ministered to them throughout the time that she and her husband were there. As her story continued, my heart ached...for the person that she was, and the person that I was not....Her husband died the day that she was rescued. A year and 11 days after they were taken captive.

At the end of her story, she wonders if she has become the person that God wants her to be from this experience. She HOPES that she is exactly what God wanted her to be, how incredible after all that she has been through. And I find myself hoping the same thing but knowing that there is more that I can do to be all that I can be in the Lord. I know that there is something in me that can be used to inspire but I also know that I am scared. My hope is the same as Gracia's~ I want to be all that I am called to be. I will be honest in saying that I know that there is more that I can do. I realize that I need to go beyond myself and my comfort zone. I hope that you will read her book and get inspired, In the Presence of My Enemies, Gracia Burnham

Her story reminds me of Ally's memory verse...."With God, all things are possible." Matthew 19:26 And how sweet to hear her sweet voice say these words....With GOD all things are possible. I pray that the lives of my girls, my husband and myself would be full of all things possible, because of God's will in our lives!

Already???

Seriously, do we ALREADY have a teenager??????? Maddie's door is closed and this "note" was posted...
Keep the prayers coming, please!!! :)


(Translation: Don't come in this rooom!)

P.S. I knocked before I went in.....

Thank you....

Today you turned 35! I kept thinking about you all day, about the man you have become before my eyes. We have grown up together and I smile thinking about it. And I want to say thank you, baby....

Thank you for....
being so in love with our Lord.
falling in love with me.
being my best friend.
being an amazing father to our little girls.
helping me to see the good in a bad situation.
praying for me and for our children.
working so hard.
surprising me with little and sometimes big things.
being silly with our children.
loving with all of your heart, all of the time.
overlooking my weaknesses and trying to make me stronger.
pushing me to my potential.
making me laugh.
your hugs and kisses.
making me some incredibly unique and creative dinners.
striving to be all that you can be.
being the best driver in the world. :-)
for calling me before you go to bed if you are out of town.
our always FUN date nights. (We need another one soon!)
keeping me up to date on politics, even when I am tired of hearing about it.
kissing me goodbye, every time you leave in the morning.
waking me up if I fall asleep in the chair in Hunter's room, in the middle of the night.
always being there when I need you.
giving me your heart!

I love you, Baby! Happy Birthday!

Love,
Q

In awe

Already, it seems that everything is moving at warp speed. Everyone is growing up and I watch in amazement and awe of it all.

Hunter is changing. She is such a smiley girl and it moves me to tears. She looks at me with such an adoration in her eyes as she "talks" and smiles. It makes me think of how much I would have missed if we had never had a third child, which was in "our plan." (Plans change, thank GOD!!)

Ally is incredible. She has become so silly and so thoughtful....She does these little thing that make me so in awe of the person she is becoming. The other day, she was taking a nap and I was doing "my thing" with Hunter. She comes out, awake, with an arm load of clothes that she is taking to the laundry room. "I have a surprise for you mommy, don't look!!!" She says. I wait as she goes back into our room, which is where she took her nap. After a while, I have to knock on the door. "Ally, it is almost time to go and get Maddie, can I see my surprise??" I yell through the door. She comes to the door with a HUGE smile on her face. She has made our bed, perfectly I might add, picked up the clothes on her Daddy's side of the bed (silly daddy!) picked up the towels in the bathroom AND organized ALL of the shoes in our closet, which was a lot of work. I couldn't believe that she had done it all on her OWN. She just wanted to do something nice and was so proud when she showed it to me. I couldn't believe all that she had done. She is amazing and she has come so far from those tantrum days, praise GOD!

Oh, and Maddie! Today she called a friend for the first time. And my heart ached. "Maddie, you are too young to be calling friends!" I say "But just this once, o.k?" I add. She was so excited that I just couldn't disappoint her. She made the call and talked to her friend's Dad, her friend was not there so she gave her phone number for a return call. She was so grown up as I listened to the conversation. My goodness, that can't be happening ALREADY, can it????? She handled herself well and her face told me how excited she was to have made the call.

Where has the time gone???? When did I miss my girls growing up so fast??? They are six and four and 2 mo. and I can't believe how big they are and how much they have changed. But what I do believe is knowing that they will all become these amazing women. And it will happen faster than I want.(Something I just need to accept!)

I am in awe and I LOVE you more than you know, Maddie, Ally and Hunter, my three beautiful girls!!

Hunter Elizabeth Cheek- The Story of Her Name

Hunter is here and the our world has changed again, for the better. The births of each of our girls has given me a chance to refocus myself on something more important than me. It helps me to realize how precious the life of another is and how amazing it is to have this gift of taking care of something that belongs to God. I find myself awestruck by the little things that are her....her breath is always sweet, you can get lost in her navy blue eyes, and those eyes...how she smiles with them already. She is patient (thank goodness!) and she studies you with a quiet contentment and she looks like both of her sisters depending on the day. She is amazing and unique. And I think her name fits her just right. I feel the need to tell the story of her name because it in itself is as unique as God made her.

It was graduation season and Brian had been gone all day working. I had just found out that morning that I was pregnant and was anxious to tell him and trying to think of just the right way to let him know. He came home late that night and in an exhausted heap fell asleep on the sofa. My chance to make this announcement memorable was gone. Off to bed we went and I continued to think about how I was going to tell him before he went to work another graduation the next morning. I tossed and turned all night. Morning couldn't come fast enough....but it arrived, the morning sun waking Brian. He saw that I was awake and said, "I just had the coolest dream that we were pregnant and had another girl and named her.....Hunter!" I turned over to him, stunned....."We are pregnant!" I announced. We both couldn't believe what the other had just said! It sent chills up my spine as Brian recounted his dream that morning. And yes, it did take me a while to warm up to the name but I couldn't have it any other way. It was like God had announced this pregnancy for me and I couldn't ignore that. It was truly an amazing God-moment.

The story of her name always gets to me. I still can't believe that it actually happened that way...it make me think of what incredible things that the Lord has in store for her, my sweet Hunter. Our family is complete and there is a peace in that. These three little girls will bring light, laughter and beauty into our world, as well as tears, drama and chaos. I know that God will be there as we raise them and I know that his hands will never let them go and THAT peace is what keeps me sane each day. He is in control, of their name, their arrival and their life. Amen!

Ready, Set.....GO!

Of course, I can't sleep....in just a few short hours we will welcome our third beautiful little girl into our family. The house is quiet and my brain is racing with random thoughts and unfocused feelings of what is to come.

I am excited and anxious to meet sweet baby Hunter and I can't wait to see Brian holding his tiny newborn daughter in his strong arms, for the third time. And I am even more excited to experience Maddie and Ally's reaction to her. They are already making plans for her, things to teach her and games to play with her. Ally has informed me that she will teach her to blow a bubble with her gum....but only when she turns two, she says. And Maddie is writing songs to sing to Hunter when she can't fall asleep and books to read to her. They are written on her notebook paper in her own words and silly spelling and tucked away in envelopes, that she has crammed into the baby bag that we are taking to the hospital. It is all so sweet and she isn't even born yet. I can't wait to see what more these two big sisters have up their sleeves.

The time is here and I am feeling SO blessed to be at this point in my life....to experience something soon that I never imagined, being the mom of THREE girls. And to be warmed by their hugs, smothered with their kisses, and being offered up in their sweet and innocent prayers is beyond anything that I could have ever hoped for in my life. I am beyond blessed and in the quiet of this house and in the quiet of my heart I thank God, who has given me the incredible gift of little girls.

It is 12:01 a.m. and I am getting up in three and a half hours to welcome Hunter into our lives......Ready, set......GO!