When Mercy Leaves Earth... Headed For Home

I’m sure most of you that read my blog know that we just lost our little baby girl Mercy. I’m also sure that most of you have been reading my Dad’s blog Leading Family Devotions. If you have seen his last post you probably have watched the video that he made. It was a video made of some of the picture taken during this whole thing.

We have watched this video many times, and every time I watch it I cry remembering the pain of those moments; those deep gut-wrenching sobs that come from the very center of your soul. Walking into a hospital room to see my mom weeping while holding her dead baby girl. Our whole family gathered around the hospital bed...just...broken. In that moment you ask yourself how you can possibly go on. You wish you could change what has already happened. You wish you could be laughing and kissing on a child that will grow up and learn to walk, talk, and live. You wish you could change all this to a happy ending. You wish you could take all the pain away. The pain that just stabs like a knife.  I know most people know what I’m talking about. We have all lost someone or something that cuts deep.

In that moment I want God to just free us. I want him to give Mom her child. 

What could be the purpose in taking a child from us?

A good friend of mine gave me a little booklet that she had made with many different bible verses on it. They are organized by categories. The very first category was suffering. Through the days before and the days after I have been reading it. Just talking comfort from the verses. 

This is one of passages that have meant a lot to me:

Isaiah 43:1b-3a 

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and though the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flames shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy one of Israel, your Savior.” 

Our family is passing through the fire. I know many other people are passing or have passed though the fire. If we are resting and trusting in God he will not let us be burned.  I’m not 100% sure why God is letting us going though this trial. I do know that He works all things out for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purposes; that He loves us and will only do what is best for us; that He will use this for his glory; that He will never give us more then we can handle. And that Mercy is so much better off then we are;) She is dancing with the angles in glory. She never has to suffer one bit. She was such a special child that God just had to bring her home to be with him. 

It may sound like I have "extra faith" to say all this or maybe it seems to you like I have false hope. But I know in whom I trust. Our family is nothing special. But God gave me the privilege of having, for a short time, the most special and beautiful sister in the world. He will use her life for his glory. I think the key is being thankful for the months we had her in Mom’s womb. 

If you are in a trial, trust God! He know what is the very best! 

Blessings to you all! 

~Ali 

Captain Jack Sparrow Inspired Outfit

Hi!
We recently watched the first two Pirates of the Caribbean's and I really liked Captain Jack Sparrow. I also really liked his whole outfit, so I wanted to try to recreate the look for us girls and also in a way someone could wear every day. If there is anything that I made from this outfit that you would like a tutorial on just leave a comment and let me know.

This was my over all look. 

This was the jar of dirt necklace that I made for the occasion.

I got these combat boots from target. 

                 

    I've got a jar of dirt! I’ve got a jar of dirt!

                                      

I made this red head band from an old shirt.

At the bottom of my hair you can see a clip-in hair wrap that I made. 

(I’m planing on doing a hair wrap tutorial in the future even if you don’t want a tutorial;)

You can’t see it but I did a few little, tinny braids in my hair an teased it to give it more of a messy look. 

I put in black, loop earrings to get the pirate effect.    

                                                                      

                                      

For a little extra “Jack Sparrow” I added a black belt and did darker eyeliner on the bottom of my eyes. I don’t normally wear eyeliner so I went for a lighter\dark look but you can do this much darker if that’s your preference. 

An Awesome Week

Last week, we had our very dear friends visiting us. I though that I would do a post with some of the radome pictures from their visit. I will not say names for privacy reasons so forgive all the pronouns.

Ice fishing!

These are the three face wounded people from our group. I have no idea what happened to the little boys nose... the other boy ran into a door in the middle of the night and I got hit in the face by a hockey stick. 

So awesome that we had to get a pic!

Family picture. 

They are just pretending FYI;)

LOL!! So cute!

This is us doing our amazing handshake;)

Ha! Rylee has always had a way of entertaining kids 

As you can probable tell, we had a very full house and an amazingly fun time. I hope we can see them all again soon! 

Day 365

Well, it's the new year. That means that I'm done. I have now completed one year of "picture of the day". I can't believe that I'm done... It was hard but very fun. Thank you to all of those who commented and told me how much you enjoyed the pictures. I would not have finished without that encouragement! I plan to start doing a lot more post now that I'm not doing picture of the day.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I pray that this next year will be full of blessings! 

~Ali 

Day 364