Update...from Heather

Hi all!!!

Thank you for everyone's wonderful comments. Tabitha and I are home. We are both doing better. Tabitha gained 1 ounce. (praise the Lord) We have to go to the doctor for her first thing Monday. They wanted us to go tomorrow (Sunday), but we convinced them of Monday. This gives us an extra day for Tabitha to gain more weight, plus my hubby has to preach tomorrow. The doctors will check her Bilirubin and her weight. She is slightly jaundice, but not enough for phototheraphy. (another praise) I am feeling a lot better. Anyway enough about me and Tabitha, I really wanted to send a special thanks through this blog.

Martie,
Thank you for everything you have done for me and the children. You have been an amazing source of strength for me, and I love you. I did not expect to come home to a clean house, nor did I expect you to keep up the garden. After a long day at the hospital you still came home took care of the children, fed the dogs, washed laundry, washed dishes, fed all of us, and tucked the children in bed!!! WOW!!! Now you are at church preparing to preach tomorrow. I stand in awe! You are an amazing man of God, I wish every woman could be so blessed to have a hubby like you! Oh, and I really appreciate all the beautiful pictures you have been taking. I was so excited to hear you today at the hospital when I was in the other room getting things together. You got Tabitha all dressed and begin taking pictures. You were so funny and cute, and I thank you.
Love you!
Heather

Here are some of the adorable pictures my hubby took:

Tabitha Update

Today started off pretty rough. Heather began the morning with severe nausea and vomiting. She slowly got better throughout the day. Tabitha Ruth is doing well except for the fact that she has lost too much weight. They are going to start supplementing her nursing schedule today. We are hoping Tabitha and Heather will get better so that we can go home in the morning. I, Martie, came home to take a shower, visit with the kids, and post this blog to keep all of you updated. Please continue to pray for both Heather and Tabitha, that they would grow in strength, that the recovery would be quick (You all know how much I depend on my wife), and that we would continue to turn to the Lord with thankful hearts for who He is and how He has blessed us.

Tabitha's First Bath




So Cute!!!


Her first $20 Bill from Pa

A Gift from the Lord!

Tabitha Ruth Mangum has arrived!!!!!!!






















Tabitha was born at 12:47pm weighing in at 6lbs 11oz and 19 inches long. Both Tabitha and Heather are doing well. Heather had a rough time after the birth. She was very nauseous and ended up getting sick a couple of times. I would tell you haw beautiful she is but take a look for yourself. God is so faithful in bringing both Heather and Tabitha through this without any major complications. I praise Him for blessing our family in all the ways He has.

Finally, a name! Only 4 more days to go!

You know I can't tell you all right away. I have to give a mini speech first. First, I know many of you think that we live a radical lifestyle. I mean who in the world wants more than 2-3 children, why would you want to teach your children at home, why would you want to eat, sleep, and breath "church"? I know, I have heard these things, people think we're weird. I admire my husband in so many ways, one because he doesn't care what anyone thinks. He truly lives his life to please God. When someone lives like that, their life is going to look weird. I on the other hand, aim to please. I have always been a people pleaser, wanting to fit in, wanting everyone's approval. Why???? I don't know why. I just know that I have always been this way. I am learning slowly. God has taken me out of my comfort zone, plenty of times. I find the more I pray to Him, and seek to live my life "sold out" to Him, He then takes me more and more out of my comfort zone. But, who am I pleasing? When I take these radical steps of faith, I feel like He is saying, "well done my good and faithful servant". I have learned to LOVE children, lots of children. I know that God has called me to stay at home with my children, teach them at home, and even have more children. WHAT!!!! I know I haven't even had this one, and I said it more children. Crazy, huh??? That's o.k.; I am learning to be o.k. with crazy. I have always had a passion for adoption, so we'll see what lays in store for our family. I'm just giving everyone a heads up, so when we make more "radical" decisions for God, please don't be surprised.

O.k. so the name… Well, when I was pregnant with Andrew I remember sitting in church one Sunday and Martie was preaching Acts 9:36-43. I remember listening to the story of Tabitha completely amazed. First, she is the only woman in the bible that is called "a disciple", and then she reminds me so much of the Proverbs 31 woman. She was "abounding with deeds of kindness". I knew right then I wanted to name a daughter after her. I told Martie, and he told me he had thought the same thing. This morning in my quiet time, I was reading Isaiah 49:1 and it says, "From the body of my mother He named me." I might me taking this out of context a little, however I feel like God laid that name on mine and Marties hearts. So her first name, "Tabitha". Like it, love it, hate it.... I just hope you will love her just the same. O.k. so the middle name. I do a bible study two times a month. For a while we went through the book of Ruth. If you have never read anything I challenge you to read the book of Ruth. Talk about "sold out" to God. She left her home, her family, sacrificed everything to be obedient to God. She is also thought to be the woman behind Proverbs 31. What more could we want for a daughter of ours? So, as ugly as you all might think, Tabitha Ruth Mangum will be our daughter’s name. I think her name is beautiful and I pray that we will raise her up to become what these women represented.

So, lastly I would challenge you all to read Acts 9:36-43, the whole book of Ruth, and Proverbs 31:10-31. Then give me your opinion. I hope that the Lord changes each of your minds as you see us trying to follow the Lord. I love you all!

When the "girls" are away.... The "boys" will....

I'm not quite sure what my wonderful husband was doing when my youngest managed to do this. Let me start from the beginning, we bought our daughter a cookie cake to celebrate a wonderful "homeschooling" year. (and she memorized all of Eph. 6) So this cookie cake, yeah it was good with hot pink icing and all. (you might remember my previous post) So Andrew managed to climb up the side of the counter to the top, where the cake was. Martie said he walked in and caught him in the act. Soooo, of course he grabbed the camera, and Andrew said CHEESE!!! This stuff never happens when I'm home with these "well behaved children". :-) (actually I'm so thankful he thought to grab the camera)

My husband said Andrew wanted to be a clown.
This was the counter...AFTER...

Mom of the year...

So, for a while I've really tried to change my families eating habits. I've been cooking a little better, shopping healthier... My husband and I grew up here in the south, so healthy cooking is just unheard of. In our families everything is fried, made with fat back, or some kind of grease is added to the food for seasoning. So we've changed simple things like using chicken stock in our veggies instead of bacon grease. Sounds elementary, I know, but you have to realize how great this is for us. My hubby and I both love healthier food, I just have to learn how to cook it.

So my biggest problem...SWEETS! We just can't get rid of this "healthy" habit. We are so totally addicted. I love to bake, and its something Taylor and I love to do together. So there is always something sweet in my house to eat. For example.....

Yes, I let my kids lick the batter from cup cakes while eating ice cream. O.k. so no one call social services on me. Ethan was so cute he kept going back and forth. One lick to the beater and then one to the ice cream. I'm not even going to tell you that this was right around dinner time. O.k. so this is not a regular habit. My dad came by and spoiled the children with ice cream as I was baking cup cakes for a family presentation night at CC. So we were already eating a late dinner. I have to defend myself.

So if anyone has any GOOD snack ideas, please let me know. I mean they have to be good!!! (they have to go against chuncky chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream) Who can beat that?? Maybe I'll wait until after I have the baby to fix this problem. No, really let me know your ideas.

Our day

I haven't written in a while, so just a quick update. Today was our last day of CC (classical conversations) for the year. This is a group that we belong to for homeschooling. It's kind-of a co-op thing. Anyway, I love the group so much. I love the accountability, the friendships, the "like mindness", and all the things WE have learned... However, I'm ready for a break. We will continue with "school" year round. Math, reading, reading, writing, and more reading.

I have about six more weeks until I have our fourth baby. So enough time to get things ready for her to come. We are gladly taking name suggestions. We like Tabitha, but none our family does. So after they told us their opinions, he told me we were going to name her Dorcas.

Martie and the boys started tilling the ground for our garden. We planted our seeds in cups over a week ago and it's rained ever since. (praise God) However, we haven't been able to break ground on the garden yet. We moved the garden a little closer in the yard. We are trying to avoid it getting flooded. For some reason everytime we have a garden it rains. (a lot) We were able to make it bigger this year. I'm very excited. We will have to break up the dirt a few more times before we can start planting. Believe it or not the seeds are already coming up, even with all the rain and no sun. We'll see how it goes. I'll post pictures and updates. The garden is so much fun for me and the children. The last garden I left a special row for the children to dig. This kept them from digging up the plants. So here are some pics from our day.

Our future garden, this is after tilling the ground twice. We have great dirt!

My favorite people!!!

The children on the lawnmower with daddy.

His face says it all.

The children playing on the lawnmower.