a step back

These two notes were brought to my attention this morning with the new updates to Facebook. So, I thought I would move them over to the ole bloggity blog. Reading these two blurbs has refreshed my love and appreciation for my godly, hard-working husband and has made me ever so thankful that the hard days of itty bitty twinkies are long gone.

Monday 8.1.11 - a reason to celebrate
I woke up this morning next to the man of my dreams. He is better than the best husband I could've ever imagined, and now I am witnessing him step into the roll of dad and am amazed. His love for me and his love for our girls is only an outpouring of his love for our amazing God. I couldn't imagine making it through this past week without him and am blessed to celebrate making it through two years of marriage with him today! Steve Risinger, I love you. Happy Anniversary. :)

Sunday 8.7.11 - monitor conquered. almost.

Last Monday afternoon Steve and I received the best anniversary gift ever. Our 'littlest little' (as we love to refer to Eisley now) got to come home with us! However, this joyous occasion was marked with stress and heartache because we were sent home with an apnea monitor that to our dismay was constantly going off. We were doing good if we made it a solid hour without hearing the alarm sound multiple consecutive times. Friday morning we found that the amber colored data light was lit notifying us to take the monitor to have her info downloaded. So, I headed to the OSF sleep lab only to discover (to our dismay and also soon to our joy!) that our monitor had been given to us with the wrong settings for her breaths-per-minute! The sweet ladies in the sleep lab corrected all the settings and told me that we should not be concerned about any episodes because 99 percent of the alarms were false. Since that glorious correction, we have only heard an alarm sound 4-5 times, and it is Sunday! Praise the Lord. Fears have ceased. Sleep (ok at least 15 minutes of it!) have been restored. We have almost made a complete turn around with the monitor situation. And we are well on our way into week three of their tiny lives working hard at a consistent schedule to get these twinks to sleep through the night sooner than later! They are eating and pooping and sleeping and even doing a pretty good job of holding those heads up!!!

Steve (aka: I like it when you call me Big Poppa) spent last week working half days (on very little sleep and lots of coffee) while I spent my days loving on these little munchkins (on very little sleep and lots of coffee) while trying to do as little as possible around the house to heal properly, only being enabled to do so with the help of my mom. What a great and perfect gift that she took care of Steve and I so that we could best take care of our little ones. And again, we want to send out our greatest thanks to our friends and family who have prayed for, loved on, and fed us in these past weeks. Never have we witnessed the provision of our Great God in a more tangible way.

my itty bitty ladies

three years

Thinking about the paradox of the flexibility versus the permanency of time always leaves me in wonder. (More so with the Creator of time than the actual events that have taken place.) However, I am writing to specifically reflect on events that have taken place within the past three years.

On August one of 2009 I married this fella. 

Photo courtesy of Andrew Ryan Shepherd

So much 'life' has happened since that day, so much learning (and re-learning), and growing (and digressing). Even in the midst, I still have days of waking up in the morning and giggling to myself because I really did marry Steve Risinger, 'that Yankee boy' as my Papa affectionately calls him. And he really is my best friend, who in these three years has shared many moments of feeling that we were each other's only friend. We've come from being passionate opinionated hot-headed college-aged co-wokers/ministers to being passionate opinionated hot-headed young adults, with KIDS. 

From this:

To this:

See! So much has changed yet so much has stayed the same. (hehe)

But in all seriousness, God has continued to mold and shape us and work His story of redemption and reconciliation in and through us. We've seen it happen from something as seemingly insignificant as remodeling our home (which I could, and probably will, write another post to the analogies and lessons learned from that) to the profoundly significant of renewing and restoring friendships and relationships with family. We truly are dancing in the minefields. And for all of this, I get the privilege of being eternally grateful. 

But most importantly today, I rejoice that I am my beloved's, and he is mine. Stephen Keith Risinger, you are the best in the whole wide. Thank you for the best three years so far!

one year anniversary

Image via Wikipedia

My husband and I spent the past 5 days on vacation celebrating the fact that we made it through our first year of marriage. It. Was. Wonderful.
We fished. We tanned. We skied. We ate. We loved. He is indeed my best friend. What can I say? But please, tell me this. Raise your hand if you've ever been given a massage table as a gift!!! What an awesome investment in our marriage!