Kidd's Ring

February flew by. We were a bit busy around here. Most of you probably know that Z spent 10 days in the hospital. It was a long time! Praise the Lord she is all better and has no remnants from our time there, minus a red clown nose. ;) She had SSSS, staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome, which is where your skin gets red blisterings that looks like burns or scaldings. We had some rough days! Poor Z was in a lot of pain the first few days. It was heartbreaking to see her in the condition she was in. She barely moved, didn't really smile or talk. It was sooo sad! When we did finally see a little glimpse of her normal self, it was so very encouraging! We watched lots of the Winter Olympics during our hospital stay {great timing!}, colored, read lots and lots of stories and even skyped with family. During our time in the hospital, we really got to see experience the Lord's provision for us. The timing of it all was just incredible. My pregnancy was just getting to the stage wher...

Most of you probably know ... you've seen on facebook or instagram. But it's time to announce on the blog that Baby #2 is on the way!! This is why there's been a very long silence {ahem, sorry about that}, but my new normal involves feeling sick, sick, sick and not having much energy. I'm at that fun stage of pregnancy where I'm losing weight. Food is not a favorite right now, but absolutely essential for feeling better. I have THE best husband who has taken on both of our roles and is making our meals. He's been going into work early, so he can come home early. He is loving and serving us soo well right now. I am so blessed! Poor Z has struggled a bit with our new normal. I think she's slowly getting used to it. But she wasn't all too thrilled about Mommy taking less care of her. Poor baby! She's gotten super sweet about snuggling a while with me in the morning and after nap time ... I love our snuggles. She is still learning though that pu...

A college friend of mine did a blog post about December goals. It got me thinking about what my goals are and I thought I would share them with you. Focus on the true meaning of Christmas.   I don't want to get so caught up in the worldly view of Christmas, that I don't take the time to remember what Christmas is truly about. Go to several Christmas markets.   Vienna has beautiful Christmas markets all over the city. So far I have only been to one. I need to be sure and visit a few more before the holidays. Bring calendars to our neighbors. Our church has some very talented photographers in it and several years ago they got together and designed a calendar. The calendar has beautiful pictures with a verse on it and the back of each month has a short devotion written by men from the church to go along with the verse (Hubby usually does one). These calendars are now known in several countries in Europe and they hope to bring them to the US soon. They are so beauti...

Trust in the Lord. Do not be anxious about your plans. Don't try to control your world. Don't compulsively plan everything. Hum...last night at 4 a.m....this was not happening. I was wide awake and felt the need to plan out my day and think about how all my activities of the day would come together. I'm a worrier and a big planner. Clearly, today's theme is something I need to be working on in my life. Trusting the Lord is also so very fitting for our lives right now, as we are in the middle of planning our house. There are so many decisions to be made. We don't always know what the best, most cost efficient, practical answer is. It's so comforting to me to know that God is with us every step of the way and will help us through it all. And as we sit down and talk about the financial aspect of the house, it's easy to quickly get overwhelmed with the huge commitment and investment this is. However, once again, I'm so thankful that God is i...

I've been doing the 30 day praise challenge, that my friend introduced on her blog . It has been really good focusing on all the different reasons we should praise the Lord. Today, day 18, couldn't have come at a better time (well, it would have worked for several other days, but today especially). The verse to start off the devotion is: Do not judge,  and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn,  and you will not be condemend.   Forgive,  and you will be forgiven.    Luke 6:37  Great verse for today, as I got smooshed into an elevator with Zoey. Seriously, the lady behind me couldn't have been any closer to me. I had to learn to get just a tiny bit of distance from her. Talk about uncomfortable. I get pretty frustrated with how rude people are, since my mobility is a bit limited due to bringing a small one along with me everywhere. I've had some close calls of getting on/off trains or trams, simply because no one wants...

enjoying   all the new things we can do now that Z is walking! looking forward to  Christmas and all it brings - music, decorations, markets, gift shopping, family time, etc. reading my blogs via bloglovin' {huge fan!} thankful for   these two and the great time we had in Germany with my family loving   my new wallet eating Lasagna Soup excited about my parents coming the end of December!!!

This morning we headed over to one of my favorite places in Vienna - Schönbrunn.  I love the huge, yellow palace [it almost looks fake!], the beautiful grounds that have nicely trimmed hedges, flowers in beautiful designs and gorgeous trees.  It's just a great place to go.  I saw some pictures of the fall foliage last week and knew we had to get out there ASAP!  Today, we finally made it!!  We met up with our friends from church.  She's pregnant with #2 and her little guy is a year older than Zoey.  It was so great having one-on-one time with them again.  We like to walk and talk and laugh and just share about life.  She encouraged me today by saying that since both of us are stepping out in faith [them moving into a bigger apartment and us into our house], this makes her draw even closer to the Lord and truly seek Him to provide for their needs.  It was a great reminder to me that I need to be walking closer to Him and truly livin...