We have a 6 year old !?!? ~ February 2015

Giving God Glory

A couple photos Wes captured at work one evening

Our Majestic God ~ 

O LORD, our Lord,  

How majestic is Your name in all the earth,

Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!

...When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which You have ordained...

O LORD, our Lord,

How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8

What's on the Harrisons' Hearts

Our Bible Study blessed Joanna Flack & me with a double boy baby shower :)
Cristine Wait did a great job decorating!

Theme ~ TRAIN up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6

I had the opportunity to share a testimony about how we saw the Lord at work and how He grew our family throughout Samuel's pregnancy.  It was a joy to share since these women have been faithfully praying for our family.  Here are the aspects I talked about:

• Background of the Lord's journey for us over the past 6 years: 
• blessing us with Noah
• 3 miscarriages in 1 year ~ 6, 11, 9 weeks
• blessing us with adopting Josiah
• another miscarriage ~ 13 weeks
• Jan. 2014 ~ thought the Lord was leading us to pursue fostering-to-adopt in summer 2015
• Summer 2014 ~ pregnant
• Telling our families:
• Wes' over phone & mine in person - through prayer ;) - at extended family get together in WI
• both sides excited, supportive, & inquisitive
• miscarriage symptoms started day after we told my family :(
• God placed us in position completely out of our control ~ in WI 
• no appointment to meet with OB or have ultrasound for 3 weeks...waiting & trusting!
• Clinging to & meditating on Scripture on God's sovereignty:
• Psalm 139:16
• Deuteronomy 32:39
• 1 Timothy 6:13, 15-16
• A Praying Life book by David Powlinson
• follow Jesus' ex. of pleading & then surrendering ~ Luke 22:42; don't jump too quickly to surrendering
• 1st ultrasound showed baby healthy & heart beating strong
• Noah's response after ~ "Is the baby still in your tummy?"
• Battling to take thoughts captive as I continued to have continued miscarriage symptoms but ultrasounds every 2-3 weeks showed our baby was healthy
• Philippians 4:8
• 2 Corinthians 10:5
• Trying on our marriage ~ 2 false positive STD tests during pregnancy
• The Lord breaking Wes at Bible study ~ sharing about negative thoughts, hard heart, trying to avoid trial, not wanting to deal with, desiring to protect me
• Weeks 14-20 ~ The Lord started letting up on refining us :)
• I could feel baby moving & miscarriage symptoms stopped
• 20 week ultrasound acknowledging to each other ~ "I think the Lord wants this baby to join our family."
• Samuel's name = asked of the Lord; the Lord hears.
• Hannah's ex. of pleading & surrendering to the Lord ~ 1 Samuel 1:27
• The Lord impacting hearts:
• our family ~ knowing & experiencing God as gracious giver of good gifts
• nurse
• friend at church
• We are grateful God's graciousness!

Praises & Prayers

Friend - Praise for the Lord blessing her through Josiah (when she held him for the first time a couple years ago).  She commented on an old photo of her and Josiah, "This photo is so special to me.  It was the first time I held a baby after losing Faith.  I didn't think I could ever be near a baby let alone hold one without crying."

Friend - Praise for the Lord blessing me with an opportunity to encourage a friend.  She shared on my FB wall, "It's amazing how the Lord sends just the right person at just the right time.  Thanks for letting me 'process,' Christina Harrison."

Paul & Amanda - Praise for the Lord selling their home in His perfect timing & ways and blessing them with a new home quickly!

Tami - Continued prayers for the Lord to give my dad and other loved ones His perspective and that God would heal Tami, but ultimately that His will would be done.  Prayer of Galatians 5:22-23 that the fruit of the Spirit would abound in Dad's & Tami's lives during this trial.  Also, prayer of James 1:5 for wisdom with this trial.

Our Family - Continued praise for the Lord sustaining Samuel’s life.  Please pray for the fruit of the Spirit to abound in our family as we adjust to being a family of 5 (Galatians 5:22-23) and that the Lord would give Wes and me wisdom in easing the transition for Noah and Josiah (James 1:5). 

Wes - Praise for the Lord giving Wes wisdom in all the roles and ministry He has called Wes to, and praise for the Lord blessing Wes with the opportunity to participate in his first service day as a deacon.  Please pray Ephesians 6:10-20 for spiritual protection, faithfulness, and discernment at work as he seeks to be a witness for Christ in a spiritually dark environment.
Christina - Continued praise for the Lord giving me grace, strength, and energy to be faithful in all the roles and ministry the Lord has called me to ~ especially since the pregnancy fatigue has increased, and I have been encountering "pregnancy insomnia" of waking up for about 2 hours - wide awake - every night lately.  Please pray James 1:5 for wisdom and success for our OB with my upcoming C-section surgery on March 10th. 

Noah - God would graciously save him at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will.  Continued praise for the Lord growing Noah in being kind to Josiah - we're seeing a lot of growth in loving his brother!  I asked Noah what he would like loved ones to pray for him - "That I would fly my airplanes good."

Josiah - God would graciously save him at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will.  Praise for the Lord growing Josiah in not hitting others (especially Noah).  Please pray James 1:5 for the Lord to give us wisdom and also to grow Josiah in stopping sucking his thumbs during naps/bedtime since it is starting to impact his teeth.

Marriage Memories

This month was full of opportunities to support each other in ministry and also in ways the Lord is growing us each personally and growing us in our marriage.  Sometimes the refinement and growing pains are tough, and other times they are simply beautiful.  

It is a joy to serve the Lord together and to grow more like Christ together! 

Family Fun

Celebrating our big 6 year old!  ~  See more in section below "Memorable Moment of the Month"

Reading with Daddy

All twisted up playing Twister together

Valentine's Fun

Decorating their bags

Valentine's Day Gift Bags ~ Josiah got colorful this year & Noah decorated Samuel's :)

We make homemade Valentines cards for each other.  Also, I do one gift/coupon for each love language for Wes and our sons.  We celebrated early since Wes had to work on Valentine's Day.

Flowers from Wes, Noah, & Josiah :) * Heart-shaped coffee cake for breakfast

That evening we played board games, watched "Lady & the Tramp," & ate pizza.

Lego Valentines Noah made for neighborhood friends & RMCA classmates



Valentine's Day (Wes was at work)
My boys helped me host a "Baking & Board Games" T&T Girls fellowship & outreach event that day.
We had about 30 come, and everyone had a lot of fun! :)

Noah News

Age - 6!!!

Cute Communication - 
     *"I know what   #   +   #   =   #   ; Noah's been correcting calculating addition problems often in his head & sometimes uses his fingers - such as 4+4, 3+3, 2+2, 1+1, & others.

     *Wes stayed home one day to spend a day together as a family since we had a very full weekend and also to watch the boys when I went to a baby appointment.  Noah asked him, "Daddy, can you take off every day from work?"

     *This past month Noah has asked a very hard question a couple times, which demonstrates how he was impacted by our miscarriages over the past few years and is trying to process everything ~ "What if Samuel dies?"
      Me - "We will trust Jesus like we did with the other babies Jesus wanted to be in heaven.  It seems God wants Samuel to join our family, though, so I don't think he is going to die."
      Noah - "We have 4 babies in heaven."
      Me - "That's true."

Latest Likes
Wrestling Daddy
Playing soccer, tag, Go Fish, & Monopoly (kids version)
Berenstain Bears books

Wrestling with Daddy * Noah's "signature" move that can get Daddy down ;)

*Video ~ Push-ups with Daddy

Josiah Joys

Age - 2

Cute Communication - 
     *When I told the boys and had them feel Samuel's rhythmic hiccups, Josiah responds, "Samuel little burps." :)

     *Josiah expresses caring concern when he thinks someone is hurt and will sweetly ask, "OK _____?"

     *Josiah started engaging in our bedtime routine of competing comments of who loves who more. ;)  His favorite is to say, "Love you more than all the firetrucks!"

Latest Likes
Wrestling Daddy
Playing basketball or with bounce balls
Giving & receiving "Batman kisses" ~ which involves singing the Batman theme song & then sneaking in for giving a big smooch on the cheek

Covered! ~ Stickers * Blood from a bloody nose :(

*Video ~ Our little baller

Samuel Sentiments

9 Months!!!

36 weeks ultrasound ~ We discovered that Samuel had flipped again since our 30 weeks ultrasound and was now breech = C-section; plus my placenta was still low = C-section.  So, the Lord has made it clear that He has a C-section delivery in store for us, which is actually a relief to me after Noah's 24 hour labor/continually getting stuck that ended in an emergency C-section.

Fun Insight & Irony about C-section Date ~ Usually my OB will schedule C-sections one week from the due date.  However, my due date was a Saturday, and they don't do C-sections on a Saturday, which moved the C-section date to Monday, March 9th.  Wes had recently realized that all the "men" in our family had multiples of 5 birthdays...

Josiah ~ June 20th

Noah ~ February 25th

Wes ~ November 30th

...and requested that our C-section date be moved to March 10th.  It's quite ironic to "order" when you want your baby born, but our OB said that it would work, so March 10th it is! :)

Bro Bonding

Playing together with Legos ~ Noah building a marble track * Josiah being creative :)

Shooting hoops

Playing together in a fort they made :)

The simplest of items (water & bowls) can lead to the longest times of fun!

Playing & rolling around in the snow

Noah winding up to throw a snowball at me ;) * Josiah all bundled up

*Video ~ Playing in the snow

Homeschool Highlights

Click on these links if interested in seeing more info about the K-8 skills/benchmarks books I use: 

Core Knowledge Sequence: Content guidelines for K-8 (Fyi ~ This is not the same as Common Core.)

What Your Child Needs to Know When: According to the Bible, According to the State: with Evaluation Check Lists for Grades K-8

What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know ~ Obviously, this book is specific for Kindergarten. :)

History & Geography Unit Study: Missionary & Map Skills

We had our Missions Conference weekend at church this month, and Noah had a section in his Sparks extra credit book about studying a missionary.  Noah chose David Livingstone.  We learned about his explorations in Africa, how he told people about Jesus as a medical missionary, and where the continent of Africa is at on various globes and maps.  We also discussed how we can be missionaries right where we live and how we can tell people about Jesus as we go about our everyday lives.

"...Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you..." Matthew 28:19-20

Math Unit Study: Time

Noah mastered how to tell time to the hour, and he started learning how to tell 5 minute increments too!

Homeschooling with Daddy :)

Wes teaches Noah on the days he is home ~ Bible/History/Geography, critical thinking skills, & various comprehensive Kindergarten skills.

He also works on Noah's reading booklet & speech sounds.

Life Skill ~ Helping Mommy cook

Music Concert through RMCA Homeschool Program

Theme of the concert was "Westward Expansion" ~ Cowboy Noah * Josiah wanted to put on the cowboy hat too :)

Concert included Kindergartners, 1st Graders, & 2nd Graders ~ Noah is on the first row towards the bottom right

Kindergartners got to wear "bear" hats & bring their teddy bears for their special song ~ "The Bear Went Over the Mountain"

*Video ~ Kindergarteners singing "The Bear Went Over the Mountain"

Noah's lips were moving for parts of the song ;)

Giant slide at new RMCA charter school (where concert was held) ~ The kids got to go down the slide after the concert was over.  * Noah with a big smile after his slide ride

Firestation Field Trip

Having fun checking out & exploring the firetrucks

Learning about the "Jaws of Life" & Thermal Imaging Camera

Wes in his gear helping kids know what firefighters look like when they come to help them * Josiah was glad to see that his daddy "came back" ;)

 Future firefighters ;) ~ Clay, Soli, Kylie, Saylor, Noah, Able, & Josiah

Memorable Moment of the Month

Preparing cinnamon rolls the night before Noah's 6th birthday ~ Kneading the dough

Noah's birthday breakfast requests :)

Enjoying breakfast in bed ~ Birthday boy * Brothers * Josiah chowing down 

Gifts from our fam * Noah wanted us to hide his gifts for him to find ~ we would give him "hotter"/"colder" hints. ;)  He had a lot of fun discovering them...in the freezer, Legos tub, etc.

Opening gifts excitement!

Noah's birthday party consisted of an all-day playdate with one of his best-friends, Luke.  They had a lot of fun together ~ playing in the snow, fighting with Light Sabers, playing in the basement, watching a movie, going out to eat at McDonalds, decorating and eating cake & ice cream, and more!

Decorating Noah's birthday cake ~ Noah & Luke * Josiah wanted to help too :)

Adding the finishing touches * Noah's chocolate marble swirl cake with colorful sprinkles

Birthday boy riding in his new booster seat that we got him

Noah wanted to eat out at McDonalds because he wanted a burger & to play at the Playplace

Josiah had a lot of fun too! :)

Papa, Nana, Uncle Adam, Aunt Wendy, & Nathaniel came over for dinner to celebrate!

Birthday Boy * Little bro helping his bro blow out the candle ;)

We have a 6 year old !?!? 

Paper Airplane Fun

Playing Chutes & Ladders * Nathaniel & Josiah dunking their basketballs

More Memories

T&T Outreach Craft Example ~ Serving Certificates
The T&T Girls customized their own Serving Certificates ~ containing an act of kindness ~ one night at AWANA to give to a neighbor to show Jesus' love in a tangible way.

 to 

I had the privilege of speaking at our church's Mom to Mom group ~ similar to MOPS ~ fyi my images for the phrase "Mom to Mom" doesn't come close to looking as stylish as the images our church uses for the visual title of this group. ;)  I was asked to speak about

 Learning at Home: Intentional Play.

It was a joy to encourage and equip these moms!  A lot of the moms shared that they really enjoyed it too and found what I shared was very helpful! :)  Thank You, Lord!