Letter to Adalaide

I wrote this letter to my sweet niece.  I didn't know how else to capture everything that kept going through my head.  So I woke up at 6am on Thursday and wrote this.

We will be burying her tonight.  I don't know if I will be able to read it there, but I am going to give it to her parents. 

My Little Niece is With Jesus

I just cried through this song. Mark Schultz - What it Means to Be Loved.  Cried over the little niece that I will never get to hold.  Never get to meet.  Never get to watch grow up.  There aren't really any words.  Just shock and grief.  It feels so strange to be completely helpless to fix a situation.  To have no words to say.  To not know how to help, or what to do.

Then I remembered reading this post from a friend's blog.  It's called "Miscarriage: How to Comfort".  It's the first place I went.  I wanted to make sure I don't say any of the things on the 'what not to say' list.  I want to know what things I can do to help.  The second place I went was another friend's blog who lost their daughter about a year and a half ago.  She had a link to a blog with a whole series on "How to Help Your Grieving Friend".  What awesome tools.  As I've never been through a miscarriage, I don't really know how she's feeling, or what things I can do to help.  I know there's a long road of grieving ahead for her, but I know that I want to be there for her.  I want to help in whatever ways I can, but I don't want to be annoying.

The other thing that this makes me wonder is how anyone, and I mean ANYONE can think that abortion is okay.  These are little people we're talking about.  Children with a future ahead of them.  I just don't understand why there is such a big debate over it in our country.  What is there to debate?

Anyway.  Just needed to type out my thoughts.  If you have any advice for me how to help her, I'd be glad to hear it. 

Be Your Own 'Doctor' by Rachel Weaver (6/44)

I got this book a couple of years ago, and have been working my way through it for quite a while now.  Kevin and I take a naturalistic approach to our health care, and this book has been a wonderful resource for me in knowing how to remedy many things ourselves. 

Roughly the first half of the book goes through many different herbs telling the healing properties of each, and ways they can be used.  Many of the items listed are common things you would find in your kitchen i.e. onions, garlic, cayenne, ginger, parsley, apple cider vinegar.  The second half of the book goes through several topical sections such as pregnancy, respiratory difficulties, colon health, and others.  This section gives you herbal remedies for many areas of health.  Then it the back of the book are some recipes for teas, salves, tinctures, etc. and how to plan ahead to treat things with herbs.

Every chapter has at least one story about how she has used the herb being discussed and what the results were.  She also gives resources of where to order the herbs and items that she talks about.  

I think the one thing from the book that I have used the most is called 'People's Paste Powder'.  It's a combination of comfrey rood powder, slippery elm powder, myrrh powder, bayberry root powder, and garlic powder.  You use it to put on cuts or wounds.  All you do is pack it into the wound, and it forms a scab like thing.  The comfrey root increases circulation to the area which results in faster healing.  I have used it several times, and had situations where I was somewhere else and wished I had it with me. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in 'herbal home health care'.  It does take a little bit of preparation and work to do, but in my opinion, it is well worth it.  I always keep this book within arm's reach because it is so quick and easy to reference something that comes up in our family.  If you are interested in the book, you can order it on Amazon.  I believe it's $24.

Thoughts for Young Mothers by Elsie D. Holsinger (5/44)

My sister-in-law and I take turns helping clean each others' homes each week.  A couple of weeks ago, we were at her house, and I was helping her move some books onto a bookshelf.  I came across this book, and the title intrigued me.  I'm a young mother, and hearing someone's thoughts for me sounded great.

It was a pretty quick read (only 128 pages).  It's an older book printed in 1953, but the Biblical truths it contains are timeless. Each chapter begins with a verse that goes with the theme of the chapter.  Actually, every chapter is filled with verses.

I think the first few chapters were my favorites.  In them, she talks about being like Christ, choosing to be content, keeping our spiritual nourishment a top priority, and learning from the example of Hannah in the Bible.

One quote that really spoke to me was this, "We Christian mothers are more than cooks and housekeepers.  We are children of God and joint heirs with Christ.  We are His representatives, His ambassadors.  God has given us our home with our children as a special place to serve Him.  Glorify and praise the Lord just where you are."

This whole book was an encouragement, and a good reminder of ways that I can be a better mother to my girls.  I was reminded that I, as the mother, set the tone of the household.  Meaning, if Mom is happy and cheerful showing patience and love, the home will respond in the same way.  If Mom is tired, cranky, irritable and cross, the home will respond in that way as well.  This was a good look in the mirror for me to realize that when my children are getting on my nerves, it's probably MY attitude that needs an adjustment.

I would definitely recommend this book to other young mothers.  And I found out from my S-I-L that the book actually belongs to our Church library, so you can borrow it from there!