An Announcement…

Another brother or sister is joining the family in October!

Summer Picnic…

Today the girls and I enjoyed a summer picnic in our backyard! Their faces tell of the excitement of eating lunch outside… 😀

So excited to eat outside!

Fiona was so excited!!

~Yummy food~

Eating cherries~ Fiona was our photographer 🙂

Titus was sleeping while we ate, but because he is so cute, I thought I’d post this picture of him practicing his growl (well, he was really yawning, but we pretended it was a growl!).

Our New Addition!!!

I can’t believe that I didn’t update my blog about some very exciting news… we expanded our household by two feet…

by two precious little feet…

two little boy feet!!!

We are excited to announce the birth of our son

Titus Josiah Dubina

April 18th ~ 7 lbs. 2 oz ~ 21″

Our prayer for our son is similar to that of Paul’s for Titus in the Bible:

“Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.” Titus 2:6-8

We pray that the Lord would convert Titus’ heart at a young age and that he might be a young man who lives for the Lord. We are so blessed to be his parents!

Here are a few pictures of before and after Titus was born:

A week before Titus was born.

The day Titus was born we took one last family picture with the girls~

Proud daddy to a handsome little boy!!!

The happy parents!

Fiona meets Titus for the first time~ 😀

Kenzie meets Titus and give him a soft little kiss~

Samson’s parents- the proud grandparents

And my parents, the other proud grandparents!

A few days after he was born…

Looking cute three days old…

Exchanging sweet little gazes~

The threesome!!!

Precious!

~Sweet sisters~

My sister, Rachel, came over to help us out several times over the past few weeks. She is such a joy to be around and very capable of helping me with the children.

And as you can see, Titus loved sleeping in her warm arms.

Enjoying the spring weather with the three children 🙂

 

 

Little Single Days

~Sunrise~

Recently I was talking with a friend from church about being worried about the future and what it might bring. We plan our trips to tournaments and clinics months in advance, and I was relaying to her how I feel like it is already the end of the year and it is only September! While I was unmarried, my family didn’t go on many trips, so we mostly planned things a month or so in advance. I’ve had to make the adjustment to planning things in advance with Samson’s coaching and tournament schedule. Now I am endeavoring to not worry about how I will go to a future tournament with two little ones. I love traveling with my husband and children! But let’s just say traveling with two under two can be somewhat interesting at times! 😉 Thankfully, we have family who have graciously offered their help, so I am blessed to have help coming our way. Reading this today was a fresh reminder to take each day as it comes, and to not worry about the future.

Little Single Days

(J.R. Miller, “Daily Bible Readings in the Life of Christ” 1890)

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each
day has enough trouble of its own!” Matthew 6:34

One reason which our Lord gives against anxiety for the future, is that we have
nothing to do with the future. God gives us life by days–little single days. Each
day has . . .
  its own duties, 
  its own needs, 
  its own trials and temptations, 
  its own griefs and sorrows.

God always gives us strength enough for the day. But if we insist on dragging in
tomorrow’s cares and piling them on top of today’s cares–our strength will not be
enough for the load. God will not give additional strength–just to humor our whims
of worry and distrust.

So the lesson is, that we should keep each day distinct–and attend strictly to
what it brings to us. Charles Kingsley says:”Do today’s duty, fight today’s
temptation–and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking ahead to things
which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.” We really have
nothing at all to do with the future–except to prepare for it, by doing the duties
of today with fidelity.

No one was ever crushed by the burdens of one day. We can always get along with our
heaviest load–until the sun goes down. Well, that is all we ever have to do.
Tomorrow? Oh, you may have no tomorrow; you may be in Heaven. If you are here–God
will be here too, and you will receive new strength sufficient for the new day.

“As your days–so shall your strength be!” Deuteronomy 33:25

Welcome Kenzie Joy!!!

Kenzie Joy Dubina

We are pleased to announce the birth of our daughter, Kenzie Joy Dubina! She was born on June 10, 2012 at 11:30 a.m., weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 inches long. Fiona is a proud big sister and loves running to Kenzie’s bassinet to show off her “baby”! She has tried saying her name, but the best she can do so far is say “Z”. 😉

We are adjusting well to life with two little girls. And yes, we have a lot of pink floating around our house now!!

The girls in their matching shirts!

Sister love…

Samson has been such a blessing to me while I have been recovering. He often wakes up with Fiona in the morning and takes care of her while I get a little extra sleep or nurse Kenzie. They like to go jogging together (Samson pushes Fiona in a jogging stroller) and sometimes they bring me back a little bouquet of freshly picked flowers! I love seeing Samson love his little girls and how much they like being cuddled and kissed by their daddy. Truly I am blessed to have such a wonderful man to call my beloved husband!

Daddy and his girls!

My little helper

She was pretending to scrub the floor!

As Fiona has started to be more interested in my daily work around the home, I’ve tried to incorporate her little hands to help alongside mine. My Mom (and also my Dad) trained me from a young age to enjoy working. I didn’t come by it naturally by any means! But Mom taught me that work was given to man before the Fall (“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Genesis 2:15), and that it is not part of the curse. The curse was that man would toil at his labor and work by the sweat of his brow, and that woman would have pain in childbirth and have a desire to rule over her husband. So work was part of man’s duty before the fall, and continues to be part of our duty to this day.

I am trying to instill in Fiona the same principles of a good work ethic and doing all things as to the Lord as my parents did in me. Since Fiona is still so young I haven’t explained to her yet that whatever she does should be done as to the Lord, but I plan to start instructing her once she starts talking and understanding more. Right now, any new thing I show her she loves to do! So while she has a desire to learn, I plan to train her to like working and helping out in our home. Granted, I have to be patient with her work and it may take a little longer to do my work, but in the long run I know I will reap the benefits of training her while she is young. Children are such a blessing from the Lord, and we are so grateful for Fiona!

Helping to put the clothes in the dryer

The cute little face that helps me with the dishes now!

Helping to make egg salad for lunch

She loved peeling an egg and then helping me mix up the egg salad. She must be a true cook because after we mixed it all up she stuck her little fingers into the bowl and tried a small handfull to see if all the right ingredients were in it!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior on Christmas. We were able to gather with our family at various get-togethers and enjoyed seeing everyone.

With Samson's grandparents

Fiona playing with her new car!

Fiona doesn't walk on her own yet, but this new walker toy may help her out a bit! She loves walking behind it making the music play!!

Samson and I celebrated the coming New Year an hour early with a sparkling grape juice toast and a kiss! The Lord was so faithful in 2011- His mercies are many towards me and my family. I know I can trust Him in 2012 because He has shown Himself faithful in the past.

I can’t believe I haven’t posted on here yet about our exciting news… we are expecting another little baby sometime around June 2nd! We are thrilled that the Lord has blessed us with another child! Fiona is growing steadily and by June will be quite the big sister ;)! She is practicing her mothering skills on her baby dolls presently. She kisses them, hugs them and even patiently disciplines them when they are misbehaving :).  I love nursing her and feeling the little one in my womb move about and kick- a wonderful time of motherhood!

Lovin' my 'lil girl!

We had our first snow of 2012 the other day, and I took Fiona out to experience snow for the first time. She liked tasting the snow and I even helped her walk around a bit.

Before we went outside...

I was taking a while getting ready, and I also decided to try and take some pictures of her in her cute snowsuit... I guess she had other plans (like going outside?!)

First touch of snow...

"What does it taste like?"

"Whatever this snow stuff is... it's really cold and wet!"

"And it really doesn't taste that great, either!"

"Nonetheless, it is quite interesting..."

The other day I was invited to a ladies tea party at a friend’s house where I was able to meet Elisabeth Elliott! Because she is getting older, she isn’t able to talk to people now, but we listened to a recording of her talking about the Christmas story from several years ago. It was very exciting to meet her in person! I enjoyed reading several of her books when I was younger and am sure I will read others in the future.

Me with Elisabeth Elliott

l to r- My Mom, Elisabeth, Me, Fiona and my sister, Rachel

Samson made dinner for me the day of the ladies tea party since I was gone most of the afternoon … he made a lovely lemon chicken stir fry and fresh fruit on vanilla yogurt. We ate by candlelight and he surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers adorning the table! The flowers are cheering up my kitchen counter-top now, so I snapped a picture to share with you all.

We ate the stir fry before I thought to get a picture, but here is the lovely fruit bowl!

I am so blessed to be married to Samson- he was worth waiting for, and shows his love for me in countless ways each day. We will celebrate our second anniversary on the 9th of this month! I can’t believe we have been married for nearly two years- in many ways it seems like we’ve been married for more than two years, we’ve had so many wonderful experiences and traveled so many places together!

My dearly beloved husband

Perhaps I’ll be able to blog more often this year… but life with a dear husband and two little munchkins might consume most of my time 😉 I’ll post when I’m able and not neglecting other duties!

I had tea with a dear friend, Audre, the other day. I forgot to take a picture of the two of us, but I took a picture of the table before she arrived.

Samson captured her trying on my scarf~ isn't she cute?!

The joy of motherhood…

I wrote this 5 1/2 months ago… at that time I was still getting into a routine, so posting seemed like the last thing I needed to be doing with my time. Now things are more regular and I have a little extra free time when she is napping:)

This morning as I sat nursing Fiona in my rocking chair, many thoughts came flooding into my mind. I began to look at her little face which gets chubbier by the day and pondered each little part. The glowing lamplight revealed the fuzz on the ends of her little ears. Her little button nose was nearly touching me, her big eyes slightly rolling around in mesmerization and delight, her chubby cheeks sucked furiously and then slowed to a suckle and her sweet hand was resting on mine in love.

I looked into my daughter’s face and was flooded with a feeling of unworthiness in being blessed with her precious little soul to raise. I tried to imagine what the years ahead will hold- what she will look like when she is two years old- what her personality will be- the questions she will ask- starting to home school her- trips we will take as a family- her first cooking attempts- her 16th birthday- Lord willing, her courtship and marriage, and I started to get very overwhelmed! Then I realized that I’m not in any of those places right now. I have a lovely three and a half month old baby who I can enjoy right now and I need not be anxious about the future. So I sat a few minutes longer and thanked God for the blessing of having a daughter and enjoyed holding her warm little body close to mine. Ah! The joys of motherhood!!

Encouragement for Mothers

My Mom passed along this encouraging article (Motherhood as a Mission Field) to me today, and I thought I would share it with you. The article is a wonderful reminder of the importance of our role as mothers. May it inspire you to see your children as a mission field right in your own home.