Cooper Family 2013 Review...

So each year I like to write a little blog post, kinda like a New Years Letter to not only let our friends and family know about what we did last year but also to reflect on the things that God taught us in our lives this year.  No year is ever complete without having a learning experience from the Lord and for our family 2013 was JUST that!

Pumpkin (7), will be having her 8th birthday in almost 30 days!  She has shown a more grown up side this past year and I cannot believe she is no longer my little baby!  This year I have witnessed all our labor and hard work molding her into a child who LOVES the Lord, pay off!  She is very strong about telling people that she isn't allowed to do something that she knows mom and dad wouldn't approve of, she has become very honest to where I know I can believe whatever she tells me and I know she wouldn't tell a lie.  She is so helpful around the house and always completes her chores happily without complaint!  She is in 2nd grade this year and is doing so well with her work!  She is definitely better at spelling and math than I ever was!

Little Bear (6), is in first grade this year, she is doing really well in math and does all her work very well.  She is my little fashionista and is always designing new outfits and hairstyles for the other kids.  She has stepped up this year as my "little mommy."  She LOVES the babies and has a sweet way about her where they all just love her!  She loves to hold the baby and rock her, and speaks so sweetly to Goobies and helps with changing diapers without me asking her at all.  I've made a point to not ask them to change diapers or take care of the babies because I just feel that it is my job to do those things, but she loves to help with the babies.  She has also started to blossom as such an encourager.  She loves to make Nathan and I little notes here and there to tell us how much she loves us and cares about us.

Hobble-bobble (4) is starting to hear her conscience.  Used to be, when the little ones would start getting into things they shouldn't, she was right there next to them doing the same thing.  But now she come to us and tells us that they are doing wrong instead of joining in.  This year she is too young to do school with us so she does learning websites online.  She has actually learned to read this way!  She has started reading easy stuff and really enjoys learning.  She has been begging me to start Kindergarten this year but I'm determined to wait till she is 5 so that I can group her with Sweet-Pea and do K with both of them next year like I did with Pumpkin and Little Bear.

Sweet-pea (3) has had a blast playing in our new house!  She is OBSESSED with Twilight-sparkle on My Little Pony, and the color purple.  This kid would watch My Little Pony 24/7 if I let her!  She has started trying to be "mommy's little helper" especially when I'm in the kitchen.  She loves to feel like a big girl and loves to help make dinner and treats for the whole family!

Goobies (2) still has a love affair with her passy.  This child is the ONLY child I've had who was A. attached to a passy, and B. had one past 1 year.  When she turned 1, she picked up a passy that she found one day and I haven't been able to get it away from her since.  This coming year we will be starting to phase out her passy!  She is also in the temper tantrum stage.  She HATES to be told no and it begins with a soft whine and ends with  full out spread eagle on the floor!  LOL  Gotta love the two's!
Baby Dumplin' (4mo) is doing great!  She is still nursing and growing.  She has taken a love to a new bear lovey we bought her for Christmas and will sleep well as long as it is touching her cheek.  She is sleeping through the night now and has recently put herself on a every three hour schedule with her feedings.  She is itching to sit up and look around so she also got a bumbo seat for Christmas as well to help her with that longing.


Nathan & I are doing great, our marriage is wonderful and our love for each other grows with each passing day.  His back pain is off and on now- some days it seems under control but others he is in a lot of pain.  We've been researching other natural remedies to help him with it and are still in the process of that.  I will be starting classes back through LU Online in a few weeks and looking forward to continuing my degree.

Our family has gone through a ton to ups and downs this year with trying to purchase our new house, but we've also seen God do so many miracles in the process.  We put the initial contract on it in October of 2012, and had to have that contract re-approved three times.  It was even put on the auction block and we were only notified 24 hours before hand.  We were on Channel 6 news twice and Senator Tim Kain stepped in to help us save the house!  Only God could have made all that happen for us!  Our girls were able to watch God's hand at work this year as we prayed as a family daily, asking God to give us this home and one by one he answered each and every one of them!  We still have yet to close on the house, but we've been living here for 4 months now!  We have complete faith that God will make this happen for us in 2014!  If there is anything we've learned this year about the Lord it is that he is FAITHFUL!  God WILL supply all of our needs!  HIS plan is the best plan, not our own.  But most importantly we've had to learn to let go of our own plans and realize that God is always in control...good, or bad, we are always right where he wants us to be right when we need to be there!!  After three years of heart ache, and even at times (for me) questioning if God was even hearing me, He has shown his face to us this year!  Any doubts I ever had about God before have all been blown away this year.  Through everything we've gone through we just kept holding on and saying and believing that "God is in Control!"   And thank GOD that he was!

We are looking forward to 2014- we KNOW that God has HUGE plans in store for us again this year, and even though those plans may not be our plans, or what we would like to happen in our lives, we know that His way, is the BEST way!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  

2012 Overview

2012 was probably on the list of Top two hardest years of my life.  However, it is probably also one of the top two years that has changed my life for the better.  I have experienced more loss in the last year than I have in my short 30 years on this earth, but I have also experienced more life lessons this year than any other year as well.

I feel that the Lord has used 2012 to clean out my life, fertilize the soil, and get it ready for all new seeds to start sprouting in 2013.  I'm looking forward to many things this year: new friendships, continuing my college courses, finishing out the school year homeschooling my girls, and waiting on any new blessings that God would want to throw my way.  

Pumpkin will be 7 feb. 5th this year.  I cannot believe she is going to be so big already!  In 2012 she learned how to swim, joined the swim team, was a cheerleader for upward, and started the second part of 1st grade.  She is reading well now, and  loves horses, my little pony, video games and spending time with friends.  

Little Bear was 5 this past May (2012).  Little Bear swim lessons this year, she finished out her ballet class in June, and also was a cheerleader for upward this fall.  She started Kindergarten this year and is starting to read now.  She really loves dress up and anything that has to do with fashion!  

Hobble-bobble was 3 this past June, She was too young to do anything with her sisters this year so far as activities, but she loves Veggie Tales, Spiderman, Larry boy, and My little pony.

Sweet-pea was 2 this past August, she loves pinkie-pie pony, and my little pony.

And Goobies was 1 in September.  She is talking a bit now and has, for some reason, decided once she turGooned a year old that she wanted to start taking a passy!  I have NEVER had a child have a passy past a year old so I'm a bit worried about her teeth.  I try my best to hide it but she somehow ends up finding it or one of the other girls gives it to her.  She is very loving and is always hugging and loving on her sisters!  

Nathan and I have been waiting on an answer to a contract we put on a short-sale for the last 90 days.  We have been praying for God's will in the situation.  I would love to have a larger house for  all of us, however I do love our little ranch in the summer time.  With spring coming up and I am about to start planning for our garden, part of me doesn't want to leave our house, BUT if God did give this house to us I would not be opposed either.  

The shop down town moved locations this past fall as well.  Nathan and his dad moved the shop into the James Center which was just a block away from the old location.  It is so beautiful down there and we are so excited to see how God blesses the shop this year in the new location. 

Nathan's back is still about the same.  He was doing really well when we went to the doc back in August.  They told him to not schedule the surgery and put it off longer, however, the minute the cold weather hit he has been in severe pain again.  Of course some days are better than others, but we are looking forward to the warmer weather so that his pain will decrease.  

I start my classes back on the 14th this month.  I have changed my program to Religion with a Minor in Christian Counseling.  I take my first Counseling class this semester so I am very excited about that.

We are all looking forward to see what 2013 holds for our family and praying that whatever it holds that God will be able to use us all for His Glory.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

    

What I learned in 2010

When I think about how I teach my children about Creation, and how God made the earth and all that is in it. It just humbles me to think that he already knew all the lessons in life he was going to teach us before he ever created us. He already knew how to be the perfect father and didn't have to learn by trial and error. He knew what we needed because he knew us personally before we even knew Him.

Thinking back over the last year, I find it interesting how long it takes us humans to learn simple lessons God is trying to teach us. Some of us can sit and listen to a friend talk about their experiences over and over, and how painful the outcome of things were because of their mistakes; and then we go out and do the exact same thing and expect different results! Over and over again we do the same selfish, self-destructive things to ourselves and still we do not learn! I'm guilty as well of needing the Lord to hit me over the head with a brick before I can say "OH WOW! So that's how it's suppose to be!!" I feel like when it comes to life lessons from God, he teaches us in parts. Little by little, piece by piece he puts things together for us over long periods of time. Each year I feel like my life lessons have gotten more intense, more in depth and harder and harder to figure out what exactly God is trying to say at times!

2010 was a huge eye opener for me spiritually speaking. I believe that God has shown me one of the most important lessons of my life this year, piece by piece . For the last 12 years, I've gotten up on Sunday mornings, put on my Sunday best, put on shoes that make me grit my teeth in pain and went to "Church." I'd walk in say hello to whoever crossed my path on the way to my seat and do whatever ministry duties I had that day. Some days I'd sit behind/beside people and listen to them talk about what that person was wearing in the Choir, or this person's shoes or that person's hair style; and some day's I felt like it was a huge fashion show that I was not classy enough for. Some day's were better than others, there were some day's I could walk in and out and have not ONE person notice or say hello to me; but some day's when I would be so caught up with talking to people I couldn't get out of the building. I felt that people based my faithfulness to God on my attendance, how much I volunteered or how much money I gave. I'm not speaking of one particular "Church" that I've attended, but several of them. My overall experiences in "the church", I have to say has not been so great!

I found myself pulling away from "The Church" (not one in particular) wanting to seek the Lord on my own. I felt that I had grown more from spending my Sunday's and Wednesday's pouring over my bible myself, then I had in the last 12 years sitting in "the Church" building. As this began to happen in my life, the Lord piece by piece began to bring people into my life to explain to me what "The Church" really is! Last summer, I believe it was, we received a visit from my husbands old roommate in College; Pastor Jamal Jivanjee. Jamal started talking to us about a book he was reading called "Pagan Christianity" He told us all about his thoughts on "the church" and how a lot of things we do today in "the church" are old pagan traditions. He talked about how "the church" isn't a building full of people but a community of people. I listened to Jamal talk and my first reaction was "I like the traditions".

As time went on, my husband was asked to lead worship for a friend of ours at a new church plant one night. After the worship, we talked to him about the model of "the church" it seemed similar to what Jamal had talked about. The thing he said to us was "if you are ready to be a missionary in this county then this church is for you!" Basically it's a group of believers meeting together in a house, reaching out to non-believers in their neighborhood. Then eventually someone will start another community in another neighborhood and on and on. But the emphasis here is not on "Growth" of "the church" it's on growth of "THE CHURCH"; reaching non-believers.

For months we talked about this new "church" model. And for months I wrestled with what this meant for me, and for my future. Then last week I finished the most life changing book that brought everything God has been trying to show me together! "Radical" by David Platt.

I've learned this year that "The Church" is what has been separating The Church from being "THE CHURCH" - Yes you heard that right. WE are the church, our body is the Temple. The holy spirit does not just move at the alter of a building, or in the presence of one man standing on the pulpit preaching a sermon. The Holy Spirit moves within the Temple, it moves within all of us not just one of us, we are a mobile church, in need of community with other believers. "The Church" is not a building, or a denomination, or a service that caters to seekers, and ignores believers; nor is it a service that caters to believers. It's not for our entertainment and it's not for our comfort. "The Church" is us, the body of Christ coming together for one common purpose. "The Church" isn't about how big we can grow "the church". Jesus only had 12 disciples of whom were not schooled, but trained to go into the world and teach the good news. Looking at the New Testament it seems Jesus was more successful with those 12 disciples then some "churches" are with 10k members! From my experience getting people to volunteer for things in "churches" is like pulling teeth sometimes. In the book "radical" it talks about people saying things like "that's just not my calling!" I for one am guilty of using that excuse myself, but it also talks about how when Jesus says "GO" it doesn't say "if you are called" because he has called everyone! It's not about being comfortable in our church buildings, and not stepping on peoples toes, the watered-down gospel doesn't satisfy; it's about being uncomfortable and offending people for the gospel!

Why it took me this long to be able to look at how Jesus did things and say "Hey that is how your suppose to do church" I have no idea. It has been right in front of me all this time and I'm just now being hit with the brick! It would make since that we would duplicate everything our Savior did, if we are Christ-followers. I mean really he showed us how to do everything from prayer to living a godly life; why wouldn't he have shown us how to BE the church too?

I'm thankful for the lessons the Lord has been teaching me. I'm looking forward to what he has in store for us in 2011 since I've finally grasped what he was trying to say to me in 2010. Praying for lots of spiritual growth this year! God Bless and Happy New year!