always humbled

Oh my sweet friends ;)
What a blessing the body of Christ has been in our lives, you all have been continuously kind and thoughtful of our family and Levi! I am always so amazed ....

Recently I have been praying so much for different things as usual, and I have just come to the conclusion that this journey has completely humbled me in all ways.
For one, doesnt becoming a mom do this to us anyways?   Well I never thought the thoughts that I have had recently would ever enter my brain, because I am someone who is full of pride haha....
But, a while back I sat down and just wrote out all the "change" that took place when I became Levi's mom....one thing that changed in a big way was becoming a stay at home mom which I hadnt planned on doing because I loved my job and had been there 10 years, and I felt good at it! But through prayer during that time God showed me that I needed to move on to something that was very unknown, and it was a big leap of faith to say yes to the idea of staying home....many that know me know that my job was a huge part of my life, you know I had a drive to work harder if needed and that I loved getting to be with so many people everyday and loved getting dressed up for my job =)...oh and so much more that i loved. But you stay at home moms know that its not just about the choice to stay with your child, its about giving up many things that you loved in sacrifice for your decision!!Well I can say that 2 years ago when I made this change, it was extremely important and the best decision I could ever make, and had no idea the amount of fulfillment and benefit this would be in our home....The amount of change in my heart i would say is immeasurable because the things I now value are night and day. (praise God! haha)

God has been rocking my world lately, in a way that is funny kind of...I have been realizing that He provides the body of Christ to show us His love for us, and I keep on being like choosy of who I think should help, or I keep thinking I can do it on my own... but He keeps on bringing people alongside of me, and I'm like "oh we are fine!!"( bla bla bla...).because you know, I wouldn't want someone to know that I am human... So recently when i have been struggling with a few things, all these times that I have said "no thanks"  to others who have offered something have been popping in my mind like crazy! So first of all sorry to all of you, you are amazing in your obedience in serving others!! Its kind of embarrassing to think how my pride has gotten in the way of letting God show us how He loves us(.and its kind of embarrassing to share this too haha!!)...
So I am now feeling extremely humbled, knowing that God can use ANYONE and he can do ANYTHING to show us who He is, but I have been sort of standing in the way filtering what I think I may need...

So here is one need that I need to be honest about, and that is that Mike and I have worked very hard at being on a single income, we have learned to budget, we have maintained being out of debt (praise God!), but the reality is that it is a very small budget and Mike makes a modest salary.( that I remind myself is more than many people in the world if I can have a global perspective) The fact that I have been able to stick to a budget is by the grace of God if anyone knows me, but we have done an amazing job of only having what we need, and cutting out the rest for about 2 years!  (in fact I never thought I would enjoy the challenge of the creativity that that brings! haha). That being said, although Levi has great insurance there are many daily needs that we run into to help him keep up with everyone else. Just a recent example of this is that in order for him to go to the splash pad, he will need waterproof socks ($20-$30) for under his braces, waterproof knee pads($15) and water shoes that I can find to fit over his braces($20-30) to protect him from skin breakdown and also allow him to wear his braces in the water...
There have been many things recently in addition to this, and as he is growing the we are realizing that we will have to wait and save up for those things or go into debt to purchase for him, and that these "extras" will always be a part of his life.
I have been really praying about what we need to do to make this work with what we have, and the Lord keeps reminding me "you do not have, because you do not ask" (james 4:2b). So although this is the hardest thing to do, I feel that I am being obedient in asking and allowing God to work how he wants to with this (without pride getting in the way this time).  So now you will see on our blog that there is a "Donate" button on the right side of our page that is linked to a separate account that we can use for these extra things for Levi. This is through pay pal, so its a secure site to donate to. Please pray about it, and I have no idea what will come of this, but I want to allow for the opportunity to let others be obedient while I am learning to be obedient as well..
We also built in a comment box on the right side which emails us directly! We have been so blessed by your kind words, it truly makes a big impact every day, so we welcome your emails as well. And as always, thank you for continued prayers as these are the most important of all.
"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”- Matthew 19:26

Love you all, I am praying over this post that you will understand my heart in asking this as its extremely uncomfortable to do ;)

God bless you!