Carla does the Wave

Okay, Carla is not crowd surfing at KState games but she is learning how to say hello. We caught one of her first attempts the other night, so for the grandparents especially, we hope you enjoy this one.

The 25 Dresses of Christmas

That's what it feels like anyways. Carla has received so many wonderful outfits to wear and we're doing our best to get her in them before January comes. Here are some of our favorite shots of the girl who puts the sparkle into our lives every day!



















Daddy makes me most happy!














Into the sun.



















All those presents and I'd rather have the bow.














Opening presents














A new hat.





























Thanks grandma and grandpa! (all of you)

A Christmas Blessing

Here she is - our little Christmas angel. Carla has been, is and will always be such a blessing to us. And, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas, she gives us reason to pause and contemplate why the One who gave birth to the foundations of the world by the word of His power would be born without the ability to speak.

Lately, Carla has been doing something incredibly cute and obviously desperate as we lay her down to sleep each night. The routine goes something like this - we lay her down and put our hand on her chest and softly whisper 'Good night, sweetheart. We love you.' Quick as lightning, Carla grabs our hands and clutches them tightly to her chest, refusing to let go. She doesn't want us to leave her room but we know that if we don't neither she, nor we, will get any sleep.

Her desperate action makes us think about how we ought to cling to Jesus Christ. Without question, the greatest comfort to us as we mourn the loss of our son Isaac is the great truth that Jesus Christ will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Though we may lose everything in this life, as believers clinging tightly to Him, we will never loose Him. For though even our hold should fail, He will never let us go.

What a great comfort it is to know we can never be without Him who is our souls' sufficiency and greatest delight. It truly is amazing to ponder the awesome truth that God clothed Himself in humanity so that He might ransom sinners for Himself. Psalm 2:12 says "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him."

It's easy for our prideful hearts to kiss the sweet baby Jesus in a lowly manger. But, it's harder to bend our knees to the Kingly, Sovereign reigning Son because it requires us to admit to Him our desperate state. Let's take a cue from Carla this Christmas. As we admire our nativity sets; as we gaze upon the Babe in the manger; as we hear the cattle lowing at His lowly birth, let's remember that He was born in such a humble, vulnerable manner so that He could rescue us. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that our condition is so desperate that unless Jesus was born and lived and died and rose again for us, we could never escape our slavery to sin.

"Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery."

This lowly Babe was no ordinary human. Jesus Christ destroyed the power of death by, living the perfect life we never could and dying the perfect death we all deserve. By His obedience, we sinners can be declared righteous and by His death, we can be forgiven. Praise God that He has condescended to help our lowly estate!

There is therefore, no One more worthy of our souls' trust than Jesus. Our hearts' desire and fervent prayer for Carla is that she will cling to Christ by faith and live a life that's pleasing to Him; that Jesus would graciously give her a new heart that loves Him and values Him above all treasures. Yes, take a cue from Carla this Christmas and cling to Him.

More pictures of our little blessing...

My Favorite New Face

Here I am making my favorite new face, "o."

Long Time, No Post!

Ahhh, tis the season for sharing so here, after a long hiatus, are some new pictures and posts of Carla Marie. She is doing so many cute, new things every day and we are doing our best just to keep up. We are ever more grateful for her sweet spirit and precious smile.

Snow!














Daddy's favorite Christmas present.














Please, mom can we go outside!?!?!


































Pretty blue eyes.














Making my favorite new face, "o."














Have you seen "A Christmas Story?" Here I am mimicking Ralphie's little brother and getting Ralphie's soap ready! :)














In my new purple hoodie.














With the woman who delivered me and my brother Isaac. Her name is Heather and she is an awesome midwife!














I still love my pacifier.















Here's looking at you, kid.

The True Meaning of Choice

This post is a deviation from the normal posts you are accustomed to seeing on Carla's Corner. This is her mom and in light of the reality of her brother Isaac now being in heaven, I have some thoughts to share. They are lengthy but there is a reward for those who read it through - there are some precious pictures of Isaac that a dear friend of ours took following my words.

What does it really mean to be pro-choice? In the western world it has come to mean respecting a woman's right to choose what she wants to do with 'her body.' Which is a way of abstracting the real choice at hand - what to do with the life of the new little body within that pregnant woman. When we learned at my 20 week ultrasound that our little son had a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18, we were told it was fatal. When we asked about statistics on his chances for any kind of prolonged survival we were told that the data wasn't very good because the majority of women who receive this diagnosis choose to terminate their pregnancies. On one site I saw this choice referred to as 'saying goodbye early.'

In some ways, it was a tempting option to consider; it was painful to wait for nearly three months with the knowledge that if my son lived to birth, he would likely die hours afterwards. But, I am so thankful that I left the choice of life and death in the hands of the One person to whom it belongs - Jesus Christ.

Isaac has already taught John & I so much about our Savior, the brevity of life and the consequences of sin. I have no doubt that those lessons will continue in the weeks, months and years to come. I realize, for example, that I am now pro-choice in the truest sense of the term. I didn't used to be. The Bible is clear that all men are born sinners - "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." - Psalm 51:5. If left to grow to maturity, the only thing we will ever choose is to rebel against God and not do what He has asked us to in His Word: "There is none righteous, not even one;...All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one." - Romans 3:10, 12.

We are not born with the power to choose good. Even with the best environment and upbringing, we do not develop that ability as we grow older. We just grow more adept at choosing sin. That was me. However, about 15 years ago, Jesus Christ opened my eyes to the truth that there is One God who created everything, including me, and that I had sinned against Him. For this, I deserve death and hell but He sent His perfect Son, Jesus, to die in my place so that I could be forgiven and freed. Freed from the awful chains of sin.

Now that I am in Christ, I have the freedom and power to choose life. To choose righteousness, to choose to believe truth. "do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." Romans 6:13.

And so, today John and I praise God that we can choose to believe the things which He tells us are true of our son Isaac. He is in heaven. Not because he wasn't a sinner, but because God graciously chose to save him. If Isaac was not a sinner, he would not have died for Romans 6:23 tells us that 'the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life.' Unlike the rest of us old enough to read and understand this post, Isaac has no deeds on the basis of which to be judged. We do. He is 'innocent' in that sense. But, he still needed a lamb, a substitute, someone to pay for his sin nature. And, that lamb is Jesus Christ. Although we only shared a short time here on earth, we will share our glorious, beautiful, good Savior forever.

Finally, lest you think that we don't love our son because we agree with God's word that he, like all of us, was a sinner, I will leave you with this excerpt from a letter I wrote to our dear Isaac recently:

"Isaac, I will never forget you. I will always love you. There will always be a place for you engraved upon my heart. While my memories of what you felt like - the softness of your black hair, the warm smooth skin on your face, your tiny fingers wrapped around mine - will fade over time, my love for you will not. You have made heaven all the sweeter and my treasure there immeasurably greater. Son, I doubt a day will go by when I don't think of you and smile. Until I too become absent from my body and present with our Lord, I will know that my toil over losing you is not in vain and I will look forward expectantly to seeing and embracing you again and spending eternity with you."

I love you,
Mom

Isaac's Birthday

A few days ago, on November 10, 2008, my little brother Isaac Joseph was born. He weighed 2 pounds and was 12 inches long. Mom says he came early - at about 31 weeks along. He lived for 4 minutes. That's not a long time but my parents say it was a really special 4 minutes. He is a beautiful, special little brother and Mom and Dad say that now he is in heaven with Jesus. They tell me that he has a big head just like me and a full head of dark, black hair. Even though he was so little, he still had toenails, fingernails, and strong arms and legs, a perfect little nose, eyes and face. He is a precious gift from God and even though they miss him a lot, they keep telling me that they will see him again someday. I've been getting a lot of kisses and hugs and squeezes since Monday and that's been fun. It's nice to see that my Mom and Dad love us so much. They're crying a lot but I try to make them feel better with my smiles and my "frakenstein" walking around the house. Here are some pictures of Isaac.

My Little Brother

Here is a picture of my little brother, Isaac, that Mom and Dad brought home from an ultrasound awhile ago. He is very sick with a serious genetic disorder and Mom tells me he that I probably won't get to meet him until I get to heaven. He is teaching our family a lot about the sovereign love of Jesus and the goodness of God. I am glad that God made Isaac. He is a precious gift, just like me!

Pumpkin Party!

Mom and Dad took me to a pumpkin patch last weekend. I had a lot of fun playing in the pumpkins, looking at bunnies and almost getting kissed by a camel!
















Look Mom, bunnies!
















(Here's what Carla was pointing to)















What's that?!?!?!















Smiling with the camel ... where'd his head go?















I got to carry home the kettle corn.
















What I like to do on Sunday afternoons while Daddy reads the paper.

Birthday Shots

This post has a lot of pictures in it so make sure you scroll down to see them all. I also convinced Mommy and Daddy to put up three videos of me after all these pictures. Enjoy!

I'm 1!















Opening presents.














Birthday hug from Willie.














Before.















After.















Cake is goood.















Say Cheese!















Presents!














Kisses from Kito.
















Sunny day.















Pretty smile.
















My cake.














I like football.















Blue eyes.















It's a Carla-in-the-box.















Family picture.















I love uncle Willie.















Waking up.















Uncle Tim's shoe.















Cubs hat.















My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.