News from Laine!

Today I am handing over the blog to Laine. What an exciting day! If you had told me this would happen I wouldn't have believed you!

This is a testimony to "you never know what God's plan is!" Next week I am going to show you how Helen made all of Laine's past letters into books as a gift for Laine, myself and our friend Kaye who was responsible for saving all these letters to a memory stick so they were never lost. They are a treasure. Having a little read I realised the vast amount of work in them and the content give me all this material that I read for many years and yet now at a different time in my life it is all new. I am going to get myself a note book and treat the letters as a Bible Study and make a project of it throughout 2015. I will start this year but I can see I have a year of Bible study I could do with these letters. I can't wait!

If you followed Laine's Letters you are in for a treat! If you never knew of Laine's Letters you are still in for a big treat!

So over to Laine...

Dear Sisters,

Hi! It is so wonderful to be able to connect with you all on Annabel’s blog, and so kind of her to let me write a letter to you all as my new blog is being set up for some time next year, God willing. I know many of you might not know who I am, so let me introduce myself first. My name is Laine. I have been married to my Love for 33 years now. Art and I have five children and four grandchildren. We are so thankful for each and every one of them, and for our beautiful daughters-in-law and son-in-law. I still can’t believe I am a grandmother sometimes, it is all just too rich. ~Smile~ My four older children are all grown up, ranging from 31 years of age to 21 years of age. But our youngest is only 5 years old as we adopted her from China four years ago. We waited almost six years for her, so there was quite a lot of excitement in the house when we got the call that we were matched with our little Lucy. About the same time that we were matched, we learned that our two older sons and their wives were each going to have a baby! So I became a grandmother soon after the time that I became a mother again. Rich, rich, rich! Not only that, but they all live next door to me or very close by. And now there are four grandchildren. Lucy loves playing with each and every one of them. The grandkids’ ages range from 3 years old down to 9 months. Am I busy? Yes! The best kind of busy. ~Smile~

I was facing the empty nest, and the LORD refilled my nest!

“He makes the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise the LORD!” Psalm 113:9

I am not barren, and I know this verse has a deeper meaning (Isaiah 54:1), but I sure do pray through this verse that the LORD will help me to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. 

Because “He makes...”

I can’t do it, but He can!

“He makes...”

Two of my favorite Words in the Bible.

“And the LORD make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you. “ 1 Thessalonians 3:12

“Whereunto I also labor striving according to His working, which works in me mightily.” Colossians 1:29

Right before we were going to get Lucy from China, I was diagnosed with having Interstitial Cystitis. I have learned that anything with an “itis” at the end is not going to be pleasant or easy. I have had this condition for over four years now, and I can attest that it has not been easy. I still marvel that I made it to China given the condition that I was in. But...

“He makes...”

Unfortunately, I got worse for quite a long time before I got better. Plus I had a new baby. Also my poor daughters-in-law, who were living close by me, were so sick with their pregnancies. And my little Lucy had digestive issues, which I had to unravel, causing her to not be able to sleep through the night the first full year she was with us. She would awake crying and writhing in pain almost every night, and sometimes more than once a night. Needless to say, it was an exhaustive year. But Lucy is doing fabulous now through much prayer and nutritional perseverance. She cannot tolerate any soy, can have limited dairy, and occasional gluten. It is just so wonderful to see her thrive! I started teaching her kindergarten 7 weeks ago. God is so good! He has again got us through some very tough times.

“For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Phillippians 2:13

It took me longer to get well. In fact, it’s only been in the last four months that I have felt many days as though I had nothing wrong with me. Of course, I do have to be very careful with my diet. But had I not been diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis, I wouldn’t have learned how to help Lucy. And also my daughter Abbie. My sweet daughter, Abbie, started showing signs of Interstitial Cystitis three weeks before her marriage almost three years ago. We have suffered together, and we have worked hard together to get well. We are both doing so much better. Thanks be to God our Father! And in the process, we both say we have learned so much about eating healthier than we would have ever had, had we not been so ill.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

And I love, love, love God.

And I am called to His purpose.

So...

“He makes...”

Yes, He makes!

Love,

Laine

Dear Sisters,

It’s been busy in my house recently. I have been enjoying so many things. We are at the end of summer, but it is still hot here! We are expecting some hot days this weekend. Then, maybe, we can start fall. Yeah!

1~ Art likes to eat as soon as he walks in the door, so believe it or not, we eat dinner at 3:30 p.m. every day. I have his meal ready pretty much the moment he walks in. He loves it! Today we are having chicken, which I know he will love. I made him chili last night, and even though it was a warm day, he was really happy to have chili. I had to make it after I heard Abbie had made it for her husband the day before. I love getting recipe ideas from my kids.

2~ I love to do one “weird” thing a day. This is something that I have noticed that needs to be done, like cleaning a lamp shade or wiping down a wall. Something like that. It usually only takes me a very short time, but it keeps up the housekeeping in a pleasant sort of way.

3~ I learned a cool way to cut Lucy’s long hair. I just put her hair into two pigtails with the hair band right under each ear. Then I comb the ends nice and flat on each side in front. Trim straight across the bottom of each pigtail evenly. Then take out the pigtails and trim up evenly at the back. It kind of forms a pretty scoop shape on the ends of her hair that I love. Plus it is so fast!

4~ I have learned that when I get a bottle of glass cleaner in my hand to just start cleaning everything that requires glass cleaner. I do even my car windows while I have that bottle in my hand!

5~ I twisted my ankle this week. It is all swollen and painful. I put ice on it right away. Then I alternated ice and heat. I also smashed up a comfrey leaf and wrapped that around it with a bit of plastic wrap to help reduce the swelling. I also kept it elevated and rested it. Lucy kept rotating my ice packs for me. It is finally feeling better after four days. Yeah!

6~ Lucy is 5 years old now. She helps me so much. She makes her bed every day, and she tidies her room. She separates her clothes in piles to be put away. She puts the trash can liner into the empty trash can for me in the kitchen. She cleans up her toys and books for school. She cleans up her little messes. She helps me with the dishes. She loves to stir anything I am preparing to bake. And if I am having a difficult day with my health, she will pat my arm and say, “It will be okay, Mama.”

7~ I cook completely different now than the way I used to cook. I have had to learn how to change in my cooking to help my body heal, but I really love our new foods. Here is something I made for us last month. It was such a big hit that I had to make it again for Abbie, and she was swooning while eating it.

Mango Ice Cream

Half a bag of frozen mangoes

Process in the food processor while adding a little cream or milk (I used cashew cream as I can’t have dairy presently) and keep adding a little cream or milk here and there until you have the consistency of ice cream while processing. Enjoy right away! My daughter-in-law did this last night with strawberries, and it worked fabulously! 

8~ We still live in the same house that we’ve lived in for 28 years now. I love living in this old house. It has so many wonderful memories. Sometimes when you live in a house so long, you think the rooms have to be set up the way they always are, because they have always been set up that way. Well, Mel and Abbie helped me convert one of my rooms into a den! I would have never thought it possible, because this had always been the play room of sorts. The place the kids’ stuff went, and where the kids played piano or the boys worked out on their weights. But with the girls’ help we changed that this summer, and now I have a lovely den. It still surprises me when I go in there!

9~ Because my diet has changed so much, I reorganized my baking center. I took down all the canisters of my flours, and I have replaced them with nuts and other items that I use more frequently now. The whole baking cupboard looks so different. But it is so helpful now in my new diet.

10~ I started Lucy in Kindergarten seven weeks ago. I am back to homeschooling! It’s been quite awhile since Gabe was in school, but I am finding it’s like riding a bike. As I teach Lucy to read, it’s all coming back to me. When I want her to say the “ear” sound, I tug on her ear and other little things like that. I am really enjoying Kindergarten...again!

I hope you all have such a lovely day!

Love,

Laine

What a happy day. It is a beautiful Spring day here. We have blossoms on our trees and all my pansies and violas are smiling and looking so cheerful. I had a wonderful few days at the farm with my Mum and Dad. Mum cooked up a storm for us and Dad is always so good to us and generous to us all. He adores Chloe and Lucy. He doesn't want us to leave when we are getting ready to come home! I collected wildflowers and herbs but I will show you all the things I got up to in the next few days!

Here we have a long weekend. I have so many projects ready to get stuck into!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Please leave your comments for Laine as I will make sure she sees them.

Lots of love.xxx

For more Laine's Letters... the Wayback Machine is mysteriously showing the letters again (after this not working and sending us all into a panic!)

http://web.archive.org/web/20130721005103/http://lainesletters.com/letters.html