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President Barack Obama

Many have seen the news and possibly even watched the speech that President Obama gave yesterday wishing the Islamic people a blessed Ramadan. This was followed by a dinner at the White House. This has caused yet another uproar in the Christian community. The major point being that President Obama refused to acknowledge the National Day of Prayer, but now is celebrating Ramadan.
Sadly, it seems that not many people are doing their own research. Well, I did and with a little research I found that George W Bush also gave similar speeches and held a dinner as well. The difference to Christians being, he publically recognized the national day of prayer.
President Truman started the day as a national event in 1952. Reagan signed a resolution in 1988 to observe the day each year on the first Thursday in May, and each president since has recognized this day with a proclamation. George W. Bush held events on the National Day of Prayer in each year of his presidency. However, Bill Clinton did not hold any events during his time in office, and George Bush Sr. and Ronald Reagan each hosted special events for the day only once during their Presidencies.
It wasn't a big deal then, but now all of the sudden we have a President that the Christian culture deems as unfit to hold office and every little thing he does, whether it was done by past presidents or not, is coming under fire. President Obama recognized the day in the same manner as every other President, by signing a proclamation.
I am getting tired of people saying that our new President is unfit and we should not support him. Yet again I find myself quoting Romans 13:1-2:

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."

God set him in this role as President. We may not like it, but we have to submit to it. How will the lost be reached if we as Christians are spewing hatred towards a leader that God allowed to win. Where is our faith, our courage, our hope? Is it in Obama? The stock market? The national Day of Prayer? The answer should be that it is in the Lord.
Lets stop looking for things to prove us right that he is the wrong choice. No one is perfect, and we could find fault in everyone. The President could come into your house tomorrow and and find things wrong with the way you are doing your job and blog and facebook about how you should be fired. We should simply be doing ehst the Lord has asked of us and pray for our leader, whether we like him or not. God is in control. Proverbs 21: 1:
"The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes."

BLAH

Thats how I feel today. I have by appearance had a great day. I just am in a funk. I hate moods like this. We woke up and took Rik to work this morning, and then Piper and I played on the playground for a while. She is getting so big so fast. She has started sliding down the slide all on her own now. She was scared to death of the slide for a while. All the sudden last night she started sliding down. She was having a blast. We came home after a big group pf kids got there, and I was afraid she would be trampled. We watched the end of Aladin and then I decided to take her to Chic-Fil-A for lunch. We ate then she played on the playground there. There was this little girl up in the tubes that kept picking Piper up and dragging her to different spots. I really didn't like it, but she wasn't hurting her or anything, and Piper was having fun. I looked up at one point though and Piper was crawling away from her to go to another tube, and the little girl started spanking her and saying "No No". It weirded me out. I wanted to yell at the girl, but Piper turned around and slapped her arm and screamed "no" right back at her. She left her alone after that. Needless to say, though, I got Piper out of there and we went home. It was nap time. Now I am doing laundry and watching TV, while Piper sleeps. I realized it had been a long time since I had blogged, so here we are.
We are going to have a long weekend, starting tomorrow. We are serving in the new singles ministry that is starting tomorrow night, and then Friday we are going to Camden AR with Solace Found. They are a band that we are with . Rik runs sound for them and drums sometimes too. I sing with them on occasion too. It should be fun, but a busy weekend. Then Monday the week starts all over again, and Wednesday I start singin again with our youth ministry.
Today though, I feel very blah. I miss home too. I mean this is my home, but I miss our old life in Dallas. I wonder what Pipers life would be like if we had stayed. What ours would be like, if we would have been able to buy a house, etc. All that doesn't help the blah's. Anyway, I think I have rambled along enough.

Back from the silence!!

Well I realized tonight that I have not blogged in FOREVER!!
So lets see, We are moving to our new place in West Little Rock on Thursday!! I am so excited to get out of this crummy house. I will not miss it. I might miss the yard, but nothing else. I mean we are getting a pool, so I think it is a fair trade! Our new place is awesome, it is 3B 2B 1401sqft!! Our master bed is Massive!! I cannot wait to take pics and post them so you can all see the amazingness tht is our new place. And the best part is it is directly behind the church! Rik is going to walk to work, which means that Piper and I will be free to roam about the town all day everyday! Niki and I's new business is off the ground and doing great. A little slow, but soo much fun.
If you haven't checked it out yet go do it now!! We have tons of diffrent things and most of them are custom made for you!! Southern Baby Boutique
Thats all for now. I have bible study in the morning, so I should go to bed!
Night all!!

I'm Praying

"Prayer is an acknowledgment that I am not in control" - Charlie Loften

So I have the fever. Thats right, BABY FEVER!! I have to have another baby. I wish I could express this need I have. The only problem I have with this is, it took us five years to have Piper. We had several miscarriages and they were HARD. Hard to cope with and hard to get over. I think that my biggest fear is that we won't have another child. That we will only have Piper. Don't get me wrong. I love Piper and if she is the only child we have we will have the best kid in the whole world, but I WANT more. I just have this fear that she will be five or six and we will still be trying for number 2. I have been dealing with this, no joke, since Piper was 4 months old. I was seriously the crazy lady that looked at my husband after 12 hours of labor with no epidural; 3 hours with an epidural, and then an emergency c-section, and said " I want another one". I know! I am nuts. You know whats funnier? MY HUSBAND AGREED!!
Anyways, my point is this: I need to pray specifically. I need to flat out say to God," I want another baby, Lord", and believe that it WILL happen. He will hear me. He wants to bless me and answer my prayer. Charlie Loften's sermon today was all about this. He made this statement about prayer that I love. "When threatened, do not fight God, instead call on God through prayer, trusting in His sovereign plan." Sometimes our prayers don't get answered, but we shouldn't start there.
I shouldn't start with saying, " what if I don't get my prayer answered the way I want". I should start with, "Lord, here is what I want, and I ask that you give it to me in your time". Thats it. Believe it will happen, and when it does, thank the Lord! He will answer.
I just really need to let go of my fear, and acknowledge that he has answered my prayers in the past. We struggled, but we got the perfect child for us out of it in the perfect time. Where is my faith that He will do it again?
Just wanted to jot some of this down. The message today was so GREAT!

Niki and Sarah are starting a business!!

These are just a handful of the things we have done For morethings that Niki has done go here: Niki
I will post more as we make it, and then i will direct you to our website as soon as we figure it out. Ok peeps, I am going to go to bed now!
Sarah

Our AMAZING youth

We have had such a busy month. I am singing in the youth service at our church every Wednesday now. I love it! we have such a GREAT group of kids! if you ever want to see us, we stream it live at: www.fellowshipstudents.com at 8pm. Just click on the Link at the top that says "watch Live". Ok that was my shameless plug of the week!
Go watch and enjoy!!
Sarah

Pipers birthdays!

So. I am now the mother of a walking and talking one year old. What the heck? Where did the time go. I cannot believe it has been a year already. We had a party with my parents in Bentonville, then one in Dallas with Rik's family, Then we had one here in The Rock. It was so much fun. Piper had a blast and got to eat 3 different cakes. I made her cake for the party here, and we had lots of friends over. She got some really great stuff.
She has such a personality now. Sometimes a little bratty, but we are working on it. I love being able to stay at home with her. Every day is a new adventure. She is learning to "read her books. She will walk around and "talk" with her books in her hand and then bring them to me to read. It is really cute. She loves to play with her new kitchen. She walks around with the pot and pan, stirring and"feeding" us and the dogs. She sometimes just likes to walk around the living room clapping and singing. She LOVES Elmo. we bought her an Elmo chair, and she will sit in it and watch TV. It is so cute. She is eating all big girl food now, though lately she is not wanting to eat her vegetables.
I think I may be bragging a little , so I will stop now, but , know that I love her and I am so PROUD of her.
Here are a few pics of the cake I made and her party!

I'm lost

So I have been being harassed by a person I went to high school with. We were not friends, but I was nice to them. I accepted their friend request on myspace and everything went fine till I got pregnant. Nasty and cruel messages started about how there is no baby, and I was a liar. I deleted the messages and then deleted them from my friends list. I made my myspace private. They requested me repeatedly over the next few months, then started on my mother, then my father, then my SIL. Something happened and I was no longer able to use my old account and I had to start a new one. I immediately made it private and requested a few people. They found that site and repeatedly requested me. They started following me on my twitter account. I blocked them. Then once again, they started following my mother and my SIL. We all made our profiles private and blocked them yet again. Now I have found out that they have been requesting some of my friends, who have no idea who this person is, and asking them why I hate them. They also have a blogger and I'm sure is reading this now. I don't want to make this private, because I have family that reads this from other states, and I want them to continue.
Last night I got a message from one of their friends asking why I hated them. This has been going on for almost 2 years now.At what point does this end? I mean good grief. Why can't we just be grown ups and move on with our lives? At the point when I first deleted this person, I had already had 2 miscarriages and was starting to miscarry the current pregnancy. Their comments were hateful and hurt me very deeply. I don't need that kind of person in my life.
I am completely worn out. I have no Idea what to do at this point. I mean this is definitely harassment, but what do you do about it on the Internet? I am so paranoid about what I put on any of my accounts. Even the moms site that I go on, I look for this person. I just know they will find me anywhere I go and harass me there too. I hate this. I'm sure my family and friends are getting sick of it too. I just don't know what to do anymore.

Our Year in review, and Pipers first birthday

On December 29th Piper Elizabeth Hedlund will be ONE year old. I can't believe it. Everyone tells you that it goes by so fast, but you don't believe them. It really does. I can;t believe that last year at this time I had never met her. My life is soooo much better with her in it. She is my miracle and I love her more everyday. I love being her mommy. There is nothing else in the world that I would want to do.
I was going to wait till her actul birthday to post this, but our week is insane starting tomorrow. We have a wedding tomorrow, Sunday I have rehearsal for Christmas eve, then another one on Monday, Tuesday Rik has reahearsal, and Wednesday is Chrismas Eve, then Thursday we are leaving to go out of town. So today it is!!
Piper is walking and talking now, She has been eating big girl food for a month now. She has such a personality now. She still is not sleeping through the night, but we know why. She loves to sing and clap her hands in worship on Sundays. She also loves to dance. I can't believe how big she is. Well here is our year in pictures!

So technically this is 2007, but this is the day Piper was born. Dec. 29th, 2007 at 6:54 pm. I was in Labor for 12 hourswith no epidural, then 3 more hours with an epidural. Her heart rate started droppinginto the 20's and the 40's and mine into the 60's. My blood pressure fell dangerously low, and I was out of it. They decided to do an emergency c'section, and found out her cord was too short, if they hadn't done a c'section we both would have died.

Here she is minutes after she was born. Her respirations were too fast so they had to take her to the NICU. Luckily it was only for 6 hours. We brought her home New Years Eve.


This was in February the first time my mom babysat her away from our house.

3 months

On March 27th we welcomed my beautiful nephew Timothy Wayne Leckie Jr. into the world. He was 2 weeks early and spent a week in the NICU, but is now healthy and happy!

In April, Rik got a new job at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock Arkansas. We packed up everything and moved in to the house above.

Here we are in May

In June with her cousin TJ

July 4th

August
September. Watching the Tigers!!

Halloween. She was a sock monkey!!

November. Her 1st Thanksgiving!

December!! Merry Christmas!

So we are having Christmas with my parents and then a party for Piper, then we are driving to Dallas and having Christmas with Riks parents and a party for Piper. Then we are driving home and on the 10th we will have a party for Piper here in Little Rock. I will post Pictures form all of them after the holidays.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year!
Rik, Sarah, and Piper

Piper took her first steps last night. She did it for about ten minutes, and we caught her last attempt on video, before she quit. Please enjoy!

Look what I made!!

I finally got some creative juices flowing!! Here is the result!
I think I might start selling them. Not sure yet though, but if anyone wants one I will make one, and you just pay the price of the wipes. Anyways let me know what you think about it. I thought, I always have this sitting around, why not making it look pretty

Shreveport

So this weekend we made a quick trip to Shreveport. My parents came Thursday night and spent the night and we woke up early Friday and headed out. We got to Papaw's house about 3:30 I think, then Tim and Katie got there a few hours later. We gave the kiddos a bath and then the next morning we went to go see my other grandparents. We had a great weekend and took lots of Pics, so here are just a few:

The wonder place

Piper and I had a great play date today at The Wonder Place here in The Rock. It was soo much fun. We met Allison and Lucy there and the girls had a blast. We played for a while and then went back to Lucy's house and had a yummy lunch and then came home and took a nap. Here are some pics of the girls

Date night

So last night Rik and I had our first date since Pipes was born. He won a dinner for two at the Peabody Hotel. The restaurant is a very expensive place. We got a babysitter and Had an amazing meal. We added it all up after and the meal was over $200. We had so much fun. Anyways here are the pictures.

This is getting ridiculous

Obama hasn't even been the president elect for 24 hours yet, and already christians around the world are mourning the death of a nation. I mean come on people. Chill out. Did God fall off His throne?????? I don't think so. Are we forgetting what was said in Romans 13:1-2?

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."

God has allowed him to win this seat, and we should pray for and support him. I'm sick of all the "doom and gloom". Don't get me wrong, I didn't vote for him, and I am not defending his beliefs. but what about our beliefs, is our faith so tied to this nation, that we would say the world is over because the man we voted for wasn't elected. God is still in control. God has a plan. We should not hate Obama, or even bash him. We should not live in fear. So this man believes in things that are not Gods heart, God is still in control. Our country is in financial turmoil, God is still in control. So all the doom and gloom should stop. The hateful comments and snide remarks should stop. Instead fall to your knees. Pray. Pray for wisdom and strength for Obama, pray for peace. How will the lost be reached if we as christians are spewing hatred towards a leader that God allowed to win. Where is our faith, our courage, our hope? is it in Obama, or the stock market? The answer should be that it is in the Lord. He is bigger than this country, if it falls, He will still be in control. We will still be safe in His arms. For encouragement read Psalm 91.
And remember the scripture:
Proverbs 21: 1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.

Trust in the Lord, because He does not make mistakes. Pray for our nation, Pray for our leaders, Pray for our unborn, and Pray for our troops. God did NOT fall off his throne last night.

Halloween Fun

Halloween was soo fun Piper was a sock monkey. I'll make this quick, cause I gotta run, but here are the pics:



We went to some friends of ours house for a party but we were late and didn't get any pics of any of the other kids. Anyways there are the pics.

Piper Video

Piper fed the dogs some bread tonight and here is what happened....

So we went to Dallas last weekend. It was fun and hell all rolled into one. We go there Thursday night, and we had dinner with Tim and Katie, made plans for the next day, went to Riks parents, then Wal mart, and then back to Tim and Katies to go to bed. Friday morning Katie and I got up early and took TJ for his surgery. Rik went to his parents, and then we all met back at the house. We all loaded up and went to Roger and Michelles for dinner.
We were having fun eating and hanging out, when Rik started throwing up, we had to cut the evening short, This is where hell came into play. We made it home, and Rik threw up ALL night, then that morning, Tim started. Katie and I took the kids and went to breakfast with Riks family. I then dropped Katie off, picked up Rik and we went to his brothers to have pictures done. I will post some of them at the end. We then we back to Tim and Katies and everyone felt better and we had dinner and gave the babies a bath, then off to bed. I thought all the bad was over, but I was wrong. We had washed the sheets since the boys were sick and we put some other sheets on the bed. these sheets had been in the closet for a while, and were washed with a diffrent fabric softner. So we wake up the next morning, and I am covered with a rash. Apparently I was allergic to the fabric softner. We went to church and then lunch , then hung out with James and Suzanna and Sarah. we left, and drove back home.
We enjoyed the weekend with family and friends, but were really really sick.
Ok now for some pics!