7 Months

Today was Joah's 7 month birthday...do you think he was happy about it? Yeah, I think so...




So happy that he decided to play us a tune...





Gotta stretch for the big day...




See you next month. I'll have this "crawling" thing down by then....

The Trip

Grandma and Joah @ Newport Beach (where my grandpa proposed to her)

As we said in our last post we were heading to SoCal and then Reno. During our time Joah had many firsts.

• Flew on an airplane
  
• Met Great-Grandma and many other relatives
• Went to Newport Beach
• Went to Lake Tahoe
• Saw California and Nevada
• Got his two bottom teeth
  

Some other recent firsts - Joah is starting to talk in his own baby language: Ma-ma, ba, and other various syllables. He's also starting to rock on his knees - first steps in the journey to crawling. He also got his first cold on Sept. 1st. He has taken it like a champ. The first night was the toughest. He slept for almost 12 hours without eating or waking up at all. He woke up, threw up, and all went farily well afterwards - a bit of expected drainage from the nose, that's all.

The Trip:
The service for my grandfather was really good. I really liked it. I liked that I got to share what I remembered most about him and sing one of his favorite songs. He was a great man who loved God. I'll miss him alot, but I know I will see him again one day. It was great to see my grandma again. I was happy that she finally got to meet Joah.

Joah also got to see grandma and grandpa again. He had fun going on walks with them and hanging out when Devin and I went to a baseball game. We also had fun seeing lots of friends. It was nice being back on the west coast. I like the weather better there than here. But it's great being back home, getting back into the normal routine of things.

Joah's officially 6 months old today:)

We're headed to SoCal and Reno for the next two weeks...ought to be fun. I love traveling, being, and living out west. Somehow, and I don't know quite how it happened, but my heart is here in Lawrenceburg, IN. God help us:)

We'll write more when we return:)

God Bless:)

Firsts!!

So, "Firsts." On June 23rd Joah enjoyed the privilege of three first time experiences. A dear friend of ours bought Joah a Bumbo seat. What an amazing surprise; we had been praying and needing one so bad. Joah is not much for laying down. And he was getting to the stage where he always wanted to sit up for long periods of time. What were we going to do? We couldn't afford one, so we prayed and did our best to prop him up on the couch, but that required far more accountability than the Bumbo seat. So on June 23rd we were going to a friend's house. We stopped at Baby's R Us for something totally unrelated to a Bumbo seat and walked out with one at the end of our little errand. Yea, thank you Lori. Joah's second "first" is displayed in the picture above: here kitty, kitty...also it's his first picture in the Bumbo seat:)




Joah's third "first" was a wet one! Swimming! He loved it. The day was a hot one. After everyone (except Devin) sprayed on their sunscreen, they hit the pool. Joah was awesome. To him it was just a big bath. Michelle held his head while he just kicked and kicked, moving himself in the water through his intense kicking. It was a fun day:)

Joah is growing so much. Michelle and Devin are writing so much. Devin and Michelle both believe that God is a great BIG God. They believe that God has led them to do what they are doing. It scares some people - the way they are going in life - but when does God ever ask His people to do something easy? Most of the time it's beyond difficult: it's impossible. He asks us to do the impossible (Abraham, Moses, Nehemiah, the disciples of Jesus, just to name a few) so that He can reveal Himself to the obedient and shine brightly through their lives of faith, hope, and love. Jesus didn't die just so we could live the American Dream of easy, convenient, comfortable living. We were born again to do "greater things."

"I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father."
John 14:12

So until next time...

Hey . . . four months has arrived:) So what is Joah starting to do: he talks in his own little baby language. If you're lucky he'll scream his little bubbly words out at you. He smiles and laughs alot . . . like Daddy:) What else does he do: he tries to sit up all the time. He went from wanting to sit up all the time to wanting to stand up all the time. Yeah, he's a pretty cool little guy. He's quite active. When Devin puts him on his knee, he pedals his little legs like he is on a bike. He throws up quite a bit more than he used to. All in all, he is just a laid-back, happy little guy. He loves people, but he's cool just hanging out by himself:) He goes swimming this Wednesday:) We'll see how he likes that:) As hot as it is here, and as hot as he gets, we're hoping he'll like it. He sure likes baths, so maybe he'll see it as a big bath.



Yeah!! That's our son . . . working out already:) Lifting up that 20 lbs of body weight:)



So what are Devin and Michelle doing . . . continuing to trust God and see his provision manifesting in our lives. God says in His word that He will make a way in the wilderness. That basically means, when there seems to be no way, God is the way. That's pretty much the bookmark of our lives right now: God, our Hope. We have been reading a book lately called The Hope Habit by Terry Law. Devin loves it! He says it's one of the best teaching books he's ever read. Strongly recommended by the Moore's.

We are continuing to write. Michelle is doing well with her photography internship. Devin finished an entire manuscript in 6 weeks. It was good, but he learned so much during his reread that he decided to rewrite the whole thing. The first new chapter is much better - quantum leaps better, as Michelle says. Michelle's story is coming along very well. We wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be a movie. If nothing else it will be an awesome book, full of inspiration, reaping the changed lives of it's readers.

Well, that's all for now:) Until next month . . .

Story 4

Today Michelle and Devin finished the first phase of a major project they have been working on. It's a series of children's books, 26 in all, with an additional book yet to be worked on. This post is just a way of celebrating and memorializing their current accomplishment. They finished only one day past their set goal. They'll give more details on the books as they come along. They are going to be awesome:)

OK, so regarding our most recent post. It is a prime example of what happens when you go two and a half months without blogging/updating/etc. Therefore, if you made it to the end of our last post, you deserve a Gold Star. Please email one of us and we will send it to you - post haste:)

Story 3

Three months later...Joah is now 17lbs, some odd ounces. He's a talker...like his Daddy. He loves to suck his thumb, fingers, palm of his hand - if it's attached to his arm, he'll try to fit it in his mouth. He's a big smiler and loves attention, particularly from the ladies ;) He likes to stick his tongue out. Unlike most babies, bath time is one of his favorite moments of the day. He kicks and splashes and tries to lick the water off of his lips, even if his lips are covered with soap. His grandmother bought him a book about colors that has lots of pictures in it and some pages with one color and a large picture on it...he loves it! I think green is his favorite color, but it's a toss up between that one and yellow. He's averaging about 9 hours of sleep through the night, and he is loving his life.

So, Michelle and Devin, what about you? What's your story this month? Well, I'm glad you asked. Our story this month is one of trust. Around September both Michelle and Devin felt that God was leading Devin into the wonderful world of insurance sales. He went through all of his training and got licensed and became an Aflac agent. Naturally, being the provision-minded person that he knows God to be, Devin figured that Aflac would be a smashing success. It was indeed a smash; it just wasn't a success. The anthem of the horrible economy was the continual song that Devin heard from most business owners as he went out and about "cold calling", covering a 60 mile radius. In 6 months he opened up 1 account, had 1 account transferred to him, and sold two individual policies. That is so far from success it's not even funny. However, by the end of this story, we'll see how God set both MIchelle and Devin up for a completely different kind of success.

By the time Joah Michael arrived, things were a tremendous struggle. But it was OK; it was only going to get much worse...in the natural. Meaning, money had all but ran out (savings was drained), bills were due, and we had no idea what to do. Were we freaking out? No. We knew that God would never let us down or lead us into a place where He would look at us and say, "Well, you got yourself in this, now get yourself out." That's the great thing about God: He gets you out of situations that you knew you weren't supposed to be apart of. That's why we call Him Savior, or at least one of the reasons. But that is not a part of this story. Michelle and Devin are committed to their local church, submitted to spiritual authority, active in ministry, they pray every morning, they tithe and give offerings every Sunday, and to top it off they drenched this Aflac life move in prayer and received nothing but a green light from God.

For the first year of their marriage God had been sowing the seed of vision in Devin and Michelle's heart. Essentially he gave them ideas about businesses: Photography, Writing, publishing, music. There were other things that God sowed into their heart that didn't have anything to do with business, but they were equally important. When 2010 rolled around God moved them to start working on those things He had put in their heart. After Joah was born, they went pedal to the metal on their own writing (each one is writing a ficitonal New York Times Best Seller - you gotta think BIG right). They are working on children's books, 20 of which they have drafted. Michelle is interning with a professional photographer (www.amandadonahophotography.com)...an old YWAM friend of Devin's. Things were happening.

To make things even more awesome, a wealth producing Christian man named Apostle John Kelly came to Devin and Michelle's church (Grace Church of the Valley) and began to teaching on prosperity, business, and how God is into it. Of course, there is a ton of teaching out there that says Christians should be impoverished, but Michelle and Devin felt like God was telling them not to subscribe to that magazine of teaching because it simply was not true. Not only was it not true, it was antibiblical. So they were encouraged more than you know. God really was leading them. They felt it. They believed it. They knew it. They saw it. But where was the money? Where was the prosperity? Why wasn't the Aflac deal working out? Not only that, but why did it turn out to be a complete failure?

The very Monday after Apostle Kelly spoke at their church, their only car broke down! Well, that put a screeching halt to any Aflac activity, for that business relies on transportation.Jason, Michelle's brother came to visit to meet Joah, his nephew. Then, Michelle's parents came for two weeks. The coming of these family members was like the coming of angels into Michelle and Devin's life. There was no financial income; they helped out alot. Of course, tax season rolled around and that lasted for a little while, but not enough to sustain a family...

I guess it would become a book if we wrote everything that God has been doing. But here is the bottomline: Every step of the righteous is ordered by the Lord. He will always lead you to victory, but most of the time you will have to go through something difficult to achieve it. God knew where He was leading Devin and Michelle. he knew that the Aflac thing was going to turn out the way it has. He's not sitting in Heaven going, "Ahhhhhhhhh...what happened?" He's not surprised. He has lead them into a place where all they are able to do is work on cultivating those seeds of dreams and ideas and visions that He has planted in their heart. Do you see? It's like God stripped everything away from them and said, "What are you going to do now?" How often do the thorns and thisles - the care and worries of this world - keep us from truly walking by faith and living the life that God has laid out for us. We want to pray away every problem and uncomfortable circumstance, when often it is those very things that God uses to get us to the higher place, the places he wants us to live.

For the past 5 Sundays their Pastor's message has done nothing but encourage them to move forward on the very path they are going - the path that most people would say they are crazy for traveling down, especially with a child. However, people will say that to missionaries that feel God is lead them to a distant country. People will say that to pastors who quit their six figure job to start a church where their first meeting is only 9 people. People will say that to just about any body taking a risk. Michelle and Devin have comitted to truly live by faith. Not just say it with their lips and then live on their own strength throughout the week. Thus, the adventure continues. They expect that at some point in time, they will have published books - fiction and nonficiton, produced music, a thriving photography business, and other great things happening, which they are sure to write about in this blog. But what will they do about money until then? They have done all they know to do, but they are going to continue to trust.

Yes, this story is about more than believing. It's about trusting.

Story 2

Story number 2 starts with a 3 as we welcomed Joah into our lives on Monday February 8th at 7:05pm.
The day began as any other day. Being a Monday, Devin dropped me off at work. Honestly, I really didn't want to be there. I just wanted to be at home folding baby clothes, packing things for the hospital, and getting everything perfectly ready for Joah's arrival. As Devin walked me into work, he said, "You know what I was thinking: Maybe we should keep the car seat and diaper bag in the car from now on." He was thinking ahead. I agreed. He was coming any day.

I was feeling good, but a little on the sluggish side. My stomach did feel tight, but I didn't register it as labor; there were no contractions - unless one contraction lasts 7 hours. I thought to myself: This must be that point you get to when you are ready to be done being pregnant. I was there...all day...until about 4 o'clock.

It was 4pm. I was changing a baby's diaper when all of a sudden I had an overwhelming urge to go the bathroom. I walked quickly to the bathroom and realized, "That's not pee." Even though it felt like I had to go to the bathroom, I thought that it might be my water breaking because someone told me that that is what it would feel like.

I called Devin immediately. He was about 30 minutes away getting ready to make an Aflac sale. He remained calm, turned his car around, and got to me at 4:30. By this time, right after my water broke, I began having the traditional contractions. They were coming strong one right after the other. They were a minute apart lasting 30-45 seconds.

We decided to race home and get the baby seat and the stuff that we were saying we were going to put in the car. I don't know if that was a good or bad idea because on the way home I went into hard labor, and the hospital was still 45 minutes away. This is when Devin began to praying against getting a speeding ticket. He turned a 45 minute trip into a 25 minute trip.

We got to the hospital at 6pm. The triage nurse said that I was "8cm and grossly ruptured." Devin sais he would never forget the way the nurse said that. They rushed me upstairs. I did not go quitely. For those of you who think I am a quiet person...I am, but not at that moment. They tried to calm me down...that didn't work. The baby was coming. I felt his head with my own hand at 6:45. At 7:05pm...whoosh...out came a 7lb, 5oz beautiful baby boy.

Michelle was overwhelmed with emotion. She did great! Amazing! I like the fact that she vocalized her birth process. I'd never heard her so loud in our entire relationship. When the contraction was over she was so relaxed. I thought she fell asleep between each contraction...she didn't. It was amazing to see all that body of that little boy come out of her little tummy. I said, "woah...all that came out of there!?" He wasn't breathing right away so we couldn't have the delayed cord clamping like we wanted, but apart from that everything went awesome. The doctors and nurses were extremely supportive. It was awesome.

We were in the hospital for 24 hours. The food wasn't actually as bad as the stand-up comedians say. When we finally did leave, we were embraced by a windy snow storm that left us driving 30mph the entire way home. A 45 minute trip took a hour and half. This is when we welcomed Joah and the new mommy home:


So, we'll see you next month:) Thanks to all you wonderful folks that helped us with clothes and diapers and every other little thing that a new baby (and parents) need:)

Happy New Year!!!

Greetings fellow readers, bloggers, facebookers (sorry...no myspacers allowed...j/k), friends, and family. This is a new adventure we decided to take: A blog to document our lives together. In this way more people can be updated on what and how we are doing. I have to say, "So far SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Good:)"

We decided to call this Moore Stories for obvious reasons: we want to tell stories. We want to write children's books and other fiction and non-fiction books, so we thought having a blog that tells stories about our actual lives would be fun.

With that said...

Story 1

I had my first shower today. I cleaned off years of gunk!!! Haha. Actually it was the first Joah shower. Upon arrival, Devin barely made it in the door. He was surrounded by a gaggle of varied-aged (not to be confused with "very aged") women telling him, nicely, that this was a girls only event. It was OK, Devin was happy to go back home and watch Band of Brothers. First there was mingling and eating, although I didn't eat anything because I was so full from the apple cinnamon pancakes that my husband fixed for me this morning. After this we started to play some games that were baby oriented and very fun. But, the one you need to know about is called...well actually I don't know what it's called. We'll call it "Guess what's in the diaper!"
So, there were three diapers. Each diaper had some sort of melted candy bar inside of it. Hmmm, I wonder what that was supposed to represent. Then the diapers were passed around and everyone had to guess what the candy bar was. I was the lucky one who had to taste the poop....I mean candy bar. It was fun to see the grimaces on peoples faces as they passed the diaper around.
All in all it was a great party thrown by the ladies from my church.

Hi, everyone. Devin here. I have never blogged, but I have written a fair share in my day:) I resisted this blog thing for quite some time, but like late-coming facebookers, here I am.

We started the year off continuing with the momentum we already had. No New Years Resolutions, just Keep Moving Forward. Our plans for this upcoming year are to have a baby around the 13th of February. We also plan to get in the best shape of our lives, probably starting in mid-Spring. We also plan on finishing a piece of writing that we have been working on called 927 - a great story about not knowing when you will die but knowing that it will happen. Will you be ready? We plan on working on our children's book series A2Z Books. I plan on making great headway with my Aflac business, my writing, and my music. This will be a year of stirring and working. God puts the gift, revelation, etc. within us, but it's up to us to work it out.

Can we even say in words how totally excited we are. We're going to have a baby, a boy:) Joah Michael Moore. It's got a nice ring to it, doesn't it? We have been taking birthing classes that will better prepare us for an unmedicated birth; and Michelle has been researching like crazy - every kind of birthing info she can get her hands on. That's my Sweeta Pea. In fact, it is because of her that we are even in these classes. We have learned so, SO much - things we would have never known. It's funny the things that doctors don't tell you.

Well...until story number 2:

"Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:18-19