Showing posts with label miracle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miracle. Show all posts

Monday, June 20, 2016

The arrival of Baby Silas//Updates about our life

My sweet Silas Mitchell Hayes arrived into this world on April 11, 2016 at 4:09am after about 3 1/2 hours of labor. He weighed 5 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long. He was and is just pure perfection!!
I delivered him at the Allen Birthing Center with Midwife Teri and could not have been more pleased with the birthing center experience. Most of you know, although I had my last three children all in a hospital, the last two were all natural births as I did not make it in time for an epidural. This time I figured why not deliver at the birthing center all naturally where I could move around more freely during labor and just have a more easygoing experience. I will definitely use them again!

This was definitely most hardest labor, along with my longest labor yet. As I was pushing Silas out, the edge of my placenta became detached and I had to push him out very quickly and very hard. I was worn out after he came out and they laid him on my chest. It was a scary moment for me, but I was so thankful for excellent providers who knew just what to do in the moment.

This is Silas a few hours old right before we went home from the Birthing Center.

This was Silas just a half hour or so after birth.

This is Daddy catching Silas as he entered this world earth side :) {Photography by Jillian Eppler Photography}

The kids all just love Silas and are the best big sister and big brothers out there! They all love to hold him and love on him and Gavin is known to fight over holding him ;) We are so blessed!

This was our family of 6 on Mother's Day 2016


This was Silas at 4 weeks 4 days old. My baby bear :)

Silas is now 2 months old and doing great! He is a great sleeper, a smiler, laugher, and the greatest cuddle bug there is! He loves giving Mommy kisses and sleeps right next to Mommy every night. I am so thankful for this new life God has entrusted me with. Truly, having babies is my greatest joy. If I could just sit and hold my baby all day and do nothing else, I would be pretty happy. These days go by so quickly and I often wish I could just halt time in its place.

This is Silas 2 days ago. As you can see, he is quite handsome!




Life is moving ever quickly along for us... we are enjoying summer break and staying busy. The kids have been playing outside in the water often and staying up way too late (you're only a kid once, right? ;) ). We have been adjusting to our new normal as easily as we can, but it has definitely been a challenge in some ways.

Last year, when we moved here and started our business, we were faced with the unforeseen issue of the incessant rain and floods. This really put a halt on the booming takeoff of our business we had hoped for and we unfortunately had to wait until the weather slowly started correcting to really get back on track. Once things got back to normal, we hit the ground running and ultimately for our first year in business, we couldn't complain and we saw the Lord's hand time and time again.
This winter, we thought things were going to be really hard, but again, the Lord provided and we were given an unforeseen project to sustain us through the winter. This year as most of you who live here know, has been crazily rainy all over again. Thankfully, we have not had the flooding issue that we had last year, but still an absurd amount of rain for Texas.
During the rains and floods of 2015, we pretty much just had to live off of credit. We were a new business who couldn't really operate until the weather cooperated and that was pretty much all there was to it. Flash forward to 2016, we are trying to get all of our ducks in a row, so we can move forward with our life and buy a home, and ultimately just live a life of freedom, not bound by debt.
That has been what Zach and I have spoken of time and time over again to one another that is our biggest goal for this year.
About a year ago, I began using It Works Global products that I purchased through my dear friend, Claire, who also had a similar story as me. I followed her story closely and loved all of the products I was trying out. I saw insane results and always thought to myself how these products were unlike anything I had ever tried from anyone other company before. I saw her succeed time and time over again and was so happy for her. I always marveled at how amazing her success was and how ever more amazing God's hand was in her life.
The past month or so, we have been praying for a miracle. I have been struggling with the remnants of PPD (even though I had never previously struggled with this any of my other postpartum time periods) along with trying to get our life and our finances in order. I have always been such a happy person and going through this, I have just felt so lonely and well, often just alone. I have just begged God to help me get out of this pit of despair I am in and to throw me a lifeline, to show me what His plan is.
I have felt like I should join Claire in her It Works journey and have been praying for the Lord to confirm. Time and time again, He has confirmed it to me and time and time again I have just asked for another sign, another confirmation. This past week while doing my devotional Hearing God's voice, I prayed to the Lord, "Lord, if I am supposed to do this, just tell me. I just don't want people to think I am crazy, but I will do it if this is what you are going to do to make a way for us and help us." I began reading and the devotional that day stated, "Sometimes when you follow God, people will think you are crazy..." Talk about confirmation!
I worked up the courage and finally reached out to Claire and am so excited to announce that I am now a distributor with It Works also!
There are few products that I feel passionate about enough to sell, but this is certainly one of them! After using the all natural, one of a kind products for almost a year now, I have seen the results and seen how much those results effect other people using them too! I am very excited about this journey and have seen these products change so many lives and seen this business change so many lives as well. I am honored to be a part of this God honoring company!
I am thankful for all of you who follow my journey and follow my family and our constant evolving story :) I look forward to sharing more with you all and appreciate everyone's support!



For those who would like to know more about It Works and would like to view my website and see the amazing products we have, my website is brittanihayes.myitworks.com





Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy Birthday to Gavin// Reflecting back One Year to the Birth of MyChristmas Blessing

Wow, it hardly seems that one year has passed by and my sweet sweet Gavin is one now. Reflecting back to roughly a year ago brings so many memories to my mind.

Most everyone by now, I'm sure, knows that my Mam-ma, who by far was my closest earthly relationship, passed away last August 2013 of a deadly, ruthless lung disease called focal pulmonary fibrosis. When she died, I felt like my entire world was turned upside down. I had lost the most important person to me and I was so lonely. It was after her death that I first encountered the presence of The Holy Spirit and began a real and beautiful relationship with Him.

When I was pregnant with Gavin, I was in serious risk of preterm labor. I was already dilated to a 2 at 25 weeks and 50% effaced. At 30 weeks 3 days, and 30 weeks 4 days, I received two steroid shots to help speed up the development of his lungs, because that's how risky things were. I am so thankful for a group of good doctors who were on top of things, but ultimately thankful to The Great Physician whose hand was constantly covering Gavin in the womb.

I did indeed end up delivering Gavin prematurely at 35 weeks, on Christmas Day. That Thanksgiving was very hard for me not having my Mam-ma and I knew Christmas was going to be even harder. Couple that with fearing for my unborn child's life, it was a less than ideal time for me. However, God's grace is ever so abundant. I gave birth to Gavin that Christmas Day and despite being 5 weeks early, he was perfectly healthy and never saw the inside of the NICU.

I had prayed a few days before Christmas that God would not let Gavin be born until he could be born safely, but that I was longing to meet him and how my arms ached to hold this new life and this new love. 1 Samuel 1:27, "For this child I have prayed and The Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him."

I believe God gave me Gavin on Christmas Day to further show His promises to me. Job's words rang so true in my heart that day, "naked I came into this world and naked shall I return thither. The Lord giveth and The Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of The Lord!" Job 1:21

I lost my Mam-ma, but was given a sweet, innocent baby on Christmas Day, Jesus' birthday- what a beautiful testament to God's unfailing love and grace.

Psalms 62:1, "From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

Now I look at my sweet, happy one year old baby boy and can't believe a year has gone by since that beautiful day. This year has truly been wonderful and Gavin is such a blessing to our family. He is so full of love, sweetness, and everything good. He is so cuddly and makes me smile all the time. He is so good and such a beautiful gift. I am so thankful for him and even more so, I am thankful to my Lord and Savior who always knows our needs better than we know them ourselves. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith The Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." -Isaiah 55:8-9

Happy Birthday my sweet Gavin Michael! It's been an enormous blessing to be your Mommy. This first year of your life has been so sweet and beautiful. I'm excited to see what God has in store for year two! 


Gavin on his birthday!


Gavin early December 2014 after his shower!


Gavin at 11 months, helping Daddy fix a broken cabinet.

Gavin at just a few days old.


To read my blog post from a year ago when Gavin was first born, click the link below:

http://thegreatestremains.blogspot.com/2014/01/welcome-baby-gavin-michael-my-christmas.html