Thank you to everyone for praying!  I was starting to feel a rising level of concern regarding the burn on my foot over the weekend, as it hadn’t been healing very quickly and I was still in intense pain.  I was also concerned about the part of the burn nearest to my toes, as it was still yellowish white, not shedding, and definitely not pink.  I also read on the internet that some deep second degree burns require skin grafts.

Well, that did me in, off to the hospital we went.  If I need skin grafts, I want to get them done BEFORE new baby arrives in a couple of months if at all possible!  Now I’ll admit, I was dreadfully afraid that they would want to scrape at my foot, but thankfully they were very gentle - no scraping was involved.  The Doctor only looked at it before declaring the part nearest my toes was a ‘full depth’ burn, or you can read that as third degree, and that if it didn’t heal well I would need plastic surgery.  Well, if that isn’t almost enough to make a girl cry!  I didn’t though - but I did feel foolish about not coming in sooner!

So, we’ve been at the hospital EVERY DAY for them to change my dressing.  We are having a Doctor reassess the situation on Thursday, and we’ll then learn what steps need to be taken.  Nobody has mentioned skin grafts yet, so here’s praying!

Thanks so much for your ongoing prayers, we so appreciate it!

This is the testimony of my conversion, the events that brought me to - and through my new birth experience. My husband read an abbreviated form of this testimony at my baptism last summer before he baptized me. It was so lengthy I needed to shorten it down considerably. We were very blessed to be able to be baptized in our good friends the Metcalfe’s outdoor swimming pool. Ken baptized Larry (that’s why he looks a bit funny, he’s just been dunked, so he’s wet). And just think - this is just the beginning! Since I wrote this testimony there are so many many more testimonies I could write attesting to the Lord’s goodness in my life. It is rated PG due to some adult content (nothing explicit) that is dealt with by Jesus in my life.

Jennifer Bogart’s Testimony

I was born into a Mormon family, and my family was involved in the Mormon church until we moved to Edmonton in 1989 (when I was around 9 – 10), I was baptized when I was 8 into the Mormon church, but didn’t really understand the entire process, the baptism was like a rite of passage that all 8 – 9 year olds went through in the Mormon church. I remember the bishop giving me a pre-baptismal interview and asking me questions pertaining to my goodness, which I lied my way through. After we moved to Edmonton my family stopped attending the Mormon church, but I kept going with some friends that I had made for a couple of years. To the best of my knowledge there was never an emphasis on the work of Christ on the cross, or a message of salvation taught at all. Coming to church, paying your tithing, behaving in a moral way, abstaining from certain substances (alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine), being baptized, going to the temple etc. were all very much spoken of and promoted, but Christ seemed to be missing.

After my family moved to Edmonton my mother and father became involved in the occult, and the new age to varying degrees. I adored my father, as most young girls do, and sought his approval, and I too became involved with new age and occult practices at a young age. This involvement continued, varying in practices and depth of involvement until I was saved – runes, witchcraft, nature worship, new age healing practices, yoga, meditation, divination etc. I was a typical truth seeker in our day I suppose, looking for the truth but never turning to Jesus, the only source of all truth. I also lived a life of depravity in many ways, as a young adult I was heavily involved in fornication, drugs, drinking, lying and general rebellion against both my parents and God. I could not hear His name spoken without inwardly shuddering. I mocked Christians regularly.

After the drugs and drinking tapered off, and I settled into life as an adult I started attending a Unitarian Universalist Church, and attended for a number of years. Anyone who is familiar with a UU church can tell you that Christ is not the center of that ‘church’, but rather it is an inclusive, relativistic organization, wherein the inward feelings of each particular member as respected as ‘truth’ including humanists, Buddhists, pagans, those respecting Christ as a teacher, atheists etc. The particular church that I was attending had a heavy emphasis on social justice, equal rights for homosexuals, and a nature-worshipping tendency. Christians were also mocked there.

After marrying Larry, I became involved in Transcendental Meditation (which leads to Hinduism generally speaking) for a time, as his family practiced it, but then became even more deeply involved in witchcraft. After our first child was born I had little time for occult practices, but I did still occasionally perform rituals and seasonal celebrations coinciding with the phases of natural cycles. However, at the same time I started to hear Jesus knock on the door, and over the next couple of years more and more in my life seemed to point me in the direction of Christ. God had been dragging my heart toward Him for a number of years. I remember a time a couple of years before I was saved, when I cried because I felt God’s draw and I didn’t think it was where I wanted to go with my life. He had other plans for me! Every where I turned I saw Christ, when I opened my heart to the possibility of him I started to see the TRUTH of His way everywhere I looked.

I can list so many things that pointed me towards Christ, even though they weren’t necessarily Christian. A Roman Catholic publication on Social Credit that Larry subscribed to, Waldorf education and the underlying philosophy of Anthroposophy, a leaflet that came in the mail once that described how we needed a relationship in Christ in order to find peace, just knowing that one of our neighbours was a Christian, the Da Vinci Code (which made me wonder what they were trying to distract us from, and made me even more curious to know Jesus), and others I am certain I am forgetting.

At the same time I was sinking into a state of depression, we were living in a tiny holiday trailer with two young children, suffering under severe financial difficulties, no telephone or access to the outside world unless we drove out, not knowing many people in the neighborhood etc. I was feeling so tapped out and drained of life that I couldn’t even find the energy to wash dishes most days. Our marriage was in difficult straits and we fought on a fairly regular basis. My latent bisexuality and tendency to desire additional mates was a heavy burden to bear as well, my loneliness tortured me. And when these two sides of my life came together I started to wonder who this Jesus was, and how I could get to know Him better.

I asked my neighbour Al Sherstan, where he attended church, and he invited me to a Bible study there (The Alpha Course) – I don’t think he even knew whether I was or wasn’t a Christian at that point in time, we picked up a Bible at a Value Village in Edmonton, and I started looking for answers and seeking to know more about Jesus. Like many, I came to know him through personal need, I remember thinking that ‘Jesus is apparently a good helper, and I can certainly use some help here!’.

Even before I attended the Alpha Course I offered Jesus my life in October/November 2006, because I just couldn’t make it work anymore. I still didn’t know how Christianity worked, hadn’t read much in my Bible at all, I just knew that I needed Him. After attending the first course session, which explained our need for Christ, how our sins separate us from God, and how Jesus is the only way to reconciliation, there was a basic salvation message and I prayed the typical sinners prayer, and kept praying it in future sessions, I wanted to make sure that Jesus was going to be in my life. And without even understanding the process of being born again, and the changes that He could effect in my life, he delivered me from many of my sins that I had struggled with for my entire life. They were just gone, and I didn’t know why! The bisexuality, desire for multiple partners, almost compulsive seeking after pleasure were all gone, instantaneously! I cannot praise Him enough for the work that He has done and continues to do in my life.

The Lord continues to work in my life, to guide and show me the way. He has been so faithful in supporting our family, changing us and answering prayers. I know without a doubt that “…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the Day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6). I look forward to each day as it provides more opportunities to know my Lord and Saviour and His will for my life. I know that I can never repay Him for what he has done for me, saving me from the depths of my sin and depravity when I was in rebellion against Him. But even knowing that, it is still the desire of my heart to show forth His Glory and the work he has done in my life. God is so good!

My regular readers will have heard about ‘the foot’ a few times now on the blog. What exactly is this foots problem? You might be wondering how exactly this foot came to be burnt, or maybe you’re not wondering. In any case - I’m here to tell you the whole story about the foot.

Sunday, April 20th, after we had church here at our house, the ladies and I were getting ready to wash dishes. As some of you know, we live off-grid, and our hot water is supplied by our wood cookstove. Unfortunately my regular hot water bailer was dirty, so I thought I’d use an ice cream pail….bad idea. Very bad idea :(. The boiling water ended up hitting my foot, then the floor, resulting in a large-ish second degree burn on my left foot, and some nasty blisters on my right foot. The first week wasn’t so bad, barring the first couple of days. There was some pain, stiffness and swelling, but I was mobile, doing housework etc. until the next Sunday when we bandaged the foot up so it wouldn’t scare/distract everyone during the service, it was still much too sensitive to put a sock on. Unfortunately it dried out and developed a nasty fissure across the crease where my foot meets the ankle, that is causing me intense pain now, and severe swelling for a couple of days, though that seems to be going down some now. Because the burn is on the upper part of my foot, it goes up oer the crease where my foot beds if I walk on it. So I’ve essentially been off my foot since Monday, praying that it will heal and not be so intensely painful as to make me cry when I walk on it. It actually looks a lot yuckier than the photo shows, and yes, my legs are hairy! I don’t understand why it is SO intensely painful.

Can you pray for me? This is such a silly situation, but this foot problem is really taking over my life, and affecting my family too, as I’m unable to do, well, anything around the house without being thrust into immense pain. Thankfully the baby isn’t coming for another couple of months. I’m also very thankful that it is staying clean, and no infection so far.

Thanks so much, I really appreciate your prayers, and any advice you can give about burn management and care.

Spring is here….

Actually, we have been in the middle of a stupendous snowstorm here since Saturday, and have had around 1 foot of snow, along with high winds, giving us some interesting drift formations.

This was bare ground on Friday, and is now a snow drift around 8′ high.

Needless to say, we are snowed in, at the end of April!

The door to our storage shed is somewhere behind this snow drift.

Normally I don’t really do pictures on this blog, but I just had to! Sorry for the lighting, these were taken by DH at dusk tonight.

Enjoy! Particularly if you have green grass already where you live!

My baby Rose turned 2 on Thursday the 4th!  Happy Birthday little one!  She is such a big girl now!  30 lbs. still nursing and very active.  Potty re-training is going GREAT!  On her birthday I asked her if she was a big girl now, and she said “No.” Oh, I said, are you still a baby? “Baby” she said, ah they like to be babies for a long time!  We are praying her vocabulary continues to increase so she can avoid the frustration of not being able to communicate well.  Happy Birthday

Well, we are back in potty training boot camp, and we are making good progress! She still understands all about going to the potty, and we are slowly overcoming her reluctance again. So, I have a little nudie tudie around here again for our re-immersion into potty training. Thank heavens she loves being read to, that is making all the difference on the potty :).  Sometimes I hear her calling me, and she is already on the potty by herself, she just wants me to come and read to her while she is doing her business.

We don’t discipline for not going on the potty or for going on the floor (though sometimes it seems tempting), because we don’t want to develop ‘potty fear’, we want to keep going on the potty a positive learning experience, and something fun that we do together as a family.

Is it harder to potty train boys?  Both of our girls have been trained before the age of two thankfully!

Our blog has been a bit slow lately, because Larry is working here at his parents, putting a roof on what used to be the greenhouse side of the second floor of their chicken house.  We were here last week, and it looks like we’ll be here for all of this week too.

Our second ultrasound to confirm our dates is this Friday, and I’m praying it will be accurate, as I want to avoid an induction at all costs!

While Larry was away at the mens leadership weekend (4 days away) our toddler totally regressed on her potty training skills!  She has been totally trained since around 20 months, and is turning 2 on Thursday, wow that  came fast!  But now she is refusing to potty for us, and making messes on the floor etc :(.  She has started going on the potty SOMETIMES since Larry came home, but she used to run to the potty and do everything all by herself!  Any helpful advice on this situation?  I’ve resorted to putting her back into disposable training pants, because she has gone on the floor so many times!

Just thought I’d better post in case you were wondering where I went to!

We had our first ‘planned’ ultrasound on Monday. I had an ultrasound once when I needed my appendix removed just before my second trimester with my pregnancy with baby #2 - they wanted to make sure it was my appendix before going in for it because of the risk to baby (20% chance of loss I believe, due to the general anaesthetic and possible uterine irritability and baby ejection, baby is a big, nearly 2 year old girl now!).

Yes, I drank all that water, and as soon as I was up on the table, she scanned me back and forth a couple of times and told me to let it all go! WOW! I had been so uncomfortable on the drive to the imaging office… I wonder why they even make us drink all that water?! The first thing on my mind was if there was more than one, and there wasn’t! They did date me 10 days earlier than we thought - dating us at nearly 25 weeks and a due date of June 25th, we thought July 7th or so (so the Doctor has scheduled another confirmatory scan, because nobody wants earlier dates if they aren’t accurate because that would increase the chances of induction!). And…baby is a girl! So that makes 3 for us! We were a bit surprised, because we were expecting a boy in our own minds, so this shows how much we know…NOTHING! It is all in the Lords hands, but we are still absolutely delighted, AND we have so many girls clothes, this means we won’t have to go shopping! Except for a new sleeper just for this baby to wear after her birth :).

So, please rejoice with us! The Lord is so good, we were a bit worried we might be having twins and possible complications, not to mention the loss of our homebirth and transfer to a hospital birth as required here in Alberta. Larry was just beaming when he found out. Of course, we would have been delighted to have twins as well, and God is ALWAYS good, regardless of the perceived outcome.

Well, we had our first appointment with a St. Albert based doctor that we found through a circuitous email/article forwarding/phone calling route last Friday, February 29th. We feel so blessed to have found Dr. Marlene Lidkea, and really feel that the Lord is providing his direction and leading for our family during this pregnancy.

We had our first two children at home with a midwife. Here in Alberta, midwives are not funded by provincial healthcare, as they are in other provinces such as British Columbia and Ontario, so we paid our midwife, Barbara Scriver for the births privately, and it was well worth it, we love Barb, and our first two births were just perfect, natural, intervention free, personal, just what we were looking for. However, this pregnancy we needed our funds in other areas, and were not certain how to proceed. Barb was on vacation, so we met with the other midwife in the Edmonton area, but we still didn’t feel entirely settled until we came upon the article describing Dr. Lidkea’s services.

She works together with a Registered Nurse and a team of doula’s to provide home births in the greater Edmonton area, that the provincial health care system funds! Wow! What provision from God! We called, met with one of the doula’s, loved her, and booked an appointment, and it was last Friday, our first prenatal appointment.

Everything went well, and we heard babys’ heartbeat, the only surprise was that I was measuring big for my dates…very big….

*Flashback to Fall 2007* ————–>

Our second child was around 1.5 yrs. and still breastfeeding, my cycles had returned for a few months, but bleeding was light, and my cycles were long and somewhat erratic, different lengths. I was keeping meticulous records, this pregnancy I would know EXACTLY when we conceived! We weren’t planning, or trying, just waiting on God’s timing, but we were expecting to become pregnant at some point in time. However, after 4 months or so, I gave up, Ah, I thought to myself….it’s going to be a LONG time until I become pregnant again, why bother tracking.

Two months later, and after some shorter, heavier periods, …tada! Positive pregnancy test, and NO written records available…hmmm. Around mid October I started feeling tha we may have conceived. I tested in mid-late October, negative, 1 week later, light positive, a couple of days later, dark positive! We were pregnant, with no really firm dates to go by, but I felt fairly certain mid-October was the conception time for us!

A midwife told us a traditional way of telling a due date, is taking the time of quickening, the babys’ first movements that are certain, and add five months for an approximate due date. When baby moved for certain, DH and I did some quick math and got early July, the same date as we received after speaking with Barb about a mid-October conception date.

*Flashforward to late-Winter 2008* ————–>

So here we were in Dr. Lidkea’s office…supposed to be somewhere around 21 weeks, and measuring 30 cm. Hmmm, after some discussions we booked an ultrasound (normally we don’t), and long story short, this coming Monday we are having it done.

Oddly, two days before our appointment an email was sent to the Above Rubies mailing list regarding what factors increase your chances of twin pregnancies, and conception while breastfeeding was amongst those odds-increasing factors. The next day I mentioned this article to DH, and showed him a picture of a family with 14 children, I said, “Wow, do you think God might bless us with so many?”  We thought, likely not, I’m already 28, and Larry is 42, and I said “Not unless God puts us on the fast-track plan and starts laying on the multiples!”  I laughed then, I’m still chuckling and asking “Hmmm, God?”  My paternal grandmother also lost a set of twins, and the RN mentioned that practically twins often skip a generation. So, are we having multiples? I am LESS sick with this pregnancy than my first two, but apparently that isn’t the only factor, and some women don’t get sicker with a twin pregnancy. It looks like we will need to transfer to an OB if we are having twins, because the province doesn’t allow twin births at home under its regulations. Off to the hospital it will be for us!

So, what do you think? Twins, or a super big singleton? Or, I messed up really badly on my dates? Hmmm, comments welcome.

Welcome to the Quiverfullfamily.com blog! This is the blog of the Bogart family where we will be sharing exciting family news, as well as our thoughts on homesteading, family home business, christian family living, home schooling and discipleship, homemaking, exciting and interesting tidbits we find from around the world-wide-web, and more!

We are a born again Christian, homeschooling since birth, quiverfull convicted, homesteading, working from home and so much more family, living in rural Alberta on our 80 acre homestead raising our two blessings from the Lord (4.5, 1.5), and a third being knit by God in the womb! (Due sometime in July)

Our favourite things are spending time with the Lord as a family, singing, reading together, feeding the cows, going for walks, and cuddling! The Lord Jesus Christ saved my husband Larry and I from our sins in the fall of 2006, and life has been such an ever-changing adventerous walk in faith with him since then!

I hope that you will enjoy tuning in with us for news of our journey!  Our blog is a work in progress, so hang with us as we work our way out of our current rough/undeveloped theme!