11 September 2009

Halfway Pregnancy Update

CJ (15 years) and I (20 weeks pregnant) - My oldest and youngest

I am over the halfway mark in my pregnancy!

Oh, what a joy this pregnancy is. This pregnancy reminds me of my first and second pregnancies! What a miracle!

To understand the miracle, I have to give you some background on my last two pregnancies. My last two pregnancies were so hard and so stressfull, physically, emotionally and spiritually, that the only verse that kept me going was Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Every day from week five up to week forty felt like a living sacrifice. But keeping in mind it was my reasonable service to the King of the Universe kept going. It was also this same verse that gave me the courage for another pregnancy. I had no illusions that I could expect a better pregnancy than my last two pregnancies. After all, what were the chances of an easy pregnancy at the age of forty?

But looking back now at twenty weeks pregnant and feeling so good, having had almost no nausea in the first 12 weeks, minimal low blood pressure and much less fatigue, I knew God had done a miracle. How did God perform this miracle? He did it spiritually as well as physically!

At the beginning of this year, when I discovered that my body was ready for the next pregnancy, I sought a lot of encouragement from my husband. One night, being very discouraged on the prospect of illness and tiredness during my next pregnancy, Christo calmly told me that He and God had spoken. He had asked God to please release me from the terrible nausea, low blood pressure and fatigue and he believed that God had granted him his request - I would not be ill again! It wasn’t that I didn’t have the faith, but I’d accepted my destiny of being ill during pregnancies and I believed that was my way of giving God glory through my pregnancies, so I didn’t give it much thought.

About a month later, the founder of Seven-Point-Five, Garth Kent, came to Durbanville to give his testimony of surviving and recovering completely from Lupus after 8years. Garth found a way to Cleanse, Nourish and Balance his body to overcome this incurable disease. Christo was the host (Seven-Point-Five is our health shop’s main line of products) and I decided to go along and be of some moral support to my husband. Garth’s testimony was shocking and amazing! In modern medical circles Lupus is incurable. He used 15mg Cycimorph, 9 injections, plus 18 Lentogesics daily! He was experiencing severe headaches, his entire body would go into spasm and a morphine injection would be the only way to get it under control. He became exceptionally light and heat sensitive, often not even able to leave his bedroom. He also experienced thromboses, one even around his eye. Garth's joints were damaged so badly, he was unable to walk or even wash himself. He had to use an electric wheelchair to get around. The conventional treatment of Lupus he received during that stage, triggered lesions on his body and septic arthritis, even necessitating an operation to relieve abscesses of all their contents.

Then one day, while he was waiting to die, he was introduced to the concept of the pH of the body and how it could be regulated with Coral Calcium - Calcium extracted from dead coral reefs. It was explained to him that while the body’s pH is acidic, below 7.5 (the optimum pH at cellular level is 7.5) NO nutrition could be absorbed at cellular level and the body is dying because the cells are dying. Healthy cells produce healthy tissue, produce healthy organs, produce healthy systems and produce a healthy body! Thus you can eat as healthily as possible, eat organic food and take the best supplements, but if your body’s pH is acidic (less than 7.5) your cells are dying of hunger.

Just then, I could sense the Lord speaking to my heart. He asked me if I, myself, would take responsibility for my body’s health. To my shame I must admit, I had never, up till then, taken responsibility for my own health. I was a very healthy child and adolescent, never experienced any allergies or sinus or digestive problems. I could eat whatever I wanted and never had a weight problem. After we’d transformed to natural medicine, fifteen years ago, when CJ was very ill and I had suffered two miscarriages, I just let myself be led by Christo’s good judgment from his knowledge attained by studying and lots and lots of reading and drank whatever he gave me in supplements. But sometimes I would be in rebel against all the supplements he gave me and the gentleman my husband is, would then just leave it to me to decide what I would like to drink. Since I didn’t really care, I would go for days without drinking supplements, get more miserable (especially during the last two pregnancies) and then again I would ask Christo to give me everything he thought is necessary. This was a downward spiral.

Now the Lord was asking me if I would take responsibility for my own health, my body’s pH. I didn’t need to think twice. For sure I would! I decided there and then that I would immediately take care of my body’s pH. During the evening at Garth’s testimony we all tested our pH. Mine was about 6.8. I already had a 2L water bottle and immediately started to put 2 Coral Calcium-sachets in my water and made sure I finished the bottle every day. Every week I tested my pH and slowly it increased to almost 7.5. Three weeks later I discovered that I was pregnant. This was now a serious challenge to me. I would make sure that my pH is as near to 7.5 as possible and would wait to see what the effect on my health is during this pregnancy. For the first time I thought back about Christo and the Lord’s ‘talk’ and that I would not be ill with this pregnancy. I was starting to believe that it was possible to have a different pregnancy, through God’s intervention. What a God ordained moment with God’s intervention - when I got convicted by the Holy Spirit to take care of my own health the previous month at Garth Kent’s testimony evening.

As my pregnancy progressed, I was sometimes in doubt if I WAS actually pregnant. At seven weeks I still hadn’t experienced any pregnancy symptoms. During the first two months I did three pregnancy tests – just to make sure that I was pregnant!! I noticed it was more difficult to obtain a pH of 7.5 and started cutting out any form of sugar (honey too), any form of tea and my regular cappuccino twice a day. That balanced the pH again at near 7.5. This was hard, since I have a very sweet tooth. I had never had any reason to avoid sugar and my evening cappuccino was a very special time between Christo and me, relaxing in each others company and asking about each others day. It just wasn’t the same with only Christo having his espresso, but I knew what was at stake!

Between eight and twelve weeks I was occasionally nauseous and then embraced it, since that reminded me I was really pregnant!! The only ‘symptoms’ I clearly had, was falling asleep with Daniel with almost every feeding. I just couldn’t keep myself awake. I also noticed my milk hadn’t disappeared within 8 weeks of pregnancy, like before. I was still breastfeeding Danika when I fell pregnant with Andrew and my milk disappeared at 8 weeks of pregnancy. The same happened when I got pregnant with David and then Daniel. Now my milk was still flowing to the delight of Daniel and myself! I could only attribute this to the 2-4 liters of water I drank per day.
With the previous pregnancies I was so nauseous, I couldn’t stand a glass of water.

During the last 6-8 weeks, I could enjoy the ‘honeymoon-period’ as I call it, of my pregnancy. I’m not nauseous, have no low blood pressure, any fatigue or discomfort and I haven’t suffered with heartburn. I even sleep very well. The last two weeks I could even drink an occasional cappuccino when Christo had his espresso at night, what a treat! I could also start using some honey in the preparation of food and put St. Dalfour’s jam on my toast with breakfast.

What more could I ask! God granted Christo his request – I have a blessed pregnancy!

Thank you God, You are so good!!

07 September 2009

God Watered my New Rose Garden!

This weekend we planted my new roses. I had the fun part of putting it in the ground, but Christo and CJ had the hard time of digging holes, carrying heavy bags of horse manure and mixing it with the clay soil and peanut shells. My Grandma believed that when a woman is pregnant, she has VERY green fingers and anything she touches will grow beautifully, something with the pregnant-growth-hormones. I always find wise, old woman’s believes and remedies interesting. So when I am pregnant I’m always present when something is planted.

It was such a fun day, the little ones playing around and every one having a great time. I’ve prayed for good weather and it looked like a sunny day, until about half an hour after we started. Dark clouds moved in during the morning and we were even afraid that it would start to rain at one stage. But there was no rain, and we could finish the job. As we cleaned up the garden, the sun came out again and shined for the rest of the afternoon. It was only then that we realized, if it wasn’t for the clouds, Christo and CJ would have really suffered in the sun. At about eight O’clock last night it started to rain and hasn’t stopped since. God, Himself send rain for my new roses! I can just imagine what beautiful flowers I can expect with all the good stuff we’ve worked into the ground and the God-sent rain. All that great nutrition that enters the ground right now! Wow!

Christo and CJ start digging the holes.

The clay soil we had to work with.

The holes ready for the roses!







On the left the peanut shells and on the right the mixture of clay soil, peanut shells and horse manure.

CJ helping me to carefully take off the plastic cover from the rose.

Christo pouring the manure-peanut shell-soil mixture into the holes, while CJ and I hold the rose up.

You can see the pleasure on my face! As a young girl I always loved to play in the mud…

And got my hands really dirty! I haven’t changed since childhood!

Daniel and me watering our newly planted roses.

Christo covering the rose bed with horse manure.

A job well done!

My rose garden this morning in the rain.

We not only planted roses. Every one was on some mission:











Josua and I covering a bed in front our dining room window with horse manure.









Christo showing Danika how to weed the grass.









My two little boys playing in an imagination world of their own.












Daniel doing some reading on shrubs in the garden. He absolutely loves books.

Heidi-Mari was the photographer who took all these beautiful photos.

Thank you, Lord, for the rain and thank you, for my family!

04 September 2009

Chicken Mayonnaise Pancakes or Cinnamon and Honey Pancakes with Lemon?

Since we had a rainy spring day and could not celebrate spring in the sunshine, we decided to bake pancakes!









CJ volunteered to bake them, a bargain for me, taking into account that we have to mix at least 2 ½ liter of dough for this family of nine! I only needed to supervise the baking process.










CJ reminded me so much of my dad. My dad never used an egg lifter to turn pancakes, he always flipped them. CJ tried once and it landed perfectly in the pan, from there on he also didn’t use an egg lifter…










Heidi-Mari prepared some chicken mayonnaise and made us the most delicious chicken mayonnaise pancakes for lunch.

For desert we had cinnamon honey pancakes with lemon to add extra zest!










Little Daniel having a ball watching the hustle and bustle in the kitchen!

and having more than his share of pancakes!

Our Foolproof Pancake Recipe

325 ml (1 1/3 cup) spelt flour or 250 ml (1 cup) plain flour
1 t baking powder
¼ t salt
1 free range egg
1 ¾ cup water
1 T lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil

Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl.
Beat the egg, water, lemon juice and olive oil together.
Mix in the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.
Put a little olive oil in pancake pan and heat for the first pancake.
You should be able to bake the rest of the pancakes without oiling the pan again.

Enjoy!

31 August 2009

God blessed me in my rose garden!

When we bought the house we are currently living in, the rose garden caught my eyes first. I am absolutely fond of roses.









My rose garden during Spring 2006

But roses are hard work. You have to take care of it every week. The last two years I’ve neglected my rose garden a lot. Since the roses where at least 10 years old, I decided to take out all the roses and start all over again.

During the July holidays CJ took out all the roses












and CJ and Josua started to prepare the soil for the new roses.

We are living in the Western Cape and we have only clay soil, which is easily the worst kind of soil you can have for roses. Clay soil has NO drainage and roses need good drainage. Since we are always in favour of organic products we worked Bounce Back and agricultural lime into the clay soil.








Danika taking care of Andrew’s foot after he’d stepped on a rose thorn.

Daniel is checking the depth of the hole.

Andrew and David are watering the garden.

This past week we also worked in a huge amount of horse manure, which CJ got from the stables at the horse riding school.

So, today was the day I decided to go and buy new roses! All hybrid tea roses are beautiful and I decided to use fragrance as my criteria for choosing my new roses. I can only plant 6-10 roses on the peace of garden I have available. I did a search on google and got hold of this side by Gardens and Roses with their top ten lists of fragrance roses. The more I searched the more excited I become. But I’ve never been able to find the roses I’m looking for, so I tried to put a lid on my excitement. At the breakfast table I asked Christo and the children to pray that God would help me find some of the roses on my list or to give me peace on whatever roses I could find and to let the nursery have nice fragrance roses. It was so special to hear every ones prayer, from little David 2 ½ years old and Andrew 4 years old up to my Husband asking God to go before me in choosing my roses. This was such a minor request, but I know God wants to be part of every area of our lives and we like to show our children God cares about our hearts desires, no matter how small or insignificant.

My mother, mother-in-law and neighbor all recommend me to Ludwig roses, somewhere in the Stellenbosch area, so I quickly did a search to find them. Great was my surprise to find they have summer pruning classes in September.

Just before I left, early this afternoon, I quickly gave Ludwig Roses a call and from the start their eagerness to help me was refreshing. The lady on the phone asked me if I knew which roses I was looking for. When I told her I had a list, she offered to check the names on their computer. To my surprise they had ALL the roses available I had on my list of the top ten fragrance roses. I could not believe it!!

What a positive experience! Heidi-Mari, Josua, Danika and Daniel went with me. As I stopped at the rose nursery (they ONLY sell roses) I could only see rows on rows of roses! When I got out of the car, a man was already waiting to assist me. Inside the building they had a computer with photo slides of all the roses they have in stock and he showed me all the roses I was looking for on the slides. I’ve never in my life met someone that knows his roses so well. Then he took us outside and started to pick the strongest shrub in each category between the rows and rows of roses. You cannot imagine my joy and excitement. I was feeling like a young girl on a hot summer day allowed to choose the sweetest, biggest ice cream after a long, cold winter! We also bought Vigorosa as rose food. Within an hour we were back at home, with me proudly showing my roses to the rest of the family and keeping a careful eye on the unloading of my roses.

While we were all resting this afternoon, I was pondering on the favour and blessing of the Lord on my rose project. I can truly agree with Pr. 16:3 “Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed.” We’ve asked God to go before us and as usual He was so faithful!

We still need to get some peanut shell or bark chips to work into the clay soil and then CJ has to start digging 10 holes in the ground. We will plant the roses next Saturday, when dad has an off weekend.

Watch out for photos of my planted roses!

27 August 2009

Pouring my life into pleasing my husband!

Yesterday I went to the dentist. Our dentist is on the other side of the peninsula. A 30km drive, through national roads that are under construction for the 2010's soccer World Cup event, through Cape Town’s narrow streets and over the mountain. My dear husband gave up half of his day in his health shop to drive me through. At the dentist he sat at my feet and every time the dentist warned me of a procedure that could be uncomfortable or painful, he would put his hand on my ankle to let me know he was there for me and to encourage me.

I needed a few repairs on both sides of my mouth and really felt terrible afterwards. I was even more thankful that he had driven me, since I could not imagine driving myself all the way back. On our way back he took me for a coffee and although I could hardly taste the coffee, it was such a special time with my caring husband.

In the evening he put me to bed early, gave me some anti-oxidants to help my body recover from all the chemicals I was unfortunately exposed to and made sure I was comfortable.

Christo is truly my other half, chosen by God to protect me, care for me, guide me and provide for me. I appreciate him so much and praise and thank the Lord for this wonderful husband of mine.

But that wasn’t always my attitude towards my husband. It was only after I had learned to be a submissive wife who organized her life by his priorities, that I could be a content woman. I had a real breakthrough as a wife after realizing I am God’s perfect gift to my husband. I was created to make my husband happy and blessed, to serve him to the best of my ability, to make him complete and be his helper. After I had realized it is God’s perfect will for me, I could stop fighting the resentment to serve him, and let it come naturally. After all, God created me as a very special woman, perfectly suited to be my husband’s helper. All my talents and gifts, my unique personality, even my physical appearance, were part of being created especially to please my husband – it is my divine calling.

I once read a verse in 1 Peter 3:7 that gave me a completely new view of the togetherness of my husband and I. “…being heirs together of the grace of life.” In our modern culture, we women push to accomplish so much outside the home. Most of these things are not of God. We need to lay aside activities outside the home that push us and the kids to the edge of exhaustion and confusion. God’s will for me and Christo is to walk life’s path hand in hand. He doesn’t want us to run circles around each other, seldom meeting each other in the middle.

When I get off the phone, throw out the TV, stay off the web, reduce outside visits or women’s meetings and focus on putting my time into what my husband is doing and what my children need, I can better meet his needs and it is the beginning of learning to be an heir together with him of the grace of life!

Men long to be the most important activity in their wife’s life. My husband needs me with him, to be his help meet, his lover, his best friend. He needs to know HE is my king! I need to lay down my own agenda and become his Queen!

Becoming heirs together starts with me, because I am the weaker vessel and have the greatest need. It is my ‘visible’ need of him that awakens him. I’ve noticed that as I pour my life into pleasing my husband and serving him, he develops a protective, nurturing instinct towards me. As he gains confidence that his heart is safe with me and that I place his welfare first, he begins to trust me with his innermost being.

As I bonded with Christo, I gained his strength and stability. As a couple, we can now accomplish more than we would ever accomplish standing alone. He gives me emotional strength to deal with the issues of life, while he can trust my judgements and become wiser and more in tune with the needs of others. I know my husband only needs me to pour my life into his, for him to pour his soul back into mine. And our inheritance: great passion, stability, wisdom, joy, love and balance.

Will you pour your life into pleasing and serving your husband? What do you have to lose? You can only win!

24 August 2009

God’s First Revelation to me on the Blessing of Many Children.

A couple of years ago after my two children were born; we decided that we would not have any more children, although I dreamt of four children when I got married. After all, babies are hard work and a lot of stress. Heidi-Mari was a colic baby, who cried for six months before we learnt that she was diary-, wheat- and MSG intolerant. She was now two and a half years old and I was looking forward to have a live again. Heidi-Mari and CJ (then 5years old) were in playgroups and they were happy to be between their peers and getting the right stimulation from woman who had the talent and passion to work with little children (or that’s how I justified it to myself) I would then be able to start working in my husband’s business again and bring in some extra money to lift the financial burden. I would also be able to start hobbies again and go to woman bible studies without a toddler around my feet.

Then two friends of mine got pregnant with their third babies! Oh my! I was hooked! All of a sudden I wanted another baby! I tried to reason with myself. If I got pregnant again, I would be stuck at home again for another three years! And who in her right mind would want to do that to herself. I already had a boy and a girl, our parents only had two children, and everybody else I knew, except these two friends. Then the financial side. How does one provide in todays live for three children? Not even the church promotes more than two children. I must be crazy, I thought!

Everybody I talked to (even our pastor who had three children) advised me against having more children. Especially having three children! The middle child syndrome… was one of the main reasons! You either have two or four children. But I wanted another baby so badly! After two months of roller coaster emotions, I decided to ask God for help. I decided to pray and fast for 40 days and ask God to either take the yearning for another baby away, or to give me peace that it is OK to have another baby.

I must add that my husband didn’t mind having another baby at all, although his business was taking a lot of strain from the declining economy at that time. I wasn’t on any contraception, since I just couldn’t cope on any of the available contraceptive pills. For all the years of my married live, I had a very regular cycle and we used the rhythm method as contraception, with great success.

In the spring of 1999, I started my forty days fast of certain foods in my daily diet. Every morning and any other available time, I would read my bible, pleading with God for guidance and promises from His Word. It was an amazing few weeks in my life. God visited me every time I opened my Bible, revealing Himself to me and giving me the most amazing promises… and before the forty days was over, I was pregnant! I was overjoyed! With all the promises God gave me, I could just look forward to this new life and rely on Him to sustain us.

Since Heidi-Mari was a very traumatic hospital birth, miraculously NOT ending in a caesarian, we decided to have a home, water birth with a midwife. It was the most enriching time to go into labour on that evening of the 23rd of August and giving birth to a little boy in the early morning hours of the 24th of August 2000! Everything was so peaceful and calm. No rushing to a noisy hospital, nor leaving my small children at a family member, no bright, white lights in a hospital room, no strange nurses storming into the labour room every hour for observations, no interference with my bodies natural instinct to giving birth. Two hours after my baby boy was born, I was lying in my own bed, in my own room; my children had met their new baby brother and were back in a restful sleep in their own beds. The midwife left for her own hour or two of rest before dawn and Christo and I had time to adore our newborn baby over marmite toast and sandwiches!


The whole family 90min. after Josua was born.


Josua and Ingred Essl, and our very competent midwife. I’ve learned almost everything I knew about having babies the natural way and breastfeeding my babies, from this special woman.


CJ and Heidi-Mari proudly next to their new baby brother.












This was only the start of God’s blessing on our life through this baby boy. A few weeks after our baby’s birth, Christo’s business went down and we lost everything. We had to move to a small two bedroom granny flat, we had to borrow a family member’s car and Christo started a new business from scratch. But my baby boy gave me hope and a reason to live! Every time when I thought I could not do it, that the pressure and stress was too much, I would take my tiny baby into my arms and just love him. God renewed my tired, discouraged spirit by this baby’s dependency on me every time.












Today this tiny baby turned 9years old – my Josua! God truly used him to lead us into the Promised Land and taught us some basic truths about the blessing of children.


Do I still think babies are hard work? For sure! Do I still think they keep me from having a live? Never! They are the key to the life God intended for me from the start! Today my seven children are playing around their brothers and sisters, in the safety of their own home, having their mother, using her talents and passion to stimulate them and allow each one to grow into the unique person God intend them to be! And what about providing for all God’s blessings? God provides and He sustains us.
I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.
He is ever merciful, and lends;
And his descendants are blessed.
Ps 37:25-26

Thank you Lord for answering my prayers and hunger for your truths about children, over the past ten years, and giving me this rich and blessed live as a mother!


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