Reason to Rejoice

I have not been the best at making and keeping new year's resolutions in the past and I don't know that I want to call this list resolutions but rather, goals. I think everyone should have a list of goals that they would like to accomplish in a day, week, year, or lifetime. It helps me stay focused on what things are important. So, without further ado, here is my list of goals for 2012: *To blog at least 3 times a week. I love my blog and I love to do blog posts but I just haven't found the time to do it consistently. I plan on setting time aside to do this. It serves several purposes for me. It is a journal of sorts so I can go back and see what I posted in the past. It is a way for those that don't live near me to keep up....as long as I keep up! :) I would like to eventually get in with BlogHer or some site like that to possibly blog for money. I love to write...and my thoughts are the easiest things to write! :) And, the cyber world is a great place to ...

This is a sleep post. About babies and sleep. More specifically, about MY baby and sleep! :) I want to start off by saying the reason for this post is two-fold. First of all, if we decide to have another baby, I want to remember what I did to get Hannah to sleep! The second reason is because so many people have asked me what I do to get her to sleep and I hope to help someone. I also want to say that it might not work for everyone. It is simply what we do. It is what I have done with all three of my kids and it works for us! When Hannah was first born, the first few weeks were TORTURE!!! She HATED to be swaddled so I didn't swaddle her. She would sleep all day long and be awake all night...you know the brand new baby routine. Hannah would wake up as soon as you laid her down. There were several nights when she would be awake for several hour stretches. It seemed like I fed her all night long and I was up some nights from 12-5 or 6. It was just awful! We finally went to the p...

Hi!! I will update about family soon but I wanted to do this for fun. I saw this on Abbe's blog and thought it would be fun!! A. Age: 30...almost 31 B. Bed size: queen, with all these kids i would love a king. it gets cramped on saturday mornings C. Chore that you hate: putting away clothes D. Dogs: Libby the shih-tzu E. Essential start to your day: checking all social media on my phone F. Favorite color: purple G. Gold or Silver: silver H. Height: 5' 4 I. Instruments you play: my ipod J. Job title: medical social worker K. Kids: Rachel Mackenzie, Lauren Elizabeth, and Hannah Grace L. Live: texas M. Mother’s name: shawn...yeah, apparently our family has a thing for girls with boy names N. Nick names: riri, rik, rikkles O. Overnight hospital stays: only to have babies...and it was a long stay!!! P. Pet peeves: bad drivers, loud talkers, talking loud on the phone during a meeting Q. Quote from a movie: "i beg your pardon but i've never heard of a be...

Welcome to the world, Hannah Grace!! My blood pressure did pretty well this pregnancy until about 36 weeks and it started going up and down pretty inconsistently. On Saturday, October 15, I went to labor and delivery for a blood pressure check to see how things were because I had been having some consistent high readings. They ended up sending me home with instructions to follow up with my doctor a little earlier than I had planned that week (Thursday). I was scheduled for induction on Friday, October 21. I went to the doctor on Tuesday afternoon and my blood pressure was really really high! I think the lowest reading was 158/106. I was having some MAJOR pitting edema and did have protein in my urine as well as some visual disturbances. To the hospital I went. I was a bit nervous because I was only 37 weeks along and it wasn't when I had scheduled. Needless to say, God had everything all worked out! I was at the hospital for awhile and my BP did go back down some but I was co...

It's been awhile, I know! I am almost 36 weeks pregnant and I am not in the hospital!!! Miracle? I think so! My blood pressure has been good this time and other than having elephant feet and hands, I am feeling pretty good! My legs and feet are so swollen they are shiny and tight feeling. :( I will have a sonogram next Thursday to see how big this baby is and then plan on induction for October 21. My doctor is on call that day and I will be almost 38 weeks pregnant! I am so excited to meet this new one. Now...if I could just get everything ready! :)

September 11, 2001 I was a junior in college in Conway, Arkansas at Central Baptist College. I lived in the dorm. I remember waking up and walking down the stairs of the dorm to go to class. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I saw a bunch of people watching the TV and someone said, "A plane crashed into the World Trade Center." I think my response was something like, "Oh" and I continued on to my class. As the day went on, I quickly started to understand the true impact of that day and what was happening. I distinctly remember having a world history class that morning where we just sat an watched the TV and the room was silent. I don't remember much about that day. I know there were students who were upset and calling home. I remember some people knew people in New York or thought they had family close to there. I really don't remember anymore. Since that day, I have read countless stories and looked at heartbreaking pictures. I think the most i...

It seems as though I have blogged about this before...maybe not...if I haven't, I should have a long time ago! I have had many friends over the years...chill out, I am not trying to brag but really...who hasn't had quite a few friends over a 30-year life span!? Some of my friends have been at the right place at the right time and others have been incredibly monumental in my life. One of the biggest issues that I have had is being the kind of friend that I have needed/wanted and not totally stinking at being a friend. This is certainly not meant to be a pity party but there are so many things that have contributed to my "not so great" ability to be a good friend. See, I have struggled with so many things - rejection, popularity, self-worth, envy, jealousy, insecurity, and probably biggest obstacle of all - brokenness. I went to a Beth Moore conference back in April and she spoke a lot about relationships. It really had me thinking a great deal about my life and...

I have searched and searched before for the perfect blog design. I always end up doing it myself and am not terribly satisfied with the outcome. A "friend" of mine in the blogger, Twitter world is doing a great giveaway on her blog. Go to her website here and enter!!! I cannot wait to see who wins!! I wanna win!!! :)

There are several people doing these blog posts where you start one day and blog for a week simply about your day...details about it. I was hesitant to do this because my days consist of working but maybe someone would want to read what I did all day.... My day started this morning like it does most mornings with the alarm going off at 6:00 am. Actually, it starts going off at about 5:15 but my husband and I both like the snooze button. When the alarm goes off at 6:00, every morning I check my phone - texts, emails, Twitter, and facebook (my news)! :) I get a shower, get ready (makeup and dry my hair...yep, EVERY DAY). I went downstairs to try to figure out what to wear from the laundry room. Today it was the same black maternity pants that I wear about 3 days out of the week. I really need to get some more dress pants! I put my clothes in the dryer to "iron" them and get the girls' lunches ready. I make their lunches, fill up sippy cups for the car, get their ...

God really began tugging at my heart about TRULY dealing with this issue in my life. I still did not feel like I could tell anyone that I considered "safe." I was so afraid that no one would love me. Being the people pleaser that I am, I could not deal with that. God had other plans. The first time God really started speaking to me about dealing with my abortion was when Brice and I decided to go to a banquet at the local pregnancy resource center in Grand Prairie we had recently moved. It was called the Applauding Life Banquet. It is their annual fundraising banquet. I wasn't sure what it was all about before going. My point is I did not know that the speaker was going to be someone who used to perform abortions and was going to spend the entire evening talking about that!!! Can we say uncomfortable??? Not to mention, I was 6 months pregnant with Lauren. At the end of the banquet a lady got up and talked about wanting to start a post abortion ministry at the center. I ...

So I accepted Christ's forgiveness that day in college and really just kind of forgot about it again...never really dealing with the idea of abortion. I did, however, think that I needed to go and tell a bunch of people about it. That didn't work out so well. One girl asked me, "Why did you just tell me that?' That was a good question because I don't know. And I do believe that me telling a really really close friend of mine ultimately cost me our friendship a few years down the road. The timing was not right....it was not God's timing...it was mine. I do feel like I should tell you about my experience when I told my (now) husband. I had to tell him because I could not let him marry me without him knowing my "secret." I truly felt like I owed that to him. One night in my apartment I cried and cried I think for about an hour before I told him. He looked at me in my eyes and held my face in his hands as tears streamed down my face and he said...

So, there are so many things that people don't tell you about having an abortion. What they do tell you is that it is easy, you can just forget about it, no one ever has to know, and after it is over, you never have to deal with it again. Well, ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE LIES!!!! I lived those lies for about two years. The details in this next post are kind of sketchy because I cannot remember the exact time frames and the actual details about what happened that day are a little blurry too but I will tell you what I remember.... After the abortion, I did what I was supposed to do...I forgot...or at least I tried to. It came up everywhere I turned, at church, on the radio, on the TV - EVERYWHERE! But I ignored it as best I could...not dealing with it. Until ONE DAY....I went to college at Central Baptist College in Conway, Arkansas. In my career plan and the path I chose, I had to take a Human Growth and Development course. We sat down one day and opened the book to start tal...

There have been so many people lately who have asked about my new ministry at church and I have shared this story in public with different forums of people but I thought it was time to share on my blog. I have shared pieces of the story but this is the bulk of my testimony and story. I don't share for any other reason except to let you know where God has brought me from. The story certainly does not end here...there will be more posts about where God has brought me and what he has done. I am so humbled and overwhelmed with God's goodness I could burst!! Childhood My mom had me when she was 18 years old. I had a 2 year old brother and then she had my younger brother almost exactly a year after she had me. Due to certain circumstances my mom felt forced to allow my grandparents (my father's parents) raise the boys and she took me to raise. I was about 2 years old when we moved in with who I consider to be my dad, Gary. We lived with his parents, Granny and Pa...

I know I haven't posted in awhile and I have composed about a dozen posts and haven't finished them but this post seemed necessary and I just felt called to do a little "digging" on the subject... We all have issues and we all have a past. Even if we haven't done anything that the world deems "horrible" we ALL have things that we deal with...skeletons in the closet, so to speak. These issues are often something that we keep quiet and secret in fear that others might reject us or not love us anymore. As I have posted in the past, that certainly was the case with me. While I don't believe that we must confess all of our sins to everyone that we meet, in my particular situation, I knew that God was wanting to use my past mistakes to help others, and before I could do that I had some confessing to do! The truth is the ONLY One that we must confess our sins to is Jesus Christ. He wants true repentence from us and more than anything He wants to for...

This month is all about love! God has really given me so many blessings and opportunities over the past several months. I cannot tell you how amazed I have been. Then I think, why am I so amazed...God is awesome and I should expect blessings but blesses beyond what I could ever think or imagine - Ephesians 3:20. I was able to speak and give my testimony a month or so ago and then I spoke again this past week at Kingdom Women. Kingdom Women is a ministry of our church that focuses on Kingdom work. I was privileged to speak for about 20 minutes about my life, where God has brought me, and how He has blessed my life. It was a great experience!! I love those women! Some of them are matriarchs of our church and some of them are my very best friends. I just spoke from my heart...about God's love. It was a blessing for me to speak but more than anything was the blessing that I received after I was finished. This has been a rough couple of weeks for my husband and I in the ministry are...

This is the time of year when we think a lot about love. February. Valentine's Day. Many people are planning on what to do with their boyfriends, fiances, and husbands for Valentine's Day. We think about what to get our children and their little friends. You remember those old little comic strips - "Love is." Over the past few days I have been thinking about what love is. What does love mean? Let's go to trusty ole Webster: Love [luhv] 1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. 2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend. 3. affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one's neighbor. 4. the benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God. There were several other definitions but the above seemed to be more relevent to my post today. We love our children. We love our husband. We love our other family members a...

Okay, so not really but I am blogging for the hospital that I work at!!! Here is my first entry.....this blog is all about moms! Enjoy! texashealthmoms.blogspot.com

In the midst of still “recovering “ so to speak from my last post, I wanted to lighten this post up a bit. I do want to say, however, THANK YOU so much for all of the encouragement, support, and love after I shared a very difficult part of my life with you all a couple of days ago. I just want to be clear….that post was NOT about telling my story necessarily but about giving God the glory and sharing about what He is doing in my life. I have been on an amazing journey and am so excited about what is to come!! If you need healing from an abortion, please let me know and I will get you in contact with someone who can help. My email is rikkihester@sbcglobal.net Let’s talk about my kids!! :) Lauren is almost 2! Can you believe that? She is just growing up so much. She has such a little personality. She is a much easier toddler than Rachel was. She takes to discipline well and has such a different personality that her sister. She has been very sick! We went to Care Now on Friday and she...

Tomorrow is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. This day always falls on the Sunday closest to the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. Today, January 22nd, marks the date that abortion was legalized in the United States. It is the 38th anniversary. Over the past several days I have read a few articles that center around abortion, choosing life, and what people are doing about both. I have read about a doctor who performs abortions illegally and keeps the contents stored in jars. Human body parts in jars. I have read about a couple that did IVF and then got pregnant with twin boys. Since they wanted a girl, they decided to terminate their pregnancy of these baby boys in hopes to get pregnant with a little girl. This couple had suffered the loss of a baby girl shortly before getting pregnant with the twins. They were quoted saying that they "deserved a little luck" and this was their "right." This case is sad but the fact is that many women choose to have abortions for all diff...

SOOOO...I know that I am SUPER late with this post and I am just not going to post about Christmas at all except to say that it was great, the girls had a blast, and I just can't go back and post about it because we have to move forward. I had a tough start to the new year with the death of a girl I lived with in high school. It was so sad. There were so many GREAT things that happened to me in 2010 and first and foremost I have become closer to God than I have ever been and I am SO incredibly grateful. Some of these questions are trivial but I thought it was fun and many of them really made me stop and think. Enjoy! Feel free to copy and repost with your answers. 1. What did you do in 2010 that you have never done before? Read a fiction novel...I read 3 complete ones! :) Also, I have never poured my heart out before God and told Him to use me however He wants. I literally said, "Whatever you want from me, Lord, here I am. Use me." Scary, overwhelming, and utterly ...

I really do plan on blogging again!!! Promise! I actually started a blog about 2 weeks ago and never finished it. I am hoping by the time I do finish it won't be outdated! Anyway, please don't stop reading...come back again! My hope is to catch up tomorrow. I did a lot of house work today so maybe tomorrow I can "play." Lots to tell you about.....