Blessed to Have You in Our Life

Amanda was a princess for the day. Yesterday we celebrated Amanda’s 4th birthday. The card we got her had Tinkerbell on it. Inside I wrote, “Just like Tinkerbell, you brighten up our lives. Our family is so much richer with you in it.” It always amazes me when I get a sympathetic or correctional look from someone when he or she finds out that I have four children. How am I worse off for having four kids and not the traditional one or two?   Amanda's Disney Princess cake at play group. The more people you have...

Read More

Living with a Colicky Baby

 Living with a colicky baby. This is a photo of baby Amanda. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on the topic of colic. I would, however, consider myself a veteran on living with a colicky baby. Out of my four kids, all of them came with colic. I tried different things like changing my diet and over the counter remedies, but nothing really helped. All four of my babies were often unhappy when they were awake, and sometimes even when they slept. I’ve looked at other people’s babies that lie with their eyes open, smiling up...

Read More

Eye Color Conversation

Jeremiah with his little sister, Amanda Recently, Amanda was sitting on the couch with her brother and they were having a conversation. She looked at him and said, “I didn’t know your eyes are green.” Her brother answered, “Everyone in our family has green eyes.” Amanda then opened her eyes wide and replied, “I can’t see my eyes!” How important is eye color to you? I can still remember hearing the missionary story of Amy Carmichael from my childhood days at Sunday school. When Amy was a young girl, she used to pray and ask God...

Read More

Thrown Away - Part 2

There is a house of safety in our town for moms with children escaping from abusive homes. Often they have no time to pack or plan, but leave in haste as they fear for their lives and for the lives of their children. Soon after receiving the gift of brand new books that I mentioned in, “Thrown Away – Part 1,” I heard of a mom with a young daughter and baby in such a plight. While I was putting together a gift bag of essentials for this family, I thought about this mother’s daughter and how she had escaped an abusive father...

Read More

Thrown Away – Part 1 and 2

Amanda playing in the laundry basket with her sister, Samantha, and stuffed toys A few years back, my kids were given a gift of brand new books. One of the books was called, Throwaway Bear by Sandy Nightingale. As the title suggests, a little bear gets thrown away. He doesn’t get thrown away because he’s old and thread-bare. In fact, he’s brand new, but he’s unwanted by the girl who receives him. The little teddy has one traumatic experience after the next. Being stuffed in the trash is only the beginning of his troubles. Just...

Read More

Not so Normal

 from left to right: Amanda, Tina, Jessica, Samantha and Jeremiah I have a fridge magnet that says, “Remember, as far as anyone knows… we are a normal family!” I bought that magnet for me, because I could relate. We might look like perfect parents raising perfect kids, but I know that we’re not. In fact, we’re probably not all that “normal.” We are who we are… the Morleys. What is “normal” anyway? We all have our own idea of what “normal” looks like, sometimes even placing too much value on it. Let me illustrate this point...

Read More

Introducing Your Child to the World of Books

One evening, when I was putting Amanda to bed, I gave her the library book that she had picked out. She reminded me not to turn the light off and I answered, "Of course I won't turn it off, you're going to look at a book." This was in the days before she could pronounce the letter "L.” She replied, "I'm going to READ, not going to YOOK. READING is not YOOKING!" We were on holiday when I took this photo of my three girls reading. Just the other day, my eldest daughter was reminiscing over the times when I read to the three...

Read More

Happily Ever After

This post follows on from “More than a Prince.” Amanda with her dad at the Cape Town airport. Don't you just love the Disney Mermaid suitcase! It’s funny how little girls get romantic notions. Amanda’s Disney movies send the message that when the pretty girl marries her prince, they live happily ever after. The future holds no more cares or worries. It’s blissful oblivion. From my perspective, they stop existing, because existing means to feel love, happiness, joy, satisfaction, disappointed, discouragement and pain. Life is all...

Read More

More than a Prince

Amanda said the funniest thing to me the other day. "Mom, you're supposed to marry a prince not a daddy!" I shared this on Facebook and two replies in particular carried a lot of wisdom. “Your daddy is a prince,” said a friend. “Great Daddies are much better,” said another friend. Amanda’s daddy might not be the princely package, but he’s so much more. He has his rough edges at times, he can shout and be grumpy, but he also often goes the extra mile for me and for our kids. More recently, Amanda has been saying that her daddy...

Read More

Broken, but Precious

Amanda has a Baby Born doll that she loves so much that she doesn’t mind that its arms have fallen off. Her little friend, who comes and plays almost everyday, mentioned that her mommy throws broken toys away, implying that I should do the same. It probably bothered her to see this armless baby doll being played with (like one of those scary broken toys from the Toy Story movies). It sometimes bothers me too, but Amanda loves it no matter how it looks, so I don’t have the heart to throw it out. Yesterday morning we watched “Soul...

Read More

Celebrating Our Fourth Child

This post follows on from, "Surprise, I'm Pregnant!" Now we are celebrating every day we have with our fourth child, Amanda. She brings us so much joy and fills our home with love and laughter. The older kids are proud of their little sister and each of them interacts with her in his or her own unique way. This blog is dedicated to a little girl that came into our lives when we least expected it and at the time we needed it the most. As her mother, I am grateful. God knew what He was doing even if I wasn’t so sure at the time. Tweet...

Read More

Surprise, I’m Pregnant!

This story follows on from, "Thinking About Having Another Child?" You can imagine then how I felt when I found out that I was pregnant! My husband was elated, but I was not so sure. We told the children that same day and they were just as happy as their dad. My son’s excitement surprised me the most. He immediately ran to tell his friends, but since his friends were all boys, they didn’t quite mirror his exuberance. I went through morning sickness and depression. I lost 8 kg. (which was good for my figure). I noticed something...

Read More

Amanda's Favorite Things

As I already mentioned in, "Choosing a Name for this Blog," Amanda loves books. Not just picture books, but all books. She’ll take one of my books that I’m reading, which doesn’t have any pictures, and will sit for a long period of time pretending to read it. She also likes looking at magazines. Samantha, our 11 year-old, has been getting the NG Kids’ Magazine. Amanda looks at the pictures with great interest. Her favorite color is pink. Her favorite movie used to be “the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” and then it was “the Lion...

Read More

Choosing a Name for this Blog

Once I decided that my daughter, Amanda, would be enough of a topic to keep me blogging for a long time, I needed to decide on a blog name. The idea came to me one afternoon when Amanda and I were lying down for a nap. Her routine at naptime and bedtime is to take books and dolls or stuffed animals to bed with her. She asked me to read to her from one of her chosen books. I wanted to tell her no, that I was too tired, but then I decided that one book couldn’t take too long. It was a toddler’s book after all. Of course, this made her...

Read More

Thinking About Having Another Child?

In 2007, my husband and I already had three kids, ages 7 – 11, who were growing up and becoming independent individuals. They were big enough that life for me was beginning to have some kind of normality to it. To be more specific, I was able to sit down for dinner and eat my meal while it was still hot (without interruptions), watch an entire program on TV, and sleep through the night. Bliss! My husband and I always wanted a big family, but with things beginning to calm down, I didn’t see the need to disrupt what we had. This story...

Read More