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 in your life the richer your life is. Of course, there will always be those people that you would be better off not having around you. My in-laws have a fantastic plaque in their kitchen. It states, “We enjoy all our guests… some when they come and some when they go.”

Cherish and bless those that are in your life and, where possible, avoid those that suck the life out of you. I wish for you today that you will have more of the former type of people in your life and less of the latter.

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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 at the ceiling and I envy them.

The first step we took with Amanda’s colic was to introduce probiotics (good bacteria) into her stomach. She didn’t get better, so I switched from breast milk to soya milk for two days. When that didn’t make a difference, we took her to see the doctor, hoping that prescription drugs would do the trick. The doctor gave her something for her cramps, but the medicine caused her to stop having bowl movements. That was worse, so we had to stop giving it.

Infants are meant to sleep several times in the day, but Amanda went through several months during her infancy where she battled to sleep at all during the day. If she fell asleep for 10 minutes, that was something.

If you have a colicky baby, find someone who can take him/her for an hour or two so that you can have a much needed break. Make sure that someone will love your baby even if he/she cries a lot. And, by all means, try the safe remedies and see the doctor if you feel it’s necessary. Just remember, when you think it will never end, “this too shall pass.”

I couldn’t beat the colic in my babies’ lives; only their growth over time could do that. I don’t miss their colicky days, but I enjoy all of my kids so much that it was worth it.

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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 to give her blue eyes. She loved her brother’s blue eyes and was sad that she had brown ones. Amy had great child-like faith, but when God didn’t answer her prayers, she was deeply disappointed.

It was only many years later, as a missionary to India, that Amy understood God’s wisdom in creating her with brown eyes. A white lady with blue eyes would have stood out as different. She didn’t want her physical appearance to be a hindrance in reaching the Indians, so she chose to dress like them and look like them, sometimes even dying her skin with tea to make it darker.

Another reason why it was important for her to blend in was that she was doing a dangerous job. She had discovered that young girls were being sold into temple prostitution and she began “stealing” them to safety. Under Amy’s care many young women’s lives were transformed.

I would like to leave you with a quote by Amy Carmichael.

"One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving."

Another post related to this that you might like to read from me is from my blog, Happy Moms, Happy Homes: "Discovering Your Potential - Part 2."

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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 and then I thought of the book, Throwaway Bear by Sandy Nightingale. I decided if anyone could relate to the story of an unwanted and mistreated teddy bear, then she could. I packed the new book into the bag along with the other items and prayed that this book would help the girl through the process of emotional healing.

God has blessed you and me so that we can be a blessing to others.

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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 when you think things can’t get worse, little teddy gets rescued and “adopted” by a young boy.

I’ve heard of desperate mothers throwing their babies away. Hearing is one thing, but actually seeing a photo of a flesh-and-blood newborn in the garbage is another thing entirely. Recently I saw such a photo on Facebook. A photo speaks louder than words.

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, 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 and then I thought of the book, Throwaway Bear by Sandy Nightingale. I decided if anyone could relate to the story of an unwanted and mistreated teddy bear, then she could. I packed the new book into the bag along with the other items and prayed that this book would help the girl through the process of emotional healing.

I think this book would make a wonderful Christmas present for children. It can open up meaningful discussions between parent or teacher and child.

The views expressed here are entirely my own and I am not receiving any pay or gift for having posted this.

God has blessed you and me so that we can be a blessing to others.

Another post you might like to read from this blog is, “Broken, but Precious.”

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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 with a quote from a fantastic movie, “Soul Surfer.” It’s based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton who lost her arm to a shark attack. At one point in the story she is talking to her mom and says, “Thought I could look normal.”

Her mom replies, “Normal is so overrated.”

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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 older kids at our old house. She remembered how we all gathered on the double bed for story-time. (I remember my son often preferred the floor, because space was an issue.) We actually went through the entire Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. I read them in chronological order beginning with The Magician’s Nephew.

Today, I’m fortunate to have three strong readers out of my three older kids. Even though Amanda isn’t old enough to read yet, that doesn’t stop her. Every day she looks at books.

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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 these emotions and more.

My advice to any woman wanting the perfect husband is not to go for a prince, but rather go for someone with substance. Find a guy who not only wants to be the champion, but who also wants to champion you. Life will continue after the wedding. It might not always feel like “happily ever after,” but it will be the real kind of existing in a real world.

The best kind of living is one with relevance and purpose.

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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 is her favorite.

This story continues in "Happily Ever After."

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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 Surfer.” The movie is based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton who lost her arm to a shark attack. At one point in the story she was asked a very important question by a reporter. He wanted to know if she could go back to that day, would she change anything. She replied, “I could never have embraced this many people with two arms.”

The lesson in this is that sometimes we are too quick to throw something away just because it’s broken. Just because it’s broken doesn’t mean that it’s no longer precious or that it has become useless. The same goes for people. We are all capable of great things no matter how broken we may be on the inside or the outside. Give what you have with courage and let God do the rest.

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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.

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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 else, that somehow our family, despite all our good intentions, had been experiencing a bit of a disconnect. I don’t know when or how it began, but that independence that I mentioned earlier did not always produce positive results.

During my time of morning sickness, something happened, which made me marvel. Those first few months when I spent most of my time in bed, my son would come and give me a hug. Then my daughter would come and do the same. My other daughter would give words of encouragement and an occasional hug. This was unusual behavior coming from them and of course very appreciated by me. It took this unplanned pregnancy to bring us closer together.

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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 King.” “The Lion King” DVD eventually split through the middle and for a long time she was very sad about that. Episodes of “Barney” came next, but at the moment she likes to watch a variety of things instead of the same thing over and over again, which used to drive us crazy anyway.

In this photo, Amanda is looking at the book, Littl One, Little One, What do You See?, by Alan Siewert.

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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 so happy that it was worth it.

If I was going to write a blog about Amanda, then I’d have to write about the things that are important to her – hence the name, “Amanda’s Books and More!”

In this photo Amanda has just turned 2 years old. She's opening up her birthday presents and is holding her new book, Barney: My First Book of Colours.

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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 continues in "Surprise, I’m Pregnant!"

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