My love for Paityn, Gods love for me.

We have such an awesome God. He wants us to spend quiet time with Him through prayer or reading his precious word. He wants us to be Mary sometimes not Martha, to just sit and rest at his feet. Our society makes us feel like we need to be busy all the time but what we really need sometimes is to be still. Its a lesson I am learning. Probably always will be learning. Lately, I have seen Gods love through my love for Paityn, through my desire I have to raise her to know the Lord, through my prayer to be a light to others and reflect Christ. He shows me His amazing love all the times I mess up and He forgives me!!

I truly cant describe the love and care the Lord has for us it is to immense. He makes it so clear biblically he just wants for us to spend time with Him as we listen. He wants our plans to be His. His plans for our lives are good. He brings us trouble for us to be reminded to fully rely on Him. This is what struck me-

Lately I really have been cherishing every moment with Paityn as she is growing up so fast. Paityn has been trying to stand, grab, take, pull, play, roll, drink and bounce- these moments are wonderful but its the quiet moments that have been taking my breath away. Its when she is sleepy and she just wants to rest still in my arms. She simply is near to me, resting against my chest, dwelling in my comfort. I feel every sweet breath she breathes. I can quietly sing to her, gently talk with her, teach her what I have learned, or just simply hold my precious child and pray with her. I let my love just pour down onto her. In these moments I try to whisper to her how much I love her but words cannot express my love, its indescribable. It brings tears of joy to my eyes.

These moments with Paityn are teaching me about Gods love. That the Lord wants these moments with us, with me! He wants us to just stop sometimes, take a moment and listen to Him as he pours out us His love on us. We are his little Paityns... his precious children and he just wants us to rest in His magnificent peaceful presence. He loves us so much...he sacrificed His son for us to forgive us our sins...He gave us his word to teach us.... Life comes with lows and highs to allow us to fully rely on Him and praise Him through everything. There is nothing that stays constant apart from the Lord. There is no other rock but Him. There is no bigger love then the Love He has for us. I see a glimpse of our saviors love in my quiet moments with Paityn. The amazing love I have for my baby can not compare to the greatest love that our savior has for us. This overwhelms me. Praise the Lord and just take time to rest in His arms. He wants that so much.

Life is awesome. My daily prayer is that Ill be able to teach Paityn Gods love and she will grow to know Him. God decided to switch my prayer around. He is using Paityn to teach me of the importance of quiet time with Him and His love for me. How amazing is that! I hope you enjoy hearing what the lord has put on my heart and what the Lord is revealing to me. How great is our God!!!

Paityn Elizabeth Winchester

Paityn Elizabeth Winchester was born on May 2, 2010 in Germany. I was enduced at 39 weeks because of obstetric cholestasis. My water broke and 14 1/2 hours of labor later and I had a "emergency" C section and Paityn was born at 4pm on Sunday. Healthy and beautiful. THE BEST MIRACLE EVER. She was 7lbs 4oz at birth and already smiling within her first days of life. She is so amazing. We just are in so much awe of her. What a blessing!

Since she has been born life has been a whirlwind but an incredible one. The days have gone by so fast. Too fast!

We had my parents visit for a few days and then Bens mom come visit for a few days. Both visits were great but flew by as well! It was nice for the new grandparents to get to meet their beautiful granddaughter. Yes I may be biased but ooo how I think our little girl is so beautiful. When she was born I literally laid there holding her all night admiring the little angel God gave us. To be honest I still do.

Paityn loves to sleep, which has been amazing. She is sleeping as of recently a few 8 hour nights it is awesome since her mommy absolutely loves to sleep too.

We are so proud of Ben, he is leaving to Afghanistan sooner then I can say and he will be so missed. He is such an amazing daddy to Paityn and an absolutely amazing husband to me. Some may say I am unlucky because my husband will leave for a year but I say I am blessed. God gave me such a wonderful man to provide and keep us safe and free. I am more then thankful despite the fact my heart will be longing each day till when he comes back home. By then Paityn will be walking and talking, how crazy is that? Ben will be here for fathers day so that is so cool. We got to spend our first mothers day and fathers day together. Paityn was a week old for mothers day and will be 7 weeks old for fathers day. I cant express the love I have for Ben and how much he means to me. Being parents together has just made our love grow and us really realize how much love we are capable of. The love we feel for Paityn is beyond words, we try to talk about it and we just look at eachother and know we cant explain it. A love for your child is just beyond all explaination. It is only a glimpse of how much our God loves us, so let me just say we are all loved sooooooooooooooooooo incredibly much. this weekend at church is Paityns dedication, how exciting :)

So since she has been born we have been doing local activities. I think my two favorite towns nearby is Amberg, which has shops, cafes and delish ice cream cafes and Regensberg. Regensberg has a river running in it and it is beautiful, it also has a sushi restaurant that I love, mostly because I couldnt eat it when I was pregnant so now I can eat all the raw fish I want, I know many people think that is gross but yum not me :) There is also a mall there that is the closest thing nearby to a normal American mall so it makes us feel at home. I love going there with ben somhow I end up leaving with a new pair of shoes or a skirt or something he wanted to buy me. Im a lucky girl :) Well in Amberg there is Bens favorite brewery Bruckmuller where we are going out for a hot date tonight. He loves the German food. I love Him. So it will be a good date for both of us. Oh yea Paityn comes too but she will probably sleep the whole time. So when she gets older and says she isnt allowed to do anything we will remind her about all the cool places in Germany she went too :)

This video was at a festival in Amberg, Germany. Paityn is six weeks old exactly in it! She loves dancing with her daddy! :) We are going to play it at her wedding when she dances with her daddy! Hopefully she wont be like us and it will be more then twenty years away, that seems to soon already :)

These videos were taken this morning, June 18th. Paityn is a morning person she was so full of life this morning so we captured a little. She gets shy for the video and doesn't want to show off her cutie patootie smile but she is still as precious as can be. For those of you in the states I hope you enjoy seeing her just how she is and feel a little closer to her. Ill try to be better at updating the blog throughout this next year.

Please keep Ben in your prayers as he takes on this responsibility of his job and leadership and heads to Afghanistan. I pray I will stay strong and positive for him while he is away. This will be an adventure for both of us but "WE CAN ENDURE ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS US" I love you all and miss you all. Feel free to email us or facebook us to talk we'd love to hear from you. When I get Bens address over there I will post it if you want to send him encouraging packages, I know he will appreciate it!

LOVE,

The Winchesters

Upcoming Events in the Winchester family:

-Fathers day

-Ben deploying (Pray for safety and peace)

-Paityn's 2 months check up

-The fourth of July

-July 16- Natalie (Sophie's sister) and Kyong's Wedding in the Dominican Republic

(praying for Paityn's passport so we are able to go!)

-Sophie and Paityn visiting the USA!

sophie.d.winchester@googlemail.com

benjamin.winchester@us.army.mil

More Baby stuff from the Week 29 Appointment

Pics from Sophie's latest Appointment, at 29 weeks. This pics are 3D renderings from the ultrasounds. The pic is a still that shows her smile, and the video, if you watch closely, you will see he open her mouth and lick her arm twice. Sophie's Doc got a big kick out of it. I just say it means she'll get along well with the dogs.

Pregnant Photos

Well the Photos aren't Pregnant, but Sophie's in them and she is...

Happy New Year...Its a Girl (its gunna be)!!!

Happy New year to all. Plenty of updates for ya. Sophie and I got to travel a bit during Christmas. My (Ben) parents came for Christmas and we took them to Salzberg, Austria (the hometown of Mozart, and the town the Sound of Music was filmed in.) It was a beautiful city, and we hope to go back. We came back for Christmas Day, were I got a new Jacket, and Sophie got a Nintendo Wii. When my parents headed back to the states, Sophie and I flew to Paris to spend New Years with the French family. It was a great time.

Now for the big news, we just found out today...we're having a girl! We haven't really discussed names much, but Im not sure if we're telling before the birth anyways, too bad ;). We have a few photos for your viewing pleasure. Please enjoy:

PS-This was the baby at 23 weeks!! The lowest picture is hard to tell what it is because it is in 4d imaging and a little whited out but this is the baby facing front and covering her face with her fists. Shes all curled up...She realized we were staring at her and she got shy :) I love her already. -Just a caption from me now (Sophie)

Baby Stuff - 14 Weeks

Sophie had her checkup yesterday. Everything looks good, but still no word on a boy or girl yet. We just thought we'd share some pictures and a video the sonogram made.

In Germany, and Alot Going On

It seems we have let our Blog fall to the way side, mostly because so much has been going on, but now we have settled a little, so allow me to update you:

The Move to Germany

We now live in Germany, as many knew was about to happen. We left Fort Benning, GA on 7 August and arrived in Vilseck on the 9th. After two weeks of inprocessing and a class in German Culture and Language, I started work at 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in the S3 shop (Staff Office for Operations). We decided to live off post, to experience German culture and such, so we moved into a house in Auerbach in der Oberpfalz.

Travels Around Germany

Though we have not yet had to opportunity to see the rest of Europe, we have done what we can to see as much of Germany and the local area as possible. We took a train to Nuremburg on our first week here. And a week or so after getting a car, we drove to Bertesgaden, which is in the German Alps on the border of Austria. We didn't go up to the Eagle's Nest (Hitler's vacation home) because we had the dogs with us, but we stayed in the valley and hiked around Lake Konigsee, which was still worth the trip.

Training Deployment to Bulgaria

On the 20 September I left for Bulgaria. We had a two day delay at Ramstein AFB, where I got to eat at a Macaroni Grill (emm a taste of home), to make it better it was on Sophie's Birthday that we went, so I gloat as often as possible. A week into my time in Bulgaria, my commander let me know that I would be taking over Eagle Companies 2nd Platoon, who I would shadow during thier training rotation. The training went very well and included a trip to Sliven a local town. I just returned 5 days ago, and have since taken over my platoon.

The Big News

About a week before leaving for Bulgaria Sophie called me at work telling me she needed to go to the doctor, a couple hours later it was confirmed, she is pregnant. At the time she was 6 weeks along, and is now 13+ weeks along. Though the past 7 weeks are hard, she is relieved to be in her second trimester and looks forward to feeling better. We hopefully find out tomrrow whether it is a boy or a boy.... just kidding, we are excited either way, and pray only for a healthy child.

As for now Sophie and I are getting unpacked from our move on post. Sophie's mom came for a couple weeks while I was in Bulgaria to help her out and ended up helping with the move. The weather is getting colder, fast, and we are both adjusting. It only goes along with all the other changes going on in life.

We appreciate all the prayers and ask you continue them. We'll do better with updating the blog to help all out loved one keep informed. We Love You all.