Maggie Whitley Blog
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Maggie Whitley weaves her writings around joy in motherhood, homemaking, faith, and simple living. She homeschools her children, enjoys a quiet room while reading, and roars with laughter over the challenges & delights of motherhood. Maggie and her husband, along with their four young children, live in northern Michigan. She has been writing online since 2008.
Maggie Whitley Blog
9M ago
We are a family of seven!
It’s time to meet our baby, Josiah Solomon.
Josiah came at exactly at 36 weeks (the precise date I had prayed for and asked God to make his birth day weeks ago).
He arrived Wednesday, June 28th at 7:38 am – a healthy 6 lbs 6 oz, and 18” in length.
Josiah has lots of baby rolls, skin fuzz, and brown hair on his head.
We praise God for this boy. On Wednesday early evening, about 12 hours after birth, he had a second surgery on his original incision site. He’s doing very well, and each day brings more progress.
We have a few things to plan for as the weeks pas ..read more
Maggie Whitley Blog
11M ago
In this “thirteen thoughts” post, I gather a variety of thoughts and details from the month of May to describe the little moments that make up my life. I have noticed it’s the little moments that give birth to the big moments, and I like to record them. Click here to read past “thirteen thoughts” blog posts.
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Feeling so much baby movement, thank you God! I’m hopeful this means great things for Josiah’s legs once he’s born. I’m now 31 weeks along with my pregnancy. Just this week I started noticing an increase in tenderness around my incision (sad!). Now more than ever, I must lean into b ..read more
Maggie Whitley Blog
11M ago
Last year, I read a biography on the late Susie Spurgeon (wife to the late Charles Spurgeon, English minister/theologian). This biography coincided with a research paper I was writing for my Master’s degree at Moody Theological Seminary. The more I read, the easier it was to admire Susie and the life work she accomplished for the Kingdom of God.
For decades, and at an early age, Susie was plagued with an illness that kept her in great pain, and usually home-bound. Susie started a book ministry to encourage pastors with limited resources by providing them with books to aid with their preaching ..read more
Maggie Whitley Blog
1y ago
Books I’ve recently finished:
Hannah Coulter
Theology of the Home II
Gift from the Sea
Good Apple
Books I’m currently reading:
Streams in the Desert
Writing as a Way of Healing
Emotions and the Heart | Bible Study
Women of the Word
Ellie and the Harpmaker
My guess is it doesn’t surprise you I’m currently reading so many books. It’s the bed rest I’m on, for sure, but it’s also the huge “redirect” of my schedule. I have less I’m trying to accomplish each day, which means I have more time to be disciplined with my reading goals.
For each of the books I’m currently reading, I have ..read more
Maggie Whitley Blog
1y ago
Easter Sunday, two days before my surgery
My prenatal surgery incision, three days post-op
Zack at my bedside, about an hour after surgery
Baby Josiah, the day before my prenatal surgery
I’m so excited to leave the hospital and continue resting at home :)
I’m writing a lot of letters ~ Natalie skips to the mailbox to drop them off for me!
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It feels like a miracle I’m here, 13 days after my prenatal surgery, and feeling incredibly well. I’ve been home for one week, with each day bringing more strength and mobility. Through God’s graciousness, my prenatal surgery went better t ..read more
Maggie Whitley Blog
1y ago
As I write here, the snow has begun to fall in Petoskey, MI. We live about an hour south of the Mackinac Bridge, the only driveable path to the Upper Peninsula. The snowflakes are large and fluffy, and whatever grass was visible is no longer visible. Outside, the pine trees are beautifully flocked and the bird feeders are growing wild beards. Inside, the washing machine is whirring and my coffee cup is now empty.
Zack and I drove home late Thursday night from Ann Arbor. We had 12 appointments in total. The sky was clear the entire drive home, and the stars looked like they were falling over u ..read more
Maggie Whitley Blog
1y ago
While it has been a few weeks since I’ve written here, you can trust God has been doing a lot of work writing on my heart. He has paved many beautiful paths for our family. My time since I last updated here has been kept busy with writing many return “thank you” notes, writing in my journal, Bible study time (Romans 11 this week), me tip-toeing around forgotten LEGOs on the rug, and redirecting my facial expressions to show JOY!
Ha ha, that last one makes me laugh because it’s very easy for my face to look a little “stormy” if I’m deep in thought, and I certainly have been deep in th ..read more
Maggie Whitley Blog
1y ago
I am brave because God is within me.
(For all of the posts regarding our 5th baby, please click here.)
This is the phrase I’m choosing to proclaim over my life, over each day, over each hour. I’m full of hope, and I will not live in fear over our baby boy’s diagnosis of Spina Bifida. Nor will I doubt the goodness that is yet to come.
When I feel fear come near, I think of Joshua 1:1–9 when God commanded Moses’ successor, Joshua, to be the next leader of Isreal. This was not an easy role, and the LORD knew Joshua needed to be brave. Three times in this passage God told Joshua to “be strong and ..read more
Maggie Whitley Blog
1y ago
I quietly shared an announcement of baby #5 in this blog post. We’ve since received some hard news regarding our baby and we want to share what we know with you.
2022 –
NOVEMBER:
Thanksgiving Day arrived, and for an entire week, we had been holding close the gift of new life inside my womb. A few months prior, when one monthly cycle ended without a positive pregnancy test, I felt a spark of sadness. In the second month, my sadness came with a quivering heart. A few days before I was able to take a test for the third month, worship music was playing in our home and I could hardly sing along wi ..read more
Maggie Whitley Blog
1y ago
HI FRIENDS! Do you have snow where you live? (Or maybe the right question is, could it snow where you live?) We had a few inches of fresh snowfall recently and my kids are going bananas over it. The field behind our home is white in color, no longer golden, though the gold is sure to return. The four of them have teamed up to make snow bricks, thus creating a beautiful figure-eight-shaped home. They have quite the hideout built under an evergreen… Every time I see it I smile.
I remember decades ago, when I was about 10 years old, when I would use one of my dad’s bungee cords to strap my tan t ..read more