Author: El Momma

El Momma- Rebekah Maddux El-Hakam. Wife, momma, artist, creative, lover of family and God.

My new job….

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So, I have a new job as a worship leader at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in West University. It is really an amazing journey we’ve been on for the last several years to get to this place. I don’t know if this will make sense, but the place we are in right now is a moving place. We’re moving forward in the direction and on the path that God has for us. It has just been an amazing adventure so far…and I wanted to share it with you.
As most of you know, I’ve been singing all of my life. And in church, I was always singing growing up. Once I went to college and then to LA, I was still active in the churches I attended, but never in music. When Moustapha and I were led to First Pres in early 2004, things were soon in transition there and they were searching for a new worship leader for their contemporary service. They found that leader in August of 2005. – Our friend Jasen and his new wife Amanda (I think they were married the first week he started the job) came to Texas from California and he began his job as the new worship leader of the service. Once he arrived, I was put in touch with him. I met him in his office one afternoon, he played guitar, sang a familiar tune and I sang harmony. It was great! And he asked me to sing that Sunday. I pretty much had the opportunity to sing praise and worship with them every weekend for 2 years. (until Amanda & Jasen hooked it out of here and headed back to California :0) It was so amazing. And I was really happy with that. One thing that I really learned from Jasen, was being open to the gifts and talents of others. It was because of this openness, that I was given the chance to lead songs. I really can’t thank him enough. I love working with other singers and musicians. It is such a gift to be able to be a part of worship in this way.


For the past year and a half I have been singing at various non-profit events in Houston and at church events. I’ve also led the worship for a couple of women’s retreats. But, I haven’t had a steady- every weekend- worship leading job. I didn’t even know where to look for one…and so it turns out, it was looking for me.

This past Summer. we visited St. Andrew’s. We planned our visit around vacation bible school, since we were going to send Bakri there. A couple of weeks later, I received an email from the pastor about leading worship for their contemporary service. He had heard about my experience at First Pres. So, we had coffee and I met with some of the other church leaders. A couple of months later, I led their services for 7 weeks while they were searching to fill the position. And now, I am leading there 2-3 times a month on a more permanent basis.

As a worship leader, I work with the band and choose music for each service, that I then lead the congregation in singing.

Here are Last Sunday’s songs:
opening song: Sweetly Broken
worship songs :Jesus Paid It All

Take My Life
Surrender
offering: Prayer of St. Francis

This Sunday’s songs:
opening song: Lord, Reign in Me
worship songs: Your Grace is Enough
Prayer of St. Francis
‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
communion: Lamb of God
offering: When I Think About the Lord

Ready to Rock

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Trinity is 5 months old now- this was official last Saturday. And as of yesterday she is now up on all fours (2 hands and both knees) and rocking back and forth. She is having so much fun trying to move around! I can’t believe I’m about to have THREE kids to chase around this house…they grow up so fast!!!

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Our Visit to the Zoo Today

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We went to the Zoo today. Just the 4 of us- me and the three kiddos. It was lots of fun. We have a membership, so we should go more often and it takes all of 5 minutes to get there. But, when Bakri was in school it was almost impossible to do anything. His school hours were so short- only from 8:30-11:30. So, I spent all morning either getting ready to take him, pick him up, and of course bringing all the other kids along with me everywhere we went. Then, it was time for lunch and then naps. So, there was no time for any other enrichment activities. Now Bakri is home with us and we actually have time to do things as a family. It is definitely a lot better for the other kids and I already see a huge positive change in Bakri too.

We spent the morning and the early part of the afternoon at the zoo. We saw the meerkats, the giraffes, lots of fish, bats, the new baby giraffe- Miles, the elephants, lions and the california sea lions. I made sandwiches and brought those for lunch. We had a great time.

The highlight of our visit (other than seeing the animals) was the carousel ride. The boys are both big enough now that I don’t have to worry about them falling off. So, that makes it easier for me to manage all three of them at once- as long as Trinity is in the baby bjorn.

We are looking forward to many more local adventures in the days and weeks to come.

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1-2-3 Go!

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Maddux and Bakri took 10 rides on these pretend roller coasters. It’s not nearly the same as the real deal. But, they liked them a lot.

Christian loves cake!Yes, Maddux has his hand in his mouth in this picture. And yes, there is clearly cake icing missing from his side of the cake. What can you expect when you put a cake so close to a 2 year old?…he only has so much restraint!
James on his 4th birthday. The whole family was feeling a little under the weather that day. Michael was really sick that week and my dad found out a few days later that he was suffering from pneumonia. Luckily, everyone is doing much better now.

My dear friend, Holly came to town with her son, Owen. And we met up at another friend of ours- Jordan’s home. My boys and Holly’s little boy are like a stairstep. Each one a little bit smaller than the next. And they had the best time together, just running up and down the driveway. Luckily noone got hurt. They only collided a couple of times! 🙂 Boys will be boys. I wish we could all hang out a lot more. But, when you don’t live in the same city or state, you take what you can get.

Jordan also has a baby boy. But, he is too little to run on the driveway just yet. Speaking of, last night I was asking Bakri about a boy from his school I mentioned the child’s name and he said no- not him, Baby (blank- I don’t want to put his name and offend the older one!) But, it was interesting that he knew just how to differentiate and let me know which child of the same name that he wanted to spend time with- and it was Baby. So, I guess we need another playdate at Jordan’s soon!

We celebrated our nephew’s 4th birthday last month. He and Bakri are just a couple of months a part in age. And they get along great. They love a lot of the same things- music, baseball, the astros and Chuck E. Cheese. This was a Chuck E. Cheese party with a guitar birthday cake. Fun!

Trinity was sporting a holiday party dress for the occasion. She likes to dress up!

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Happy Valentines Day

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My parents, or really my mother, rather (although my dad is fully supportive) make that extra effort to make holidays and birthdays really special. My Nannie (mom’s mom) was like that in some ways. She never forgot to send us cards and gum for every occasion. Her gum choice was juicy fruit. I still have some that I never chewed that are in old cards from holidays’ past. Now, my parents carry on the tradition with my children. They always send them cards and special gifts for holidays. My mom picks out the cutest clothes too that go with the occasion. Last night we opened our Valentines as a family. Here is Bakri holding up his “King of Hearts” t-shirt. Maddux got one too!

Little Miss Trinity is getting so BIG and so fun! She is such a little giggly girl. She loves to laugh. This week she had her 4 month check up and vaccinations. She was technically 4 1/2 months at the time. And she is off the charts! We knew she was big, but it is now confirmed. She is in the 100 percentile across the board….at least she is in proportion!!! Remember how happy she is with bows on her head, well it turns out she loves hats too. She is going to be the fashionista of the family.

The grandparent valentines included some new books. Here we are reading the new books for the first time.

Did I mention we saw Elmo last weekend? T and I just returned from a women’s retreat with First Pres where I was leading the worship- amazing weekend by the way and Grandmother even came along and blessed many ladies with her presence. Anyway, Sesame Street Live came to Houston and we went. The boys and Trinity really enjoyed it. I thought it was a little on the long side. But, who asked me? 🙂

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Luau Night

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I can’t believe we’ve been home from Maui for 3 weeks AND I have not made the time to finish uploading our pictures. So, over the next few days, I’m going to TRY to catch up. We’ll see how I do.

Here we are on our way to our first luau (first for Trinity, Maddux, Bakri and Grandmother) and the second for me and Moustapha.

Here is a picture of some of us enjoying pina coladas (free of alcohol for the kiddos and the grandmother, of course!)

The boys had front row seats and were in awe of the musicians. They loved the singing and the ukelele, especially.
Me and miss Trinity under a blanket…having dinner. 🙂

The man on the rock…just before he dove into the water.

Moustapha, Bakri and Maddux went on stage and learned to hula. All of the boys- including Moustapha, really enjoyed the luau night!

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The Wind and Waves and our last 24 hours in Maui

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Our last full day in Maui was so much fun. Here is a brief recap:
We had lunch on our way to the airport in Paia- the town we stayed in. This was our first time to actually walk in the town. We stayed just north of the town in a house that was literally a 2 minute walk from the beach.


We had lunch at Flatbread. It was really good organic pizza and other good organic stuff. I loved it. Thank you, Grandmother for treating us…YUMMY!


Bakri, Maddux and Moustapha in front of the pizza oven.
Walking down the main street in Paia (the Hana hwy) Just after this photo was taken, it started raining.

Bakri playing with the Pizza dough.
Maddux hanging out in his room before we left the house. This was his first time to sleep in a big boy bed. He was awesome. The only funny thing that happened was the first night. I guess he wanted to sleep in the bed that we originally put Bakri in. So, when they were checked on in the night, Maddux had gotten out of his bed and was sleeping soundly in Bakri’s bed. And Bakri was close to falling off the bed. We moved Bakri and Maddux stayed in the other bed for the rest of the vacation.
The day before we left a wind storm came in. The waves were so beautiful. This was taken on the northshore of Maui, just north of Mama’s beach.
We were at this lookout point with hundreds of other people.

Our House- Hale O Ke Kai had a guestbook. This was our entry after staying the week.
The day after we returned home, Trinity and I hosted a Sip N See for our friend and her new baby girl. This is T relaxing in her party dress AFTER the party. 🙂

Humpback Whales and Important things on our Trip

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This is the tail of a whale.
Here is one close to the boat. Look at the glow under the water. That was something we did not see when we were here before. None of the whales ever got close enough to the boat to see them glow under the water. It is such an incredible sight.
Here is one heading toward us.

Here are 2 whales. Supposedly, these are males and they are after the same female. So, that was what all of the activity centered around.