Wednesday, June 26, 2013

When God Leads, We Follow


I still can’t believe I’m writing this post. I am still just amazed at how God has a plan for every aspect of our lives, way before we even realize it. I’m so glad God loves us so much.

When we first moved to Medford we had decided not to buy a house. We didn’t see the point in owning a house on 2 opposite coasts. But overtime we grew to like it here, and thought maybe the next step WAS to buy one. We started our search earlier this year. Well, I can’t begin to tell you all the different dilemmas that came up just to get ready to LOOK at houses. We would pray, and we just wouldn’t have peace. We kept trying to make it work, but it just wasn’t. When we went to sell the Jeep to get more money for our down payment (which neither of us wanted to do at all) we lost the title. We searched for over 4 hours for it. I don’t lose things like that. I had even set it aside so we didn’t lose it. It was then that we thought, “Hmm, maybe God really is trying to tell us something.” At the same time, I was getting emails from friends that I rarely get a chance to talk to telling us they had been burdened to pray for us, yet they weren’t sure why. We then began to pray that God would make it clear if we shouldn’t buy a house here. One day later, God started to make things clear. Three days later, Matt and I both separately felt like God wanted us to move from Medford to Denver.

Let me explain something, the city of Denver did not come on our minds because Matt’s Mom is moving there. It was completely from God! We both started praying very hard then. We asked God to make it extremely clear if he wanted us to move from Medford. Exactly one week later, I got a text from Matt saying, “God just answered our prayer.” At first we were so shocked we couldn’t believe it. So we kept praying and asking God to make it extremely clear. Every time we prayed that, God would answer it!!! It was crazy.

It was after multiple answers to prayer that Matt began working on his resume. Which I of course think is amazing. The weekend after finishing his resume he applied for a few jobs. He got a call on Monday. On MONDAY! That week, he had 3 interviews from the same company. He then went out to Denver where they drilled him with 6 back to back interviews in a matter of 3 hours. While all of this was happening, we started praying specifically for things. God answered them all! Okay, let me explain, we prayed for MONTHS for help with buying a house. MONTHS! God stopped that. But he opened every single door to move to Denver. And he answered them all quickly! It was amazing!!

To make a long story short, Matt accepted a software engineering position in Westminster, Colorado earlier today. We will be moving from Medford to Colorado in 3 weeks. I can’t begin to explain just how amazing our God is. I went from never wanting to leave Medford (I buried a son here, I have an amazing group of friends, etc.) to being at complete peace about moving. We asked God to provide health insurance right away for us, he did. I’ll be covered starting August 1st. I’m having a baby in a few months and I am at complete peace about moving??? Are you kidding me? I have the MOST AMAZING doctor ever. But when God leads, we follow. We have an amazing God. He works out all the details. I’m so glad we have HIM to guide us.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The BIG Ultrasound for #4

God is so good. He has blessed me with four children now :). Jewell and Jefferson are just happy as can be. Ezekiel is luckier than all of us since he's in Heaven. And this sweet new baby that still remains unnamed is doing so well. Again, I feel so blessed.

Today's ultrasound was a ton of fun. I went into it pretty anxious. But the entire way there I listened the CD my worship team leaders gave each of us with the new songs to learn. That really helped calm my nerves before going into the u/s. :) I was fortunate enough to have my husband and children go with me this time too. The baby currently weighs about 13 oz. I did forget to ask how long the babe was though :(. Oh well. All I really cared about what seeing the heart beating. I think that was the best thing of the entire u/s. All four chambers work just fine! Phew. And the heart rate was 152. We wanted to keep the gender a surprise, but we were sort of hoping to maybe guess just by looking at it. But, sweet baby didn't want to share what he/she was anyways :). Yay! Now we really can keep it a surprise.

After the u/s the sweet tech said she wanted the doctor to check everything due to my history. I have to go Maternal Fetal Medicine for all of my u/s. It's what my doctor requires for all of his patients. The specialist came in a few minutes later. She told me that everything looked perfect. She also told me that not having a cause for a still birth is the best answer to have. She said it pretty much gives you no risk of it happening again. I think that was the first time I was relieved since this pregnancy. :) She also said that she'd like to keep monitoring me. I'm supposed to go back again in 4 weeks for another u/s, and then I'll go back a few more times just to measure growth.

So far, I've gained 8 lbs this pregnancy. That's about 2 lbs more than last. I am okay with that. As long as I don't go over the 24 lbs I gained with Jewell and with Jefferson I'll be happy. I'm doing okay physically so far too. I just really wish I could sleep more than about an hour or two at a time. That would be so nice!

Overall, everything looks just fine! I'm thrilled. We are so blessed to be given then gift of another child. I just can't wait to meet this sweet one!

20 weeks

All of our ultrasounds so far.

This is just precious!!!

20 weeks. This shirt makes my belly look smaller since it's black.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Leaning and Trusting

This morning I woke up and immediately did what most of American society does. I looked at my iPhone to see if I missed anything important overnight. I did notice that my church prayer chain sent a prayer request out. As soon as I read the morning prayer request I just stopped. Another mother lost her baby to still birth. This time it was a missionary. I think I actually started to physically hurt for this dear mommy of 4. And all I could do was pray. And that I did.

This dear mommy was on my heart all day. But she was even more on my heart as we sang to our Lord this morning. All I could do was think of this Mommy who just lost her baby. I know that sense of loss. I just hurt and prayed the entire service. And I remembered all the emotions of those first few days after the loss. And then, selfishly I started to worry about losing this one. But then we came to our last song, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" and part of "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus."


What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Refrain:
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”
Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more! 
 These songs really spoke to me this morning. Hardships will come our way, but we have a God that we can lean on through everything. Every hardship. Every difficult time we face. And we need not fear for anything. We get the easy job. We just have to trust Him with everything. Even though life has it's hardships and trials. We just have to lean and trust. 

Pray for this missionary mommy please. The road she's now traveling will have its ups and downs. I'm so thankful she has God to lean and trust on.