Ellie and I traveled to TX last week to meet my newest nephew. Daniel and the big three roughed it here without us.
I have several more pics I want to post...but I gotta mow (yeah...see profile for explanation). :)The new church's website is up!
www.bethanycommunitychurch.org
Locals, send your neighbors to the booth at the Cherry Festival for their free Bethany Community Church Freebie!
We were sitting at our kitchen table hearing about Guatemalan adoptions for the first time from a couple that had just decided to pursue the adoption of a little boy from that country.
Two years later, we are looking forward to spending the evening with them and our two little Guat-tots that are now home!
God is good!
We are getting ready for the Cherry Festival in our town...don't know that there are any cherry trees, but we do have the Cherry Tree Shopping Center. :) They have pretty good fireworks that we can see from our home. The kids and I invited several of the neighbors over for summer desserts and to watch the fireworks. This is our "second annual"... such a great community event!
Speaking of community, for those non-local, non-family, we are in the process of planting a church! This is the first Sunday we will meet as a Sunday School at the mother church. We moved to this town nearly 3 years ago, and have been anticipating the launch of Bethany Community Church ever since. It is amazing (exciting and scary) that the time has come! I told several people that this was the "first week of the rest of our lives" as Daniel will now be responsible for the sermon every week and the shepherding of a flock. We will spend the summer getting ready for this newest arrival with a due date of September 7th. We are thrilled to see how the Lord will work in our community!
I have been meaning to highlight HANNAH since her birthday, but life has been a little crazy. I have gotten several questions as to what I alluded to in the Psalm 136 post, and I knew that might be an emotional post for me, so I might also have been avoiding it.
Hannah was born two days late, an 8-plus pounder, very healthy. When she was 13 days old, I was returning to bed early in the morning just after feeding her. I heard funny coughing noises over the monitor and decided to check on her (prompted by something I had remembered from a conversation with our doctor, to the glory of God). She was arched and red-faced. I called for Daniel and started using the aspirator on her. (Something I had seen the nurse hurriedly do at the hospital when she had coughed, another seed the Lord had planted.)
My mother-in-law was spending her last night with us. Daniel woke her and had her call 9-1-1. She knew our address off the top of her head due to repeating it to friends and family that wanted to send a gift to Hannah, another working of the Lord. You get that every step of this crisis in our lives was guided by the hand of God. He knew every detail before it happened! So, if I don't mention that a detail was of the Lord, know that I am mentioning it because it was!
The paramedics arrived almost instantly, waiting for such a call in a nearby church parking lot. Hannah and I went by ambulance to one of the highest rated children's hospitals in the country (in small town Midwest, of which we were just four miles from...need I mention our Father's amazing handiwork, again!). She was rushed into a room and we were coaxed into a waiting room. The reality of the seriousness of the situation hit when we were greeted by the staff chaplain, who was sent to see us.
Hannah spent 30 hours on a vent and was tested for everything under the sun. When she was removed from the vent she moved to intermediate pediatric ICU, where we spent many days being told that she needed surgery to prevent her from refluxing. It was an agonizing decision. This was the place and state I spent my first mother's day. My mother-in-law stayed with us, of course, and took the night shift while we went home to sleep. We held her upright for at least an hour after each feeding, so it was important to have fresh caregivers with her at all times. We decided to go ahead with the surgery, as the event was so serious we wanted to avoid it ever happening again.
I spent the hours of her surgery nearly delirious with fever, half-asleep, from only the Lord knows what. I think He was forcing anesthetic on me as well. The surgery was fine, but came with a G-tube to insure that she would be able to burp (a huge headache- which thankfully was rarely used and came out after four months.) Hannah came home after two weeks in the hospital.
Once that tube was gone, we have really not seen any side affects, except that she has always been very petite, which could very well be genetic. We were told by doctors that the aspirator seemed to open her up enough to provide a small amount of oxygen during the time she was chocking, possibly saving her life.
Looking back, two weeks spent in a hospital, a short (under 5 hours) surgery and four months of a medical accessory seem small compared to what we have watched friends go through. He prepared us for an aspect of ministry in that we are able to sympathized more greatly with families of sick children. We had to question our hearts. Would we have been able to say "Blessed be Your Name!" if God had chosen to take Hannah? As parents, we have so little control on the well-being of our children, physically and spiritually, but all praise to God, He does, and we learned this lesson deeply.
Now onto lighter things...
Hannah means grace, and Gabrielle is the feminine form of Gabriel, alluding to messenger. So together, her name means "messenger of God's grace". God's grace is just that, His. His to choose who to bestow it on and His alone to give. What a vivid picture of His grace we learn as we become parents!
Hannah can be very passionate. We have to guard her passion and not let it lead her to frustration if something isn't perfect the first time. We are praying for the Lord to use her passion in mighty ways for Him!I had thought that I would do a garage sale in the fall to help with adoption costs. Due to our being on sabbatical and traveling, it didn't happen, but God provided above and beyond our needs (we were telling grant agencies that we no longer needed assistance. Wow...He is Faithful!)
In my desire to clean out my house, I considered just loading up my van with the garage sale stack that I had made in the fall and heading to Goodwill...but was convicted that just because we didn't have a need there are others that do...sweetie pies at Eagle's Nest! And what a great way to teach our children about giving.
So...we are doing a garage sale in June and would like to offer to take your Goodwill stash to sell. We will donate our profits to EN to help with the children that cannot be placed with families for the time. Give me a buzz, email, whatever and we can arrange to get your items to our house by June 1st.
To God be the Glory!
This week we should hit 40,000 hits! If you are number 40,000 please comment and I will send you a gift pack from my new secret hobby of taking stuff from stores for free. Yep, it's legal...check out this site for the how-to if you are curious.
No, multiple comments are not allowed, as only one can be numero 40,000. :) BUT if you notice the counter has gone over and no one has caught it, jump in.
All decisions, rules, changes of rules are up to me. :) Yes, it would be sad if you hit refresh the 100 plus times, but allowable. Thanks for playing!
Been awhile, huh!
These were of Hannah's birthday:
