It's a Girl!!!!

On March 26th 2011 at 5:37 a.m. my husband and I joyfully welcomed into the world

          Grace Tabitha !!!!

She is a beautiful gift from the Lord to us, we are so very blessed. After over 37 hours of labor, I am still a little weak but very happy. Grace is a very healthy little girl weighing in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. I plan to post the story of her birth later on... for now we are enjoying our baby girl, recovering and enjoying my parents company who have come all the way from Northern Wisconsin to give us some much needed help. The Lord is so good!!!

For you are my hope, O Lord GOD: you are my trust from my youth.
By you have I been upheld from birth: you are he that took me out of my mother's womb:
my praise shall be continually of you. I am as a wonder unto many; but you are my strong refuge.
Let my mouth be filled with your praise and with your honor all the day.
(Psalms 71:5-8)

Yesterday's Flood

Sunday night we had thunderstorms all night with lots of rain (2-3 inches). I love thunderstorms and did not think anything of the amount of water coming down mixed with the large amount of snow it was melting. In the morning we began to hear reports of flooding nearby and so we decided to take a look, we did not have to go far...

We are standing on a bridge here and that is the local elementary school behind us!

We are so thankful that the flood waters did not reach us in our trailer park, though for a while we thought they might. There are so many people that lost so much and we pray that we can somehow help them in the days to come. There were rescue vehicles everywhere including boats in the water, I have not heard if there were any deaths or not, I pray there was none. We were headed down one road when a truck stopped us saying that we shouldn't go any further since they had just rescued some people off the top of their vehicle down there. One lady told Patrick that she was driving along and everything seemed fine until she saw a truck floating passed her and she could not get stopped in time and they collided. Then they both had to be rescued from their vehicles! 

 Now the waters have receded but there are many roads still closed and a whole lot of cleanup work to be done. We praise the Lord for His protection and pray for those that have losses, that it will cause them to seek the Lord Jesus Christ.

Preparing for Home Birth

There is less than three weeks to my due date and I am excited, yet sober about the changes that are soon to take place in our lives. Sober because it is an incredible thing to be given a child to raise by the Lord. This little one knows neither right nor wrong and we as his or her parents will be the ones to lay the foundation for life. How can we raise children that will love and serve the Lord Jesus with all of their hearts? It seems to be a mammoth and impossible task. It IS impossible. For us humans. Yet who is this God that we serve? Is He not the God of the impossible?  Remember when Jesus told His disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to  be saved? “And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.”(Mar 10:26-27)

We serve the Almighty God, He who creates our children and chooses to give them to us. He is not up there wondering what will happen if He gives this type of personality to these parents and this to those… He Knows. That is why He does what He does, nothing escapes Him. That is why we can rest in perfect peace knowing that He has designed our children for US to raise, He is very specific. The other day I was reading in Isaiah and thinking about our child when I came across this passage that brought great comfort to me: “And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.”(Isa 54:13) “Taught of the Lord”!!! Wow, that brought things into prospective for me. Yes, we do have a great responsibility before the Lord to raise our children in His fear and admonition and we must stay close to the Lord to do that, but ultimately it is the Lord shaping the lives of our Little Ones. I don’t want this to sound like I am saying we don’t work hard at raising them for Him, because we ought to. (If we do not, then that shows that we do not have the fear of the Lord.) Only that it is comforting to know that the Lord IS in control and He can raise up a Godly generation of warriors in spite of our failures as parents.

The “nesting instinct” has hit me in earnest and I can hardly believe the amount of dust and dirt I see everywhere now. I have been busy scrubbing walls, floors, and everything else that I can lay hands on, stopping now and then as a Braxton Hicks comes and then goes. My dear husband is very patient with me as I ask him to pull apart the bed, move the couch and a number of other things that I cannot do myself. He says that he has been through this before with his mother when she was pregnant with his four siblings that came after him. :) I find it hard to be away from home for very long, I just begin to get very tired and “spacey” but the funny thing is that when I get home, I am fine, have energy and am ready to keep going.

Our midwife is coming up for our next appointment and is bringing a birthing pool and birthing kit. Two weeks ago she started me on an herbal supplement called “Blessed Beginnings” which is supposed to help prepare the uterus for labor. She tells us that mothers who have been on it do not have problems with bleeding after the birth and it also seems to cut down on the amount of time spent in labor. I’m certainly all for that! If you would like to know what the ingredients are, just ask, I would be happy to post them if anyone is interested.

Patrick and I are reading the book “Natural Childbirth: The Bradley Way” together and trying to implement the exercises and relaxation techniques it teaches. I have to read it to him because of the incredibly indiscreet pictures, but other than that and the fact that they do not give glory to the Lord, we are enjoying the thoroughness of the book. Has anyone reading this given birth using the Bradley Method? I am very interested to hear your story and what you thought of it. In fact, any mothers with birth stories, tips, things that helped you etc. that you would like to share with me, I would love to hear and learn from you!

What our life has been like...Part 2

Can you believe it is 2011 already?! It is incredible to me that in just two days it will be the 20^th which marks one year from the time my husband began to court me and he has been courting me ever since! :) I hope you all had a blessed New Year. We were sick for a while with colds, then just as we recovered from that we got two bouts of food poisoning from two separate sources. Talk about NO fun! But the Lord took us through it and we are doing much better now and praising the Lord for health! How good our dear Lord Jesus is to us! One thing I am thankful for, among many, is the way sickness draws us closer to the Lord and to each other. There is such a joy in serving my husband, just being there for him in his time of need. How wonderful our Savior is to bring things into our lives, that though they are not fun bring glory to our Lord.

In July 2010 we took a trip down to Charlotte NC for the annual Operation Save America event. That is the event at which we had met the year before, in Las Vegas. It was so much fun to be there this time together as a young married couple! A dear family that was out of town let us stay at their house for the week we were there, which was a blessing, especially since I was going through morning sickness. We enjoyed seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and ministering on the streets of Charlotte.

 Traveling :)

 Holding signs

 We were part of the setup and take-down team for the American Holocaust Display. Setup on Charlotte's square, it presented excellent opportunities to share the gospel.

 There was open-air preaching as well throughout the days of the event.

 We handed out countless tracts....

 

 We were very happy to see my sister Bonnie and brother Michael who traveled by bus to get there!

We had a memorial service for a precious unborn child who had been killed by abortion. Here is the processional.

 The service was very good, calling for repentance and had a time for everyone to view the little one.

 There was a large crowd watching.

 At one point the display had to be dismantled in a down pour!

 It was coming down hard!

It was a great trip and the scenery there and back was wonderful!

Since then we have been keeping very busy. From scrapping cars....

to tearing down a modular home....

Ministry on the streets...

 Having fun...yes I rode it too! :)

spending time with our growing nephew Josiah and the rest of the family...

...meeting our Midwife appointments and enjoying preparing for our little one who will be here very soon! :) ...and a host of other things that fill our days. How good the Lord has been to us and continues to be! Keep praising our dear Lord Jesus, He is worthy of all praise, no matter what!

What our life has been like...Part 1

I must say that I was surprised to receive so many comments on my last post, thank you all so much!

The Lord has been so good to us, He is faithful in all things just as He promises in His word. Patrick lost his job about a month before our wedding and has not been able to find a good steady job since, yet the Lord is our provider and He has never failed us. Time and again we have wondered how He would provide for our next need only to see His hand move in a mighty way. Our dear Heavenly Father is taking us through a trial of faith that we might be more conformed to the image of His son, Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing to know that whatever He takes us through it is that we might be more like Him for His glory, this is the joy of our journey.

 O to be like Thee! blessed Redeemer;
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I'll forfeit all of earth's treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee!
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
  Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

O to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wand'ring sinners to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer, others to save.

Our Lord has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us, we are His children and the sheep of His pasture, He cares, oh so tenderly He cares for His own. When I have times of doubt the Lord points me back to Matthew chapter six. What comfort is to be found in those precious words of our Lord Jesus!

“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek;) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt. 6:31-33)

We took a trip up to Wisconsin in June to get my dog Abby and some of my things as well as visit with the family. 

 It was wonderful to see everyone again!

We brought back tomato and pepper plants that I had started back in April, which we were able to plant along with beans and a few other things. It was a smaller garden, but a great blessing. It is so much fun to work the soil and care for the plants, then later to harvest and can. This time was especially fun as I worked alongside my husband! 

 We had to harvest the tomatoes while they were yet green because of caterpillars attacking them.

There are no words to explain the blessing and joy of having a godly, loving husband! When I think back over all the years that I prayed for him, hoping that he existed, I can see so clearly now how the Lord was answering those prayers. I used to think that maybe I was asking too much when I told the Lord what kind of a man I wanted for my husband. I thought maybe I would have to settle for less than what I prayed for, then after more prayer I realized that I did not want to marry a man who was not what I was asking for. So I began to think that I would never get married, since it seemed impossible that such a wonderful, godly young man existed. Please allow me to tell you that the Lord answered far above what I could ask or think! Patrick is so much more than what I asked for, daily I am brought before the Lord with thanksgiving for creating me for such a wonderful man!

Wedding

Wow, it has been a long time since I have updated my blog! It seems hard to believe that Patrick and I have been married for almost six months now! We are joyfully looking forward to the arrival of our little one who is due March 10^th! I am guessing that I have lost most of my readers, but I will go ahead and write a few posts to update everyone on what our life has been like up to this point. The Lord has greatly blessed me with a wonderful, godly young man as my husband. I never imagined that such a sweet and kind, compassionate man even existed, much less that I would be his privileged help meet. I am so very thankful to the Lord for teaching me to wait for the right man, the man for whom I was created. I cannot describe the joy it is to serve the Lord by serving my husband! Yes, there are difficult times and yes, we must deny our selves, but what a wonderful thing it is to know that God is using it to conform us more into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

We were married May 29^th 2010 in a beautiful outdoors setting in Ohio. The Lord blessed us with many people who poured themselves into helping set up, prepare the food and numberless other things. One friend made all of my bouquets (except for the bridal as that was real). Friends and family traveled from all over to bless us with their presence, it was a joyful time of celebration of what the Lord has done. Our ceremony was different than the traditional since we wanted it to be a symbol of that great day when Christ will come for His bride. We asked our preacher, Cal, to preach the gospel clearly and to explain to everyone gathered why we did things the way we did. The processional of Bridesmaids/Groomsmen Ring bearers and Flower girls walked to the tune “I Come to The Garden” .  Then, before Patrick made his appearance, both my parents walked me down to the tune of “Be Thou My Vision” , my Dad removed my veil and my Mom and I sang “Be Thou My Vision”. Then the bagpipes started up and everyone turned to a balcony from which Patrick and both his parents descended. Our parents greeted one another, then all but my Father stepped away. We stood on either side of him and he held our hands as he spoke some words of wisdom to us and told everyone how thankful he was to be entrusting his daughter to this man. Then he placed our hands together, the first time we had ever held hands, oh what joy!!! Cal then preached and we said our vows which we had written ourselves, exchanged rings, then gave to each other our first kiss. What a blessing it was to have saved that for my husband and to know that he saved his for me! 

 After pictures we had a time of fellowship, visiting and eating. We were so blessed by the people who came to show us their love. The Lord is good!!!

Here are some pictures: 

 

My Patrick :)

 What a joy to be his bride!

 Patrick and his parents

 My dear Momma and I

My dear Daddy and I

 My flower girls and I

 The girls :)

 The guys :)

Kristofer my nephew was also a ring bearer, but was unable to make it to the pictures.

 Bride and parents

 Groom and parents

 Family greetings

 Holding hands for the first time!!!

 Exchanging rings

 First kiss!!!!

Mr. and Mrs.! 

Bubbles!

 

Cutting the beautiful cake that my new mother-in-love made

 

 The wedding party with parents

Happily married!