Miracles

I am so incredibly humbled and grateful by the outpouring of love we've received this last week and a half. I really can't believe how many people are praying and fervently doing so. Even old friends that I haven't talked to in a long time have reached out to us. We are really so very blessed!

This has been such a crazy week and a half! Each crazy thing that happens, I'm always still a bit stunned when we get to other side of the road block. Then, the next one comes and I'm a little in shock then, too! And, I sincerely don't mean that in a bad way, just a did-that-really-just-happen kind of way. Barring a whole lot nauseous and severe gallbladder attacks, my pregnancies with the girls were fairly uneventful. So, this is all very new territory!

I've told some people here and there about the verses God gave me the day we found out I was pregnant. I was a bit in shock (okay, maybe a lot of shock) and even though we were excited, I literally had my gallbladder removed less than 2 weeks before, and it all seemed like a lot at once. Again, let me reiterate that I was excited, but I've never had such a big surprise in my life, haha!! That morning I prayed that the Lord would give me verses to pray over baby (I have verses for each of our babies that God directed me to in each pregnancy), I figured that praying the verses would help make baby feel more real. God didn't waste much time and immediately gave me Jeremiah 29:11-13

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart"

Wow, did He go before us or what?! After our first big scare at 10 weeks, I went straight to those verses and prayed them a thousand times over. I was calling upon Him and I could trust that He was hearing me. God has been incredibly close as we have prayed and sought Him with all of our heart.

He is teaching me and molding me in a way I hope I don't ever forget. He is showing me that He really, honestly, truly does not harm us. While I've always known the truth that God is for His people and not against them, it's a truth that is taking on flesh for me. He doesn't have an evil plan for us or this baby. No matter what happens all the days of my life, God is good. He is faithful. He hears when we pray.

In January, after listening to John Piper and Francis Chan at Passion, they each talked about walking into suffering with open arms. I prayed that I would do the same. That I wouldn't waste a trial or suffering handed to me to bear to further the cause of Christ. Oh, that I might become like Him sharing in His sufferings! (Phil 3:9-11)

After our first big scare and on our way to the OB, I prayed (completely of the Holy Spirit, because Lord knows I would not have on my own) "Lord, if you ask us to walk the darkest valley, I will do it". I even couldn't believe I prayed it and actually meant it. And, found peace in it! I haven't told anyone my little prayer and I've prayed it on the way to each appointment (including our ER visit).

All I know is that God is good. He's good when He performs the obvious miracles and He's good when by all worldly standards it seems as though He's not around. I'm learning that His grace doesn't just occur when we narrowly missed a bad thing by the work of His hand, but that His grace is in abundance over His believers all. the. time. I'm experiencing His undeniable grace on so many levels. And, thanks in part to so many of you that have prayed! You have been a part of a miracle. And, not just the obvious miracles of our physical lives being spared, but the miracle that is occurring in my faith.