A New Year

I think it is fair to say that 2013 was more than we expected at the beginning of it. It was a crazy, up and down, wonderful year. We went through quite a few hard spots but through it all we saw more and more how faithful and big God is. We have all changed this year and they are changes I wouldn't trade. We have been called into deeper study and more prayer. We have learned the idea of living by faith and basing our lives fully on the truth of the Scriptures. We have learned that even when the answers to our prayers don't come as we anticipate God is still God and He is in control. We were able to look back into our past to see how God had prepared us for the things we would face this year, especially with Addie, and we were able to face them by leaning on Him the way He had been teaching us. He has brought us into this new year closer to Him and ready and waiting to see how and when He will answer our prayers because we know He will answer! Addie is doing really well in a lot of ways. She is gaining weight very well and eating quite a bit, although still not nursing well even with the shield. She also sleeps pretty well at night and so far has been an easy baby. The casts on her legs don't seem to bother her most of the time. Christmas Eve did give us a scare because the toes on her right leg started to turn purple. They had told us that soaking the cast in warm water would allow us to remove it if this happened. We soaked for 45 minutes but nothing happened so we ended up taking her to the emergency room in order to have it cut off. She then was without a cast for the next couple days. This did set us back a little in the correction we had already achieved through the casting, but just about a week. Last week we had her 2 week check-up with the doctor and another orthopedic appointment to redo her casts on her legs. Both of these doctors expressed concern about her left arm because it was stuck in an awkward position during pregnancy and while she is capable of moving the arm it is very weak. The orthopedic doctor went ahead and made a splint a for it. Our little Addie now has 3 our of 4 limbs in casts or splints! It is a sad sight, but still we are thankful. There is no worry about nerves or chromosonal issues causing this just weakness because of the lack of room she had to move around in during pregnancy. Both doctors were referring her to physical therapy to deal with her left arm. They may also work with her right arm and hand some. The most exciting news we got though was that both parts of the chromosome testing came back normal!!! Mike and I looked back over some of the other struggles we have faced in our marriage and saw how they brought us down but at this point we look and say that while this could bring us down "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Genesis 50:20  We have learned and are learning how to live by faith and realizing that while things are not how we would desire more than that we desire God's glory and we know that He is using each and every struggle we have face and will face for His glory. We have see how He used our past struggles for His glory even though at the moment we didn't know how He would or could. We have celebrated Christmas and that is the birth of our Savior who came to redeem us, but He not only redeems us to be sons and daughters with Christ, but He redeems the struggles we face and uses these times that are hard and could be hopeless. He takes those struggles and turns them into His good for His glory. We can face each struggle with the promise that not only will He not let us walk through it alone (Matthew 28:20b And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age) but that also that He will use it (Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.) So we will go into this year excited and ready because we know that God is on our side. He has proved himself faithful over and over again this year. We know the truth in this Scripture  "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:31-32. These truths will carry into and through the next year regardless of what it will hold for us because God does not change!