Strong Tower

Well my Dad came into town today to help with the boys and this morning I took Stephen to the urologist. She checked him out and said that she can feel where it his left testicle is sticking, but at this point we are just going to return in 6 months. So I made an appointment for May and at that time we will decide if surgery is necessary or not. When telling some friends one responded with our exact emotions "well that just means we have 6 months to pray about it!" So that is what we will do. We are trusting and anticipating healing for Addie and we have no reason not to do it also for Stephen. Building 429 has a song "We Won't Be Shaken" Mike and I have claimed it as our theme song. I am going to try and link it below. But the gist is that God is the only thing we can stand on regardless of what comes our way so we will stand on Him. Proverbs 18:10 "The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." We will run to Him and rest in His tower. Thank you for joining us in prayer for Addie and for Stephen. God is working and God will continue to work as we call out on His name!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BJhOgb-unI

So it Continues!

I don't even know where to begin this time. On Monday I took our boys to the doctor for their normal check-ups not expecting a thing out of the ordinary. Well, come to find out our little guy, Stephen, has a testicle that has not descended so he was referred to a pediatric urologist. That appointment is set up for tomorrow where we will find out if we need to just continue to watch it or if it will need surgery to be corrected. It is becoming one thing after another, but God continues to be faithful. When I left the doctor's office Monday all I could do was chuckle at how continuous the attacks have been, you cannot even make this stuff up. But as with Addie, we are holding onto the promises of God and waiting to see how God will use even this to bring about not only our good but also His glory. We are promised in 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." I cannot believe in some of His promises and not all of His promises. As I have stated time and time again about believing in this healing for Addie as His word describes I will also believe in it for Stephen. God is at work to do something amazing and we are thankful to be a part of it. It is exhausting and tiresome but still powerful to know that we can turn to the Creator of everything with all our concerns as we are reminded in Ephesians 6:18 "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." No issue we face is too big or too small for God. He wants to hear about it. This week God has brought to my mind my marriage vows. We promise our spouses "in better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health." When we choose to live a life following God He wants the same commitment. Many times in the Bible Jesus calls the church His bride. He has made these promises and more to us. Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” As the bride of Christ and, therefore, the children of the One, True God we have been given all that Jesus had. We have been taken into the family through all the ups and downs. And so in our sickness and in our health, in our riches and poorness, in our better times and in our worse times - we will stand as Joshua did. Joshua had just reminded the Israelites of all that God had done for them providing for them and bringing them into the land He had promised them. He called them to make a choice, as we all must do. Joshua 24:14  “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” We are too looking back at all God has done and instead of being down and out about where we are now we have decided to continue to choose to serve the Lord because He is worthy of our devotion. I will end with this Psalms of praise because even in the midst of the storms through the rain, hail, and lighting as it seems He is still worthy of praise because nothing that happens takes away from His power or His majesty. 

Psalms 100
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
² Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before Him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the Lord is God.
    It is He who made us, and we are His;
    we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

⁴ Enter His gates with thanksgiving
    and His courts with praise;
    give thanks to Him and praise His name.
⁵ For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
    His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Blessings Come in All Shapes and Sizes

So pregnancy has been progressing normally for the most part so of course we will be attacked in other ways. We found out there is a possibility of an emergency C-section due to Addie's breech position.  Furthermore, Mike has not had to travel much for work and wouldn't you know it, November is setting up to be full of traveling.  Of course this is not the worst part of recent events, Tuesday Mike had to drive 2 hours away to the Veterinary Hospital at University of Illinois where it was discovered that Payton (our dog) had a rare injury back in June that only surgery can fix, so rare that the head vet with 20-30 years experience has only seen it 4 times total.  Well the blessing (no not the cost$$$$) is that one of those times was just 6 weeks ago, which made them recognize this injury and diagnosis so quickly.  So surgery was Wednesday (went well, whatever that means) and Mike had to travel back to U of I on Thursday to pick up the dog.  Our house consists of two wild boys and a "spoiled" dog in a cast that we must keep doped up, caged, and collared.  YES, God has a sense of humor.  The dog has 6 weeks of casting/splinting/bandaging left and I have 6 weeks before Addie is due unless she follows her brother's foot step and chooses to enter the world on her own time (month early for those unaware). So things here have stayed interesting, but through it all we have felt God drawing us closer and giving us peace and blessings in the midst. We are still continuing to cry out to God for complete healing for Addie believing that upon birth this is what will still happen. The time we are taking to spend in the Bible is reaffirming to us how much God desires to hear and answer our prayers. A week ago Mike went to Arlington TX for a prayer conference. He came home with lots of books for me because I love to read! One of them was about divine healing so of course that is what I started first. One of the verses that really hit me was Mark 16:¹⁵ He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” We are suppose to be seeing these healings and miracles. The signs and wonders are suppose to be alive in the church in order to show God's power and bring about His glory. Today in Sunday school we were studying 1 Kings 18 and the story about God's prophet Elijah calling down fire from Heaven onto his sacrifice to the Lord when the prophets of Baal could not. He prays this prayer right before the fire falls “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 1 Kings 18:36b-37. This along with the verse from Mark really hit me to where we are at right now especially with Addie. We as it says in Mark are believers in the name and power of Jesus, we have a right to expect sick people to be made well because of the power of Jesus. But He gave them that power to use as they went out to preach and spread the gospel to all creation so as Elijah cries in 1 Kings we want to see God's healing touch on Addie so that people will know that there is a God in Heaven who not only holds all power but desires to interact with us. He wants us to pour our hearts out to Him and to give our lives to Him as a daily sacrifice so that His power can flow freely through us. Mike and I therefore are standing on the promises of God where we have no fear because we know that Psalms 33:4 tells us "The word of the Lord is right, and true, He is faithful in all He does." When we live in His truth and His power we are able to live in peace that can open our eyes to the blessings in the midst of the trials. Even this week because of the way God has so strengthened our faith in Him and His power, even as we wait for the healing, we are able to reach out and walk along side others who are also desperate for His healing power and to see Him glorified in every part of their lives. God has given us verses and promises and a deeper level of understanding as we have drawn closer and closer to Him. It is so powerful to see Romans 8:28 come all "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." Our purpose is to love and bring glory to God as we share His truth with those around us. The more we open ourselves up to that and by prayer to the power of God the more He uses us. The more we give of ourselves the more He can fill. We are waiting anticipating God's healing to come more powerfully then we can imagine we hold to Micah 7:7 "But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me." He is already our Savior and Redeemer our names our written in His book of life now we watch and we wait to see how He will continue to use us here on earth as we wait for the day we can enter His kingdom. I go to the last specialist appointment Friday November 8th at 2:00. I am now 6 weeks away from my due date of December 15th and if I go into labor from today on they will not stop it. Life is exciting and it sure doesn't stop going but though it may be exhausting we are living Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because He trusts in you." There is no better place to be than in the perfect peace of Jesus because you know that no matter what circumstances this world may throw at you Jesus tells us to “take heart! I have overcome the world.”John 16:33b. The battle has already been won and by accepting the love and forgiveness of Jesus, recognizing our sin and humanity we have chosen the side of the victor! We will come out victorious because Jesus has already fought the fight and overcome this world we are just waiting and must remember whatever we are facing to follow the truth of the Word of God.  "Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory" Deuteronomy 20:3, 4.

A Fight of Faith

As we travel down this road waiting for Addie's healing I keep turning to the story of David and Goliath. David a young shepherd boy comes to check on his brothers, who are out to battle. As he comes to the battlefield he sees a giant called Goliath come out and ridicule the Israelite army. The Israelite army becomes terrified and began to run away. This had happened for the past 40 days. David comes in and sees this and is decides he will fight the giant. Where all the warriors are terrified he claims victory because he knows the Israelites are God's chosen people and God will fight for them. 1 Samuel 17:37 "The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine." He is able to live in faith by looking back over the ways God has been faithful to him, and look forward to the promises of God. If God had been faithful in the past why would he stop now? David knew that God's character didn't change regardless of our circumstances, and neither did His power. There was many other voices David could have listened to, but he chose to listen to God's voice, the voice of truth. David went out against Goliath without armor, without a sword, with only God and a sling. He came out victorious! His victory was not his victory, but God's. The facts had the tables turned against David, but as Romans 8:31b says "If God is for us, who can be against us?"  Faith is a fight everyday to look past this world and into God's world, but the voices of here and now can be so loud! As I pray for Addie I pray for my faith to grow and for God to help me hold on. I want to have the kind of faith that David had here because that is the faith that can move mountains. Matthew 17:20b "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."I love the story in Mark of a father who brought his son to Jesus to be healed he say help him if you can and Jesus responds “If you can?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:23-24. I have been there. I do believe that the Bible is all true and it is always true, but there are so many outside voices sometimes that this becomes my prayer. "Lord I do believe, I do trust, I am willing to follow and obey wherever you lead, but help my unbelief." I don't think it always come from lack of faith, but from honesty. There is so much around us that wants to pull us down, we are in a spiritual battle daily. The devil doesn't want us to stand up to the giants in our life because he knows that when we come out there with our faith he has no chance.  Ephesians 6:16 promises "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." The shield of faith is more powerful than we know, so we must pray for an increase in faith and engross ourselves in the truth of the Bible. If we can manage that when the temptation to doubt or fear comes we have the answer. Jesus is the answer, His truth is the way to walk in faith knowing that what we see is not all there is! We are not promised easy lives but we are promised peaceful lives. John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." So as we go in our day-to-day I will hold on to the hope of the future and the promises from God regarding it.

Perseverance

Just getting home from the specialist and all I can say is I see why God has been giving me verses about perseverance. The good news is that the specialist could not see anything wrong with the heart, not that there isn't. This means it is just very trivial so we are going to wait until Addie arrives and do an echo on her a few days after birth instead. Also, the doctor today said even if the leak is there, it is not a serious condition and we would probably just have another echo 6-12 months after the first. So that is a blessing! The other good news is that she is growing at a normal rate for babies her age. She is 3 pounds and 6 ounces today which is right on schedule for 30 and 1/2 weeks! This was a concern with the placement of the placenta. The news that we are going to continue to pray about and persevere as we wait for healing are her arms, her feet, and her position. Her arms are still moving, but it is not normal the doctor today said part of that could be because of lack of space due to my uterus shape. He said best case scenario there is that some rehab after birth would build up the muscle she has lost from not being able to move as much as other babies. The legs are still clubbed and surgery is still probably within her first year. Yet, we know that with God everything is possible including complete healing. The position is breech and again due to the shape of my uterus turning looks difficult for her. They told me with my first he could not do it, but through the power of prayer he turned! So we will also be lifting that up in prayer.  I am clinging to the promises of God Hebrews 10 :23 "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." and Hebrews 10:36 " You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." HE has promised and HE is faithful. We are holding to His promises as we live in His will and so as 1 Peter 5:7 says "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." We are casting our cares on Him because He alone will carry us through.  I was reminded today of a sermon of Dan Bohi's that I heard where he spoke on 2 Corinthians 3:18 "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." He keyed in on the "glory to glory" part and how most of life is spent in the "to". We are in the "to" right now, but that is okay because that just means the glory is coming! We have called upon God and are continue to call upon God. We are waiting in expectation because He is our hope and our salvation!

Trusting in the Midst

God gave me a verse today Hebrews 10:23 "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful." I didn't know how much I was going to need it, but He did. Just a little while after reading that verse I received a call from the cardiologist telling me about my next appointment. This confused me because when we had left them last they said there was no reason to return. I called back and spoke with the doctor. The doctor said that as she looked over the imaging in slow motion she saw a small leak on the valve in left side. She also said it is typically on the right side so that is part of the reason they missed it earlier. I told her I had an appointment with the specialist tomorrow at 2. She said she would call him and update him on what she sees now. So tomorrow we head to the specialist to see what he thinks about everything. If he thinks it necessary we will keep the appointment with the cardiologist which is set for next Tuesday. Philippians 4:7 ^"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." He has given me this peace and I am walking in His truth and His peace. There is no place I would rather be! I will praise Him and I will trust Him. I am going to hold unswervingly to the hope of her complete healing that we have been professing from the beginning. God has promised and God is faithful. Please continue join us as we pray for complete healing for Addie.  John 14:12-14 "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." He wants us to believe He is who He says He is. He wants us to call upon Him so that His name can be glorified. It is only through the struggle and through our weakness that He can truly shine. So instead of despairing I am looking at this as another opportunity to allow God to get glory.  He wants all of us to turn to Him in everything so that through our lives we can be witnesses for Him, but to do that we must believe that He is who He says He is. We also must believe that the Bible is ALL true and it is ALWAYS true. What we know about Addie's heart may have changed but He hasn't! And He won't! So we will praise Him as we trust Him. Our God is faithful, forgiving, merciful, and loving. That is a God I can rest upon even in the midst of the storm. He is the one who calms the storms and controls the waves!

 This is the song that keeps running through my head. Thought I would share!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83aQC5ko_94

Suprise Ultrasound!

Due to some intense pain/pressure over the weekend I got an extra ultrasound today for Addie. The doctors have been watching my cervical length closely because my last pregnancy I dilated early. The cervical length is one of the issues the specialist, which I will see Wednesday afternoon, is always watching. So over the weekend I had been very uncomfortable and so the OB office wanted me to come in today for a quick ultrasound to make sure there was no early dilation. So of course since the pain had started we had been praying and God reminded me yesterday that He cares about every detail. Bed rest has been a possibility for this pregnancy so I was prepared for it to be dilating but I was reminded to pray about that. So today at the ultrasound would you believe that instead of getting shorted like they were concerned about it had actually gotten longer! God is working and He is faithful! I can't get over how He continues to draw us closer to Him, but also how He continues to show Himself and His word to be true. One of the devotions I read had this verse at the end and it is showing true in my life and Addie's. Hebrews 10:36 "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." He wants to do what He has promised, but we have to stand unwaveringly on those promises through the midst of it. So now we persevere and we wait on God. But we don't wait in our own strength we wait in His. "but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:31. Our Sunday School class yesterday was talking about wisdom and some of the Proverbs. Our teacher ended by asking us to come up with a proverb to pass on, or that we live our life by mine is "The Bible is ALL true, and it is ALWAYS true." So as we see progress in Addie and continue to hope with the expectation for total healing, we persevere in the Lord knowing He will continue to strengthen us each step of the way until He brings His promise for healing to completion. Day to day He is our hope and our strength! Can't wait to see what Wednesday's appointment will bring!