Rejoicing!

We are rejoicing with the angels in Heaven tonight
over God's incredible gift of salvation in the life of one His precious children!

And Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, ...
for to such belongs the kingdom of Heaven."
Matthew 19:14

We PRAISE GOD for HIS work in drawing Peter to Himself!
And we are so thankful for each of you who have prayed
and had a part leading him to our Savior.

If you do not know our Savior, though,
we want you to know that He loves you, too,
and we would love to have the privilege
of introducing you to Him.

For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only Son
that whoever believes in Him
should not perish,
but have eternal life.
John 3:16

Back again!

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart exults,
And with my song I shall thank Him.
~
Psalm 28:7

:::

That was my special verse for my day of surgery. Surgery (rather recovery) wasn't particularly pleasant, but praise the Lord, there were no complications. Chris did a great job of managing things for those first few days, and Hannah and Peter were super sweet and blessed me with lots of get well wishes in the form of gentle hugs, handmade cards, and visiting buddies. :o)

I was reasonably coherent about 12 hours after surgery, and we actually managed a trip to the emergency room less than 24-hours later to get a steroid shot for Matthew who had a really bad case of croup. I was puttering around by the time Monday came around, and a week later, was feeling about normal. :o) So, the deed is done. I'm glad to have it behind me. :o)

Here's pictures of the crew from last week:

Hanging out with Toby ...

Doing puzzles ...

Reading books ...

Investigating strange sights ...

Playing with toys ...

And creating Christmas goodies ...

I must say, Hannah was a real blessing this weekend. She stuck with me for the whole Christmas goodie marathon, and we had lots of fun together. :o) We made goodie bags for teachers and friends (50ish in all ... between church and school, teachers really add up with three kids!) and she helped from start to finish and did all of the pretzel decorating! Thanks, Pumpkin!

We also enjoyed our annual church Christmas dinner, the Christmas cantata, and a very special visit with friends this last weekend. It was a busy one, and I was very thankful to be feeling better. :o) Thank you all for praying!

Peter's Fall

Earlier this month, Peter was outside playing when I suddenly heard crying just outside the screen door. When I came to investigate, Peter was obviously hurt.

None of us were outside to see it happen, but based on what he told us, he fell from the edge of the wall, and hit his head on the steps. That's about a four foot drop to concrete.

And he got up and walked to the house. Crying. But walking.

The Lord is so good.

What could have very easily been a trip to the emergency room, a serious concussion, broken bones, a cracked open head, or worse, was simply a scrape with a minor goose egg.

Here it is the day of:


And two days later:

And about a week and a half later:

All I can say is, "Thank You, Lord, for Your protection!"

:::

And while we're on the subject of Peter, just a note to self:

If you teach your children to use tools instead of toys,
don't be surprised when they decide to use nails
to afix a picture of which they are very proud to the wall.

We love you, buddy!
SO thankful you're okay!

Something Very Special

Last Friday evening after putting Hannah and Peter to bed, Chris and I took Matthew downstairs and continued our yard sale preparations. We could hear Hannah singing with the songs on the Patch the Pirate CD they were listening to, but otherwise everything was quiet.

About 10:30 Chris was taking something upstairs and found Hannah sitting at the top. He asked her what she needed, and she very simply said, "Daddy, I have something to tell you. And it's very special . . .

I asked Jesus to come into my heart and save me!"

I didn't know about any of this and was quite puzzled when Chris came and told me I needed to go upstairs because Hannah had something she wanted to tell me. (I was thinking along the lines of a bad dream, bugs, etc.) When I quietly crept in and sat next to her, she asked me if Daddy had told me. I said that Daddy had told me she had something she wanted to tell me, and with a big smile she repeated the same testimony, "I asked Jesus to come into my heart and save me!" I can't even express my exceeding great joy--tears simply rolled down my cheeks! We pray for each of our children daily, but in recent days have been especially burdened for Hannah because we have known she understood the Gospel, but had not made it her own.

Chris asked her why she needed to be saved, and with clear understanding she simply answered, "Because I sin sometimes." How true. As do we all.

:::

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23

:::

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23

:::

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

:::

All of us are sinners, and the penalty of our sin is death--separation from God in Hell. But God in His mercy offers us salvation through His Son Jesus Christ who bore the penalty of our sin through His death on the cross. He was buried and rose again and lives today! He offers to each of us the gift of salvation to those who will accept it . . . that is very special indeed!

:::

For whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:13

:::

Hannah wanted to be able to share this wonderful news with our family and friends on our blog, so she asked me to write out the words, and she typed up her testimony on the computer:

We pray that you too know the blessing of salvation! We would have no greater joy than to share this greatest gift with you if you have never received the salvation freely offered by our Savior.

:::

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9

:::

Please pray . . . (updated)

We would greatly appreciate your prayers for Jenny's Grandma. She fell Sunday morning and broke both her hip and her wrist. She's having surgery to put pins in her hip today and will be in recovery/rehab over the course of the next week or so. They'll be putting a cast on her wrist once the swelling goes down. Please pray for a full and complete recovery! We're so thankful she and Great Grandpa were able to come down this past fall and hope they'll have another opportunity to do so!

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
and they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Update: Great Grandma is slowly recovering from her surgery, although she's still quite sore. She'll be at a rehabilitation center for about two weeks. Thank you for praying!

Grandma's Surgery

Thank you for praying with us for Grandma! Her surgery went smoothly. Other than some soreness (as to be expected), she is doing quite well. We expect that she'll be coming home tomorrow morning. Praise the Lord! :o)

It's a . . .

BOY! :o)

The Lord blessed us with a very good ultrasound today! :o) Our little boy cooperated nicely (even flipping over at the end so we could see his spine.) :o) The technician was wonderful--she explained exactly what we were seeing at each point and what she was measuring and why. We are definitely having a little boy. He looks very healthy and is actually measuring about 4 days ahead of schedule.

We will be having another ultrasound next month though as they found a tiny cyst in one of the brain lobes. Such cysts appear in about 1 out of 20 ultrasounds, and 99% of the time they disappear around 22 weeks. It's associated with a birth defect for which I had blood screening which came back normal. Our doctor is not particularly concerned, but just as a precaution, we'll have another ultrasound at 24 weeks to make sure everything's okay. Thanks for praying with us! :o)

Otherwise, everything looks great! :o)

"You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well."
Psalm 139:13-14

2 days . . . 4 inches

And this is why we water proof the basement. Yes, our house is far out of reach of our creek, but 4+ inches of rain in less than 2 days tends to leave things slightly waterlogged. Our creek is adequate testimony to the great quantity of rain we received.

Actually, things are still pretty waterlogged nearly two weeks later. We had just a couple hours of rain yesterday afternoon, but because the ground is saturated, the roads and creeks looked like it had been raining for a couple of days again. I was very thankful for the Lord's protection though as a I hydroplaned for the first time ever on the way to church last night. It's an experience I hope to never repeat! I think it was about ten minutes before my heart settled into its normal pace again!

Table of Blessings

Our old table was handed down to us from some friends at work shortly after we were married, and it's certainly been a blessing, but serving eight people around it was very "cozy."
In answer to our prayers, the Lord provided a "new," larger table on Craig's List this week for less than we'll probably be paying for a new bathroom vanity! It's solid wood (i.e. very durable and kid-proof) and has six chairs!

It can expand to easily seat 10 people! (And maybe 12 if we get cozy again . . . ) :o)

Thank you, Lord! We're looking forward to many years of food and fellowship with family and friends around it!

Rejoice with Us!

The Lord has worked in some incredible ways over the last few weeks, and we are praising Him for it all!

1. Our house sold! :o) Praise the Lord! And as icing on the cake, the couple who purchased it are willing to let us rent it back from them for a couple months to help with our transition.

2. Our offer has been accepted on the other home!

Now for the story behind all of this . . .

We found this property last summer and on May 31 we took the pictures you see below of the outside. It has 2.6 acres of wooded land and we simply loved it. However, it was significantly out of our price range so we gave any dreams about it to the Lord and continued as before.

About a month ago we were once again evaluating what the Lord would have us to do about our need for more space--whether we should add on here or look for something else. We decided that the costs involved with adding on warranted us to at least look around for something within our price range with a little more space.

Through that process, this home once again showed up on the radar screen . . . except it was 3/4 of the price they had been asking last summer! We went for a couple showings (including one in which our realtor graciously allowed us to measure every room so we could work on some remodeling layouts!), and followed that up by putting our home on the market. The Lord provided a buyer for our home very quickly!

The owners have now accepted our offer (after multiple counters) on the other. Our closing is scheduled for March 16! We are simply rejoicing in everything He has done! The inside of the house needs some updating, and we have plans to move a few walls around to open up the layout between the kitchen, dining room, and living room, but it's a solid house with a full basement, lots of character, and lots of room to run and play! What great things the Lord has done!

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21