Especially for Great Grandma

Would you please pray for my Grandma? She has not been feeling well at all, and we would greatly appreciate your prayers that the Lord will strengthen and heal her. And while I'm sure others will also enjoy it, this post is particularly for her. I had already picked ten of the pictures to include in a top ten post later this week, but I decided this evening to bump up the schedule and include a few more ... just to add some extra smiles to her morning. :)

We love you, Great Grandma! Enjoy! :)

We love you, Great Grandma, and we're praying for you!
(We love you, too, Great Grandpa--take good care of Grandma!)

This Moment ~ A Sleeping Party

After a particularly long afternoon of grocery shopping, Peter gave the following invitation:

"Hannah, come outside for a sleeping party."

Definitely made me chuckle. :o)

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Speaking of sleeping parties though, here's what's happening at our place as we prepare for family who are coming to help us remodel the basement ...

It sleeps five! :o)
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The next two weeks will be full to the brim! We'd greatly appreciate your prayers for safety, health, harmony, and productivity ...

Perspective

Perspective.

I've been (more than) a little overwhelmed at the prospect of getting my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow.

I've also been less than patient at times with my little ones today.

I'm tired.

And I'm sure I could rattle off more than a dozen other complaints if I tried. Why?

Did you notice all of those begin with "I"? My biggest problem? My focus has been on me rather than my Savior. I'm more interested in my own convenience and comfort than in serving my family.

The Lord has rebuked me and restored my perspective.

A dear friend just gave birth to a miraculously healthly little boy after enduring with grace a very challenging pregnancy with significant complications. However, she is today in the hospital with her nine-day-old son who stopped breathing last evening for no apparent reason. The Lord who carried this little one through the entire pregnancy must certainly have a special plan for him, for He ordained fire-fighters to be in their neighborhood, and they were able to quickly respond to their 911 call, provide oxygen, and rush little Hudson to the hospital.

Please ... pray for little Hudson and this family. Rachel has a beautiful blog where I'm sure she'll post updates soon.

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Lord, thank You for the abundance of blessings and these most precious gifts You have given me in the form of my children. Forgive me for taking them for granted and failing to trust You for the challenges You bring.

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)

Praying for Grandma (updated)

Update: One final procedure which was scheduled for today has been delayed till Tuesday which has also delayed the gull bladder surgery till Wednesday. Thank you so much for your prayers!

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On Saturday evening we learned that Grandma M. was in the Emergency Room due to 15+ hours of violent vomiting with no related symptoms of virus or food poisoning. The Lord is so good! She received swift, excellent care in the ER, and within an hour they had stablized her condition and within four hours they had determined the cause was gull stones and an infected gull bladder.

We praise the Lord that she is coherent and feeling much better today due to medications and good care. Barring complications, she will be having her gull bladder removed on Wednesday. They expect that she will be returning home on Thursday. I will be flying in to help care for things around the house for about a week as she recovers.

We greatly appreciate your prayers for Grandma's swift and complete recovery, safety in traveling, and for Chris and the kids as they hold down the fort without Mommy.

Praise the Lord! We serve an Almighty, Omnipotent God who loves us, care for us, and who was not surprised by any of this. Blessed be His name!

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Fear thou not; for I am with thee.

Be not dismayed; for I am thy God.

I will strengthen thee;

Yea, I will help thee;

Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.

Isaiah 41:10

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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

For Sale!

I mentioned in a recent post that we appeared to be on the brink of some significant changes in our family. The following picture explains where that comment came from:

We've put our home on the market. I have to admit that I have really mixed feelings right at the moment as I post this. We're super excited about the new home we've found, but we also love our current home--we're just outgrowing it. Please pray with us that the Lord would make His will very clear--there's a lot of details involved. Please pray specifically that

1. Our home would sell quickly.
2. They would accept our offer on the other home.

We're trying the For Sale by Owner route for at least a little while and we'll see what the Lord does. If you know someone in the area who would be interested, please direct them our way!

Learn more at 9CasonAve.blogspot.com

Great Grandpa LeClair

We would all greatly appreciate your prayers for Jenny's Grandpa LeClair. He had a heart attack this morning. Praise the Lord, Grandma heard him call for help, and the ambulance was able to get him to the hospital very quickly. The Lord even arranged for the heart surgeon to be there on a day when he usually isn't, and Grandpa was able to have stints put in within 45 minutes of arriving at the hospital. We are very thankful he is doing much better this evening, but please do pray for him as he recovers. We are so glad we were able to visit with them over Christmas!

We love you, Grandpa, and we'll be praying for you!