This week our family has been encouraged by so many of our friends and family. Thank you for ministering to our hearts. We wanted to take a minute and share some of the passing encouraging messages that have come our way, in hope that they may touch you too.
As of this past week I am convinced that God does in fact care about the little things in our lives. (Sometimes I am skeptical that little things really mater to His Kingdom). A week prior to this past Saturday we noticed that the shower in our bathroom was causing the wall in our kitchen (which is directly below it) to bulge… we had a leak. We have known for a while that our shower was improperly installed when we purchased the house, but we were always going to fix it later. Well that “later” arrived two weeks before Heavy’s due date. We have spent the last week and a few days without a place to shower and are taking baths instead. I am so thankful that Peter as a former carpenter/contractor has the knowledge, skills and experience to replace our shower in the evenings. The past two nights we have spend tiling together, feeling tremendous pressure to get the shower finished before Heavy is born. As we were laying out all of the tile for the shower Peter realized that everything was going to fit perfectly with a very few number of special cuts! This was wonderful news and such a blessing to us. It felt as though the need to get the shower done quickly really mattered to God.
Through a number of friends and acquaintances this week we have heard the message again and again, that God does not promise that life will be easy, rather that he promises we will not walk alone. We will be carried by His presence and by his children we are in relationship with.
We have also been challenged this week to think more broadly… more eternally. So often we pray for physical protection… when we are away from our loved ones, when we travel, to keep from illness… God never promises us physical protection, but protection for our souls. This challenge helped us to put our coming weeks into perspective.
I attend a weekly bible study and this week’s interactions with the other women and the teaching time really touched me. Little Peter has always had a hard time separating from me. In the church nursery… crying, at preschool… crying, or needs to be bribed with treats and a “brave” note when I drop him off, at bible study… crying. My sweet boy really wears his heart on his sleeve and feels his emotions powerfully. Today as we were leaving a mother came up to me and (re)introduced herself to me. Her daughter and Peter are in the same preschool class and bible study children’s class. This was a huge praise for us, because now Peter has a “friend” with him each day he has a programmed class, and hopefully that separation transition will be easier.
During the teaching time at the bible study today the leader shared a quote from CS Lewis which says,
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
We have been amazed at how powerfully God has shouted his comfort, his love, his promise, and his solidarity during our journey with Heavy.
Also at bible study today I met a woman who five years ago delivered her first child, born still at 40 weeks. This woman is the first peer that I have meet who has gone through a similar experience to what we are anticipating… delivering a child and not leaving the hospital with our precious baby in the car seat carrier and nestling in at home. (I have meet older women, who have done this 44 years ago, 20 years ago, but none as little as 5 years. I greatly value the perspective of each woman and where they are at in their journey with loss). I am thankful for this bible study already and the relationships I know that will develop over the course of this next year as we study the Bible together.
We close this random, rambling update with some powerful words from a friend this week, in hope that it encourages you too, wherever you are in this journey called life.
At the fall of man in the garden we lost so much. It is evidenced through all the pain we see around us every day. If we keep our eyes on these and so many other sad realities we will miss out on the abundant life Jesus not only promises, but gives us each day.
Rejoice in your new life in Jesus; you are bought by his blood!
Rejoice in your love for each other and the beautiful children God has given you to shepherd into his kingdom (what gifts!); exult each day in the life he gives as you wake each morning, and determine to "make the most of each opportunity" the day provides! Thank God for what you have and commit to Him what you cannot have, what he may take away. We must daily lay down our own lives and give back to him those we love if we truly wish to "keep" them, anyway (Jesus said that).
I am so sorry you must go through this hard time. My heart hurts for
and with you. But I have every confidence you both love Jesus and are clinging to him...he will give you the grace to walk the dark
valley...and bring you out of it to the light. There is light, and it
will be the sweeter to you for the darkness.
Thank you, our dear friends for your love. You will receive an email/update/blog post/facebook note when we are at the hospital welcoming Heavy into our family. Please pray for us, when you receive that message. We will post pictures of our precious boy when we are able. We all are anxious to meet him.
Love you all.
Peter, Chelsea, Peter, Maria and Heavy