Moments of Grace

It's already September 3rd...where has the time gone? We have been home about a week and my has time flown by!

Happy 36th Birthday Uncle Wes!!!!! (just in case I forget tomorrow) Baby Neil can not wait to see you at Thanksgiving!!!

Happy 9th Wedding Anniversary Uncle Dean and Aunt Lucy!!!! (just in case I forget 2 days from now) Can't wait to see you all at Christmas with the newest addition to the growing family!!!

Can I just share with you all my thoughts and my emotion right now??...I am amazed! I had been told many many times over that as soon as Neil was placed in my arms, I would forget the past 2 1/2 years of waiting...well there was truth in that statement. The pain was IMMEDIATELY gone! Mothers in waiting.....Jenny M.....it is true. You very quickly go into mommy mode and there is not even a moment to be thinking about anything else but...move this and move that so Neil doesn't fall into the corner of the table!!!

But, I also don't want to forget the trials of these past years because it is through those trials I have grown and changed. I have realized that through my hard times and the great unknowns the only true known in life is the giver of life...my Savior! ALL glory is given to Him and Him alone for our son.

My prayers that I prayed for Neil every moment I thought about him was that God would put a spirit of joy in Him. That is something that is only from the Lord. God has answered that prayer and then some. Neil can't go a min without a smile and giggle on his face. At his home coming at the airport, he kissed, hugged and laughed at anyone who looked at him. It was such a sweet moment. He knew....he knew that all of you had prayed him home! It was his way of saying 'thank you for thinking and praying for me.' To see all of you at the airport and hug each and everyone of you...I thank you too! To share in that moment with you and the Lord was amazing.

Thank you to those who circled up and prayed with us at the airport. Could we have left there without giving the ultimate thanks the the Lord? No way! Glory was the be given to Him! As we prayed I held my son's foot and opened my eyes to look at him during the prayer. He was starring right at me with this look. Again, he knew. We were thanking God for him! He had just been running around, laughing, kissing, smiling and just having the best moment of his life, but when we bowed our heads to give thanks, he calmed down and took that moment with us.

God, my prayer is that the joy YOU put in him will lead to a life service of joy in serving YOU!

Thank you all for your involvement in this. Your gifts, meals, hugs, tears, coffee breaks, phone calls, letters and mostly your endless prayers. I believe it is because of our prayers together that we can rejoice together! AMEN! It is so much sweeter to be united in prayer because then we can see the fruit of our labor together! After all, we are the body of Christ...when we all work together the body brings joy to the Lord!

I want to leave you all with this statement given by a great friend of mine. She too is going through her own trials of life but has the Lord on her side. She continues to amaze me through her strength and endurance in her walk and physical pain. Thank you Jenn and Jess for your words to the Lord that are so lovely!

'My real question needs to change from (the one that continually looms over me), will I die from this?....to Lord, how shall I live? My sister passed along an amazing encouragement to me in one of her emails last week. She wrote in the subject line: ENOUGH FOR TODAY and then quoted Spurgeon:"I have known a brother wanting to vanquish death long before he died. But, brother, you do not want dying grace till dying moments. What would be the good of dying grace while you are yet alive? A boat will only be needful when you reach a river.
Ask for living grace, and glorify Christ thereby, and then you shall have dying grace when dying time comes. Your enemy is going to be destroyed, but not today. there is a great host of enemies to be fought today, and you may be content to to let this one alone for awhile. This enemy will be destroyed, but of the times and the seasons we are in ignorance; our wisdom is to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ as the duty of everyday requires. Take your trials as they come, brother! As the enemies march up slay them, rank upon rank, but if you fail in the name of God to smite the front ranks, and say, "No, I am only careful to prepare for the assault of the rear rank," then you are playing the fool. Leave the final shock of arms till the last adversary advances, and meanwhile hold you your place in the conflict. God will in due time help you to overcome your last enemy, but meanwhile see to it that you overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. If you live well you will die well. That same covenant in which the Lord Jesus gave you life contains also the grant of death, for "All things are yours, whether things present or things to come, or life or death, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." Please pray for living grace for me, Peter, my family, and for yourself. Thank you for your continued and persevering prayers. I am thankful to God for His once again displayed deliverance.

May the darkness never overshadow the reach of my Father's hand.'