Promises
I want to take some time to share some of what God has been doing in our lives the past few months. Last year, I participated in a Bible verse memory team through Beth Moore's ministry. We memorized two verses a month. Each month, God clearly led me to the verses I was to memorize. It began with the promise from Isaiah 54:17, "
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me, says the Lord."
Wow, what a gift to see how He fulfilled that promise throughout 2015. As 2016 began, I decided to continue recording the verses He was giving me, although I'm not doing the memory challenge. He confirmed Isaiah 41:10 in January, "
Fear not for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."
In February, He took me to Psalm 27:1, "
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
During this time we were seeking His face because of several circumstances we were experiencing. We had been through several sicknesses in our family throughout my pregnancy and were seeing a maternal fetal medicine specialist that we felt was not giving us reports in line with what we knew God was telling us about Lily Faith.
With the help of Gregg and my mentor, I began to process what God was doing and what His truth was. I sought Him diligently and Gregg and I both felt confident that the Holy Spirit was telling us Lily Faith was just fine...fearfully and wonderfully made! Sheeba encouraged me to ask God to "fully
convince me" of His promises just as He had with Abraham, "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." (Romans 4:21-22). I cannot, in my own strength be convinced. Only God can do that in me.
I honestly was struggling with striving to have the faith and wanted to "see" before I believed. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
On April 3, 2016, our pastor preached a sermon about "A changed Life." We looked at Mark 7:24-30 and Matthew 15:22-28 (a tough text to understand). This woman was pleading with Jesus to have mercy on her daughter who was possessed by demons. The woman responded to Jesus' parable about dogs (in this context it was a house dog or puppy). She saw that Jesus was sent first to the Jews then the gentiles, but she knew He was sent for her too. She persevered and didn't let obstacles get in her way. She didn't ask Him based on her rights, but trusted in His goodness, grace, and mercy. Because of her faith, her daughter was healed!
I decided that day to surrender the concerns about my health and Lily Faith's health. I trusted that our healing was already done before I saw the removal of symptoms.
New doctor
Because of the negative experiences I'd had with the maternal fetal medicine specialist I was seeing, Gregg and I prayed to see if we should seek another doctor. We were led to a doctor in Columbus, GA, which is a little bit further away, but that didn't matter to us.
We prayed together as a family for the appointment. The other specialist had told us Lily Faith was measuring too small. We had been believing she would grow just the right amount. Zeke prayed she would be perfect!
The day after the sermon I mentioned above, we had an appointment to go to Columbus to meet with the new doctor, Dr. Hill. This was the first specialist appointment Gregg was able to attend with me because God had worked out the details so beautifully. My mom "just happened" to be visiting for a couple of days and Gregg "just happened" to have the day off. My mom stayed with the kids and Gregg and I headed to the appointment.
I was called back pretty quickly and they set up me up on the monitors for a non-stress test. Lily Faith was moving around and wonderfully active. The nurse, Sharice, had a great sense of humor. She was joyful and made me laugh. Gregg was able to come back and we enjoyed visiting as we waited. Next, we went for a sonogram. As we began to talk with the nurse, it was clear she was a believer. We shared God stories and just connected in the way you do with other believers. She asked the name of our kids. When we told her Adalynn's name, she couldn't believe it. Her 23 year old daughter had picked out the name Adalyn for her future baby girl. Sharice said she'd never met anyone with that name. She was really amazed. She finished up the sonogram and said Lily Faith was measuring about 35% and was "PERFECT!" Gregg and I just looked at each other and smiled. Two weeks prior, she was measuring 20% and they said her belly was too small. We KNEW God had done a miracle in her!
Next, we went back to the waiting room to wait to see Dr. Hill. The waiting room was very pleasant (we got to watch HGTV and visit). They even sent the nurse practitioner out to apologize for our long wait. When we went to meet with Dr. Hill, she showed us the growth charts for Lily Faith. She was right around the mid range for all of her growth (including her belly!) and Dr. Hill said she was, "PERFECT!" Again, Gregg and I just looked at each other, knowing what God had done.
We left there praising God...we couldn't stop praising Him. We don't want to take this miracle for granted. He grew her almost 2 pounds in 2 weeks and set her right where she needed to be. He has continued to bless me through the nurses and midwives at my OB/GYN in Americus too. They have been wonderful to me at my bi-weekly non-stress tests. He has orchestrated the details so that I can get to the these appointments and the kids are cared for, even with Gregg's demanding work schedule.
Today, I was listening to my chronological Bible reading and Psalm 34 came up. I've chosen verses 8-10 for my April memory verses, "
Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him! Fear the Lord, you His godly people, for those who fear Him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing."
We are choosing to take refuge in Him...to enjoy Him...to abide in His Word...to be led by the Holy Spirit. There is such freedom in surrendering all to Him.
Please join us in praising Him for His miracles and His goodness. We appreciate your continued prayers for "perfect" growth and a smooth delivery. The desire of my heart is to experience an unmedicated natural delivery. I know that may sound silly (or strange) to some, but it's something I'd like to experience! Thank you for partnering with us in prayer and believing God will do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or imagine!
More Miracles
Before I had a chance to publish this post, I had a check up with the midwives in Americus. My blood work came back...you guessed it, PERFECT! My A1c was 4.8% (which it has never been to my knowledge), my thyroid was great, group B strep was negative (meaning I don't have to take antibiotics before labor), and iron level was great. Wow...praise God!!!
A few fun photos to close
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| Before church last week |
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| Sliding together |
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| Before our end of the year program for Classical Conversations |
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| With the children from our group |
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| Zeke singing his song about the atmosphere (he hammed it up, for sure!) |
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| Watching the peanuts movie (Adalynn in a box the whole movie!) |
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| Testing out the new 3 car seat setup (thanks to the babydoll stand in!) |
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| Our little cowgirl and cowboy! |
