There’s something super fun about a giveaway… something super fun about winning it… and something super fun about getting the beautiful things in my mailbox!
I couldn’t not share these with you all. Aren’t they terrific?!
I highly suggest you pop over to Third Street Paper Co and grab yourself some stationery. It’s delightful.
And hey, it’s run by the girls I was best friends with growing up. That’s just icing on the cake. 😉
God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience.
I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will,
a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.
~Elisabeth Elliot~
Apples from a local orchard… Pine needles in the backyard… Pumpkins in our garden… Candles for our babies… The well drilling truck on our property… Playing in septic perk holes… Playing at the park… Walking through crunchy leaves…
These are some of our fall’s delights! Thanks be to God.
We have a couple blood draws, an important ultrasound, and likely more traveling for medical treatment this week. Please pray with us for God’s grace this week, as we continue to seek His delights in our life all around us.
And especially as we beg Him to show mercy to our Hosanna-Baby!
“Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory. Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.”
~The Valley of Vision~
A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions
“When we fear, we trust; when we fear, we have faith.
This means that fear leads to trust which leads to praise.”
~Mrs. Nancy Wilson, from a timely & encouraging new Femina post
There are two ways of getting out of a trial. One is to simply try to get rid of the trial, and be thankful when it is over. The other is to recognize the trial as a challenge from God to claim a larger blessing than we have ever had, and to hail it with delight as an opportunity of obtaining a larger measure of divine grace. Thus even the adversary becomes an auxiliary, and the things that seem to be against us turn out to be for the furtherance of our way. Surely, this is to be more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
~A. B. Simpson~
Psalm 112:6
For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
We remember every day of our life. Today we ask you to remember with us. To remember our children–your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews, your cousins, your friends. Remember our little redheads who dance on the streets of heaven, praising God in the highest, singing blessing and honor and glory and might (just like their brother here on earth tries to imitate) ~ for them, the former things have passed away, and they do not know tears, mourning, death, crying, or pain. Amen!!
Please remember with us today on October 15th, our own Remembrance Day.
If you have facebook, or any other online presence, please make a statement. Update your status as remembering the bereaved parents on Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day, in their grief and for their hope.
For our babies today, I will wear their names around my neck; I will wear pink & blue; I will light six candles; I will let go of six balloons; I will make a bold online statement; I will pray not only for my grieving family, but for the hundreds of grieving families I’ve met around the world who also remember today; I will cry; I will not forget; I will try to have hope.
This is my story.
This is my face.
This is one place I minister.
This is another.
This is something I wrote.
This is something my hubby wrote.
This is a good read.
Today we remember.
Please remember with us.
We love you so much, our beautiful children, our incredible gifts from God ~ our own Covenant Hope, Glory Hesed, Promise Anastasis, Peace Nikonos, Mercy Kyrie, Victory Athanasius. And we will be with you soon!
Psalm 118:25, “Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success!”
The word Hosanna literally means Save, Lord. It is a cry for salvation. At the same time, it is a declaration of praise. What a beautiful, complex word.
This is the word that now fills our lips as we cry to God to save us and give us success. He has filled my womb with our eighth baby! And as H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, we are calling this little one our Hosanna-Baby.
I don’t have the luxury of waiting to tell you all until further into the pregnancy, because we need your prayers! Please praise God with us for His kindness in blessing us with this little baby. And please beseech His mercy and grace with us as we beg for Him to save us ~ to give us joy instead of grief.
Conceiving is only the first of many, many hurdles for us. This is so scary, tenuous. God has given life, and now we ask Him to sustain it. We are thankful for this beautiful blessing. And for the confidence we have in Christ that as we belong to Him, so do each one of our children. All eight of them.
Amen.
Hosanna!
Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.
Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.
Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.
I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.
I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.
~Horatius Bonar, 1808-1889~
