My Ebenezer

We began praying not long ago for the Lord to help some buildings of ours to sell if it would be His will to provide for IVF that way. Well, yesterday, one of those buildings sold! Praise the Lord!!! I am so surprised! Usually when we pray for buildings to sell, it takes months and months, so what a blessing that this one went so quickly! I keep praising the Lord for miraculously working to sell this building. Buyers are not easy to come by in this market, so finding a buyer alone is a miracle. We are about halfway there--we would need at least one more to sell to be able to fund IVF. The good news is, we have one that is supposed to close this Friday! Would you pray with me that it closes and on time? If it does, we would be able to start IVF in January, Lord-willing. It is indescribably wonderful to see the Lord directly answer prayers!

You've seen those t-shirts that say, "My grandma went to the Grand Canyon and all she brought me was this t-shirt," right? Well, I need one that says, "We went to the Fallons' for Thanksgiving and all we got was this picture:" Seriously? Not one single picture with the most gracious hosts in the world? (more on why I call them that later...) I even went through the pics in my camera to verify. Not one picture of people! The table was beautiful, accented perfectly by the pumpkin-colored walls. But we went to visit the Fallons, not their table! (*kicking myself*) You may remember we were invited to their house last year for Thanksgiving (that was when Noah went swimming in their freezing cold pool!). Invited for the second time, we joined them again this year for their Thanksgiving meal. (Pretty nice table, huh?) Only this time we brought someone else's child. Or so it seemed, for Noah was on his Absolute Worst Behavior. When asked how our Thanks...

The following are some photos from this month that were just sitting in my camera. I figured I'd clean them out and post them. This is some of what we've been up to this month. The zoo! We went one Saturday morning before Noah's soccer game. Our first fire of the "winter." And more reading practice. In case you can't see the photo, the chalk sentences on our driveway say, "Noah had fun with Mom." and "The frog jumps up on a stump." Noah loves to practice his reading! He reads sentences similar to the ones above, and is also reading short beginner books from the library. This is such a fun milestone! Right now it rivals learning to walk for my favorite developmental stage. :) On Sunday during church, I passed Noah a note which said, "Sit still." Wow, was I thankful to be able to convey a message to him without talking! Of course that opened a whole new can of worms when he became so thrilled that he was able to read my ...

We had our appointment on Monday as planned to discuss doing IVF again. Our biggest concern right now is the financial cost of it. This is a procedure that costs over $10,000 to do! We are still praying for wisdom, and right now are waiting on the Lord to provide if it is His will that we do this. It would be no trouble at all for God to provide the money upfront if He chooses, and so that is what we are praying. We have a couple of buildings that we are trying to sell. If/when they sell, we could feel comfortable moving forward in the IVF direction. Until that happens, though, we wait and pray. Would you pray with us? 1. For us to have wisdom and clarity of direction 2. For God to provide the money in a clear way if this is His will 3. For us to have the right response no matter what, and especially while we wait. "Delight yourself in the Lord, And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him and He will do it. He will bring...

Did you ever marvel as a child if you saw one of your teachers out in public? "Wow, she goes to restaurants?" I remember, at least for me, it was always so weird to see a teacher out doing normal people things. Like there's this unwritten assumption that teachers live at school. Yesterday we saw Noah's preschool teacher at Publix. Noah just stood there, dumbfounded. You could see a thousand questions going through his mind as he contemplated the fact that his teacher goes grocery shopping. It was just funny to me. Had to remember it. :)

Recently I listened to an online message from the book of James about trials. The speaker reminded me that part of what makes trials so difficult is that there is usually a decision to be made in the midst of them, and we don't know what to do. We seek God for wisdom, and God promises to give wisdom "to all generously and without reproach." if we ask without doubting. (James 1:5-6) Well, Josh and I have been seeking wisdom over the last 3 years about how to grow our family, and/or if we should even be pursuing that. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know all about my health issues and also my intense desire to have more children. What is the right thing? What would God have us do? This is such a personal matter, and I don't know who or how many people read this thing, so I'm probably not going to go into a lot of detail about the decisions and variables we were wrestling with or what this process will involve. I did, however, wa...

I have been extremely short-tempered with Noah lately. Foolishness abounds in that child; from using one of our kitchen knives in a saw-like fashion on our dining room table, to bossing me around as if I were his inferior, to throwing a fit about some disappointment, to arguing with me about absolutely everything.... We've had our share of challenges here lately (and all of that was just this morning before Noah left for school!). I sat down, defeated, to read my Bible this morning and these verses were what "happened" to be on the docket for today: "Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures , spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mank...

Check out Noah sporting his new apron from Mom Rowley. She heard me say that he wanted a child-size apron, and brought one to him! Now we can really let the flour fly!

We visited Jen and Libby in the hospital last night. Noah was SO excited to be able to hold Libby (whom he keeps calling "Lily"). I had told him he might not get to hold her, but he was ecstatic when Jen said he could. Can you see it in his face? I always get a little misty-eyed holding a brand new baby and last night was no exception. (When I went so see Titus as a newborn I all-out cried. But let's not talk about that...) Thankfully I was able to keep back my tears this time, since crying in public is not something I enjoy. :)

Matt and Jen had baby #3 early early this morning! Libby Jane entered the world on November 1, 2011 (9 days overdue! But who's counting? *cough*) at 3:33am. She is 7lb 15oz. Congratulations, guys!