A Thrill of Hope

A Thrill of Hope the Weary Soul Rejoices

I remember something I heard once from the movie Facing the Giants where the coach tells the players "We're going to praise him when we win, and we're going to praise him when we lose." We are praising God. We praised him when it seemed like everything was falling apart. We praised him when Mark was sick. We praised him when I broke my pelvis. We praised him through Samantha's life and death. We praised him through Gabie's burns. And God is faithful. 

We praise him for healing. Mark's health is fully restored. He has been working two jobs for the last few months. He continued his work at 1st Choice Hospice while also serving a vacancy at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Brenham, Texas. He will now transition into being the full time pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Brenham as they extended him the call and he has accepted. 

We praise him for endurance. Even after having a plate put in to help my bones heal almost three years ago, I was able to give birth naturally and continue running, completing a 5K this December and getting 1st place in my age group.

We praise Him for growth. Eliya has grown so much both in height and maturity this year. She was excited and honored to stand up as a godparents for Joanna at her baptism.

We praise Him for comfort. God has healed Gabie's burns extensively. She still bears the scars, but has lost no mobility. She has endured months of compression garments that have aided in minimizing scars and maximizing mobility.

We praise Him for joy. Rachel's antics and fun personality have often brought a smile when we simply wanted to cry. She also is a wonderful reader and reads with great expression and joy.

We praise Him for love. Micaiah is always ready with a hug and often comes in at night and asks for her "nuggles". It warmed my heart to watch her interact with Nana this afternoon blowing her both a hug and kiss.

We praise him for new life. God has brought a beautiful little miracle, Joanna Peace, into our family on September 6.  We are amazed every day at the beauty of life and love in a precious baby. 

We were a family torn and battered by life's storms. God is faithful. His faithfulness does not depend on our faithfulness to him. After months and years of wandering and wondering about what He had in store for us we are overwhelmed with His goodness to us. 

2013 has been a blessing to our family. A thrill of hope in a world on it's knees. If perhaps your 2013 has been something else, let your weary soul rejoice in that tiny baby come down to save us two thousand Decembers ago.....for yonder breaks a new and glorious mourn!

Santa

We had our family Christmas picture done and Santa was already at the mall - wow, so we stopped by to say hi.  When he asked what the girls wanted they all just said "um, we don't know." and when he asked if they'd been good their response "kinda":) at least they're honest!

2 MONTHS

I did try to lay her across like the previous months, but she's just too big now!

 

2 months

1 month

 Newborn

Happy Reformation!

After all the fall festivals and a ton of rain we decided to hang out at home tonight.  The girls dressed up to pass out candy, and we enjoyed sitting out on the driveway until it got dark.  Micaiah was getting mad when we first went out that no one was coming so in her exasperation she held up the candy bucket and yelled, "COME ON NEIGHBORS, I'VE GOT CANDY TO GIVE YOU!"  It was pretty cute.  We didn't get our usual 100+ trick-or-treaters but did get quite a few which satisfied Micaiah :)

Snuggles with Stephanie

Stephanie was holding Joanna today and it was so cute, Joey was trying to figure out how someone looked and sounded like Momma, but wasn't quite her - she would reach out and touch her and then scratch her head :0)

So Tired

After  a VERY long night we had a low key day today.  And it wasn't even the littlest ones fault....

 

Joanna LOVES her playmat

 Big Yawn!

 It was the next one up that gave us so little sleep.  I have no idea why but she was up crying most of the night.  She said her tummy hurt, but she never did get sick.  She finally fell asleep around 9 this morning and slept until early afternoon. 

 Once she had her nap she decided to do some activities with her sister.  They loved the pumpkin game I set up for them this week where they counted spiders for the pumpkin - Micaiah just counted for the number since she's still learning the shape of the numbers, Eliya had to multiply and divide hers and then put the spiders in the pumpkin. 

The Aquarium!

Eliya's Science unit was on the ocean, so after completing her final project we went on a field trip to the Aquarium in downtown Houston.  It was really nice to take our time to walk through and read about all the different living things in the ocean, and so much of it built on what we had already learned!  The best part was at the end when she got to touch the sting rays.  Because we went on a Monday (and therefore there was almost no one else there) she got a wonderful lesson from the lady that was helping to watch the tank.  She taught us so much!  We had a great day!

 I have no idea why but at the end of the aquarium you go around the corner and there is a white tiger cage - seems a little random to have at the aquarium but was still pretty cool.

 

Little Fuzzy Friends

One of the shut-in's from Bethlehem heard that Mark had 5 daughters so she had a treat waiting for him to bring home when he went to visit her - the girls loved them!

Fall Festival @ Faith

Second Fall Festival tonight at Faith Lutheran