What a hectic, faith testing few weeks it has been! Too often we let our circumstances determine our response to God. If I let my circumstances determine my response, I wouldn't have a very good response for Him lately. You see our family has faced some trials lately and we are refusing to take our eyes of God. To start off the month of June, we visited Granny over Memorial Day. She fell and wasn't doing to great. We came home and early in the morning of June 3, Carolyn called to let us know that Granny was in the hospital and the doctors weren't expecting her to make it. She passed away later that evening. We came in that Sunday and had the funeral services. We did get to see Aunt Lori, Aunt Stacey, Uncle Donnie, Jacob and Jordan so even though we were upset and sad Granny was gone, we did get to see family and that was good.
Next up, was getting Garrett ready for camp and Orphan Sunday. These were both awesome things! I got Garrett ready for camp and we made it through Orphan Sunday (the launch of our ministry). God did amazing things on Sunday during church and after at our luncheon. I'm grateful to Jason and Mike for sharing our vision and our passion for orphans. You know, if we aren't doing anything to care for orphans, how can we call ourselves "the church?" We had prayed and planned for this day for about a year and we saw great results. We had cardboard testimonies from people who have been touched by adoption, a great sermon from Jason, you can check it out at
here, an awesome lunch with lots of questions and answers from people who have thought about adoption and foster care. We prayed over Heart Gallery photos of kids in New Mexico who are available for adoption, we prayed over orphans in Swaziland and we prayed for all 147 million orphans worldwide. All of my packets for foster care were taken and I found out today that people are starting to call my contact at CYFD. Imagine what would happen if every state's CYFD or DCFS department partnered with the church to rid our nation of orphans? I'll tell you what would happen, we would get rid of the orphan problem in our nation. If we could have one family in every four American churches adopt a child, we would have no more kids waiting for homes! Imagine!!
We got through Sunday and it was amazing! Monday came and I took Garrett to camp. Ryan is missing his brother like crazy and keeps asking if we can go and get him. I keep explaining to him that on Friday, we will go and pick him up. It is quiet at the house. I am missing Garrett too but I know he is having fun!
Monday evening, I received a phone call from Brent's cousin with bad news. Carolyn, my sweet mother-in-law, was in the ER and was being admitted to ICU. She was having pulmonary edema. I told his cousin to call me with any changes and I would let Brent know about his mom. I called him at work to tell him, prayed, and went to bed. About 1:10 this morning, I was woken up by his aunt calling me to let me know that she was not doing well. I got a hold of Brent at work who called his aunt. Brent came home from work and was getting ready to take off to Albuquerque. As he got home to get his stuff, his aunt called him back and told him that they had stabilized his mom. He decided to sleep and drive to Albuquerque this morning. The doctors were able to take his mom off the ventilator this morning (praise God)! The doctors are thinking that something with her heart is causing her to have pulmonary edema and are going to do a complete work up on her to find out what is wrong. They are thinking that she might have a blockage in her heart. I am praying for complete healing for her and wisdom for the doctors.
And while all of this is going on, my father-in-law is in the nursing home/rehab center in Albuquerque trying to get strong enough to get out, my brother-in-law is fighting for our freedom in Afghanistan and we continue to wait to see our daughter's face. I think if I let my circumstances determine my response to God, it would be to run away from Him because He is allowing all of this to happen. I know that He allows things to happen so that we can more fully depend on Him. That is what I am choosing to do!
God, I will keep on running the race you have set for me and I will do it with complete faith that You will pull me through! Thank you Jesus for giving me perseverance.
