Great I Am

I shared this song recently on Facebook.  It's one that we played in church 2 week-ends ago and when I heard it for the first time, I wanted to cry and dance.  The first couple of lines really hit me:

"I wanna be close, close to your side
Where heaven is real and death is a lie"

It made me think, for those of us who love Jesus, death really is a lie.  We just simply transfer from one place to another, from earth to heaven.  The song continues:

"I wanna hear voices of angels above
Singing as one
Hallelujah, Holy Holy
God Almighty, Great I am"

It just made me think about what it says in Revelation 4:8 about the angels in heaven singing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the One who was and is and is to come."  I just get SOOO EXCITED when I think about all of us singing with the angels forever, praising God endlessly.  Someone recently said that as good as we think our worship sounds here on earth at times, it pales in comparison to what God hears in heaven.  That blows my mind to think about that!!  This song is one I have included in my worship times at home as I sing, dance and kneel for my audience of One and soak in His presence.  We have been challenged at our Bible study (or community group as we call it) to think about, "What increases my passion for Jesus?"  For me, it's worshiping through music, so I have started doing that regularly and He is drawing me closer as I spend time with Him and it has become such a sweet time!

Our House Story

As most of you know from Facebook, we recently sold our house and we’re moving in just over 3 weeks.  I figured I would give more details about how that all went about.

We started looking for houses at the beginning of February.  Jared mentioned it to his boss and his boss immediately brought him a feature sheet of a house and said, “Here’s one for you.”  The list price was higher than what we wanted to pay but Jared’s boss figured the owners would come down on their price.  We went to look at it and we really liked it.  Jared’s boss talked to the owners and at that time, they were willing to come down $5000 on the price, which was still high for us.  I felt like I was supposed to submit to whatever Jared decided, since he is the one who manages the finances.  I really wanted the house but was willing to let it go if that is what God was saying.  So, Jared went away on a men’s retreat the 2nd week-end in February.  He came back saying that God said no.  It was just beyond what was comfortable financially for us.  I was really disappointed, especially since my Mom and I had spent the week-end doing touch-up painting throughout our house, thinking that we might be listing it soon.  So, I let it go and just trusted that God had something else in mind for us.  We arranged to look at 4 other houses that week.  Jared’s boss told the owners of this house that we were going to look at other houses and got the feel from them that they would be willing to accept a much lower offer.  We went to see the other houses but didn’t love any of them like we did that first house.  So, we put in an offer that was $15,000 less than their asking price and they accepted it!  It was a happy Valentine’s day!  That was a miracle!  We then had 2 weeks to sell our house and had to get a certain price for it in order for everything to go through.  I asked if it was realistic to sell our house that quickly and he said, “No, it usually takes about a month.”  I knew that God could sell it quickly if He wanted us to move and He isn’t limited by what is normal or “the usual.” 

We got the house all ready and then left for the week-end before the showings started.  We got stuck a couple of hours away from home on the day we wanted to come back due to a bad snowstorm and had to stay an extra night away, so thankfully our house was clean and tidy because we didn’t make it home before the first showing on Tuesday, February 19.  That day we had 3 showings and 3 competing offers.  Competing offers are very rare in our area.  All 3 offers were above our asking price, which again, almost never happens.  I could see God at work!  The highest offer was $7300 more than our asking price, so we got quite a bit more for our house than we were hoping for!  Another miracle! 

It has been a whirlwind and now we’ve been shopping for everything we need, since it’s a brand new, empty house.  We got all of our kitchen appliances on sale, found big bathroom mirrors we wanted at a good price, got a discount on the bar stool chairs we bought and I just see God’s provision over and over.  Our current house is 950 sq. ft. plus a 650 sq. ft. basement, so that’s a total of 1550 sq. ft.  Our new house is 1325 sq. ft. on both floors, so that’s a total of 2650 sq. ft.  We live on a fairly busy street and we’ve always wanted to live on a non-through street.  This house is on a street that ends in a cul-de-sac and our house is in the cul-de-sac, so again, God provided!  I’ve also always wanted to have a house that’s big enough to host Bible Study groups and have parties without feeling like everyone is tripping over each other, plus more space for our family since we have maxed out our current house and now we’ll be able to do that.  As exciting as all of this is, I am honestly more excited about my blood test results coming back all good.  After struggling with health issue after health issue since before Christmas, to have been given a clean bill of health means more to me than a house.  God is so merciful and so good and I just praise Him!  We don’t deserve any of these blessings, but He just pours them out because of His love and goodness! 

A Catch-Up Thankful Post

I’m still trying to catch up from last year and I don’t know if I will ever be caught up, but I can try!  Here are some things that I am thankful for:

Going shopping for Kiera + Blake with birthday money given to them

The hat that Blake got given by a kind elderly man while at a store

Another cute hat

Standing!

Painting nails

The ornaments that the kids were given to hang on the tree

Fun $1 cups

Silliness

Her first lost tooth!

Getting more pictures than ever from family and friends

A Budding Artist

Kiera has started drawing a lot more since she started school.  These make me smile.

Aren’t I attractive? ;)

Jared is lookin’ pretty hot, too!  I’m glad she likes us.  I like her, too!

Can you tell me what these last 4 are?  I had trouble with them and she had to tell me what they were.

Family Update

It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated specifically about what’s going on with each of my kids these days, so I figured I should do that.  I’ll start with Kiera.

She is really enjoying school just like her Mom used to.  She is starting to read and actually sound out words and recognize them, so that’s exciting for me!  It opens up a whole new world!  She is starting to spell words, too.  It’s mostly the 3-letter words that she gets right but she’s off to a great start.  She enjoys playing with the TinkerToys set that Blake got for Christmas and she makes things like these often with very little or no help:

I’ll update on Blake next

Blake is at an interesting stage.  He bugs his sisters a lot and has trouble listening, but he makes us laugh a lot and adds a lot to our family.  I find it very interesting how different he is from the girls.  I recently finished reading “Bringing Up Boys” by Dr. James Dobson because I was feeling like, “I don’t know what to do with this kid!”  He is a morning person and is often up around 7 a.m., which I know isn’t bad, but I am not a morning person and would prefer closer to 8 a.m.  He also wants me to climb into his bed and cuddle with him every time he goes down for a nap or at bedtime.  He always needs a hug, to give each other hard kisses on the cheeks and an eskimo kiss.  I try to cherish those sweet times.

And then we have Haley:

She will be 18 months old next week and still isn’t walking, ha ha!  She is taking after Kiera in the very late walking department.  She is walking when we hold her hands and she can even do it if we just hold one hand, so I know walking by herself isn’t very far off.  She is starting to climb more.  Yesterday, I watched her climb onto a kitchen chair and then up onto the table.  Yikes!  One of my favorite things is she’ll reach her arms toward us and say, “Ug!  Ug!”  which means she wants a hug.  So sweet!  She is talking more and more as she tries to repeat the things we say.  She says: Hi, ba-bye, na-night, Mama, Daddy, peese (please), tays (thanks), cheese and she’s constantly asking for muk (milk).  I know there are more words that I’m not remembering but those are her main ones.  She likes playing with the kids laptop we have, even though she doesn’t understand any of the games.  As soon as she hears music, she starts dancing.  My cousin said at Haley’s baby dedication that she will be a dancer, so we’ll see if that happens.  It definitely looks promising!  I can’t believe that my baby will be 2 years old this year.  I’ve never had a 2-year-old and not had another baby. 

So, that’s where my kids are at.  I’m still struggling with health stuff and waiting for another round of blood tests, as there were a couple of concerns with my last round.  I’ve been fighting a lot of fear with Scripture and worship.  Work is going pretty good for Jared and he will be taking a 4-week course this spring, plus getting flown across the country to attend a seminar, so that’s cool!  In spite of the trials I’m going through, God is still so good! 

Our Christmas

I’m back on Facebook and blogging after taking an extended break this month, so I figured I should share about our Christmas.  We had 8 family gatherings again, but this year they were more spread out, so we were thankful for that.  We had 1 at the beginning of December, 1 in the middle of December, 4 the week of Christmas, and 2 in January.  We had our own family Christmas in the evening on December 23.  We ordered pizza for supper, which is everyone’s favorite meal and I didn’t have to cook, so that’s always nice!  We save 2 Christmas children’s books for this time of year (I put them away the rest of the year), so I read one and Jared read one.  The one I read is from Mary’s perspective and throughout the book she says, “Tomorrow you will be king, but tonight you are my baby,” and it makes me almost cry every time.

This was Kiera’s present

Blake got some puzzles.  These were probably their favorite, though!

We always have Christmas with Jared’s Dad and Step-Mom on Dec. 25 and it’s one of my favorite days of the year.  It starts with brunch, then a big gift exchange.  In the afternoon we usually play a game, have snacks, and then have supper. 

This is what he gave me when I said, “Big smile!”

Roger the Rooster was a gift somebody received during our $1 gift exchange in our Bible study group 3 years ago and has since been passed on to people in our church for their birthdays.  I received him for the first time in October and my sister-in-law’s birthday was in December, so I figured it would look great in their new house, ha ha!  As you can see, Steve was quite bewildered until I explained.

The kids each got these great umbrellas and you can see in the lower corner that I got Ticket To Ride Europe

They both got new pajamas as well

Amanda got a book that had the word sex in it

Blake got a TinkerToys set and Kiera got a really great stamp set that included some cards

TJ + Amanda were told to close their eyes while their gift was brought into the room.  No, they’re not making out.

Their expressions when they saw….

…the beautiful headboard that Jared’s Dad made them!

Holding our favorite gifts…Jared got a Keurig and I got an ice cream maker!

We made it through Christmas and to all of our gatherings before the 5 days of fevers hit me at New Year’s and Jared the following week, so we were and are very blessed! :)

What God Has Been Saying

On Friday evening, I ended up at the ER, as most of you probably read on Facebook.  After struggling with the runs for 10 days, cutting out all wheat, dairy and sugar, I ended up running to the bathroom 6 times in 25 min. after eating a chicken salad with homemade dressing for supper.  I was so scared and what kept running through my mind was the fact that my Mom, my Grandma and my uncle all used to have Ulcerative Colitis.  I don’t know why my mind just went to one of the worst extremes.  It was not helpful!  After I got there, I called my Mom and she was at her friend’s house.  Her + her friends prayed for me, as well as others as I asked for prayer on Facebook before I left for the hospital.  I felt those prayers and as I sat in the ER for hours, God’s peace settled over me.  He told me two things.  The first one was, “You know, there are no ER’s in heaven.”  I was SO encouraged by that, as it’s a terrible place to be.  There was an old, overweight man sitting beside me coughing up phlegm and spitting it into his cloth the whole time I was there.  It was disgusting!  We have A LOT to look forward to!  The 2nd thing He said was, “Your times are in my hands.”  Yes, I can completely trust Him!  I’m so thankful that it appears I just had a virus.  God is good all the time.

Every year, I ask God for His Word for me for the year and this past year was joy.  Even though I experienced a lot of emotional pain, I also experienced a lot of joy as I kept counting my blessings in my thankful journal every day and the times that I focused on Jesus instead of on what was going on in my life.  God already gave me his word for this year and it’s “surrender.”  I said to Him, “Can’t we just stick with joy?  I like that one better.”  Surrender is hard, but I’m already learning more about that.  No matter how hard I try to eat right, which is good and no matter how I try to control things, I am realizing that I’m so not in control.  I need to trust God with my health, because my health comes from Him.  My body comes from Him, my whole life is from Him.  His plans are way better than mine, so I need to surrender my will to His.  He told me He wants to make my faith like gold.  I know the refining process is not always a fun one, but it will be so worth it!  I don’t know what God has in store for this year, but I know it’s good and I need to surrender every day to Him.  I pray we all grow in the Lord this year.  Happy new year!