God Amazes Me Every Day

I receive a daily email called Insight for Today by Chuck Swindoll. I woke up Saturday morning and found this in my email. I stand amazed EVERY day at how God works. How appropriate for our family the day after finding out about Chase's medical issues.

A STEP AT A TIME

by Charles R. Swindoll
Read 1 Kings 17:4

God's direction includes God's provision. God says, "Go to the brook. I will provide." Vance Havner, in his book, It Is Toward Evening, tells the story of a group of farmers who were raising cotton in the Deep South when the devastating boll weevil invaded the crops. These men had put all of their savings, dedicated all of their fields, set all of their hopes in cotton. Then the boll weevil came. Before long, it looked as if they were headed for the poorhouse.

But farmers, being the determined and ingenious people they are, decided, "Well, we can't plant cotton, so let's plant peanuts." Amazingly, those peanuts brought them more money than they would have ever made raising cotton. When the farmers realized that what had seemed like a disaster had actually proved to be a boon, they erected a large and impressive monument to the boll weevil---a monument to the very thing they once thought would destroy them.

"Sometimes we settle into a humdrum routine as monotonous as growing cotton year after year," says Havner, himself a seasoned old saint of God at the time he wrote these words. "Then God sends the boll weevil; He jolts us out of our groove, and we must find new ways to live. Financial reverses, great bereavement, physical infirmity, loss of position---how many have been driven by trouble to be better husbandmen and to bring forth far finer fruit from their souls! The best thing that ever happened to some of us was the coming of our 'boll weevil.' "¹

When God directs, God provides. That's what sustained Elijah during his boot camp experience.
We have to learn to trust God one day at a time. Did you notice that God never told Elijah what the second step would be until he had taken the first step? God told His prophet to go to Ahab. When Elijah got to the palace, God told him what to say. After he said it, God told him, "Now, go to the brook." He didn't tell Elijah what was going to happen at Cherith; He just said, "Go to the brook and hide yourself." Elijah didn't know the future, but he did have God's promise: "I'll provide for you there." And God didn't tell him the next step until the brook had dried up.

Fun in the Sun

We spent almost 3 hours swimming today. We all had a great time!

Jack!
Lisa & Jack
John-John
Towards the end, everyone was fussy and tired (including me!) : )

A Little "Pampering"

After the day that I had on Thursday, Jessie and Eli thought I needed a little pampering that afternoon. They worked on my hair for a while...it was actually nice and relaxing! : )

One Step At A Time

We had our appointment at Children's this morning and it went well. We were there for almost 4 hours, but at the end of the appointment we have to say that we feel better about the situation.

Basically, Baby Chase has three major heart defects (AV Canal Defect, Transpostion of the Great Vessels, and Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return) as well as an issue with several other organs called Hetrotaxy (the stomach is on the wrong side and can cause issues with the liver, spleen and intestines). As it sounds, it is very serious, but can be repaired with surgery(s). We spent a lot of time talking about these issues and the DR explained what needs to be fixed first, etc.

I will now be delivering at Parkland b/c we need to be as close to Children's as possible. Baby Chase will need immediate surgery once he is born...he must be in surgery within 4 hours of birth. All of the heart issues are critical to fix, but the Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return is the first priority. I don't really understand it all completely, but I have a feeling I will soon! ; )

The DR told us to expect Baby Chase to be in the hospital for about a month. Also, he will likely be fed through a tube in his nose for a while. Once he has recovered from the surgery and is doing well with his feeding tube, we will be able to bring him home. There will obviously be more surgeries down the road (at 6 months and others), but this will be the first hurdle.

Although we are encouraged by our appointment today, we still need LOTS of prayers.

Please pray for Baby Chase's left ventricle to GROW GROW GROW! It is much smaller than his right ventricle and it will be very beneficial if the left side will grow.

Please pray that Baby Chase's vessels into his left atrium will continue to grow and remain strong. We are very blessed that these vessels look good now, but we need this to continue. THIS IS VERY CRITICAL TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL FIRST SURGERY

Please pray that Baby Chase will stay safely inside of me until his due date. None of these issues make me more likely to go into labor early, but it is critical that Chase's lungs are fully developed when he is born. We don't need any added issues!! : )

Please pray for the Drs that will be performing his surgery and deciding the best roads to take. We feel very blessed that God has led us to Children's and feel like we are in great hands.

Baby Chase (and his family) will have a difficult road, but we are ready!! We know that God has given us this challenge for a reason and we plan to use it to it's full potential. We know that God is bigger than this and that he can bring us through this!! Thank you for all your prayers! We will be providing updates on our blog as often as we can.

"Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR YOU."
Jeremiah 32:17

Praying for a Miracle

Just wanted to give you an update on Eli's Baby Brother. We had our level 2 sonogram today and discovered that Baby Brother has a heart defect as well as some other issues with his stomach and other organs. Basically, the stomach is on the wrong side. Regarding the heart, we don't have an official diagnosis, but it is very serious and the dr said that Baby Brother will have some serious challenges. We have an appointment at Children's tomorrow morning.

Although we are very sad, we know that God created Baby Brother exactly as he wanted him and for that we are thankful.

Please, please pray for a miracle.

Love,
Hunter, Laura & Elijah

One of Those Moms : )

I discovered to day that I'm going to be one of those moms...you know, the ones that dress their kids alike on special occasions or any other time that they find bargins on matching clothes. : ) I am so excited about having two boys to dress alike! : ) Today I found these super-cute sweater vests at Gymboree for $4! Who can beat that price!!!????

So here is the first matching outfits....I may save them for Easter!

Hat

I have been trying to get Eli to wear a hat or something when we are outside to keep the sun off his face. He has not been very accommodating! On Friday, when Hunter came home he had a couple of presents for Eli...two hats (toddler sized hats from Lids Kids). Eli was pretty excited about them because Daddy brought them home from "the airplane" (that's another story...basically, Eli thinks Daddy rides in airplanes all week when he's out of town). ANYWAY, today, Eli finally wore one of his hats. I think he looks like such a big boy in a hat!

Enjoying chocolate milk and his new hat while on our daily walk