In Christ Alone our Hope is Found

I was just on facebook listening to a link that someone put up of Greg Lucas. I should say that I haven't listened to whole thing yet. I had to write this first! (O: He and his wife adopted a special needs boy as a baby. This talk is intended for special needs families, but I think it can be applicable to all. (I will link the talk and his blog tonight, if our good computer is working again. I am on a dinasour of a computer and it will take forever!) He also wrote the book, Wrestling with an Angel. He is a godly man, with a beautiful story and message. There were a few words that struck me deep inside. When we are in the valley: God meets us with His presence. His grace is the sweetest. His love is the deepest. His glory is amplified and His presence is magnified. I have experienced this and am sure at times in the past I have tried to explain it to someone. But my words were never worthy of the profound beauty of the experience. Greg's words say it well. When...

1. Ken coming home from school. My heart still does a little leap! If you wanted to know! (o: 2. Getting Grace out of bed in the morning. 3. I went to Value Village with Ken and saw a dad by the change rooms, "OK-ing" his teenage daughter's clothes as she tried them on. They tried on one thing after another. He apparently had very different standards than his daughter. I wanted to high five him, but I was scared the daughter would beat me up. Way to go dad! (o: 4. After a game of blindsman's bluff, Naddie asked me if it was my first time playing because it probably wasn't invented when I was little. Serious?(o: Sometime I am going record Ken playing. He is good and crazy. It is so funny. Last year, he jumped on our oak dining table and broke one of the legs on the pedestal. I so didn't laugh that day! But he jumps over the counter, whips around like a crazy man and crawls on the ground, screaming the whole time. I hurt from laughing yesterday. We should ...

Ok, the beginning of this post sounds sad. BUT this is not a sad post. It is a happy one! So stay with me! I even used a lot of big text  and some color to help me get across to you the happiness of it all! (o: While Micah was in treatment in 2008 and 2009, we planned nothing. We were consumed with the day to day of taking care of Micah, going to and staying in the hospital and just working on keeping our family running. After his treatment was done, we tentatively started looking towards the future. But we still didn't plan far in advance, we had no idea what was in store. I even kept the hospital parking card we were given for free parking, even though we were only going in every three months. I didn't keep it for financial reason, but because I was wondering when we might need it again. I wasn't confident enough to give it back. One day we went in for a check up, I decided to give my parking card back. I was getting more comfortable in our life. I was feeling more co...

Today we are going to Niagara Falls with Ken's family. This trip is an annual one and is so fun. We are so blessed with a big, loving, Christ following, supportive, giving family. It is so neat for my kids to have so many cousins to play with. I believe Grace was number 20 or 21. It is special that we have 9 brothers and sisters to talk with and to love. What a blessing. As I am  running around  like a crazy woman and blasting Chris Tomlin getting ready to go, I have been thinking about last year. I started thinking that sometimes these annual things are so hard. There is always the wondering if this is the last year we do this as a complete family. Without Micah our family will never be whole again on this earth. I started to get sad, and was thinking about last year. Last year on the Friday of our family trip we found out that Micah's tumor grew some more and we weren't sure what we were going to do for treatment on the following Monday. Things were so uncertain. We ...

We are so thankful for the blessings that the Lord has given us. I have said it so many times to people, in updates and on this blog. But it just must be said over and over. Last year on the many days that we thought would be our "last" with Micah, we would think ahead to the same time next year with dread. Well, this year, we have started school, we have had October, November, it is now December and we are more than half way to January. Micah is turning 9 on January 7. Imagine that! Ken is done school for 2 weeks, this past Friday we opened presents with our little family and yesterday we had our Sunday School Christmas program. We have some family dinners coming up and we hope to celebrate News Years Eve together. These are all things we were quite sure we would be doing without Micah this year. WELL... MICAH. IS. HERE. That is me yelling really loud and with lots of emphasis. (o: When Micah stood up at the front of the church, singing songs and saying the poem wit...