A parent/child relationship

My little one has been sick with a high fever for the past three days..
It has not been fun on either of us. No sleep and periodic temp checks.
I have had to watch her temperature very closely as it kept getting out of control the moment the Motrin wore off.
That means an accurate temperature was needed so the middle of the night bum checks commenced.
She was not a fan.
She is a very private girl that likes her personal space and got extremely upset when I had to take a temp.
To make things worse, her temp got up to 104.9 at one point during the night and she was not wanting to take the Motrin. Just wanted to sleep. I had to be the one to ensure she did indeed take it and sweet talk was getting us nowhere. With her temp climbing about a degree every ten minutes once the Motrin had worn off, I had to think fast. I don't like to ever force things on my child but I made an exception, laying her back in my arms and syringing the medicine down her throat as I tried to empathize with her plight.
Long story short, she wanted nothing to do with me and acted scared of me the next few days. =(
This really hurt my mommy heart.. if she was with her dad and I walked into the room, she would completely ignore me. Wouldn't make eye contact with me. Would scream if I talked to her. Went into a complete fit if I tried to hold her.
And it really hurt.
I was on the phone, complaining to my mom one night. I told her how my own daughter seemed terrified of me after the temp checks and Motrin incident, and tried to hide away from me. About how it hurt so bad. Knowing that I was doing what I knew was best for my daughter, even if she couldn't see that. Even if she thought I was trying to harm her.
I felt like I'd lost my little girl's trust and confidence in me to always protect, love, and make the best decisions for her..
Oh, how it stung!
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: that still, small voice whispering into my conscious awareness.
"I know how you feel.."
His voice sounded so sad.
I realized that God was that parent! That big, intimidating, and at times, seemingly cruel parent.
How He just wished I would trust Him to do what was best, even when it seemed so scary. Even when I didn't understand.
And even when I wondered if I was just a means to an end for Him.
And I was that child. The one shying away and running from His love. Not trusting Him enough to let Him close to me.
The things He was encouraging me towards felt uncomfortable and downright scary! I didn't understand how they could be good for me.
I even wondered at times if our relationship was just a cruel game..
But just like my little girl didn't understand that I was trying to help and protect her, how she could never grasp the concept of why I needed to do what I did and I had no hope of trying to explain it to her, just in that way, God is the loving parent that does what's best for His children.
His thoughts and ways are so far above ours that we can't always grasp the concept of why He's doing what He is.
For Him to try and explain it in a way that we would even get it would be pointless. It would go right over our heads.
(I'm a firm believer that that is why Jesus used a lot of parables.)
That's where the trust needs to come in. And if I go back through my track record with God, He has never steered me wrong! Even when it seemed painful or terrifying, when I held on tight and just trusted Him as He led me through the valleys, once I came out on the other side beautifully polished and able to view the big picture, He was and is so faithful!
This concept blew through my fear and I resolved that I was going to trust Him through the storms again.
I had not been trusting Him lately and had been avoiding Him with much guilt in my heart.
When it comes down to it, He is our Father and we are His children. Just as my child is precious to me, we are so much more precious to Him!
I firmly believe it hurts His heart when lose our trust in Him and hide away.
The Bible says He knows and numbers the very hairs on our head! The creator of the universe, which we have not even been able to find an end to, sees the little speck that we are and knows and loves us!? No, adores us!
Mind= blown!
I don't know about you but I'm gonna renew my effort to trust Him.
If the creator of everything, including the big picture, takes an interest in my well being and wants to guide me through the storms, I want to hang on tight for the ride! =)
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Found this post from about 6 years ago =)

God has been so good to me and poured out his abundant blessings and grace upon me yet I have not been trusting in Him as I should. This revelation makes me very sad but also opens my eyes to what I need to focus on fixing.
It's pretty bad. Been missing a lot of work lately due to health and my boss said she needed to talk w me and to come in. I immediately jumped to conclusions and freaked out about losing my job. I forgot about last time I freaked out about a meeting w her and ended up w a raise. So I go in all worked up and she says she has noticed I'm missing a lot of work lately. I tell her I don't know if I can handle 48 hour shifts w my health lately. She agrees and says she will get someone in for one of the days so I only have a 24 hour shift. I could live on this much income so I feel at peace. So then later work calls and offers me two overnight shifts w another client and I can get sleep too. Well, turns out I would be making 400 dollars more a month than if I had been greedy and held onto my 48 hr shift despite my health! God is so good and he laid it on my heart all the supernatural things he's done for me lately and that I need to have much more faith in Him because He has never failed me! Amen! He has truely never failed me and will never fail me!
Just some of the amazing things he has done in the last few years are: everytime I go to a Doc for sickness, meds, etc. (at least 7 times now in the past couple years) I plan in my head on making payment arrangements because I don't have enough money to pay and they always end up saying the Doc decided not to charge me this visit. (three complete different offices now!) And God always uses my amazed thankfulness to remind me of the shear magnitude of His paying the charges for my sins! Another time I got into a rut with overdrafts at my Bank and they snowballed to over $600 in just a small amount of time. I came in with a $400 paycheck which was all I had to my name and tryed to negotiate w the manager. He was not able to help me and said my account was scheduled to be closed in an hour. He said he would go talk with his manager but not to expect anything because that was a longshot. As he walked over to talk to her I cleary heard God in my head saying,"just ask me Sarah. I'm just waiting to blow your mind. All you have to do is ask." I said "ok Lord. I'm asking. Blow my mind." A few minutes later the manager came back looking very shocked. He said that not only would they accept the $400 I had and completely forgive the other $200 I couldn't pay but that his manager was going to put $40 in my account just in case something else came through later. So I was so beyond blown away! Banks don't do that ever! That was so God. As I thanked the banker and walked out the door feeling
3 feet taller I heard God again say very humorously "See, I just blew your mind.". I just can't believe I'm having such a difficult time trusting Him after ALL THAT!! What is my problem?! Lol...

God answers prayers

As my little sister labors to bring her daughter into this world tonight, I can't help but think back to my own daughter's birth into the world, less than 18 short months ago.
You see, my daughter was nine days past her due date and I was running out of room and patience. My sister went past her due date and it was suggested we start praying for the baby to come soon.
I was absolutely on board with this idea because I know first hand that God answers prayers!
Let me explain- as I said, I was nine days past due and the Dr was planning to induce me soon if I didn't go into labor on my own soon.
I was very, very uncomfortable and so done with being pregnant and having little feet jam into my rib cage every night. Plus, my mom had to catch her fight back to Portland in just a few short days.
It looked like that baby was not budging!
Then my family and friends decided they were going to start praying for that little girl to come "right now" and for a quick and easy delivery, free from complications.
No sooner had I gotten off the phone with my friend after her prayer and stood up off of my birthing ball (that I'd been hopelessly bouncing on for the past week) then I felt something warm and wet trickle out of me.
I was so convinced my water had broken and ran to the bathroom. When I checked, I was greeted by bright red blood- not what I was expecting at all!
I wasn't sure if this was normal or a bad thing so I called my Dr, freaked out.
He assured me it was normal and it meant I was progressing into labor. He advised me to get down to the hospital right away.
I was so excited and let my friend know her prayer had worked right away and thanked her! =)
Once at the hospital, my labor progressed quickly and without much complication. I remember after delivery, they hadn't even announced that it was indeed a girl before I started saying, "my baby girl!" and reaching for her. =)
While I was still pushing, about forty five minutes in, I asked my husband what time it was. He replied that it was 6:25am, and determined to see my baby soon, I confidently told him she'd be here by 6:30am.
He sort of laughed and said, "we'll see.. you still have a ways to go."
I was determined though and found a renewed strength to push, through the exhaustion.
I remember the push that finally did it. I pushed with everything I had and the Dr exclaimed, "Sarah! Sarah! Look! She's here!".
I had pushed my little girl out at exactly 6:31am! Lol! =D
I looked down at her, with her beautiful long eyelashes and she looked back at me, alert as ever!
She was strong from the start and could lift/turn her head. =)
By this time, my mom's two week stay had dwindled down to only three more days but when I got home from the hospital, I was so terrified of screwing something up with this new little life and had been having a hard transition so far, hormones and all!
Well, my mom was on the phone with customer service, trying to change her flight date so she could stay a bit longer. She was getting nowhere. The CSR was not budging one bit and told her it would cost her another couple hundred dollars if she wanted to cancel her current flight and book another.
Then my mother in law suggested we start praying for God to change the CSR's heart or just to change the circumstances.
I phoned my friend to join us in prayer and we all prayed while my mom finished her phone call. She was transferred to a supervisor who had the heart to help her but the computer wouldn't let her change anything.
I told my mom that God was going to intervene in this situation.
Boy did He!
The night I arrived home from the hospital, roads were closed and a blizzard seemed to have cropped up out of nowhere! It got worse through the night and the next day, as my mom was getting ready to leave and catch her fight, I happened to catch her phone buzzing and when I looked, she had an alert that her flight had been cancelled due to bad weather.
I knew this was God answering our prayers and called the company back to reschedule a later flight- a day and a half later! =D
When my mom came back into the room, ready to go, I had a huge smile on my face and asked her if she wanted the good news or bad news first. When she said the bad news, I told her she was going to have to get unpacked because God had answered our prayers! She couldn't believe it and thought I was joking at first.
God couldn't move the hearts of the CSR's, so He literally moved the weather for my mom to stay longer when I needed her most!
He is so, so Faithful!!
Update: After praying for my sister in laws labor to start, she went into early labor about ten hours later and delivered a beautiful, healthy, baby girl. Why? Because God answers prayers!! ;)

James 5:16
16 Therefore,confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

The Name of Jesus

There is great power in just speaking the name Jesus!
I suffer from anxiety a lot and one night was particularly horrible.
It was maybe about 1am and I was having such a frightening time that it had reduced me to a sobbing mess. I didn't want my husband to worry about me because he had to get up and go to work in just a few short hours. So I had tried to get some rest in the guest room that night.
Which, the rest part was so not happening! =/
I wanted to pray to God but I was such an emotional mess it was hard to gather my thoughts long enough to make anything understandable emerge from my lips.
Then I remembered a song I had recently heard on the local Christian station. One of the lines in the chorus says, "When you don't know what to say, just say 'Jesus'."
And there it was, suddenly playing through my head.
Well, I just started crying out to Him, "Jesus, Jesus!" and He is SO FAITHFUL!
My older sister is someone very special to me and God has always used us to speak to each other when we're having trouble listening to Him directly.
As I lay there crying and saying Jesus's name, my phone suddenly buzzed and I knew it could be an answer.
My sister, who I hadn't heard from for a while, had texted to see how I was doing. At 1:45am.
I wanted to lie and say everything was great but I knew God might be using her in this moment.
So I texted back to her where I was tonight and the truth about how I was really doing.
She texted me back that it was only a time of testing to grow stronger in The Lord and that I WOULD overcome this. She gave me Isaiah 43, which has been a verse God has used throughout my Christian life over and over again.
It was also a verse that my Pastor had used in his sermon just a few days before.
I told her it was funny that's the verse she would give me because I'd been hearing it a lot lately.
The Spirit works a lot that way; by confirming what He's telling you through several sources.
I asked my sister if I could call and talk to her.
When I called her, she admitted to me that she hadn't been walking very closely with God lately but that tonight she had clearly heard from Him and He was saying, "You need to reach out and encourage my daughter, Sarah, because she's having a hard time tonight."
She told me how He must really love me because she hadn't talked to Him in a while and He was very persistent in telling her to call me.
I laughed a little and told her how I was literally just crying out to Jesus moments before getting her text.
She was amazed that God was using her even when she hadn't been seeking Him lately.
I asked her about the Bible verse she gave me and told her God had used that a lot with me lately.
She told me how earlier that year, before her mission to Africa, she had gone through a significant time of anxiety and would sing those verses as loud as she could until her anxiety would subside. She told me that the enemy always attacks right before God uses us to His Glory.
We had a good conversation and I ended up encouraging her to start seeking God again and walk in His presence. So, God used both of us to encourage each other that night.
I went to sleep that night feeling very loved by both my Savior and my sister. I felt loved that Jesus would hear my desperate cry right away and actually answer me within seconds of it! It blew my mind and gave me a new confidence in His Grace.
We truly serve a compassionate God!! =)

Psalm 145:17-19
"The LORD is righteous in all His ways and faithful in all He does.
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them."

When you fast (The Blessings of Fasting)

I had felt The Lord calling me to fast and pray last week and so I decided on a three day fast.
When God's people fasted and prayed in the Bible, He always poured His blessings out on them and answered a lot of the prayers.
I was very excited to see this happen during my time of fasting too!
Though it was uncomfortable to be hungry and weak for those three days, from the moment I started the fast, I felt an anointed peace fall over me. Satan still tried to attack me with anxiety but it's like I was better able to see where it was coming from and God kept giving me quiet assurance.
Let me tell you, I don't understand why I haven't done this sooner! Good really DID pour His blessings out on me!
First, I had been praying for my husband to seek the things of God over the distractions of this world. The second morning of the fast he came to me and asked how my fast was going. I was very hungry at the moment and laughed a little, then replied, "it's...going.." but then he told me he could see a glow about me and that he was sure the fast was working for him too! He said he'd gone running that morning and had some time with God and that he'd asked God to give him more of an eternal perspective! Wow, God is Amazing! That is exactly what I had been praying for!
Then, later that same day, my sister texted me and asked how my fast was going. I told her it was going very well so far and that Adam said that he could feel the fast blessing him too! She texted me back, "I can too"! What a great blessing!!
Throughout the fast, God would wake me to pray for my family and the people I'd written down on my list. I believe He has not only answered those prayers but He also revealed a lot of different things about my heart through the process.
It is a humbling experience to be hungry while everyone around you is eating and I think I needed that lately.
One of the things I prayed for was that God would use Rachel to His Glory from a very young age on.
Let me tell you how he's already been answering that prayer!
A day after the fast, I was shopping at a local department store and all the clerks were saying how cute Rachel was when God led me to share the story of Him promising her to me before she was born.
Normally, I think I'd have been more hesitant but I actually just started telling the clerks about it, half expecting them to think I was crazy.
One of the very sweet ladies working there said she had goosebumps and asked me which Church I go to and to pray for her. I felt led to exchange info with her and invite her to come check out our Church. I know God touched her heart in that moment and that He will bless her! =)
So, that's another prayer answered already! God DID use Rachel to the Glory of His Kingdom ALREADY and she can't even carry on a conversation yet!
Glory be to God, for He is so Faithful!!! =D

Matthew 7: 7-8
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."

Ps. There was a big, beautiful rainbow in the sky when I got home this evening! =)

Pss. Hahaha! =D There was another even bigger and brighter double rainbow just a few hours after the first one! And if you've read my post on my baptism, then you know how much I LOVE them!! ;)

Our first home

When Adam and I bought our first house, it was nothing short of a miracle! You could really see God's Hand guiding us through each step.
First of all, we had a very long list of things we were looking for in a house.
We wanted a 2 story with at least three beds and two baths, but it also had to be open concept with a large back yard and vaulted ceilings. On top of all that, we wanted the master to have a four piece bath and walk in closet.
Then there was the wish list: Adam wanted a good sized garage and I wanted a decent kitchen with plenty of storage space.
The catch is- we were working with a pretty limited budget. I knew we probably wouldn't get a lot of what we wanted housewise if I was honest with myself. I was happy to settle for something close to what we wanted.
But God had other plans and He wanted to bless us big time!
We looked at a couple of houses in our price range but nothing really grabbed us too much. So we decided to take a break from looking for awhile. Then a month later I was looking at online listings and found it!
From the very beginning, when we saw this house listed online, we couldn't contain our excitement! It was perfect for us!! Nothing we had seen so far had come even close to this gem without being out of our price range. Not only did it meet everything on our checklist, it surpassed it!
We set up a time to go look at the house with our realtor and fell in love! We spent the next couple of nights praying about it and felt like God was blessing it. I had sensed in my heart that God was showing me an exact price to offer for our home. The problem was, it had only appraised for ten thousand under what we felt we should offer. Which meant that we could gamble by paying for a second appraisal out of pocket. But if it came in around the same price as the first appraisal, we would have to come up with the difference in cash. Which we didn't have..
Nevertheless, we really felt God leading us in this. So we stepped out in faith and ordered a second appraisal out of pocket after submitting our offer and earnest check.
Our offer was indeed accepted two days later and we were so ecstatic!! We set up the appraisal time and waited.
Then we prayed and prayed some more! Through our prayer time, I heard God challenging me to ask Him for the appraisal to come in at a specific dollar amount. An amount $500 above what we had even offered! I felt like He was asking me to test His faithfulness in the matter.
So we specifically prayed for the next two weeks for an actual amount to the dollar and waited to hear back from the bank.
I remember in conversations with family, some were telling me not to get my hopes up and to be prepared that we may not get the house in the end. I told them that I really really felt that God was going to bless this and that His hand seemed to be in this. And to watch and see God move in the situation.
It seemed like ages went by and I finally got a call from our banker.
I'll never forget after the exact appraisal amount we had been asking God for, to the dollar, came out of our bankers mouth! I heard God in my heart kinda chuckle and say, "I told you so!".
I was so ecstatic, I emailed my husband at work and we both celebrated what a mighty God we serve!
God came through in a big way for us and blew my mind by surpassing any ideas I had of what we could afford for our first home!
And it is so true: we really do serve a mighty God! ;)

Matthew 7:7
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

God's goodness

I think it's hard for us to imagine God's goodness when we come from such a corrupt and broken place ourselves.
We make the mistake of believing that His goodness is directly dependent upon our performance.
Let me explain- when we have disobeyed God in some way and start to feel guilty about it, we tend to shy away from Him. We start to think of Him as a very angry judge, glaring down on us. Ready to shower His disdain upon us and withhold His love.
And indeed, He may punish us for what we decided to do. But I believe it is not coming from a place of disdain as much as it is coming from a place of correction.
God will allow natural consequences to occur, however unpleasant, if He knows that these consequences will ultimately produce a change in our hearts for the good and turn us away from our sin.
He allows us to feel the sting of sins consequences in hopes that we might realize the unpleasant taste of it and crave the sweetness of His goodness, turning back again to Him.
I liken this somewhat to how I sometimes handle my daughter's insistence to pickup every little thing off the floor and try to eat it. I realized that if I kept taking it away and saying no before she could taste it, she never learned for herself why she shouldn't try to eat it. And also she was more likely to question my resistance, having never learned for herself why I chose to say no.
So one day I decided I would just have to let her taste some of this forbidden floor food for herself so she could come to the conclusion that it was undesirable for eating, having tasted its bitterness.
It didn't take long after that for her to soon realise that the fresh food I offered up on her high chair tray was much more desirable because of its pleasant taste.
In the same way, God allows us to taste sin. This doesn't make Him a bad God. In the story of the prodigal son, the father allows the son to take his inheritance and go out on his own. The son makes poor decisions and soon squanders away all his money. He ends up working as a lowly servant, feeding slop to the pigs. He tastes the unpleasant consequences of his poor choices.
Does this make his father an unloving father, that he would allow his son to suffer so? Quite the contrary! It makes him a very good father. He allows his son to suffer enough that he can come to the conclusion that living his own way leads to being in bondage.
When the son comes sorrowfully back to his father, does the father send him away or shake a finger at him, scolding him with an "I knew you'd come crawling back."?
Does he make him work as a household servant to earn his way back into the father's good graces?
No! This father runs out to meet his son where he's at and joyfully embraces him! He puts the best robe and gold ring on his son! He rejoices over the fact that his once lost son has come home again!
I think a lot of times it's easy for us to view God as having the first two reactions I've described.
It's hard for us to view Him as the loving Father, eager to forgive us.
But that's exactly who He is! He wants to wipe our slates clean and help us get back up again! He has no interest in rubbing your mistakes in. So, if you start to feel like He is- recognize that that is not Him doing so. God is not in the habit of rubbing salt into our wounds. You know who is in the habit of doing so though? The adversary! Don't buy into that mind game! Recognize where the condemnation is coming from and allow God's unconditional love to pick you back up again! His love never fails! =)

Lamentations 3:22-23
  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
   they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Rainbow in the sky

The day I got baptized was a rainy spring afternoon. I remember showing up to the baptismal in a particularly foul mood. I just couldn't shake this grouchy mood and felt heavy inside.
Part of me felt like it wasn't the best day to be getting baptised since I was having these negative emotions.
But I had already set everything up and couldn't just change everything at the last minute. So I reluctantly followed through.
When I arrived at the baptismal, I was given instructions on when to step into the basin and how to hold my hands so water wouldn't go up my nose.
I remember feeling edgy and negative right up to the moment the pastor dipped me under the water.
Then something wonderful happened! When I was pulled back up from the water, I felt so full of joy! I was literally dancing in place I was so excited. I couldn't wipe the smile from my face and that heavy feeling I had experienced just moments ago had completely left me!
Loved ones gathered around to pray for me and my Grandma gave me a beautiful gold cross necklace that said "paid in full" on it.
I'll never forget the drive back home. There was the most beautiful rainbow shining through the stormy sky and I felt like God was speaking to my heart as I looked up at it.
It was like I could almost hear Him saying, "judgment is passed".

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17-

How God gave me a daughter

ByMonths before I conceived my daughter, Rachel, I went through a very dark time of depression in which I started to doubt God's love for me.
I started to feel as if I had blown it with Him and that was it. That I could never be restored to my previous closeness I had shared with Him.
Feeling dirty and ashamed I lived the next few weeks resigned to my perceived fate without God. I sunk deeper into my mental prison until one day when I was about at rock bottom.
I remember being very angry at God and yelling in my head at Him about how it wasn't fair that He was condemning me like this when I was trying so hard. How could I possibly be good enough to be perfect?!
It was then that He answered me, very clearly, with a statement followed by a question. He said, "I don't condemn you, Sarah. I have loved you." And then, "Who is he who condemns?". Before I could really even answer Him, I felt the answer fill my head. Satan was the one who had been filling my mind with thoughts of condemnation and hopelessness. Not God. Never God.
I had allowed myself to be so caught up in Satan's lies that I actually started to believe them!
God then explained to me that the reason I was feeling so insecure in His love for me is because I never really grew up knowing the unconditional love a parent has for their child. Love and affirmation were often withheld, never intentionally I'm sure, when I wasn't performing the way my parents wanted me to.
He told me, "How can you know my love for you when you haven't had good earthly examples? But I want to show you!"
He went on to tell me that when I had a child of my own and felt the love I had for them, that I would finally start to understand how God loves me.
Then He told me something that was hard for me to take in at the moment. He said, "a few months from now, you're going to conceive a daughter of your own and I want you to name her middle name Grace because through her I'm going to teach you grace."
Now you have to understand, at the time my husband was not even open to the discussion starting a family, not for at least another year or so.
That made what God was telling me seem so far fetched. I remember praying to Him about how that could possibly be true and He told me not to even talk about starting a family (it was a common thing I used to nag him about) with my husband.
He gave me a clear date in my head that he would give me what I desired.
At the time, I took this to mean that that would be the day I would be pregnant by.
It was almost painful but I resolved I would not nag-even mention the idea of kids to my husband until I saw what God would do on the date He gave me.
I kept taking pregnancy tests in the weeks leading up to that date, convinced one would be positive. As the date crept closer and closer and I found myself throwing away more and more negative tests, I couldn't help but wonder if I had really heard from God or just thought the whole thing up.
Then the day came and I found myself throwing away another negative test. I asked God what He was trying to do here.
That day was a beautiful spring day and we were just getting home from church when my husband pulled me aside and asked if we could talk. We sat on our back patio with the sun pouring down on us and my husband started to talk.
He said he had really been thinking and praying about it and decided that he wanted to start trying for a baby. He said he could see how badly I wanted one and how much it hurt.
I had not said anything for weeks about a baby. God had worked on my husband's heart while He told me to remain silent on the matter.
Then what God said about giving me what I desired came back to me and I realized He had meant not that I would be pregnant that day but that my husband would have a change of heart about starting a family.
I told Adam all that God had promised me after this and how He had told me not to nag him about babies and wait until this day for Him to fulfill my desire.
I told him about how a month back, God had promised me that I would be pregnant with a daughter in just a few months and about her middle name.
He sat back, looking very astonished and I honestly wondered if he thought I had lost it.
Well, we started trying and low and behold, about a month later I just felt different as I was approaching my next cycle and I decided to take a test.
When I looked, I was greeted with a very dark double line and had to do a double take! I was so overjoyed that I started just jumping up and down in my bathroom, thanking Jesus! =D
I called my husband to tell him the news and after he had grasped that, no,I wasn't joking, he rejoiced with me. I think at this point he was starting to believe what I had told him earlier.
Nine months later I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl and the day we got home from the hospital I walked into her nursery to find a little wooden plack my grandma had left for me. It was a picture of Noah's ark and had the words, "God always keeps His promises" at the top.
I smiled when I read it, looked up toward heaven and laughed a little, agreeing with God that He certainly had kept His promise.

The Lord has appeared of old to me,saying:“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
Jeremiah 31:3-