For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
The Lord has been proving his all-knowing, incredible power to me and my family over and over recently.
Knowing that "He is in control" has never been more true to me than it is right now.
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I prayed so hard for our girls during my whole pregnancy. I knew all along it was a very high risk pregnancy and they would almost certainly be born early and with complications. The Lord held Emily and Madelynn tightly in the womb until the perfect time, letting them develop and grow fully before being welcomed into this world. We were all so thankful and knew it was a true miracle that they were absolutely perfect.
It hit a little harder when a labor and delivery nurse stopped me in the grocery store while I was shopping with the girls. After I told her the details of their birth, she got tears in her eyes and gently held my arm and told me that "full term mono-di twins born with no complications are so so rare. {They} have only had 2 sets come through their nursery in the 8 years that she worked {at her hospital}."
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139: 13
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My dad and sister went on a mission trip to Honduras in late February. My dad had organized the trip for their church and were teaming up with Predisan, a Christian medical group. They set up camps, taught women how to care for their babies and did the dirty work of digging latrines. My dad and Stephanie's group was supposed to head out to the mountains one morning, but instead of going straight there, my dad decided to make a last minute stop to the Predisan office to get some medicine for a man he had seen the previous day. As they were pulling up to the office, my dad had a seizure. Stephanie is a nurse and ran to his aid until the other doctors from the group came to check him out. The Lord directed them to the office to get that medicine for a reason. Had he decided to forgo the medicine and just go straight to the mountains as planned, there is no telling what would have happened. The seizure was a complete freak thing having to do with a very rare side effect between the anti-Malaria medicine and another medication he was taking. It was a very emotional and stressful next few days, but they both made it home healthy and safely {except for a staph infection due to the IV at the hospital}. The Lord had my dad make the stop at the clinic instead of going into the mountains, put a wonderful Predisan doctor with them and took care of all the ambulance and MedJet details to get them home safely and put together so many other tiny details to get them home.
Originally, Stephanie wasn't even supposed to go, but a spot opened up last minute. We are all so thankful she ended up going to be with Dad as he went through this scary situation on his own.
Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. Psalm 16:1
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This past weekend, Stephanie was running her first ever Boston Marathon. We were all so thrilled an excited for her and her amazing accomplishment. Her boyfriend Trey, Michael, Mom and Dad went to cheer her on during the race. There were so many tiny details that God put together.
Steph is an incredible runner {clearly- she qualified for Boston!!} She had asked Michael to run a couple miles with her in the middle of the race to keep her motivated. Michael jumped in at Heartbreak hill, mile 17, and noticed she was really struggling. Her stomach hurt and she felt like she sprained her ankle at mile 10. One of Michael's spiritual gifts is definitely encouragement and he spent those few miles encouraging her. He decided to go ahead and run the rest of the race with her and left the course around mile 25 to go find her at the finish line. My parents had been at mile 22ish to watch them run by and then were getting on the subway to head over to the finish line. Stephanie finished the race and did amazing!! I was SO proud when I got the text notification that she finished the Boston Marathon!!!
Shortly after, Michael called and said to call my parents and tell them he's safe at the hotel. He had been at the friends and family meeting area when the bombs went off. At that time he didn't know what had happened, but he knew it wasn't right, so he took off for the hotel. I got a hold of my dad and the first thing he said was he, mom, Steph and Trey were safe, but there were 2 bombings at the finish line. I could hear complete chaos on the other end and it was terrifying. Melony had been staying with me and the kids so we turned on the news and watched in complete shock and awe for the next few hours.
We all spent a lot of time thinking about the little details that happened to keep the family safe.Trey had been standing at the finish line waiting for Steph, leaning up against the building that was bombed right up until she crossed. He tried to get her to come stand over with him after she crossed, but she was so tired he ended up meeting her past the finish line. Thank you, Lord! Michael ended up running much further than expected, encouraging Stephanie to run faster, letting her finish when she did. If she had slowed up more, she could have been crossing when it happened. Thank you, Lord! And even if she had still been running, all the rest of the family would have still been at the finish line. My parents were making their way to the finish line, but their train had been slow and were actually just walking up to the finish line when the bombs went off. They felt the ground shake and saw the smoke and took off running the other way looking for the rest of the family. Thank you, Lord!
{she's in the middle, in all orange :) }
You, Lord, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked. Psalm 12:7
They were all leaving the following day, on different flights. Mom and Dad left first. Shortly after, Michael called to say his flight was delayed due to computer problems. He finally made it out, but had a layover in Chicago, so we were still waiting to get him home. It turned out that all of American Airline's computers were completely shut down all over the country. Stephanie and Trey's flight was delayed several hours. Mom and Dads plane got to land at DFW, but had to sit on the runway for hours at a complete stand still. They started letting planes leave Chicago, but were so backed up, they ended up canceling Michael's flight :(
He was set to leave the next morning, but his flight was delayed yet again due to terrible storms. It cleared up a bit and they were off!! He made it home later that afternoon and we were SO happy to have Daddy back at home with us!!
This morning, I got an email from my aunt saying the Chicago got over 5'' of rain and much of the city is flooded. We are so thankful he got out when he did!!
God is so faithful.
Thank you, Lord, for the details.
