It's official...

Owen is smiling! At 6 weeks, he started a full two weeks earlier than his big sister! I have enjoyed his smiles tremendously and thought you might too!

Saturday morning I was able to capture these smiles with my phone

just after he flashed me his first one:

My sweet baby has changed a lot. He has brought so much joy to us already! It is amazing how much you can love a person you've know for such a short time!

A blessing in a white cup

This may not look like much to you...
...but today, it was an expression of God's kindness to me. I slept very little last night and was fighting for faith before I even got out of bed. Helen Lowe posted this verse on her blog: "as your days, so shall your strength be." Deut. 33:25b. I was deeply encouraged and looked it up to see what verses followed. "There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty. The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deut. 33:26-27

What a perfect passage for this day, barely begun and already very difficult.

Then, my knight in shining armor appeared! Kevin came home with this gift! He should have been in class, I thought, but it turns out classes were delayed today. So, he spent the extra time blessing me. He said he wanted to thank me for serving all night last night. I was so moved by his thoughtfulness that I burst into tears! What kindness! When he left to head to class, I wrote this in my journal:

Every good gift comes from your hand. Kev just brought me a Misto (my drink at Starbucks)! What a thoughtful husband! What a thoughtful God! Father, I am undone at your kindness and mercy. That you, mighty God, would come to my aid in this way...Who is like God? There is NONE like our God!

Lord, may I honor you today! Be my strength. Thank you for sustaining me! Sometimes you do it through meeting me in my exhaustion and sometimes you do it through coffee!! Thank you for having mercy on me today!

Thank you for praying

I was just reading a portion of When I Don't Desire God by John Piper. If you haven't ever read this book, I highly recommend it. It was a major player in my desire to memorize Scripture and supplied the original method I used.

What I read today was a small segment on prayer; more specifically, the power of others praying for you and with you. Piper writes, "One of God's reasons for calling us to corporate prayer is given in 2 Corinthians 1:11. Paul asks for prayer for himself and gives his reason: 'You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.' When people are involved in each other's lives, more thanksgiving rises to God when any of them is blessed."

This immediately brought to mind the many, many people who prayed for Owen's December arrival. I want to take this moment to say, "Thank you!!" We received abundant blessing because you prayed AND God was more glorified because you all rejoiced and thanked Him when we were blessed. Isn't God good? He designed things to work this way. He caused us to desire Owen to be born in December. He caused us to ask others to join with us in prayer. He blessed us. All because it pleased Him to do so. There is no one like our God!

So, because of the power of our God and the way He blessed your prayers last time, we would like you to join us in praying for a house. We desire to buy a home this spring/summer and are asking God to provide a place for our family. We would like to put down roots here. We desire a home that will allow us to grow as a family, practice hospitality often, and have a renter that we could build a relationship with and involve in our family life. We are asking God for these thing, so when you think of us, please ask God on our behalf! Thank you in advance for the help!

Father, thank you for your Word and for loving to hear our prayers. You are indeed a prayer-hearing God. You call us to cast our cares on you and to present our requests to you. You know the desires of our heart and so we ask that you would provide abundantly and beyond our expectations! We pray that it would please you to do so and that YOU would be glorified!