A Sweet Ride... A Sweet Gift!

Many of you have known of our need for new and/or more transportation for our family.  We have been crunching numbers and window shopping for a while but didn't feel at peace with a direct decision yet.

Last week an acquaintance graciously donated a car to our family! It is a '97 Toyota Camry and while it is "experienced" in life - it is in great condition.  This gives us two cars for the family - meaning we can (legally) all go places together or go separate ways as needed.

While it is not what we had first envisioned we know that this is huge answer to prayer and we trust God's timing and plan for our needs.

31 So don’t worry about these things, saying,‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. 34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Matthew 6:31-34

Jonerik and I were also given some great clothes recently.  This seems a little random, but when I put all of this together I feel well-cared for by our Father.  He knows our needs and provides faithfully.

A year and a half later....

Almost immediately after moving into our new home we got pregnant!  "New house, new baby!" is what someone told me.  I think God is just really good at what He does. My pregnancy was tougher than I expected.  I was diagnosed with Hypermesis - aka "morning sickness on steroids".  It mean being consistently nauseous for months, not keeping food down, losing lots of weight and ending up in the ER for hydration.  This was an intense struggle because normal life goes on when you are sick.  I don't think moms are supposed to get sick.... ever.  Jonerik was fantastic in taking over what I couldn't handle, which was just about everything I normally did.  I literally stayed in our bedroom for weeks.  It was summer so we tried to keep the kids busy with church events, camp and other activities.  After a few months my body evened out a little and I cruised through the rest of the pregnancy with the usual ups and downs as a little person changed everything about my insides.

Karis was born on 2/09/14 in the afternoon.  She was a surprise "footling breach" which means she was delivered by emergency C-section.  God was gracious to us and even in the scary moments of realizing everything we expected to happen was not going to happen - He felt present.  As I was being rushed down the hallway for the surgery I remember feeling so helpless.  All of the hard work - laboring for 12 hours with no meds - was something that I could "do".  But when we learned that I would not physically be able to deliver her safely I had to surrender those efforts to a God who creates and sustains life and a medical team that I didn't know.

Today Karis is 7 months and 2 days.  She is so pleasant and beautiful.  She blends into our family so well and while it doesn't equal "simple" or "easy" - it is an amazing process.

A few life changes over the last year:
- We now officially have 3 teenagers!  Our kids are ages (almost) 16, 14, 13, 9, 7 and baby!
- Our oldest is in a charter high school year.
- I am no longer working part time from home for a non-profit - my goals are now focused on the women of our church/neighborhood.
- Jonerik is training for a marathon in November.

Instead of doing communications work for a non-profit I will be working to improve communications for our family!  Support raising is work - it requires time and energy.  We have a vision for what we are doing - and we think the mission is so important that we continue to pursue partners to help make our work possible.

I have a lot of dreams of how to make this possible and how to connect with the people that we care about. Now that the kids are back in school, we'll see how my dreams unfold.