We had another God moment today.  Our van went back to the shop last night to hopefully fix the gas gauge once and for all.  This is the second time it has been in the shop for this problem... please, please let them fix it!  We took it in on Tuesday night so that I would not have to get up and get all the kids ready to leave in the morning in order for it to be at the shop by 8 a.m.  Yeah right!  I know some Mom's can do it, but this one can't... give me 2 cups of coffee and about an hour of awake time before I can navigate my own house!  Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.  I did find out from the dealership that we might get our van back tomorrow and then again maybe not... it all depends on if the new gas gauge makes it in on Thursday's shipment.  Thankfully, everything will be covered under warranty.  PTL!

Our God moment - actually our whole morning - was the sacrificial giving of one of the precious ladies in our church, Betty.  She had offered to take me to drop off the van, but since Jonathan and I were able to take it on Tuesday night I called to let her know we would not be needing her services.  In the course of our conversation I told her I was hoping to take Emily back to Children's Mercy Urgent Care to see if there was a reason why she was still acting sick.  She offered to help me out since I would not have transportation.  She had no idea her offer was going to take up her entire morning!  She picked us up at 9 a.m. and braved the hospital waiting room until 12:30 with my three busy children.  The kids did great and even got a number of compliments from the nursing staff and doctor on their behavior (thanks to Biblical training and God at work in their hearts).  After a not so pleasant experience of flushing Benjamin's and Emily's ears with warm water, the doctor announced that yes, Emily still has an ear infection.  Benjamin's are a little irritated, but that may be due to the trauma he just endured to his ear or the onset of another ear infection.  Let's hope and pray it's not getting infected again.  I must say that Benjamin was quite a trooper.  He was so brave while they were trying to pick out the ear wax that it about made me cry.  Emily, on the other hand, was so scared that the nurses had to wrap her in a sheet to keep her still, but once wrapped she quit fighting and just cried like her little heart was going to break.  After all was said and done, our dear friend, Betty, took the kids out for McDonald's to reward them for their bravery.  That was all it took to wipe the last tear from their faces.

I know I would have survived the Urgent Care experience with all three kids, but I was more thankful than words can express to have someone there to help me.  My Mom is already waiting for me in heaven, and I wouldn't want her anywhere else, but the times I miss her the most are when my babies are sick.  I think those are the only times that I fight the tears over not having Mom around, but God provides for me is such amazing and wonderful ways.  My mother-in-law is one of those wonderful ways that God has provided.  I can truly say, when I married Jonathan I didn't just gain a great husband, but a precious mother.  However, she is an hour away and not always accessible at a moments notice.  It is in those times that my loving, heavenly Father provides precious woman to hold me up and help me through the tough times.  Even in this small thing I can always trust that my Father will always take care of not just my physical needs, but my emotional needs as well.  My heart is safe in the everlasting arms of Jesus and I trust Him with all the most precious gifts He has given me - my husband and children.

Our baby, Courtney, is no longer a little baby.  In the last month she has decided to grow up right before my eyes.  One night while getting her ready for bed she told me very clearly that she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed.  The conversation went something like this:

Courtney: "Piwow (pillow) here, Mommy." (pointing to her big girl bed)

Mommy: "Are you sure you don't want to sleep in your crib?"

Courtney: "No, Mommy. Piwow here." (like duh I already told you where I want to sleep)

Mommy: "Courtney, do you want to sleep in your crib and not your big girl bed?"   (thinking, I am not ready for you to grow up yet... really she doesn't want to sleep in her big bed.)

Courtney: "No, Mommy, sweep here." (once again pointing to her big bed)

Needless to say, I decided to put her to sleep in her big girl bed thinking, "yea right, this is going to last all of 5 minutes."  Well, she had me fooled and within 2 minutes I opened her door to check on her and she was sound asleep and looking so precious that it took my breath away.  As a result of saying good-bye to my baby in the crib, I spent the next hour in tears or fighting them, and praying constantly.  She has done wonderfully in her big girl bed and I am so thankful there were no tears on her part in saying good-bye to her crib.  Now, if only Mommy could get on board.   The next step in this natural process is the removing of the baby crib.  I really thought I had a handle on my emotions and was to the point of rejoicing that we were past midnight feedings, sleepless nights from crying infants, spit up and all the wonderful things that go hand in hand with a new baby.  And then the act of taking apart the crib... lets just say it was a miracle Niagra Falls did not commence.   After six years of having a crib up in our house it is gone.

As if moving from the crib to the big girl bed wasn't enough, she decided that it was time to potty train.  In less than 2 weeks Courtney was completely potty trained and only uses a diaper at night.  And this was one milestone that I didn't shed a single tear over.  No sireee, I was rejoicing to no longer have to be spending money on diapers and having that poop in the potty and not on her cute little bottom.  Now that was a day of great rejoicing!  Yippee... do a little jig... She loves to use the potty and is very good about announcing to the world that she needs to go potty.  It is pretty cute if I do say so myself.

While watching these mile stones take place, my eyes have shed many a tear because it is the end of such a precious time of my life, and yet, it is a time of rejoicing becuase it is the beginning of a new and wonderful chapter in our lives as a family.  There is something so precious and intangible in "casting all your cares on Him (the Lord) for He cares for you" because the Lord truly did wrap His arms around my heart and hold me up in my greiving and rejoicing.  Talk about a mixture of emotions, but all so true.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in the next 5 years of our marriage and parenting.  In the last 8 years He has sustained us, taught us to surrender all to Him, helped us to have complete reliance in His perfect timing and provision - if it is this wonderful now, I can't WAIT to see what more He has in store for us.

For those of you who are wondering why I am greiving this so much God has given us a new path as a result of Jonathan's cancer.  The surgery and everything that we have gone through to destroy the cancer has made it so we will not be able to have children unless we adopt... and who knows it may be in our future, only the Lord knows that for sure.    I am thankful and rejoicing in our three energetic wonderful children and praise the Lord that he chose to bless us with three - and at this time in my life, only three.  Once again, He does know what is best for us, equips us for what He has called us to, and does not give us more than we can handle.  We give God all the glory for anything good in us, because of our own selves we are sinners in need of a Saviour.  I praise God, that through the death of Jesus, who was sinless/perfect, that in accepting the precious gift of His salvation we can be saved from our destructive sinful natures.  That is the hope that lies within us. because we have the Holy Spirit living in us we are more than conquerors in our battles - even something as little (in God's eyes) as cancer.

My life is so busy of late.  Right after Jonathan's surgery I was able to keep everyone posted on his progress almost every night.  Now that Jonathan is about back to 90% I have been focusing on getting our lives back on track.  It was amazing how much everything in our house fell apart because of the extra demands on me in caring for a very sick spouse.  Needless to say, I have not been able to write like I would have liked to.

Jonathan is doing great!  He started back to work full days the Monday after Thanksgiving and was back into the swing of things pretty quickly after that.  It probably took him about 2 weeks after going back to full days before he was able to do anything in the evenings other than sit on the couch.  The kids are starting to see that Daddy is in charge - not Mommy. WHEW!!!! And Daddy is taking time to play with them again.  They have really missed having play time with Jonathan, and it does my heart good to see them interacting.  It is so true, we don't know what we have until it is gone - I am just so thankful ours was not gone just postponed for a time.  We are so blessed.

Jonathan is scheduled for his first follow-up appointment on January 18th.  He will have a chest x-ray, lab work and a chance to see our doctor again.  Be praying that we will be a testimony to those we meet and especially to our doctor and nurse.  I can't wait to see how He is going to continue to work.

I just love being a part of the little things that God does for us.  It continues to amaze me that He chose to use us to be a blessing and a testimony of His amazing grace, mercy and provision.  We experienced His hand of provision in a mighty way involving our problem couches.  I decided to have a garage sale on the spur of the moment two weeks ago and pulled it together in one day. It ended up being quite a success. Our couch and love seat were sold before they were even set down on the drive way along with a lot of other "treasures".  When Jonathan came home he was a bit surprised to see that we no longer had anything to sit on in the family room.  Oops...  Needless to say we started praying about how to go about replacing at least one of the couches.  Should we use the funds from the garage sale to buy a couch or wait and use those funds for other needs.

On Saturday night I took the girls to Nebraska Furniture Mart to look for fun at the couches available in their clearance section - mainly to give Jonathan a break from the noise.  I really did not think there would be anything there for the amount we made at the garage sale.  Well, let me tell you my surprise when I found this beautiful chocolate brown Broyhill couch for $330 when the regular price was $1300.  I quickly called Jonathan and asked him if it would be a wise purchase.  We both felt like it was a great price and something that we actually needed; so I puchased it.  We made a few phone calls to see if one of the guys in our church could deliver it for us.  One of the couples in our church were able to and would be delivering it on Tuesday.  Yippee!!!  On Sunday morning, after praying about it we could not get peace about our purchase.  So, I took the receipt and all three kids back to Neberaska Furniter Mart and prayed that they would accept the return.  Praise the Lord, they did accept it and gave me a check back for the full amount.  I was praying all the way to the store that they would accept the return since they have posted in severel locations in the clearance section that all purchases are final and if they do return it, they assess a 10% restocking fee.  It was such a huge answer to prayer for us.

Now the exciting time came, waiting on God to see what He was going to do.  We didn't have long to wait.  On Monday night, I was talking with another friend and she had heard that we were getting a new couch.  I told her the story and conveyed our excitement about waiting to see how God was going to work.  She told me that her Dad's couch was in perfect condition and since he was moving to a nursing home it would be available if we were interested.  By the end of the week we had a couch - given to meet our need.  The same guy that was going to bring us our brand new one was able to deliver the second couch.  He was so excited to be a blessing to us and even more excited about how God worked in our hearts.  The whole thing was such a blessing.  Now, every time I look at our couch, I am reminded of the incredible blessings we receive when we submit to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and wait on His perfect timing.  I may not always choose to follow His leading but the rewads are amazing when I do.  Even if we had gone months without a couch, there still would have been a great reward in the peace of knowing that we did what God wanted us to do.  The first couch was beautiful and a great price, but I kept thinking if we ended up not being able to return it, what blessing would we miss out on because it was too good a deal to pass up.  It was a great deal, but the blessing far outnumbered the price.

I must say I love the couch the Lord provided for us. It looks perfect in our family room, and it even reclines on each end.  It was so much more than I dreamed of getting and the best part was how God worked.