Going Back to Start Again

After not writing for quite a while, I have been inspired and encouraged by some recent events to start writing again. Not because I believe I am a fantastic writer but because I got to see that I was blessing someone and that my Father was getting the glory out of my little thoughts and my little life. I really did want this to be a place where I could share my genuine love for my heavenly Father and the life that He is unfolding on this Walk of Faith. So where to begin? Two years is a lot of life to put into words. I do want to catch up on one really important event, which is the additions to our family. Last time I wrote we were a "little" family of 6. Now we are a family of 7 with the addition of Boaz our newest bundle as of January 2013. And by the end of this summer we will, in my mind, be officially a big family of 8. Having children is always a blessing and an event worth celebrating but for us having Boaz and the announcement of this new baby is an answer to much prayer.In 2006, as far as we were concerned we had a big family with addition of baby 4. So what happened to us? Our families think we have lost our minds! And if I could tell you how many comments about being done we have gotten, or the stares! Somewhere we jumped on the road to peculiar. "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." And I am glad to say we can't seem to find our way back! Although we thought this chapter had come to a close, we were so totally wrong! This chapter was just no longer being written by our hands. (you know cause the other chapters were). This is a little of our testimony: a story of a heavenly Father who is patient and gentle and loving and who rewards us when we choose to obey and trust and one that can be found when you truly seek Him.

In August of 2011, in the wee hours of the morning, we dropped our children off with sweet friends and headed off to Oklahoma for a very serious matter. We were on what we consider to be a mission from our Father or maybe for our Father. Before you give me a side eye glance just hear me out. Before we moved to the great state of Texas we lived in Virginia and found out about a doctor who was in Oklahoma. He was a specialist but not something that you would hear about frequently,ok maybe never! See, my husband didn't have a disease or a condition but he had made a decision a few years before that since, he has been convicted about and sought counsel on the best way to handle repentance. If we believe repentance is changing our direction, how would it work in this case? Well after much prayer and counsel and searching out options, a doctor appeared who would be able to take care of our problem. Let me tell what our problem was. The problem that we created. My husband had a vasectomy.Some call it getting fixed we now consider it just the opposite. We believed, at the time, we had 4 children and that was a great number and AFFORDABLE! Who can afford more than 4 children in today's economy? We would have to be pretty wealthy to have THAT many children. We are NOT wealthy. We are regular people sometimes wondering how we might afford this or that. We have sacrificed many a luxury because we have chosen a more traditional household. I have a had a couple of odd jobs here and there but Jonathan is the sole provider for our family. BUT if we are Believers and are supposed to have the mind of our Redeemer? what does the Father actually say about children? What are His thoughts and what has he told us should be our thoughts in regard to how many is too many? I realize that I/we had not consulted our Father about having children; hadn't really thought about Him being the One who created the life. The culture in which we live leads us to believe these are our choices and it is in our hands. We are in control. It was always our actions and the right time and look what happens. But it doesn't happen like that for everyone. We were blessed! Because there is only One who creates a life, makes my body fit to carry that life and brings that life forth. It is all for His purpose and His plan. And even that miscarriage I had....yeah that was still Him. I don't have all the answers, but I know that for years we just put Him in the background pretending He was not the active force and so we thought we had a right to try to help Him out. So in August of 2011 we changed and did all we knew to try and submit to a plan that we did not have the details of and show Him that we were giving back control to the One who had it all along. We didn't know what to expect honestly. Obedience was our main goal; to turn back to Him. Telling our Father that we were sorry and fixing what we broke was all we were thinking about that day. And then we would wait. And we did wait. And in the meantime we took some adoption classes and fostering classes because, well maybe that would really be the way the Father fixed what we broke and we could grown our family that way. But in April of 2012 I walked outside to tell my husband I thought we just might need a pregnancy test. We named our gift, that we know, without a shadow of a doubt, comes from above Boaz Jachin, which means In strength Yahweh establishes!(in case we should ever forget!Forget what He has done for us in giving us 5 beautiful babies to raise for Him and His glory! Forget that once upon a time having no children was a very real option for me. Forget that He has provided all of our NEEDs according to His riches in glory! Forget that children are an heritage of Adonai and the fruit of the womb is His reward and that blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them! So you are caught up, at least a little. I am thankful to have a chance to share and hope you pray for me to stay the course.