Some prayer requests and an update

It's been weeks since I've blogged...again. Life has been busy and full. Today I am praying for some very dear friends and ask that you would pray with me.

A very dear and looooonnnng time friend, Dave, is having his first treatment of chemo today for Follicular Lymphoma. He is young, a father to 5 children from age 7-20. Please pray for God's healing and for His peace that passes all understanding. My heart breaks for him and his family as they walk this path. Please pray that God's awesome power will be shown and lives would be changed for His glory through all of this!

Another dear friend, Erin, is scheduled for a c-section this morning. This is her first baby and it is very breech. Pray for a safe and healthy delivery and easy recovery.

My hubby and I had a WONDERFUL getaway to a beautiful, rather warm climate. It was so perfect! Just the break we needed in the middle of the craziness of life to reconnect and spend good quality time together.

And just for fun, a few pics of my girls having fun at homeschool co-op. We are very blessed to have a great professional photographer as part of our co-op who so graciously wandered around with her camera the other day to get some great candid shots for the yearbook. Thanks Susan!

And this shot was taken by my good friend, Mary Lou - AKA Miss Lou Lou :-)

And finally, I have 10 weeks and 5 days left until my due date! I can't believe I'm almost there! Can't wait to hold our sweet Caroline!

There are no secrets in the family of God...

Secrets are really, really hard to keep around here! I mean, really, really hard! So my secret is out and maybe God just wanted it that way. For those of you who didn't already find out through divine intervention of sorts, here is a little picture to clue you in...

Yes, we are just about 7 weeks pregnant! My due date is June 7th. I had planned all along to wait until Thanksgiving to reveal our little surprise, as I would be past the first trimester by then, but I believe God just had other plans. From running into my sister while waiting for my ultrasound appointment, to others just out right asking (I could never tell a lie!), maybe it was a secret that was just never meant to be kept. *BTW:This is relatively new news, so if you asked recently and I told you no...I really thought the answer was no at the time.* Those who now know keep saying "how could we pray if we didn't know?" They are right.

So this is my prayer request as well. That God will protect this little one and bring it safely into this world, and that He would grant me the peace that I will need just 5 months after such a painful loss. Thank you to all of my friends and family who have been praying and praying, and waiting, and praying... And to those crazy bestest friends of mine who even secretly kept track of my cycle and were watching each month for any tiny little sign that I might maybe possibly be pregnant...you know who you are and I know about your little scheming :0)

Amazingly, I have already seen a healthy heartbeat by ultrasound. The u/s tech was astonished that she was able to find it so early (not even 6 weeks at the time). I felt like that was just a little gift from God to ease my fears that day. I have been feeling quite nauseated, which is a new thing for me, and chronically exhausted. So I'm not sure how long I would have been able to keep it a secret anyway. It isn't easy to act like my normal happy enthusiastic self when I feel like I need to puke and go to bed for a week.

BTW: I would still like to wait until after my next ultrasound to tell the girls, so please try to keep it quiet when they're nearby. It would be nice if this just trickled quietly through the grapevine.

Praise God for His protection...again!

My "baby" sister, Laura just gave birth to her first child, a precious baby boy, yesterday (more than a month early). He weighed in at 3 lbs 3 oz. There had been problems with the placenta and he was growing very slowly. They had already planned to induce her this coming Monday, but we never made it that far. Laura began having excruciating pain under her ribs and her husband rushed her to the hospital in the wee hours of Friday morning. Her blood pressure was sooo dangerously high, so they put her to sleep and quickly delivered baby Paul by emergency C-section. Laura was in pretty bad shape, showing a several of the symptoms of HELLP sydrome. Praise God that today, she and baby Paul are doing much better! Paul did not need to be sent to a NICU, but is just steps away in the Intesive Care section of the regular nursery. Laura has had a rough recovery, but is doing well. I know she is so heartbroken that she has yet to see Paul. Please pray that she is able to see and hold her new baby soon and that God would give her peace. But PRAISE Him for His protection over them both! I have a new nephew!

Urgent prayer needed!

Many of you who follow my blog also follow Darren's blog for Misty. If not, or if you haven't already heard, Misty just slipped into a coma yesterday and is now on life support. Please be praying fervently for her healing and for her husband, Darren and their little girl, Olivia. Here is the link to their site:

Please pray...

...for my sister, Laura, who is pregnant with her first baby. Below is a copy of the post she sent out yesterday.

Hello dear friends,

I have a request. As you all know, I am 33 weeks pregnant with a little boy, Paul Matthew. I went in for an ultrasound today and found that our little one is only measuring about 2 and a half pounds. My placenta is not working properly and the doctors are concerned that he is not getting the proper nutrients. They want to monitor me twice a week and if things do not change I will have to deliver early. I know the Lord has it all under control and that little Paul is in His hands, but the more prayer there is, the better. It is so interesting for me to think about his name. When we first found out that we were having a boy, his name was already determined. Paul after the Apostle Paul and Matthew after my husband. I am really big into the meaning of names. Well, Matthew means "Gift of God," and Paul means "Small, or humble." I feel that God is just confirming his name that he truly is a small gift from Him. So if you could please keep this small gift in your prayers that would mean a whole lot. Thank you so much. Laura

Prayer Request

Jai Brinkofski from the local band CheckGuage sent out a prayer request thru Myspace for a close family friend. Goto http://www.leblanclife.com and read about Misty, a very young mother (27) who has Stage IV Brain Cancer- She has been given very little time to live, but her husband is seeking prayer warriors to pray for a miracle.