Praise you In this Storm

• My heart aches right now for so many people. I can't begin to understand the depths of their pain. It breaks my heart that our little church family is hurting so much right now. Today, JoEllen went to be with her Lord and Savior, and while we rejoice that she is in Glory, we know her family will miss her so much and will grieve for her endlessly. Another woman in our church, her daughter is preparing to meet her Savior, only He knows the time, but all things point to it being soon. A nephew of another family suffers in the hospital, such a young boy, so scared. And too many are fighting cancer right now, including my aunt - if you are checking in on me today, you are in my prayers- I love you- and my brother-in-laws struggles with the disease that is still ravaging his body. Our church is small. Just over 100 families. This is a lot of hurt for us.

• And while it breaks my heart to see so many people that I care for hurting, I know and take comfort in the fact that God is the same God that He was last week, He is the same God He was 2000 years ago, and He will continue to be the same great and mighty God that He has always been. I know that He is walking through these storms with all of us. And His Grace is sufficient-- He tells us so: "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2Cor. 12:9 This is the same story which I recalled earlier when Paul begged God to take away his thorn. God's answer was no, but His grace, got Paul through it.

• Sometimes the storm bears down full force and seems to destroy anything in its path. Sometimes we feel destroyed by the storm. The beauty of faith is that our Heavenly Father is there to build us up again-- even better than before. In the midst of all this heart break in our small church family.... 2 babies born, healthy and well, and so sweet in all of their sweet cuddly babyness. ( I don't know if its a word and I don't care!) God brings new life into this world. While it doesn't take away the pain of loss of a loved one, it does offer hope. Hope in Him. He is with us. His grace will uphold us, and there is eternal life.
• Still praying for all of these storms to go well, and knowing that we will praise God in the storm!

A New Storm

*UDATE AGAIN* Kevin was able to come home on Friday. Praise God for minimal effects of that strange disease! **UPDATE** Hopefully we will know more tomorrow, but today's testing showed that Kevin has a mild case of the disease and that it shouldn't progress more, which means not paralyzing his lungs, which in turn, means that he may be able to go home tomorrow! Praise God, He truly is the Almighty Physician! Thanks for all of your prayers!

I really had no idea when I wrote yesterday's post about the storm brewing in my brother-in-laws life. And well, now we know. Steve's brother Kevin, was brought to a nearby hospital yesterday and after some testing, diagnosed with Guillian-Barre Syndrome -aka French Polio. Basically his body will become paralyzed and then heal itself again. He will be in the hospital for the duration of this because of the risk or his lungs becoming paralyzed also. It is a rare and serious disorder and I just ask that you all keep his family in your prayers.

Kevin just became Grandpa a few weeks ago, and owns a small cafe. There a lot of unanswered questions yet at this time and I don't want to speculate anything and would rather wait for facts. If they start a caring bridge site, I will share it with you. Right now we pray for peace, understanding, patience, and specifically that the disease will have minimal permanent damage and that he receives the best possible outcome of each symptom. Pray for the Lourens family that their storm may go well.

Thanks so much,

Alicia

Prayer Request

Hi everyone, I have an urgent prayer request for a member of our church. She was experiencing brain hemorrhaging and underwent surgery on Sunday to repair an anyeursm. You can read more on her caring bridge site - www.caringbridge.org/visit/joellenkauk Please storm Heaven's gates in prayers for JoEllen. In Christ, Alicia

4th of July Fun!

We had a good July 4th and I hope all of you did as well. Nothing to exciting really, mostly cleaned out the garage- definately necessary and since Steve was around, I wasn't passing up the chance! It feels so much better. And since it rained all day we really didn't have anything better to do. However by evening it cleared off and we were able to have a little bit of fun... here are some pics of that...

Steve was kind enough to demonstrate a "what not to do when lighting fireworks" pose for us.

(Reminds me a lot of Grandpa Otto though with that hanging out of his mouth.) And if you notice the wetness on Steve's shirt- that is what happens when I don't remember to check the sprinkler schedule and they go on in the middle of our fireworks fun! Everyone appreciated that!

This is a picture of what happens to sparklers that got wet due to aforementioned sprinklers - They smoke. A lot.

Jackson doing his sparklers also.... Pre sprinklers obviously!

I had taken more pictures of our fireworks display/contest, however, a point and shoot camera just really doesn't capture the awe of the fireworks. Its mostly just blury squiggles. It could be operator error too. It usually is.

Happy Birthday Grandma Pearl!

Today is my grandmother's 92 birthday.

I love this woman.

I think these pictures are from Thanksgiving last year. Do you know, this is just the way she has always looked?! I don't know why I find that comforting that this is the only way I know my grandma.

Let me tell you a little bit about her.

• She is a Christian first and foremost. She will never let you wonder or doubt that.
• She loves her family more than anything-except God- you will never doubt that either
• She has had a hard life, but her faith remained pure
• She grew up during the Depression
• She lost her husband on their 25th wedding anniversary
• She has 5 children - all with in an hour's drive of her-- she loves to tell you that!
• My Daddy is her baby- and her only boy- he was spoiled- everyone else will tell you that!
• I was spoiled by her too!
• She babysat me more than I can ever remember and we had great times. We played Aggravation for hours and hours. Then I taught her Go Fish. I won a lot, but that's only because I was better, right?!
• Whenever I see cookies and cream ice cream from Schwann's I think of her.
• Every year on her birthday we go to a local park to celebrate- I don't remember ever being rained out- tonight looks great too!
• I could tell you so much more about her, but I won't. I want to save some of it for her 93rd Birthday! ;)
• Happy Birthday Grandma Pearl! Thank you for being a faithful servant of the Lord and for loving all of us and praying for us. We love you!
• Proverbs 31:28 Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also and he praises her. "Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all."

What is going on?!

If you are asking yourself where I have been (I am sure that isn't the case with more than 1 or 2 people) then let me answer your question. This is what we have been up to:

One of my best friends since 1st grade got married this last weekend! Steve and Maicy were waiting during picture time, so were Jackson and I.

And of course we needed to make time for mani's and pedi's! Our hands and feet really did need this! Especially after working to make a machine shed into a reception hall!

The beautiful couple, may God richly bless your lives together! We couldn't be more happy for you! (Unless of course you decided to move that dairy farm back here where you belong!)

So, between running the kids here and there between ball and everything else, and helping to get this wedding off without a hitch, it has been busy around here. A good busy though. And I did find myself feeling a little bit sorry for myself once in awhile since my friend is now living 3 hours away from me. You need to understand that neither of us have a sister, and God so firmly planted us into each other's lives to fill that space. So, it is bittersweet for me, I am soooo happy for her and have no doubts that this is the man God chose for her, yet I will miss my friend being a short 45 min drive away from me.

In other news. There is no news. I am finding myself wrestling with things right now. I feel so completely out of control as far as the future of our family that somedays I just don't know what I will do. My comfort is in knowing that while it feels out of control to me, God has us right in His palm and knows what comes next. But knowing that, doesn't make my insecurities go away. My lack of trust isn't in Him, but in myself. In the missing of a phone call from an agency, why can't they just leave a message so I don't have to wonder if I need to call back or what they really wanted!? Why don't they call my cell phone?! Don't they know I have caller ID and by saying nothing they are really ruining the rest of my day?! Do I call them back? Will I sound like a crazy person, "yeah, um, we aren't actually going through you for an adoption agency, but I see that you called at such an such a time and I was, uh, just wondering what that was in regards to?' I am crazy, its okay. I have come to grips with that a long time ago. (confirmed by the fact that I stayed up until 2am last night to make sure no tornados came through here while everyone else slept-- soundly-- because why wouldn't you sleep soundly, the tornados were over 75 miles away!) So anyway, now that you all can see how neurotic I really am, you know a little bit more what has been going on! Which is again, nothing. Just so we're clear.

So, maybe not...

I am sorry for the lack of updates, it has been a crazy few weeks around here. May usually is and all of a sudden, June is half over!! I don't have much to tell you.... the case in NC that we had submitted our homestudy to for review didn't turn out. I guess I had a feeling it wouldn't, they did want to keep them in the state. Understandable. The other case, the one that I have really felt that God has called us to and that I truly have had on my heart that it could be the one, I found out today that the chances are pretty slim. The Bio mom will more than likely regain custody-- I know that should be a good thing, but not if she really doesn't change. Prayers for that little guy are needed, as well as for his bio family and foster family. I did get to hear from others who took the PS-MAPP class with us this week, which was very fun! Sadly, I think everyone is feeling frustration also. It is hard when you are so ready to open up your hearts and homes to another child, or children, and God's answer is "wait." So we wait. I am reading and re-reading the verses from all of you, and I am finding comfort in them and finding new ones as well. I know the best thing to do now is to lean on Him and to wait on Him.