And:

Psalm 31:19 "Oh how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you."

Lamentations 3: "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every monring; great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.... For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundace of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men."

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 "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. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Truth

Yesterday I found out some tough, but not hopeless news. I need truth and am so grateful for especially helpful truths like this one... Thanks Beth for this awesome quote from Beside Still Waters.

"The psalmist says, 'Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the LORD!' (Psalm 27:14). There is no real danger. You are safe while God lives, while Christ pleads, and while the Holy Spirit dwells in you. ... Wait on the Lord as a beggar waits for a handout. We have gone to God's door, knocked, waited, and obtained gracious answers. Wait, but knock as you wait. Knock, but with fervent pleading and strong confidence, for the Lord Himself waits to be gracious. Agonize in desire. Make the door of mercy resound again and again with your resolute blows. The lord is good to those who wait on Him. He will answer you in due time, and you will never be sent away empty-handed.
"It is your Father's business to provide for you. ... It is our Father's business to mark the future. Our eyes are dim. We cannot see tomorrow. but our Father knows all about tomorrow, and He will be ready for whatever happens.

"Therefore I wait on Him. I raise no questions. I expect great mercies. Blessed are you if you also wait on Him."

This morning:

"By faith Sarah herself receive power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised." Hebrews 11:11

"The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them." Psalm 145: 13-19

Sara Groves He's Always Been Faithful
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

Morning by morning I wake up to find
The power and comfort of God's hand in mine
Season by season I watch Him, amazed
In awe of the mystery of His perfect ways
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me.

I can't remember a trial or a pain
He did not recycle to bring me gain
I can't remember one single regret
In serving God only, and trusting His hand
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me.

This is my anthem, this is my song
The theme of the stories I've heard for so long
God has been faithful, He will be again
His loving compassion, it knows no end
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful, He's always been faithful
He's always been faithful to me.

Romans 8:21-32 "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how wil he not also with him graciously give us all things?"

"Preaching the gospel to myself each day provides a lens through which I can view my trials in this way and se the true cause for rejoicing that exists in them. I can then embrace trials as friend sand allow them to do God's good work in me." -The Gospel Primer (Perspective in Trials)

"He seasons our provisions with the spices of His fragrant affections." Charles Spurgeon

Post-it Notes

Yesterday I got some bummer news from the doctor. It looks like I will probably have to have surgery again and he thinks that what they found may be keeping me from conceiving. Needless to say, I was not expecting this and it was hard news to swallow.

When I got in my car, I called Paul to tell him and cried. Then, I called my mom, who patiently let me tell her what was going on in my heart as the tears kept coming.
I prayed to God, asking him “Why?” and trying to commit myself to him and trust His goodness.

It was hard to do.

Paul was so supportive and gentle with me yesterday as I fought for joy. After sending an email to a few friends and my caregroup, I was overwhelmed by their love and encouragement in response emails and phone calls.

There were two instances in particular where I felt that God was reminding me of his personal and intimate care for me personally. My mom likes to refer to these as God’s post-it notes, reminding us of his care.

The first was this:

Last night I got an email from my friend Jess in CA. When Jess lived here in MD I didn’t know her. I was told by another friend that I should email her about a particular health issue I was having at the time and so I plucked up the courage to call someone who I wasn’t sure knew who I was! All I have to say is that from that phone call came so much blessing! I was so grateful for Jess’s patient listening to my questions, offering suggestions about health issues, and empathizing with me as I sought to trust God. After that one conversation, I received many emails and we started a friendship! I was even going to fly out to see her, but that turned out not to be the right time. She wrote me an email of encouragement and as I read her email, the Lord brought to mind that there have been so many blessings that have come out of this trial over the past year. One of these blessing was getting to know Jess! It was very clear to my heart that God was pointing to his kindness in giving us the body of Christ to care for one another!

The second post-it note was when I opened my email this morning. It was from a girl named Kelly. A little background: About six months ago, I received an email out of the blue from an old friend of Paul’s. She had been good friends with Paul and Jim Winn when they attended the same church. She is married with two little kids and just had an interest in who I was and wanted to say hi. I was instantly drawn to Kelly because of her openness, kindness, and sincere love for God that was clear in her email. I responded and what do you know! We became “pen-pal” friends. I’ve never met Kelly in person and honestly don’t even know what she looks like, but God has used different emails she has written to encourage me through this trial.
In this morning’s email Kelly told me that she had had a dream about Paul and I last night, even though she’s never even seen me before. She said that God had laid me on her heart and she wanted to see how I was. She included a few verses from Lamentations.

"But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. " Lamentations 3:21-25

I had already been up for a while, had an early mtg at Starbucks, and put on my makeup… (It was only 8 – I had a really productive morning) and I just burst into tears as I read it. It was so very clear to me that God was yet again trying to get my attention, reminding me of his love and care.

Wow. I was so blessed. So many people are walking alongside of me and carrying my burden with me. And it is a light burden because of God’s grace and these friends’ love and prayers. I have nothing to complain about and am so grateful that God is getting my attention in this season. Though my heart aches, I am reminded that my Father knit me together in my mother’s womb and will do the same for my children one day. He has laid his hand upon me and has put the boundary lines in pleasant places.

So many times today, the Holy Spirit brought truth to my heart, reminding me I am loved, reminding me of the joys of heaven, helping my heart when it ached. It is good to know the Holy Spirit’s presence in a real way like I did today.

I am one blessed woman.

So I've made some yummy meat loaf and chili with my grass-fed healthy ground meat :)

Join me?

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5:16

-in praying that God would heal me COMPLETELY of lymes disease. I was diagnosed about a month ago.

-in praying that God would bless us with children. We've been asking for a year now, and are learning to wait and trust our good Father.

Join me?

From the David Crowder Band...

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If his grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

My Miracle Ipod



Ok, so I have a story to tell.

Paul was so generous and bought me an ipod touch about two weeks before we left for the beach in July. I was so excited, since my four year old ipod mini had stopped working a long while ago. I was so excited and just couldn't get over that I now had a good ipod and could bring it to the beach.

At the beach I enjoyed reading my Anne of Green Gables book while listening to the new Harry Potter soundtrack...(yes, I'm a H.P. Geek). I was super careful with the ipod and made sure I always stowed it away carefully in my bag when I got up.

Then, I made a dreadful decision. The boys were boogy-boarding in the waves and I wanted to get closer to the water. I decided to take my book and my ipod with me.

Bad move.

I made sure to set my chair far enough from the water so I wouldn't get sprayed or anything. What I didn't make sure to do was to keep an eye out on the tide. After about 10 or 15 minutes of sitting by the water's edge, I looked up to see the remnants of a large wave rushing towards me. My immediate thought was that I didn't want to get my butt wet so without thinking, I jumped up to move my chair back when all of a sudden I felt a tug on my earplugs and heard a small "PLOP" and looked down to see my ipod sink into the water.

It was one of those moments where you wonder if you are dreaming but realize, with a terrible sinking feeling, that it is absolute reality. I screamed, grabbed the ipod out of the water, and frantically started yelling and motioning to Paul. In a type of sign language I waved my arms at him, caught his eye, pointed to my ipod, pointed to the water, pointed back to the ipod, and then back to the water. Noooooo good.

I ran back to the shore desperately hoping that maybe the ipod cover kept the ipod safe. I held the ipod upside down, took off the cover, and accidentally turned on the ipod. Another bad idea. Paul made his way over to our spot and as I tried to tell him what happened through my tears, he took the ipod and examined it. He gave me the "Sorry baby, I think it's fried" look.

I was so upset not because I had possibly ruined my brand new ipod in the MOST STUPID way possible, but because it wasn't a cheap ipod and I felt so bad that Paul had just spent the money on me. Well, and I guess I was pretty bummed I might not have an ipod anymore.

So, Pooch told us that we should stick it in a big cup of rice (an old wives tale?) because it might soak up the mouisture. We left it in there for a while and then the dreaded moment came - trying to see if it would turn on.

IT DID. But it wasn't out-of-the-woods. For the next few days I tried not to touch it. We found that while it was plugged in, it worked fine, but then sometimes it wouldn't turn on and ran out of battery much to quickly. So, Paul said we should take it to the Apple store. I was told that it would be really easy to go and that I wouldn't have to say anything about it falling in the water (my warentee didn't cover water damage, OF COURSE) but I was so afraid that they were going to ask and I would have to tell them. So Paul went in for me and of course, they didn't ask if I dropped it in water. They gave us a BRAND new itouch.

OK, great story. But that's not that amazing, right? Well, I thought it was pretty amazing, but the story gets better.

Paul and I just returned from our anniversary celebration in New York City. We left Tuesday evening and came back Saturday. I was so excited to have my brand new itouch with me, to listen to on the train, or when I was alone in the hotel room (Paul had a couple of work meetings...).

Having my ipod was awesome. Until the last day.

We were in the "waiting area" of the train station, making the most of our time while we waited for our train to arrive. When Paul plugged in his phone to the wall next to us and took out the ipod to play a game on it, I reminded him that we should let it charge for a little while (his phone charger works for the ipod) before we left. So after about 20 minutes we switched the phone to the ipod on the charger.

We weren't quite sure when the train was giong to arrive. But we knew that we didn't want to end up not finding a seat together. So we were on alert for the announcement. I learned that train stations are different than airports. They don't have a terminal for your particular train. When the train arrives, they announce which track it is on, and everyone and their mother scrambles down one of the tiny escalators towards that track. Well, Paul had gone to get a drink when the lady announced, "Train 135 to Washington will be boarding from track 12." Panic ensued.
I scrambled to get all our stuff together and called Paul to tell him the train had arrived. He didn't answer, I could barely carry all the luggage (I did a LITTLE shopping in NYC :)) and was trying to make sure I didn't forget anything.

Anyone guess what happened?

Well, Paul made his way over to me (with the drinks b/c the line was too long) and we grabbed our luggage and joined the herd of people waiting to go down the tiny escalator to Track 12.

We made it onto the train with a few minutes to spare. We didn't find two seats next to eachother, but found one behind the other. As we settled in, all of a sudden it hit me.

I had forgotten the ipod plugged in the wall. I wheeled around to Paul and frantically asked "Did you grab the ipod?" He looked at me and right away I knew it. It was gone.

That moment where I wished I was dreaming had happened again. As the tears welled up, I turned around and said, "Paul you've gotta get off the train and go get it!" He told me there just wasn't time. Suddenly, the train started moving as if to confirm his statement. Great.

How could I forget the stupid ipod? In a New York City train station? There was no way I would ever see it again.

My mind raced as I tried to think of how I could change the situation? Obviously I couldn't get off the train. What could I do? The big, friendly conductor was making his way to my seat as I was fighting back tears and trying to think through my options. When he arrived at my seat to check my ticket, I blurted out a "Excuse me but I was wondering if you know what I could do because I left my ipod in the waiting area and I don't know what to do" in 5 seconds. He handed me a cell phone which he told me was for just such occaisons.

Paul gently told me not to get my hopes up - that it was New York City and that most likely someone was excitedly taking a new ipod touch home or to the pawn shop.

Hopinag and praying I dialed.

"Customer service, how may I help you?" I once again blurted out my predicament, was transferred, and then spoke with someone in the waiting area we had occupied.

"Yes, we have an ipod here, someone returned it." What? Someone returned it! The person told me however, that he could do nothing with the ipod except put it in lost and found and they could ship it to me. He then gave me lost and founds number and told me to give them a call.

"Hi, you've reached the Lost and Found of Penn Station. We are now closed. Call back during our hours...." So I left a message.

I was pretty certain that the ipod would not make its way to Lost and Found to be shipped. IT was then I realized that we just might have a chance of getting the ipod back. Our friends Sam and Dana were still in New York City (I will blog about our time w/ them later) and I asked Paul to call Sam and see if they would be willing to go to the station for us.

So I called back and told them that a "Sam Wethje" would be picking up the ipod and got directions as to where it would be located. We still hadn't goten in touch with Sam, but were hoping (I told Paul to text Sam that we would owe them for life) they would be able to stop by.

To make a long story short (I am realizing that this is turning into a really retarded long story), Sam and Dana stopped by four hours later and it was safe and sound and still there!

Paul had really helped me to prepare myself for the worst. Again, I was pretty upset about the fact that it was an expensive item to lose more than anything.... Paul reminded me that God was after my heart and that this really wasn't that big of a deal.

So when Paul came home from work yesterday with my ipod (Paul and Sam work together) I just was so thankful to God for his kindness. That ipod should not have worked after being dropped in the ocean. It should have been stolen in the NYC train station. But, God was so kind and allowed it to be returned to me!

So, that's the story about my miracle ipod.

The end.

What do you get when you add a:

A cow,

And yarn,

And apples?


Domesticity

Okay, that was really lame. But... a cow, yarn, and apples have meant something to me recently. I am attempting to grow in domescticity and thus have ventured into murky waters and out of my comfort zone. I am buying part of a cow.

Yup. I was lucky enough to get included in an email list from a lady in our church who orders her beef from a farm in PA. The beef is from organic, grass-fed cows and is a super good price. So myself, along with a few friends are ordering 1/8, 1/4, and in my case, a 1/16th of a cow :)A 1/16th of our cow is gonna be about 10 lbs of ground meat, a few cases of steaks, and a few roasts! I thought I would start "small" this time and up my quantity next time. My mom is graciously lending me a big old shelf in her freezer, which is a huge blessing.

Okay, so yarn. Well, I'm learning to crochet and knit. It's actually alot easier than I thought I'm enjoying it immensely. I actually love it. I like crocheting better than knitting because crocheting seems much faster to me. I've crocheted several items which I then unravelled since it was my first time and they had a few... mistakes :)

But I successfully made a baby hat in about 2 hours and am working on another hat.

I am started one baby blanket (Which I made too small so I'll unravel that one too) ....

I am also going to use this "Pound of Love" (umm, cute name!) to make another.

I've also got some scarves coming up too.

The next big domesticity item is canning! I had never canned anything in my life until Sunday when Ally and I made batches of apple pie filling to can. Since both of us are short on freezer space (esp me because of my cowsie) we thought canning would be a super idea. After researching the best recipe out there for apple pie filling that is canned, we chose one and started around 6pm Sunday evening.

I had gone with Ally, Sena, and a bunch of ladies from Sena's cg to pick apples at this cute farm in Mt. Airy. I had never picked apples before and it was so fun and... quick. I filled up about 12 lbs in 10 minutes!

So with our apples in hand and our jars sanitized, we began the long process of making batches of the filling, filling the jars, and boiling the jars.

Note: All these pics are taken in our friend Ron's house (everyone calls him Pooch b/c his last name is Pucciarelli and it's just what everyone calls him). The boys were all watching football or some other very important sporting event, so we had the evening to tackle this project. We were so grateful for his kitchen b/c it is nice and spacious and uncluttered.

Here I am peeling the apples:



We each had about 10 pounds of apples, so it was quite a bit of peeling. Thanks to my handy-dandy apple peeler that my mom got me for Christmas, it wasn't that hard!




Ally had the job of slicing the apples. Thankfully we also had one of those cool apple slicer things. I thought maybe we should switch jobs since hers was much more "physical" but she was up for the task!


Quite a mess...






So after peeling tons of apples and slicking them thinly, we used a recipe that called for us to mix sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, corn starch, water and some lemon juice (I'm probably forgetting something)in a large pot and let it thicken over heat. We made several LARGE batches. At the same time, we were sanitizing our newly purchased quart-sized mason jars, and boiling water in a large pot for the canning process. It was quite a bit of work to be honest :)

Once the jars were washed and sanitized, the filling done, we then filled the jars w/ the apples and then funelled in the filling. They looked so good at this point!







Probably the hardest and funniest part was that the largest pot we were using (thanks Pooch!) was JUST BARELY tall enough for the cans. What you have to do is boil the jars full of apple filling until the lids pop (about 15 mins). We could only fit four cans in at a time, and just the tiniest amount of water coverd them. The pot was filled to just about overflowing because it wasn't quite deep enough. So here is the pot of water:


And here is us worriedly checking it every 20 seconds! We were so afraid they were gonna overflow. However, Pooch's heat was so even that they were just fine!




Thankfully, we heard all the tops pop! But because we could only do 4 jars at a time, it took a LONG time!

Some happy apple-pie-filling-makers!


The finished product: Lots of jars of apple pie filling!


And while we slaved away, here were the boys:


So, I'm pretty excited. Domesticity is pretty fun after all :)

Psalm 90:9-17

For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!