Friday, April 24, 2009

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!


Okay in our move (which I'll post about later) I almost forgot to mark baby girls 7th birthday! Happy Birthday precious one! Another year bigger and one less tooth! :)

Friday, April 17, 2009

On Moving and Hormones ...

This is me ... don't mess with the momma who is busy packing, changing all our house services AND hormonal! Cause you know who's going to win!



*Photo courtesy of Pioneer Woman. Thank you!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

On Healing and Miracles and God Moments ...

"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony .... " Revelation 12:11


I have two God stories to tell. Well, I have lots of God stories I could tell, but I'll limit it to two today. Additions to my testimony to the greatness and glory of our God. Since I was diagnosed with MS in December, and even before that, I knew that MS was not a permanent part of my future and that the Lord would heal me. He confirmed that to me through His word and through the prophetic words of others. I also knew that I would not be one of those people that would be immediately healed, although the Lord could have chosen that route, but I would be one who would walk the journey in faith to manifestation of healing. A large part of that journey, and every journey, involves complete trust and obedience. In obedience, I made changes to my diet and continue with those. In obedience, I started taking Avonex shots weekly. In obedience we paid for the first four shots out-of-pocket to the tune of $600.00 apiece fully trusting God to take care of our needs ... it’s all His money anyway. And, along the way, I fought to keep my eyes focused on God and His promises and not how miserable I was feeling. Now to the God stories …

God Story #1: On the morning of March 27th, I was watching “Pink Impact” women’s conference telecast live. The speaker, Marilyn Hickey, was speaking about new beginnings. She taught from the book of Ruth, the 8th book of the Bible. The number 8, by the way, is symbolic of new beginnings. I know this to be true in my life as our 8th year of marriage was when the Lord began His amazing restoration. Anyway, after watching the morning session, we were off to our home school p.e. group. This particular day a group of us moms sat together and praised God for His amazing hand in our lives and we were sharing God moments and it was at that time, I felt God speaking in my spirit that the 8th shot (the one scheduled for the next day) would be my last shot … that I was healed. I shared this with the others at the table and then pondered it in my heart. At church on March 28th, my husband and I prayed with a friend for that weeks' shot, the 8th, to be easy, as I had had a severe reaction the week prior. When we got home and were preparing for the shot, Brian said, “I don’t know why we’re doing these shots. If you’re healed, you’re healed.” I about fell off the chair! Amazing! We were of like mind and I hadn’t even shared my thought from the day before. We did the last shot and prayed for confirmation to quit the shots throughout the following week. We received that in two ways, on Wednesday, April 1st, I began to have energy like I had in October when this all started … and it hasn’t left me. Praise God! The second confirmation was a simple statement from my daughter, “Mom, since you’re healed from MS, are we going to start eating trans fats now?” (She didn't know her Daddy and I were praying for confirmation when she said that ... oh, and my answer to that question is no).

I did not renew my prescription for the shots. We went to church the next week (April 4th) and prayed rejoicing with several of our prayer warrior friends who just “happened” to be there that night … not! Isn’t God so cool? Our prayers were of praise for healing and God’s amazing grace. He is all there is! He is everything! It was a joyful time of celebrating God’s goodness in our life.

God Story #2: That brings me to the next miracle … Sunday morning (April 5th), I woke up in a discussion with the Lord about taking a test. We dialogued back and forth for about an hour and a half over this test. I kept saying, “No Lord, I did it last week and it was negative. I’m not doing it again.” He kept saying, “Get up and do it.” You know who won? I did it and nothing happened and I said, “See, Lord!” And, He said, “Look again.” I did. And, the Lord said, “See, Debra!” The test was positive. I am pregnant!




I have to add a little more to this very cool God story. The Lord had given me a word almost two years ago that I would have a son and he would be the start of a new generation of men in our family. That family curses would end with my husband and I and our children would walk in the Lord and be warriors for His kingdom. Lots of times I have asked the Lord, when is the baby? ... always knowing that there would be one. A couple weeks ago, on March 21st, the Lord gave me the verse about the Shunamite woman, (2 Kings 4:17 – But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.) I asked the Lord for confirmation because I didn’t want to be making things up. He gave me that story again, through another person’s introduction on March 26th. Isn’t God so cool? So, when I had a negative pregnancy test on March 27th, I was still encouraged that some time in the near future I would be pregnant. Just FYI, the test I took on the 27th was precautionary as I was taking the Avonex shots, which are contraindicated in pregnancy.

The other God thing, was I had started spotting and because my cycle is so funky anyway, I assumed this was just another funky one. (sorry fellows who read this) I felt prompted by God on that Saturday (April 3rd) to buy a pregnancy test, so I obeyed and bought a box of tampons with it … I was so sure I wasn’t pregnant. In fact, I picked up the box with two tests, again, sure I was going to have another negative and save the other stick for when I was really pregnant. God’s so cool … knowing it would be positive, He had me buy the box with only one stick and I thought how odd that was when I took the test that I had a box with only one stick as I was sure I purchased the one with two! God knew I wouldn't need another!

My favorite part of this whole story is that I didn’t take the Avonex shots in obedience to the Lord saying, “Stop, you are healed.” We didn't stop the shots because I was pregnant, we stopped because we believed God for the miracle of healing. It wasn’t until the next day that we discovered I was pregnant.

Healing and new life all in two days! Tell me that our God isn’t amazing!