IT’S A GIRL!

At 10:41 this morning baby Zaeli Frances made her debut into the White family.  She weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and measured 21 1/4 inches.  After many weeks of waiting and multiple trips to the hospital, it was a quick delivery, about an hour and forty minutes, so fast her nose is a little flat.  Both mom and baby are doing wonderful and planning on being home tomorrow afternoon.  Theo, the older brother, was delighed with his little sister at first and then somewhat disinterested.  Time will tell how that works out.  Pictures will be coming.  Praise the Lord for His mercy, care and grace through this process.

Crazy

I really did not expect it to happen.  It’s what I’ve been praying for off and on for almost three years but I didn’t expect it.  And definitely not like this.

 

My dad called a bit ago to tell me that someone had called and asked if he knew someone who needs a car.  He proceeded to tell me about the car, it’s good points, it’s bad points and then told me this, "He wouldn’t get very much for it so he’s giving it away."  WHAT!?!??!  That sounds like something from some spiritual hero’s testimony or something.  I mean, sure, it has crossed my mind as a way God could move and maybe even the only way to get a car, but it seemed too crazy.  Too unrealistic. 

 

But here I am praising God.  I expect so little of Him.  Maybe I expect so little because I really don’t pray about things like this much…at all.  Maybe because I really don’t feel like I deserve it.  Partly because I couldn’t imagine that anyone would be generous enough to give ME a car.  It really is a grace of God.  Undeserved by me for sure.  But it’s kind of like how He works in my life all the time.  It really amazes me how God touches people through me.  Not because I’m such a good people person, not because I’m qualified for anything I do, not even because I do everything I should do because none of those things is true.  Yet somehow, God has grace in my life and uses my daily bumblings.

 

Not only that but He’s changing me from within.  What a grace that is.  That even though I am still SO far, I’m not where I once was.  It’s not me.  It’s not my hard work.  It’s not my discipline.  It’s the Spirit bearing fruit despite me.

 

Praise God!  For His gifts, material and spiritual.  Hallelujah, what a God!   

Latest and Greatest

So here’s the deal.  I’m going to  be an aunt again!  So, my mom, an aunt and I are planning on heading west to BC on Thursday.  The little one hasn’t joined us yet but we’re hoping soon…definitely before we start back on the 26th!  The big brother, Theo, is doing great.  Just over two, he’s counting to 20 in English, 10 in Spanish and has his ABCs down pat.  I’ve missed him and am looking forward to hanging out with him a bit. 

 

Otherwise, heading into spring which means camp prep and Apples of Gold.  Apples of Gold is a girls mentoring program that runs for six weeks.  My job is to lead the sessions, which are going to cover topics like relationship with God, friendships and purity.  I’ll try to have a series going here on the topics we’ll be talking about from week to week.  (Although….my other series only has one post!)

 

This spring is also bringing a few events that I’ll be part of planning.  Not sure what all they will include but at least one concert in the area.  I enjoy event planning for the most part so I’m looking forward to it. 

 

I’m also reading quite a bit.  I’m just about finished Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God, the biography of the author of My Utmost for His Highest, a classic devotional.  I find here not only a spiritual hero but a friend.  Although incredibly talented and passionate, Oswald went through a period of intense internal struggle, knowing that he was not the man so many people believed him to be.  It’s not that there is some blatant act of hypocrisy.  He just wasn’t that good.  I can so relate to that.  Throughout this book it has been an alternation between being understood and being challenged.  A timely read.

 

That’s all folks!