Relocation

I assure you I have not given up on this blog...I have however given up the ideal that I will be able to keep it as current as I once thought I could. I will be 37 weeks pregnant on Monday and let me tell you what ... it is kickin' my butt! For the last 3 to 4 weeks I have had little energy to come home and do much more then read a few books with Oliver and watch,  my 10,000th episode of Mickey Mouse Club House...but I digress... I imagine in the coming days and weeks there are going to be lots of posts as Henry is scheduled to be delivered in a mere 2 weeks time and I'll just be hanging out. It is my goal that once he is here that I will update often so that people know how to pray and how all of us are adjusting!

I think for the most part I have been in denial about the "relocation" portion of this pregnancy. It has always seemed so far off into the distance but I can assure when I roll out of our drive way tomorrow  at 3:30pm eastern standard time it will not be far off--it will be the here and now. Leaving the loves of my life for an unknown amount of time overwhelms me to the point of speechlessness, and those who know me well or really anyone that has met me once would find this statement hard to believe. But it's here. It's go time. How in the world did 9 months go by so quickly?

When I was pregnant with Oliver people would tell me over and over "oh this is the easy part" and I would politely smile all the while in my head I would be giving them this grand lecture about how losing the ability to put your own shoes on is not the easy part. But now that I have Oliver, they were right, pregnancy is the easy part. The last several days in my quiet time I have come to the realization that the easiest part of Henry's life is coming to a close; as long as he is on the inside he is safe, he is protected, he doesn't have to undergo who knows how many surgeries and procedures, and then I don't have to experience the heartache that will be watching my child go through these difficult things. It's also not been lost on me in the last several days that God responds to us this very same way. God doesn't allow His children to stay in places where things are easy. He tests us, He molds us, He forces us to face a world, that at times, may be unkind to us.

My friend Tyler, through her journey with her sweet son Owen,  often shares excerpts from a devotional called Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman, I always found it fascinating how this devotional met Tyler right were she was and offered her such comfort. When we found out about Henry's condition I started reading it each morning and it has done the same for me.

Here is a portion of today's reading: "Even the fact that we face a trial proves that there is something very precious to our Lord in us, or else He would not spend so much time and energy on us. Christ would not test us if He did not see the precious metal of faith mingled with the rocky core of our nature, and it is to refine us into purity and beauty that He forces us through the fiery ordeal."

Leaving Nathan and Oliver is nothing short of God forcing me through the fiery ordeal, but never once does it talk about Him leaving me to deal with it on my own. God reminds me He is providing our strength through the prayers and encouragement of many, some from people we've never met, God reminds me through a gift shop window that He has been at every appointment, every stress test, every ultrasound and He isn't going away anytime soon.

I know that the Lord doesn't take pleasure in seeing His children go through trials, but He sends us through them to refine our faith, to make us stronger but most importantly to glorify His name. So tomorrow afternoon when I leave the two most important people to me to make the trip to Cincinnati, I will do so knowing that God has called me to this time of testing. God has called my family to this because Henry matters to God, because I matter to God, because Oliver matters to God, because Nathan matters to God and through our story someone else is going to realize that they, too, matter to God.

"2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." James 1:2-3


-Erin-