blood

Blood is how I knew life was being taken from me just a few short weeks ago.
It was a painful sign that love was leaving my body.

On the way to my procedure the next day,
we blasted worship music in the car.
Mainly just to help distract me.
But really, it was stirring something in me...

Parker encouraged me to have lyrics in my head as I went under.
The song that rang loud in my mind and in my heart,
actually stung a little bit too.
Because is was about blood...
something really painful to think about at that time.

But as I went under the anesthesia,
and as I have carried on through the last few weeks,
He has transformed my mind to seeing more.

That through HIS blood...life was given.

I am praising Him today, and thankful for the
new understanding I have of His blood, and the life that comes from it.

Blood is how I knew life was leaving me.
Blood is also how I know there IS life.

- - - - - - - - - -

I beg you to listen to this song.
It is incredibly powerful.
trust me, it will move you.

"Still Believe"

 Your blood makes the deaf to hear right now.

Your blood takes away the curse right now.

Your blood heals every disease right now.

Your blood sets the addict free right now.

And I still believe,

You're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And I still believe

Your blood is sufficient for me.

Your blood mends the broken heart right now.

Your blood propels me to forgive right now.

Your blood transforms my mind right now.

Your blood brings the dead to life right now.

And I still believe,

You're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And I still believe

Your blood is sufficient for me.

You're the highest power, 

darkness cannot stand

No longer bound to sin, I am free!

You are all that I need.
Jesus, you are more than enough for me.

And I still believe,

You're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And I still believe

Your blood is sufficient for me.

All I need.
Come cover us right now.
Come cover us, Jesus.
The blood that opens deaf ears.
The blood breaks down disease.
In your presence God
it has no place
pain has no place
disease has no place
sickness has no place
weariness has no place.
depression has no place
in Your presence

We find
All we need, we find
in your presence.
Jesus.

All we need is in you Jesus.
We believe.

I believe you are who you say you are
You're the one who sees me.
You're the one who formed me.
You're the one who knows me.
every hair on my head.
You created me.
How you loved me
You're the one who has abundant life.
You're the one who has joy for me, Jesus.

I believe.
With all my heart, with all I am
Even when I cannot see,
I will believe.

I will never stop believing.
I will not fear,
because I believe.

"Still Believe"
(including spontaneous worship)

by Kim Walker-Smith

- - - - - - - - - -

Thank you, Jesus,
for the blood you shed for me.
I am in awe.

tents have been folded.

Someone called and read me this verse in the middle of my Dad's sickness.
It brought me much comfort, and continues to, knowing that the Lord was indeed folding my Dad's tent and putting it away...
but it has now been traded for a heavenly body.
A perfect, healthy, thriving, resurrection body.
Praise Jesus.

- - - - - - - - - -

"For we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven - God-made, not handmade - and we will never have to relocate our "tents" again.

Sometimes we can hardly wait to move - and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we are tired of it!

We have been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies!

The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. 
He puts a little of heaven in our hearts, so that we will never settle for less."

2 Corinthians 5:1-5

- - - - - - - - - -

May you remember today that as a child of God, this indeed is NOT our home.
So so thankful for that.

I am seriously rich.

"Sarah, I love you so much.

I love our life together.

I love our girls.

I love our family.

I am so thankful to be so rich in love."

That was an out-of-the-blue text I got from my precious Parker yesterday.

In the middle of trying to meet a crazy deadline at work,

throwing himself into it full force as the Lord's tool to provide for our family,

In the midst of worries about money and debt and bills and time

and a million things that need to be done

and just wondering what season is next for us,

he stopped to realize (and remind ME)...

that WE ARE RICH.

"Rich":

Having high value or quality.

Having abundance.

Being well-supplied or endowed.

Magnificently Impressive.

Vivid and Deep.

Having a strong fragrance.

Highly productive.

Meaningful, Significant.

Pure.

(definitions from Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Those words, those descriptions of what it means to be rich

DO something to my soul.

like really, they move me, and evoke emotions.

And it evokes gratitude too.

Thankfulness that the Lord has bestowed HIS richness on me.

On my family.

On ALL His children.

Some things that being RICH means to me:

The knowledge that no matter what, He is GOOD.

A precious husband and an ever-growing marriage.

Grace that I don't deserve but for Jesus.

All 4 of us snuggled together in Abigail's twin bed.

Seeing a beautiful face appear after hours of labor.

Sitting and talking about faith with my family.

Building community and relationship with new friends.

Having friends who understand and encourage our radical faith.

Getting random heartfelt texts, like above, from my husband.

Witnessing a baby discover her hands and feet.

Watching as her hair blows in the breeze of the ceiling fan while she sleeps.

Hearing my two year old pray for healing.

Remembering the ways He has delivered me and freed me from bondages.

Staying up way too late talking and dreaming with Parker.

Knowing that no matter what the number in the bank account is,

God will always meet our needs.

I just want to take in the "vividness", the "depth, the "abundance".

Literally breath in the "strong fragrance" of my life.

I am seriously rich, y'all.

And i have a feeling you are too.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Heavenly lights,

who does not change like shifting shadows."

James 1:17

linking up with my lovely girl, Jami...

go be blessed.

oh hey

Been hanging with my little crew,

and thought I'd pop in to say hey there to the bloggy world....

and share whats on my heart for the 5 minutes I have with you today.

God has shown up in a really powerful way to me this week...I am experiencing His constant presence like I haven't in a very long time.

It is refreshing and needed.

I am hearing Him speak and drop things into my heart that I know are from Him.

He is good like that, ya know.

and He does speak, y'all.

It may be an audible voice, or just a prompting, or a feeling in your spirit, or even a word through scripture or from someone else.

But He DOES speak.

He is alive and very much powerful and real.

In our relationship,

I have seen Him provide, protect, and pursue in supernatural ways.

I have even experienced His healing more than once, for myself and in others.

And I mean like miraculous healing...

like there yesterday, gone today.

{feel free to ask me about that...I have yet to share my healing stories here, but def will when the Lord leads me to}

And this week...He is reminding me that he cares for me enough to speak to my heart.

To remind me about things He has done and will do.

He has given me words of knowledge for my family and myself,

encouragements that will hopefully propel us further into His presence and His will.

all that (jumbled thoughts) to say...

He is showing up, He is real, He is GOOD.

So..I am making every effort to bask in that goodness right now.

Yall have a great week...be blessed!!

ambulances, tornados, and God's protection

Yesterday I got through the day SOLELY on God's grace. But reflecting back, I can see His divine protection, provision and grace. And I'm so thankful for that.

Bare with me and keep reading to the end, because I want to share all of God's SUPERNATURAL provision for me through all we dealt with yesterday.

Abigail has really never hurt herself, never had a big fall or injury, never had anything bleeding.

But yesterday morning she was running to the back door, excited to go to story time at the library, and I didn't see her coming so we bumped into each other.

She fell face first into the leg of our TV table.

Blood just started pouring from her nose and mouth and she was screaming for a good 20 minutes straight.

It was horrible to watch her in so much pain, and feel so helpless.

(thankfully no teeth were broken, and she just busted her lip and scraped up her nose and face pretty bad)

Little did I know, this was just the start to the day.

A little later, after she was calmed down and we had played and distracted and gotten the bleeding to stop, we headed up to the city to return some of her shoes and stop by Babies R Us.

(oh my heart aches just thinking about this again)

I was speaking with someone in Customer Service about a return, and I looked over right as Abigail was falling out of the back of the shopping cart, head first.

(I think she had stood up for a second to look at a toy she had dropped on the floor.)

I did what I could to catch her but was too late.

It was seriously like I saw her falling in slow motion.

head. first.

Right into the concrete floor.

she SCREAMED and and I scooped her up, looked at her and she had the biggest knot I've ever seen right on the front of her head.

She screamed and cried and screamed more...louder than I have ever heard her.

The woman behind me in line came over, told me she was a doctor, and recommended we call the paramedics to come take a look since she had hit her head so hard.

as you can imagine, I was just SHAKING with fear.

Long story short (well, kind of)...the paramedics came, evaluated her and said she seemed to be ok, but just to keep a close eye on her over the next 24 hours.

Having a stretcher brought into Babies R Us, with people staring, was very traumatic, but not near as bad as taking my screaming toddler, and now screaming 3 month old, into the ambulance to be evaluated.

Abigail would not calm down and I did what I could to ease her fear and pain but it took about 45 minutes until she finally calmed.

it was awful. just awful.

But she finally calmed down when i got her to listen to baby's "heart beep" with the stethoscope...

she loved doing that and it really helped to distract her.

Daddy finally got there (he was 30 min away at work) and she was MUCH better with him there...while I did paperwork in the ambulance, he took her to get a Jamba Juice.

When I pulled up, she was like her normal self, playing and drinking her smoothie.

SO so thankful.

Of course having to call 911 for your child is not exactly easy.

ooooo, but this wonderful day did not end there my friends.

As we drove home from dealing with all this, it started raining and became dark very quickly.

About 30 minutes after we got home, the tornado sirens started going off and we hunkered down (yes, I am from Texas so I can say that) in our stairwell closet with a bunch of cushions and a tiny lantern.

Our small city made national news yesterday as a tornado swept right through town.

As we hid in the closet with the TV turned way up to listen to reports, we literally heard them saying that the tornado was now crossing the intersection which is about 1/4 mile from our house. SO scary.

We are obviously okay, and our home is okay..thank the Lord!

But the roof of Parker's office building was ripped off, and it basically just rained right into the building.

He spent a lot of the evening there trying to salvage and cover things.

They had just moved into this new office 2 weeks ago.

We are still praying that they did not lose anything that cannot be replaced for clients.

(btw, keeping a toddler and a newborn in a dark closet is a WHOLE other blog post!)

but. BUT.

I want to tell you ALL the ways God met us in this crazy day yesterday.

I've been trying to "wean" Abigail off of her Paci this past week, but I had let her have it yesterday morning because she was throwing a fit and I just didn't feel like dealing with it.

But that paci probably prevented her from knocking teeth out when she fell.

When Abigail fell from the shopping cart, I had NO idea what to do. Like I was sitting there holding her just clueless.

I've never even imagined in my head how I would handle something like this.

But the lady behind me in line was a doctor. She told me what to do. She was there with her own kids but stayed with me the entire time.

Abigail fell head first right into the concrete floor. I can't even think about all the possibilities of what could have happened. (head injury, broken neck, etc)

But she only got a huge knot on her head, and it already looks much better today.

When she fell, she was screaming for a paci but I didn't have one with me (remember, I was trying to wean her). I was so upset bc I knew it would help her feel more secure.

But the manager at Babies R Us, who had already brought me ice for her head, asked me what kind of pacis she used, and went and got me a pack of them, and gave her one. He even brought her a stuffed animal when we were in the ambulance.

Sweet Bethany cried the whole time we were in the ambulance, but I could not help her because I needed to hold Abigail who was still screaming.

But one of the paramedics rocked her, gave her her paci, distracted her and helped her calm down. He later shared with me he has 6 kids of his own.

A tornado touched down very close to our home, and caused damage all over town.

But we are safe.

I had LOTS of moments yesterday where I could have completely lost it, been angry, been scared, been totally crazy.

BUT.

God's grace got us through. He protected, He provided, He showed up.

{If you need to find us, we might be hunkered down again, as more tornados are expected tonight}

I finally had a good cry about everything last night as I climbed into bed, but I woke up this morning thankful and hopeful for a new day. Thanks for yalls prayers and concern for us!

and thanks for listening to me process all this today.

Basically, I am just overwhelmed today at His goodness towards us.