Happy 22nd Birthday Christianna Joy!

Christianna and Joshua, Dec. 20, 2012

Our oldest and youngest!

22 years old!

It was our joy to welcome little Christianna Joy into this world on December 20, 1990, five days before Christmas.  What a gift she was!  She was not expected until mid-January, but God decided to send her a little sooner; a month earlier, in fact!  Only weighing in at 6 pounds and 7 ounces, she was just a tiny bundle of joy, but oh, such a sweet one!  Our home became full of fun and happiness as we watched her grow and develop.  One thing that stands out from all others was Christianna's attraction to books.  At a very early age, she would pick up books and pretend she was reading them.  It would only be gibberish, but she seemed to be having the time of her life "reading" the books.  Later, she would make up her own stories while "reading" the books.  It was no longer gibberish, but words.  Finally, the day came in Kindergarten, when she could actually read the words.  She then would write her own little books with pictures and words.  I still treasure these to this day!  She has a very creative mind and is quite artistic.  She continues to enjoy reading and drawing, but has become a great writer as well.  I am often amazed with her ability to make a simple paragraph sound so professional!  God has given her many gifts!  I pray she will continue to use these for Him!  

More Answers to Prayer!!

I cannot believe Christmas is almost here!  I have not done any Christmas shopping since Thanksgiving weekend.  My days have been filled with other busy tasks ... finishing up a class (I'm done - yay!), organizing a church Christmas program, hosting a Christmas open house in our home, accompanying our oldest son on his doctor visits, and so on.  

Not only will Christmas be here in a week, but Christianna's birthday is creeping upon me and will be here before I know it.  She will be 22 years old on Thursday!  Wow!  That is a hard one for me to swallow.  Where has time gone?  Anyway, she has requested an oatmeal pie (yum!).  I still need to inquire as to what else she would prefer to have on the menu of her special day.  I am just hoping it is not brats and broccoli (as she has requested before - ugh!)!  But, if that is what she wants, it is HER special day, so I will sacrifice ...  haha!

Christianna - 1 day old - Dec. 21, 1990

Christianna with Joshua a couple years ago

A couple weeks ago, I put some eggs on the stove to boil.  After turning the burner on, I set about doing other things in another room.  When I walked out of the room, it smelled horribly strange in our house.  I walked to the kitchen only to discover gray smoke billowing from our stove.  I immediately realized I had turned on the wrong burner; one with a cover on it (electric stove).  Oh no!  What should I do?  Of course, turn off the burner might be smart!  haha!  Nothing was destroyed except the burner cover, thank the Lord!  I have been praising Him for answering prayer and not allowing our entire house to burn down due to this incident.  I already have shared about our answer to prayer for Nathan's cyst area in his mouth.  Then, most of this weekend and today, I have had a horrible, almost unbearable migraine headache.  I have taken pills time and again which would relieve it a little, but not take it away.  When the pills would wear off, the headache was back with a vengeance.  Tonight, I didn't know what I was going to do.  I felt like my head was being cut in half!  The pills were not relieving the pain at all!  We had family devotions and James told Joshua to pray for Mommy to get better, which he did.  Later, James was having private devotions with Joshua before he went to bed.  On his own, Joshua once again prayed for me to get better (I had been praying too, not knowing what to do).  Not long after this, I realized, my headache was suddenly gone!!!!  I believe God answered my little boy's prayer!!  God is so good!  Joshua and I talked about Jesus answering his prayer before I tucked him into bed.  He doesn't quite understand it all yet, and had a lot of questions, such as, "How did Jesus answer the prayer, cuz' he is not here?"  "I cannot see Him."  Awww .... he is so cute, even if he is a livewire!  haha!  Well, I just had to share those specific answers to prayer.  We have experienced others recently as well.  I must say it again; God is soooo good!  I love Him so much!  

Hope you all are having a joyous Christmas season, and are remembering the reason of the season.  Please feel free to share some of your answers to prayer in the comments.  I would love to hear about them!

God Answers Prayer!

Yesterday found Nathan and I traveling to the oral surgeon's office for another appointment to check on the area where the large cyst was removed six months ago.  The surgeon has been hoping that the area will fill in so no further procedures would have to be done.  The first three month appointment following the surgery did not show improvement.  The area had barely filled in, and we were very concerned!  However, yesterday's appointment proved to be so much different!  I was praying and asking God to please let that area be filled in, so nothing else would have to be done.  Yep, you guessed it!  God ANSWERED prayer once again!!!  He is sooo good to us.  I heard the doctor talking to the nurses before he ever entered our room about what a drastic change there was, not knowing he was talking about the comparison of Nathan's x-rays.  I made a comment to Nate that I was hoping he was talking about him.  Sure enough!  The doctor walked in a couple minutes later to show us the x-rays with the HUGE improvement!  Most of the area is completely filled in now!!!  Praise.the.LORD!!!  Nate will need to have an x-ray of that area done once a year for the next five or six years to make sure a new cyst is not forming again.  There is a 40 to 50 percent chance of him getting another one due to the type of cyst it was.  Hopefully this does not happen. I am trusting in God for another answer to prayer.  Thank you to those who have been praying for him. 

On another note, Nate and I will be going to another doctor's appointment on Friday.  He will be seeing a Cardiologist this time to be sure his heart is working normally.  Since he had the episode with Pericarditis a few months ago, I felt it would be important to have his heart checked again to make sure there is nothing wrong with it, and he truly only had a virus.  Please continue to pray for him.  We know God is in control.