Thank you, Jesus!

I had prayed that we would receive a tax refund. I knew that it would help the financial strain from the costs of medical treatments. Today we learned that we are receiving a substantial refund! Very exciting! Great reminder that God cares about us, despite Noelle's health struggles.

Loaner car!!

Thanks to the generosity of friends, Bill and Nelda, we have a car to use while we are here. We returned our rental car on Saturday when I took Sabrina and Scott to the airport. We will save over $2000. Thanks so much to those of you that prayed along side us for this. Thanks again to our friends!!

Prayer and Fasting

Acts 13:3, "So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way."

One week from today Noelle and I will embark on our very important trip to Arizona. We feel that we have been called to pray and fast before we leave. Monday, March 10th we will be fasting. If you would feel led to do that with us, it would be truly appreciated.

Noelle's top two immediate prayer requests, other than healing, are: 1. For travel, especially comfort and anxiety. Honestly she rarely spends more than an hour out of bed at a time, so it will be a long day even if things go perfectly. Pray especially for pain control.
2. She is asking for prayer that the place that we are staying will have comfortable beds. Since she is so uncomfortable this is very important!

Before we leave on this trip, we have another trip to make. My grandmother is turning 100! So we are traveling to Lincoln to celebrate with family. This is about a five hour trip. This will be difficult for Noelle also. Similar requests for this trip. I would add that it would be a good family time. We will take two cars to increase Noelle's comfort and give us more flexibility. Generally we drive boys and girls. Pray that Noelle and I would be able to have a pleasant time with Sabrina. I feel like this is especially important since our time together is limited. Noelle and Sabrina have basically opposite needs. Noelle prefers quiet, not so much for the six year old:) We will all need patience!

Thanks, as always, for your prayers!

We need a car!

We have booked our flight and our extended stay hotel for Arizona. We leave on March 11th. We have one detail to work out. We need a car to use while we are there. I have looked at rentals and for the time we are there it is $1500+, for a compact, which is fine. We are praying that someone will have a car for us to use while we are there. If you know someone who is in Arizona seasonally and has car we might be able to use, please let me know. Please pray with us that God would take care of this one expense.

Prayers needed

What a crazy world we live in. Please pray for those affected at the Boston Marathon yesterday. I think it feels personal because Scott's sister ran the marathon in a previous year. And Scott has a goal to qualify. He was less than two minutes off last time he did a marathon. It just makes the world feel so unsafe...again.



On the home front, Jake is trying to quit chewing. I think he is on day three. I really pray he can do it! Then I pray he motivates his dad to quit! It is such a disgusting habit and the long term effects are potentially awful! I always tell Scott that our marriage vows did not include self-inflicted mouth cancer! Go Jake!!



Noelle applied to nursing camp for this summer. Please pray with us that she is accepted. It is so important to her and since she is such a planner it is driving her crazy not to know!!

Chronic Illness

I don't ever know what to post.  I don't want to make Noelle uncomfortable with what I share with the world.  This battle sucks.  Depression has hit very hard lately.  Please pray for my little girl.  That she will see a light, The Light.  That she will find motivation to face each day. Thank you.

My prayer

Psalm 25

(Paraphrase by me)

In You, Lord my God, I put my trust.  I trust in You; do not let me doubt, nor let my circumstances triumph over me.  No one who hopes in You will ever be alone.  Show me your ways, Lord, teach me Your paths.  Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long.  Remember, Lord, Your great mercy and love, for they are from old.  Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to Your love remember me, for You, Lord, are good.  Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in His ways.  He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.  All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of His covenant.  For the sake of Your name, Lord, forgive my unbelief, though it is great.  Who then are those who fear the Lord?  He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.  They will spend their days in peace, and their descendants will inherit mercy.  The Lord confides in those who fear Him; He makes His presence known to them.  My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only He will release my body from pain.  Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.  Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish.  Look on my affliction and my distress and take away all my pain.  See how numerous my afflictions and how fiercely they attack me.  Guard my life and rescue me; do not let me be downhearted, for I take refuge in You.  May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, Lord, is in You.  Deliver me, O God, from all my troubles.

Noelle had a rough weekend.  We are doing a study on spiritual disciplines at church and we are studying prayer this week. I am trying to figure out how that needs to look in my life.  I know I need more.  This paraphrase is for Noelle.  I am going to try and pray this for her, over her, frequently.  She had to come home early from homecoming, no bonfire for her.  She had to watch her soccer team laying on a blanket.  That was the only time she left her bed yesterday and she is there again today.  

We watched a documentary on Lyme's disease, "Under our Skin".  Scared me.

Still fighting migraines:(

The photo is actually from back in January when we were up at Mayo.

They had to use an ambulance to transport Noelle to the clinic from the hospital.

The past 29 hours we have been to the Emergency Room twice for migraines.

She has been battling this one for about 9 days.

With school ending in a week and a half, it would be fabulous to end this so she can finish up,

especially Geometry.  We have an appointment at Mayo on Thursday.

She is scheduled to receive Botox.  Please pray that we would have wisdom 

on whether to go ahead with that treatment.  Pray that if we chose to proceed

that she would have great results.  Pray that her headaches would be under

control as we travel to Ethiopia May 30-June 14th!!

Ethiopia or Bust!

No, we are not adopting again:)  But, we did purchase six tickets for Ethiopia.  We will be travelling May 30 through June 14.  We are blessed to have our good friend, Daniel, serving as our liaison and travel guide.  Scott's partner and best friend, Brent, will be joining us as well.  We plan to see both Teme and Sabrina's birth families.  It will be the first time that Teme's family has seen him walk!  We hope to meet our World Vision sponsor child.  We hope to explore some ministry opportunities.  We have many prayer requests as we prepare.

1.  And definitely most important, that God would prepare each one of our hearts for the trip.  Noelle, especially, is not at all interested in making this trip.

2.  Specifically for Noelle's anxiety and migraines, that they would both be controlled in a supernatural way.

3.  That time with both birth families would rewarding for both sides.  That it would not be difficult for our kids to leave or heartbreaking for their birth families to see them go, again.

4.  That our time in Ethiopia would open our eyes to God's plans for each of us.  Selfishly, I especially want Noelle and Jake to be forever changed.  Both in relationship to our family and to our Savior.

5.  Safety.

6.  Daniel and Brent's families as they are away from home.

7.  That our family would experience a supernatural peace and patience with each other.

We appreciate your prayers and will most likely update our list as the time approaches.  Teme's United States passport arrived in the mail today:)  Also, I have an opportunity to visit Uganda in August with a very special friend.  Pray that it would be obvious if I should go and if anyone should accompany me.  I have invited Noelle, my sister, Karen and my long lost college roommate, Ann.

Quick prayer request!

Noelle's migraines are back.  This is week three of lots of drugs.  Today we went to the E.R. for some morphine.  That is what finally kicked it back in September.  We are home and she is sleeping but if she wakes up in pain we will probably head back to the hospital:(  We were to go to Des Moines today to spend Christmas with my family and on to Lincoln to see my 97 year old grandma on Monday.  All plans are on hold at this point, which is obviously not a big deal compared to Noelle's pain.  We covet your prayers!

Stinking migraines!

Noelle has had a great start to the year. But for the last month has been plagued by migraines. She even had to spend the night in the hospital. The good thing about that was that they were able to perform some tests to rule out tumors, etc. When she cooperated through a MRI, CAT scan and a spinal tap, I knew she was in serious pain. We would appreciate your prayers as she is still battling the headaches on a daily basis.

She struggles to make it through school, takes pain meds, sleeps and starts over:( She hasn't found a pain medicine that will kill the headache without knocking her out so she can't take them until after school. She is working on increasing the dosage on a preventative medicine that should help...someday!

If anyone has any great advice, we would love it!!

You fail

"You fail." This is one of Jake's new lines. Not sure where it is from. Sometimes he even says, "You fail at life." You have to know him to know that it is not as bad as it sounds. But some days I do feel as if I fail. I feel as if I am stretched so thin as a parent that I am failing each one of my children in at least one way. How on earth do parents of larger families connect with each of their children?? I feel as if my role as a mom is taking so much of me right now that I am not a very good wife. I am asking a lot and not giving very much. I know that (or hope that) this is just a season. Our marriage (almost 22 years) has weathered many seasons. God has really thrown me (us) a curve ball this year. The challenges that we have faced have been so much different than I expected. My life is so much different than I expected.

Please, God. Fill me with your peace. Help me to communicate to each of my children how much I love them and more importantly how much You love them! Sustain Scott and I during this time when time alone is hard to find. Encourage us with unity in our decision making. (So many decisions to make!) Thank you for this terrific family that you have blessed us with. May each one of us grow to want to please You only!
Amen (so be it!)

Snow and Sabrina for Thanksgiving!

For those of those who think that it is too early for Christmas music...this is the view outside my window this morning. Not much, but more is on the way. I usually have a strict "no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving" policy, but...it did snow...and...I am getting my Christmas present early this year! In 17 days, to be exact. WOW, I cannot believe that we are ALL going to be together for Christmas this year! Noelle realized this morning that Sabrina will be here for her school Christmas program. Please pray for the Chapman family this holiday season. Also, pray for the Alexander family. See Emily's blog for details.

Side note: I tried at least four times to get these two post together and I CANNOT do it. Every time I added my photo and text, the video disappeared. Very frustrating! Any advice from you advanced bloggers?? And how do you make it so you can have text before the photos?

Open your heart!

There are two little angels that have been on my heart lately. One is a sweet little girl named Abby. She is three years old and is struggling with leukemia. You can read her story at http://www.riggsfamilyblog.com/. Some friends of Abby's are trying to raise enough money to purchase her some fun wigs. Please consider donating and definitely add Abby to your prayer list!

The second little one is also three years old. His name is Samuel. You can read Samuel's story at http://www.paul-samuelphillipson.blogspot.com/. Samuel was involved in a tractor accident and has required many surgeries and will have to undergo many more. Funds are being raised for Samuel and his family at http://www.mikeanddianeandtribe.blogspot.com/. Again, please consider giving and absolutely get down on your knees.

These two stories have helped Scott and I to keep our eternal perspective despite the unsettled economy.