Setting up Stones

As I am making my way through Genesis while reading my One Year Bible(see earlier Post) I continue to see a common thread of setting up a stone. Abraham did this many times as the Lord led him from place to place he would set up a stone at a specific spot to worship God. I've noticed many other figures in Genesis doing this..and in our Sunday School lesson from 1 Samuel 7 this past Sunday, Samuel led the people in doing this as well. 1 Samuel 7:12 says, Samuel then took a stone and place it between Mizpah and Jeshanah and named it Ebenezer (meaning, the Stone of Help) for he said, "The Lord has certainly helped us!" I guess we still do the same thing as a country today. We set up a landmark or monument to mark something special or noteworthy. We do this so we never forget the sacrifice or event that occurred.

I feel led to figuratively "set up some stones!" Stones of remembrance of what and how the Lord has worked in my life. As the next two weeks lead up to my Samuel's third birthday in heaven...I want to remember the Lord's real and active work in my life during this difficult time in our lives. I hope as this encourages me it will encourage you as you see the Lord working in the events of your life as well.

Stone #1- In September of 2005 I was about 12 or more weeks pregnant and I began to have a strong desire to move to a different area of our town. We lived very close to my school and I knew once I had the baby I'd be staying at home. I really wanted to live closer to our church, friends and my family....about 25 minutes away. Within a weekend we decided we'd move and that same weekend we got boxes and began to pack up our house. This is crazy to me now because we had no clue when we'd move...didn't even have our house on the market...and I began to pack. Those of you who know me well know that I like to be organized and have everything ready..especially with a baby coming! I think I was hoping we could move quick and get settled before March when I was due. I think this was just the Lord's prompting in our lives to get us to where we needed to be. So I began packing!

Stone #2-After our diagnosis in November, I was told that they had no clue if I'd go to term with the baby or if I'd go early. So I began weekly doctor visits as they monitored my progress. As a teacher, I had to find a certified substitute who could do my maternity leave. I had no clue if I'd need them in Nov., Dec., or even up until March. The Lord worked this all out as a friend and certified teacher who I knew, who is a missionary to another country was planning to be home during this time. She was looking for some work while she was back in the states. She had taught in our district and her twin sister taught at my school. The Lord just worked it all out. She is also a believer and I felt confident that I was leaving my students in good hands while I was out for six weeks of leave.

Stone #3- As I said earlier that I like to be prepared and organized I also knew I needed to have lesson plans as together as I could prior to being out of school. Again this was hard because I had no clue when I'd be out. I'd always planned about a week ahead but the week prior to going into labor I began to get so stressed about my lesson plans. So much time and a lot to cover and I ultimately was responsible for what my class learned. My stress led me to plan a good chunk of the next six weeks. I worked endlessly that week and thought at least I was ahead on plans (this was the end of Jan. and I was not due until March). The Lord knew that when I left school on that Fri. that I would not return for 6 weeks. He knew I needed to be prepared. All my preparation and talk got my mom a little stressed and she thought...maybe she'd better plan ahead too. That week she planned the entire next week for her K-5 class! Isn't God Good! (Oh and would you know that I even planned my math lessons completely to the day that I would return to school...this still blows my mind)!

Stone #4- So when we received our baby's initial diagnosis of either multi-cystic dysplastic kidneys or either polycystic kidneys...we were sent to a specialist for a second opinion. They confirmed the previous diagnosis and sent me back to my regular OB. Here is the problem...my regular OB only delivers at one hospital and they all agreed that I'd need to be delivered at a different hospital (this one is more specialized, is where our genetic counselor was and would preform a free autopsy). So I continued to see my regular OB while knowing that when I went to deliver I'd be being seen by completely different doctors, hospital system, etc. This always stressed me a little and the week prior to labor (God was really moving this week..or should I say moving me to action) I called and asked to be referred to the other practice. This did create some problems as I will explain later but ultimately got me to where we needed to be.

Stone#5- The Wed. night before I began going into labor I asked a friend at church if he would sing at our baby's funeral. Granted this was January and I still thought we had a while to plan our baby's funeral, but I knew I probably should go ahead and ask. He asked me if I'd given up on God...that God could still do a miracle! I knew this and hadn't given up but also knew in my heart that this was part of God's path for us to walk. For me it was taking more faith to believe and trust God that He knew what He was doing in this situation than to have faith that He could heal my child. I was able to tell him the song we wanted him to sing and he agreed. Once again God was working the details and I didn't even realize.

Stone #6- In December, a few days prior to Christmas we went to look at a home. We were still planning on moving and had seen a few but nothing had worked out. This was at the height of the market and home prices where we were moving were higher than we'd expected. So we found this house in the neighborhood we were looking in. It came on the market and we saw it the next day. It was an absolute disaster. I mean you couldn't walk through it. There were piles and piles of trash, food everywhere, holes in the walls, ripped up flooring...I mean it was disgusting (smells and all). And we said, "We'll take it!" What was I thinking. I was giving up my fairly new, clean, organized house for this...and I wanted it! Let's just say the Lord gave us a vision of what it "could be." We put a contract on it and although there were difficulties (needless to say these people had some issues they were dealing with) we finally got our contract accepted and our closing day was set for...January 31, 2006.

Stone #7- So we had our house to sale..YIKES! No problem...Kevin's parents decided they wanted to buy it. Problem solved! So we sold it without a realtor... directly to his parents...and we set the closing for the same day! Thank you Lord.

Stone #8- On Thursday of that week a few things began to happen to my body and I began to realize that my time of being pregnant was coming to an end. I had prayed and prayed that the Lord would take our baby early. As the weeks passed and he grew.. the lack of room and lack of fluid just left him no room to move. I didn't want him(at that time we didn't know if we were having a girl or boy) to suffer. The weeks of waiting were also so hard on me! I felt like I couldn't breath or move on with life until I walked through this trial. So at almost 33 weeks I began to go into labor. The Lord had answered this prayer.

I will stop here. There are many many more stones to be set...but I'll save that for another day! Do you see how evident it is that in the midst of our trial the Lord completely had his hand on us..guiding and directing our path.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5, 7 "What a wonderful God we have- He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trails. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with His comfort and encouragement. But in our trouble God has comforted us-and this, too, to help you; to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give yo the strength to endure."