Monday, April 27, 2009

Praise God!!!

A HUGE PRAISE!


Stellan was discharged from the hospital and he and his mom are heading home tomorrow. Such wonderful news and just one more reason to praise the Lord for his healing and for his faithfulness. Our God is a GREAT God!

Continue to pray for him though. Pray for their safety as they fly home tomorrow. Also, pray for his continued health, that his heart will continue to stay out of SVT and that he'll remain healthy all around.

-Jenn

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Just What I Needed, Just At The Right Time

I was just reading Mckmama's post about prayer (which I encourage you to read, she has some really good insight on her thoughts on prayer), "Why Bother Praying", and a part of it stood out to me and it was something I really needed to hear. She said...

"God answers prayers. Just not always in the way or in the time frame we want. God answers prayers, but the outcome we hope for, and beseech God for, is not always the outcome God has in mind.

God hears our prayers. But God still does what He, in His sovereignty, is going to do. He listens to our prayers, hears us each and every time we speak to Him, think to Him, or even groan to Him. God is affected by our prayers and He wants us to pray.

But God is still God and our prayers do not change God or His mind, at least not in the way we sometimes think. He knew we were going to pray before we ever prayed. He knows the past, present and future all at once. He listens to our prayers, but our prayers don't change things. God changes things."

That first paragraph... just not in the way or the time that we want.

And the second... but God still does what He, in His sovreignty, is going to do.

The third... He knows the past, present and future all at once.

That's what stood out to me. Just not in the way or the time that he wants, but He still does what He, in his sovreignty, is going to do. I needed to hear that today. I needed to be reminded that it's His time - not mine. And it's His plan - not my own.

Thank you God for using her to remind me. It's in Your hands now....

-Jenn

There Is Love...

I was listening to the song "After the Last Tear Falls" by Andrew Peterson today and it really spoke to me. Here is a youtube video of the song that someone did. The lyrics are on it as well as pictures. So listen for yourself...




... As I listened to this song it just reminded me of how there are so many bad things in this world, so many bad things that happen. We open the newspaper, click on a website, turn on a television and we see all of these horrible things - murders, rapes, children starving, divorce... and the list goes on and on. I don't know about you, but every time I read these things my heart breaks, sometimes tears fall. There is so much evil and hurting in this world and sometimes it seems as if there's no hope for us. But I heard this song today and it reminded me that there is hope. He is our hope. At the end of all these things there is Love, there is God. It's so comforting to think about. Even when things seem hopeless, he is our hope. He is the only hope for this world and in the end He the only one who can use the bad things and turn them into good. In the end He'll wipe away our tears and hurting and evil will be no more. How comforting...there is Love!


-Jenn

Monday, April 20, 2009

Praying for Stellan...


Tonight little Stellan is on my heart and mind. Either tonight or tomorrow he will be going in for an ablation, a procedure on his heart. He is at Boston Children's Hospital, one of the best children's hospitals in the country, but even with experienced doctors this procedure is very risky, especially in a baby his size. I can imagine, and can see from reading Jennifer's (his mom) blog, that this is a very scary time for her and the family. Yet through this time they are clinging to God and putting their little baby boy's life in His hands. I ask that you pray for baby Stellan as he goes in for this surgery. Pray for him tonight as his heart rate is high, his blood pressure is dropping, and he is in and out of SVT. Also, pray for his mom and grandpa who are at the hospital with him, his dad and siblings who are at their home cross country, the rest of the family, for the doctors to have wisdom in treating him and for their minds and hands as they perform surgery on him tomorrow. Just pray that all is successful in this ablation and that Stellan's heart will have no damage, but will be healed. In honor of baby Stellan, and to remind ourselves to pray for him tomorrow, we will be wearing orange all day. We took a picture tonight in our orange shirts that we'll be wearing tomorrow. Join us in wearing orange tomorrow to support baby Stellan, but more importantly join us in praying for baby Stellan tonight and tomorrow as he goes in for this surgery. I am so glad to know that God is in control and God can heal his little heart because HE is the Great Physician!

-Jenn

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The End Is Near

The end is near... You may be wondering what end it is that I am speaking of...

The end that I am speaking of is the end of my undergraduate college career. No, the end for me isn't as near as it is for some people - the people who will be graduating in less than a month. But for me, it's only a months worth of classes and then student teaching and then the END will be here.

I do have to say, my college career has flown by. It seems like just yesterday that Emily (who was my roommate for four years) and myself were two quiet little freshmen just beginning college. But now, five years later, we're two seniors who are ready to venture out into the real world pretty soon (and by the way, our program is a five year program - we're not slackers or anything). Of course Emily will be graduating next month, but I won't be graduating until December. I had to take a few classes that I didn't CLEP out of this semester so I got behind the rest of my fellow Teacher Ed majors.

Anyways, what made me think of the end of college? Well today I registered for student teaching and received my student teaching placements. I do have to say that I'm rather excited about my placements. We do two separate placements at our college, the first in a Christian school and the second in a public school. My first placement is in either 5th or 6th grade (it hasn't been completely confirmed yet) and my second placement is in 1st grade. Those are some of my favorite age groups and I am super excited to have the opportunity to teach them and to see what God has in store for me in my student teaching experience!

Yeah, so it's bittersweet to see the end drawing near. It'll be weird not to be in college anymore and not to see my friends all the time. But it'll be cool to be able to be out in the "real world" and also to be able to start a family sometime soon (that may be something that excites me even more than the being out in the real world part)! But anyways, I just figured I'd share my thoughts - reflecting on the end of college, the end that is approaching rather quickly for me and for many others.

-Jenn

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

It's Been Awhile...

Wow! It's been awhile since I posted an update, well a week to be exact. But after posting nearly every day a week is a long time. I guess I have a reason for not posting, considering I didn't really have good internet access for a few days and didn't have much time. Oh well, so what have I been up to? What's on my mind...
______________________________________

Last Thursday I took my wonderful husband to his Marine Corps unit and dropped him off. He and five other Marines were headed out to Oregon for some training on some new equipment that they have recently gotten. He left Thursday afternoon and returned back to PA on Monday afternoon. So, I was without him for four days.... and I definitely missed him.

The four days weren't bad though because after I dropped Josh off at his unit, I went up to my hometown for a long weekend and stayed at my parents. I got to spend time with my parents, my siblings, my niece and nephew, and friends. We got in some quality time, some playtime (with the kids that is), lots of shopping, some good food, a high school play, and much more. It was nice to go up there for the weekend, as I haven't been there in a month or so and definitely miss my family and friends who are there.

But, Monday afternoon came and Josh flew back to PA. I was SO happy to see him again and to be back in his arms. I definitely missed him ALOT!

By the way, I was quite happy because Josh took pictures during his trip. He's not much of a picture-taking type so I was excited because I actually got to see where he was and what not. Maybe I'll post some of the pictures later.
______________________________________

Since being home, I have had a lot to do. I had a presentation and an exam at school yesterday. So I spent Monday evening spending time with Josh, studying, and preparing my presentation. Neither the presentation nor the exam seemed to go too well though. So I was pretty bummed about that. But, we'll see how they went when I get the results.

I've also been busy cleaning and doing laundry since we got home. I'm trying to get our house back into one piece and do some much needed spring cleaning. I did some today and it felt good to see a little bit of progress in the cleanliness of the house.
______________________________________

If you think of it pray for a friend of mine's aunt. Her name is Beth. She was taken to the hospital yesterday and tests discovered that she has leukemia and it is pretty advanced. They life flighted her to a better hospital because the one she was in said they couldn't do much for her. So, if you think of it please pray for her. She's only in her late 40's and has two children (both in their early 20's) and a husband. But pray for her and for the family at this time as it has come as a huge shock. Thanks!

Also, continue to pray for baby Stellan. He's in his third week in the hospital and is still in an out of SVT. He may be being transferred cross country to a hospital in Boston early next week. But continue to pray for him and his family too.
______________________________________

Well, I guess that's pretty much it for now. I'll update again later and perhaps post some pictures from both mine and Josh's weekend. But for now I'm off to cook dinner before my husband gets home from work.

-Jenn

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Continue Praying...

Continue praying for baby Stellan. I mentioned him a few posts ago. He is still in the hospital. It's been over a week now and he is still in and out of SVT. He is making little bits of progress, which is a praise. But it's still a rollercoaster. Please keep praying for his healing and for his family.

When Stellan was still in his mother's womb, he was diagnosed with this SVT. In honor of Stellan and to show how people all over the world were praying for him, a name gallery was started. His name was written in snow, sand, apple pie, etc. all to show that there were people thinking and praying for him. Now that he's sick again, his name gallery has been started back up by Norrah. Here, people have linked their posts with their version of Stellan's name - all to show that they're thinking about him and praying for him. Josh and I wanted to make Stellan's name. So the other day, Josh got the idea to do Stellan's name in binary (basically computer language). So he did. And here it is...

So Stellan, Mckmama, and the entire family - know that there are prayers going up for you from Josh and Jenn in Pennsylvania!

-Jenn