Walk For Life

This is our miracle girl Tori (with her little brother peeking behind her). Look at her cute little face and just think... we were advised to consider aborting her on 3 different occasions. How heartbreaking to think that so many people are being given advice that is 100% wrong and therefore making decisions that rob them of a precious life that God had planned for them. We are so thankful that we put our trust in God during our trials and didn't listen to the counselor's destructive advice. We have our precious little girl because we stood up to them.

This is the first year I've done Walk For Life which is a fundraiser for the Pregnancy Resource Center of Santa Cruz but it certainly won't be the last. We've been supporting the PRC for several years now because we feel their mission is a very important. http://www.santacruzprc.org/

Here's the story of why we got involved- When I was 18 weeks pregnant I took a blood test (AFP) that indicated a possibility of us having a Down Syndrome baby. We were encouraged to have a level 2 ultrasound appointment through Stanford's Genetic Counseling Clinic. (All covered by the state of California.) When I was making the ultrasound appointment I was very clear that we would not consider terminating the pregnancy but that we would like to do the ultrasound to find out more about our baby's development. During the ultrasound they discovered that there was an additional problem. Our baby's left kidney was deformed (they probably said fetus come to think of it though.)

After the ultrasound we meet with a doctor (not a kidney specialist) and the same counselor that I was very clear with regarding our view of abortion. They told us that because there were now 2 potential problems that we should again consider the option of abortion. Note- neither of these problems were known to be life threatening but they did not mention that. We were again very clear that abortion was not an option for us. We continued to have appointments at Stanford (paid for by the state of California) throughout the entire pregnancy to follow her kidney development. During another appointment we were again encouraged to reconsider abortion.

Finally we meet with the pediatric urology surgeon who clarified what was happening with her kidney and relieved our worries. He explained that what she had was not life threatening and could be fixed after birth with a couple of surgeries. And as I hope you'll all agree- a Down Syndrome child is NO reason to ever consider ending a life. In fact our dear friends had this same test (AFP) and were given a negative result for Down's when in fact their precious little girl does have Down Syndrome. So the test was wrong in detecting Down's when it actually existed and wrong in predicting it when it did not.

After 2 surgeries Tori has kidneys with almost full functioning capacity and should not have any additional problems. Praise the Lord!

On another note- as she was developing and even recently I did struggle with the following verse:

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:13-14

I have to be honest, I was asking the following question, "God, did you knit her together wrong?" I remember bringing this up at one of my bible study groups and crying. I of course know God does all things well but what happened with her? This question didn't cause me to doubt God but it made me wonder how God would work all things for his glory in this situation. I just recently was made aware while I was getting ready for Walk For Life of part of God's plan. God told me, "I didn't make her wrong! I made her this way for several reasons. One being that your experience you got involved with the PRC. Another reason was it got your hearts ready for adoption. You now understand a real need exists for children and parents in desperate situations to have access to a loving home." I'm sure there will be additional reasons as well. See, God does work all things out for good.

Romans 8: 28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Through being involved with the PRC I've been asked to be a mentor mom for one of the teens. When I got together with her the first time I was overwhelmed by her situation. She is such a strong girl to not have given into the pressure to abort. All the women (on her side of the family and her boyfriends) have had multiple abortions. But she refused- even when they were trying to convince her it would be best. Through the support of PRC she made the decision to not only have her little girl but she also decided to follow Christ. I am so proud of her! It's not easy for her and I feel it's so important to continue supporting and encouraging her. The PRC counselors have been doing a wonderful job of that.

If you'd still like to support Walk For Life you can go to this link and sponsor me or click on link up top to make a donation directly to the PRC.http://www.walkforlifesantacruz.com/life/sponsor.php

Gardening with God- Intro

Here's a picture of my daughter and I in my garden last summer. As you can see it is a modest little garden. I don't claim to be an excellent gardener... I'm not even sure if I'm a very good one but I thoroughly enjoy watching things grow.

This series Gardening With God- is from a talk I gave this past weekend at GateWay Bible Church for a women's brunch. You are invited to follow along as I blog about what God taught me this summer while I was working in my garden.

How did God teach me? Good question! First, He got my attention-

It was towards the end of May (my garden had been recently planted) and Jeff was at an Elder's meeting. (That means- I was doing the bedtime routine on my own. You may know how that goes with two small kids... a bit hectic.) During that time I kept feeling an urgency to get out in my garden and pray. It wasn't unusual for me to pray in my garden... but the urgency was. So I rushed through their bedtime routine and was able to get out into my garden by early evening. I climbed up to the top step and spent time talking to God. When I was done I just sat in silence. After a few moments I felt God prompt me to, "Look around." So I did. As I looked around my garden He started pointing out different plants and how they grow and how they are tended and who is responsible for them. It was an amazing time of learning directly from God. I went to bed that night excited about what God had been teaching me.

At about 4am I was wide-awake... unfortunately with two small kids, that's not unusual. While I was awake I started thinking again about what God had taught me in my garden that evening. I spent about an hour talking to Him and thanking Him for the wonderful lessons. During that time I started realizing that His teachings were not just for my benefit. So then I asked, "how do you want me to share this with others?" I didn't get an answer that night but it came shortly after.

A few nights later I excitedly shared with my Life Group some of the things I had been learning. That particular evening the Life Group Coordinators (John & Carol) we're visiting our group and they heard me share. The next day she called me and told me that she felt that the Lord was leading her to ask me to be the brunch speaker. They had already picked the theme An Abundant Harvest and what I had shared seemed to be perfect for the brunch.

So, I told her I'd pray about it. It sure felt like God had given me an answer already and when I did pray about it He told me that yes, I should commit to speaking and that throughout the summer He promised to reveal more for me to share.

I had a wonderful summer working in my garden and intentally listening for the lessons that God wanted to teach me. I Hope you enjoy hearing more about these lessons over the next few weeks.

Next post: Gardening With God- The Master Gardener

Brunch

Today I was the guest speaker for a women's brunch at GateWay Bible Church. It was a really fun event. The ladies that put it together did a wonderful job. The special song was beautiful and tied in perfectly with what I was sharing. I've heard that others think I did a pretty good job communicating. Thankfully I wasn't nervous. I felt God's peace throughout the entire talk and I was confident that God would give me the words that He wanted me to share for the specific women that were in the audience. I think there were about 130. I know a lot of people were praying and I really appreciate it. I had at least 10 ladies come up to me and share what they felt God was teaching them through me so I know God got His message across. I'm truly humbled that He would use me.

Here are the words to the special song:

I Come To The Garden Alone Hymn


I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

Refrain

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

Refrain

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Refrain

I'm planning to post more on what I spoke about and kind of expand a bit more but for now... I'm tired! It's time for bed and vacation tomorrow. Jeff and I are going to have 3 nights all to ourselves for our 10 year anniversary. I'll post more towards the end of the week.

Resonating With God

Welcome to my new website! I decided to create a site that is dedicated to lessons God is teaching me as I go about my life. My other site has tons of family updates and I wanted to be able to share with others without them needing to sift through my family photos first. So, I copied some of the stories I wanted to share from my family blog and re-posted them here. I'm planning to post on my talk "Gardening With God" over the next few weeks.

Why Resonating with God? The word resonate has been on my mind this year. Here's the definition-
res·o·nate (rěz'ə-nāt') Pronunciation Key v. res·o·nat·ed, res·o·nat·ing, res·o·nates
1. To exhibit or produce resonance or resonant effects.
2. To evoke a feeling of shared emotion or belief
3. To correspond closely or harmoniously: "Symbolism matters, especially if the symbols resonate with the larger message" (William Greider).
v. tr. To cause to resound. [Latin resonāre, resonāt-; see resound.] res'o·na'tion n.

I was reading the Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell (highly recommend) and I have to share this with you because it's one of those times when God confirms something and it just makes me laugh at how connected and obvious it is.

pgs. 76, 88, & 92
He's talking about a couple whose wedding he is going to perform out in a beautiful place in nature who didn't want any "Jesus or God or Bible or religion to be talked about. But they did want to make it really spiritual." (Sounds like a lot of people in Santa Cruz if you ask me.) When he asked them why they wanted to get married in this beautiful place the groom said, "something holds this all together". Rob Bell was able to then be a "Tour Guide" and point out to them "the creative, life-giving God who is already present in their midst." Through that they were able to see God. He then went on to say, "When they resonate with the peace and harmony of unspoiled nature, I believe God made it unspoiled by speaking it into existence. And Jesus is the life force that makes it possible. So in the deepest sense we can comprehend, my friends are resonating with Jesus, whether they acknowledge it or not."

People all around us are already RESONATING with God whether they acknowledge it or not... I think God is asking us to be "Tour Guides". pg 87 "It is as if Paul is a spiritual tour guide and is taking his readers through their world, pointing out the true and the good wherever he sees it."

Maybe part of our mission right now is "See God where others don't, and can point Him out." pg 88 "So the issue isn't so much taking Jesus to people who don't have him, but going to a place and pointing out to the people there the creative, life-giving God who is already present in their midst. It is searching for the things they have already affirmed as real and beautiful and true and then telling them who you believe is the source of all that."

I experienced this when I was getting a massage a few months ago... we were talking about astrological signs. It was an interesting and wonderful experience because I didn't try to talk her out of what she believed but I did ask her who she thought the creator of the stars and the signs was and we were able to have an amazing conversation about God. I wasn't able to process all of that until just now. God is continually amazing me!