Embarking on a New Adventure

Today, as I was driving down the road, the wet pavement glared with the reflection of the sun. It was almost blinding, and for some reason I was reminded of this song line....

"In the rain, the pavement shines like silver. All the lights are misty in the river..."

This song from Les Miserables brought back a flood of memories. I remembered being 14 years old and singing this song for an audition for a community theater production. I was so young and inexperienced, and honestly, I was not very confident in my performance. I'm not even sure what possessed me to audition for this production, except for maybe the fact that my best friend was auditioning too. I can remember leaving the audition having no expectations of getting a part. It was fun to audition, and it really stretched me out of my comfort zone. A few days later, when I received the call, I was flabbergasted! They wanted me for a part! I didn't feel like I was good enough, but they saw something in me that made me desirable for the part. So, I set out on an adventure. I welcomed the new experience with excitement...nervous excitement, but excitement nonetheless. Somehow, I trusted that I would be able to do the job that they had called me to do.

As I was reflecting on that experience, I realized how much I could learn from my former self. As I begin to embark on a new adventure in my life right now, I have many doubts and fears. Faith doesn't come as easy for me as it used to. At 14 years of age, I looked at life as an adventure and trusted God to give me the skills I needed when He sent me out on a new journey. I want desperately to see life that way again! This new journey I am embarking on is unexpected and a little scary for me. I don't feel good enough or skilled enough, but for some reason God saw in me something desirable that He could use. 

I was surprised and overwhelmed in early December when we discovered that we were expecting another little one. Ember was only 7 months old! I fretted a bit over how we were going to break the news to everyone and what everyone would think. I am still a bit in shock and find it hard to believe that in 5 short months I will be the mother of a 15 month old and a newborn. However, I know that God has a plan, and I want to believe that if I rely on Him that He will give me the strength and grace that I need to be a good mother of two, a good wife, and a good companion and spiritual advisor to those He puts in my path. The 14 year old me is telling me to look at all of this as a new adventure...to be excited about the endless possibilities of the future! The young adults that I have started leading on Sunday afternoons have also reminded me to enjoy and make the most of every new opportunity and to dare to dream again. So, I will carry on and follow this new path that the Lord has set before my feet, and I will resolve to look at every bump in the road and every mountain in the way as a new and exciting adventure!

 Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. “Take nothing for your journey,” he instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes.                      Luke 9:2-3 NLT

I am reminded by this verse that I don't have to have anything for this journey. God will provide; God will give me all that I need to be an effective mother, wife, and spiritual leader. So, all I have to do is step out in faith, stay near to Him, and enjoy the adventure!

Thank you, Lord, for new adventures!

Day 58: Prayers for Ember Faith

Today, I am picking up where we left off in our prayers for Ember before she was born. We were praying for the community that surrounds Ember, the support system that will help us raise her in the ways of the Lord, and this day's prayer was to be for her church family.

Church is so important to her Dad & I. We were both raised in church and have come to understand the power of sharing life with a community of believers. The Church provides a framework to support and grow our faith; it provides opportunities for us to learn, worship & develop relationships. It gives us hope and encouragement...at least that is what it is suppose to do. Today, we pray for Ember's church family, the one she belongs to now & the ones she will be a part of in the future.

Dear Heavenly Father, You ordained the Church to be the Body of Christ, His hands & feet to a dark & desperate world! We are thankful for the wonderful group of believers that you have allowed us to be a part of. They are & will continue to be a huge part of Ember's life. They have been such a blessing to our little family. We pray that our church will continue to do what You have called it to do, reaching out to individuals & families with Your love & grace. We pray that You would guide our church as we seek to do Your will. Help our family to be a productive part of this body of believers. Lord, we also ask You to lead us and guide us to the body of believers you would have us to be a part of in each season of our lives. We pray the same for our sweet daughter. We pray the she would always recognized the importance of being an active part of a body of believers, and we pray that You would  prepare future church families for her & guide her to them. God, surround her with Your people at every stage of her life! We pray this in the strong & powerful name of Jesus.

King Family Update: New Joys & New Challenges

This post has been a long time coming, but I (Lauren) have finally taken a moment to catch my breath & reflect on the past 8 or 9 months since the last blog post. I've avoided posting because in some ways I feel like a failure. We announced our plans to post our prayers for Ember for 100 days before she was born, and then when life got busy we failed to keep that commitment. However, I truly believe that it is never too late to begin again.

Our precious daughter is now here with us & it is more important than ever that we continue to pray for her. I had to realize that our failure to finish the 100 days of prayer in no way negated the 40+ days that we did pray for her and in no way prevented us from continuing that commitment now (which was a difficult concept for me to wrap my perfectionist mind around at first). In fact, I now feel like I am better prepared to pray for my daughter because I am beginning to understand her needs better. I am beginning to develop in my role as a mother and understand what Ember needs from me physically, spiritually & emotionally. So, I will recommit myself to praying for her & finishing what was started before she was born!

Now, for the rest of this update, I want to share a little bit of our story these last several months. It has been both a time of new joy & new challenges. Some days are more joyful & some are just more challenging, but God is teaching me to praise Him & trust Him through it all.

Ember has been teaching me patience from the very beginning! Her due date was obviously not on God's time table. I watched April 17th pass me by with no sign that Ember was ready to make her entrance into this world. A week later, with the threat of medical induction looming over me, my midwife suggested trying castor oil to get things moving naturally. Well, it worked! After a slow & fairly easy early labor at home, I was finally admitted to the Birth Center at 11pm on Wednesday, April 24th. What followed was 7 hours of intense, unmedicated back labor.

At about a quarter till 6 on Thursday morning, the situation became a little desperate. I was in the final stages of pushing, and the nurse was having a hard time finding baby Ember's heartbeat. The midwife rallied me to give it everything I had in a few final pushes, and finally she came...my beautiful little girl entered this world quietly, no cry to be heard. I was slightly aware that something was not right, and in my mind I kept praying, "God don't let me suffer for nothing. Please let my baby girl be ok!" I heard my mother right beside me praying a similar prayer out loud. The nurses & midwife worked for what seemed like several minutes, and then finally a little faint cry and a few seconds later a louder cry! After a little help, baby Ember finally started breathing on her own! God was faithful! He had given us a Little Miracle.

I won't lie, the weeks & months since that day have been difficult. Besides the normal challenges of becoming new parents, Ember had several challenges we had to overcome. She had feeding trouble & lost over 12% of her birth weight. We had to take her to several consultants & therapists to work through those issues, and we spent long hours everyday trying to make sure that she received the nourishment that she needed to grow & develop. On top of that, she failed her newborn hearing screens & we had to take her to a couple of places for further testing, but praise God, today, she is a beautiful & healthy baby girl.

God saw us through all of those difficulties, and He has given us a little girl with such a beautiful personality! She smiles & laughs & keeps us on our toes, and she is the living personification of joy in the midst of our struggles. I am so thankful for that!

Lord, help me to realize everyday what a blessing Ember is! Help me to recognize Your faithfulness & trust You to see us through the next challenge!

Day 59: Ember Faith Prayer Countdown

On day 80 of this countdown, we prayed that Ember would develop healthy and loving friendships, and today as we continue to pray for a strong community to surround our little girl as she grows and learns, we want to pray again for those friendships that she will develop. Our friendships can make or break us, so we pray that God would send Ember friends who would stick by her and encourage her through thick and thin.

In 1 Samuel 20, we see an awesome example of friendship in the lives of David and Jonathan. Jonathan recognized the annointing of God on David's life, and even though Jonathan was physically in line for the throne of Isreal, he knew that God had appointed that job to David. Jonathan was faithful to help David even though it made His own father angry enough to attempt to kill him.

How wonderful it would be for Ember to have friends who recognize God at work in her life and encourage her to follow Him and find His purpose for her.

Dear Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for the blessing of friendship! We want to thank you for building a community around us that will support us as we begin this journey of raising our precious little girl. Thank you for the friendships that you have enriched our lives with, and thank you for the new friendships that you have lined up for us as we begin this new chapter of our lives. We pray that you would send Ember special life-long friends that would point her to You. Friends that will hold her up and not drag her down...Friends that she can laugh with and cry with and share her heart with...and friends that will protect her heart! This we pray as we await the arrival of our precious little gift!